HIROS!
HIROS IS BACK! YAY!
In all, I liked this episode, though the whole thing was one giant ****tease, really. Lots of set up that I think I'd find irritating if I weren't this show's bitch. I think I forgive it a lot because it just takes comic books and puts them there on the screen and so things like the dark, hooded mysterious assassin with Sulu saying such cliched things as, "Of all of them, I never thought it would be YOU," don't make me groan so much as squee. I do like a show that acknowledges its roots and at the moment I still believe things like this are calculated rather than lazy.
I miss Hiro being able to interact with the rest of the world (Hiro without Ando is just wrong!) but his sidequest has potential. I'm not sure what I make of "Kensei" yet. At the moment he's just a slightly less mad and slightly more historical version of Captain Jack and he could become interesting or an angsty anti-hero cliche. I wonder how long before Hiro realises he's Kensei. Not long, I imagine...
And I continue to enjoy Hiro's genuinely heroic journey. Sure he has crises of faith and worries he's not good enough, but somehow it's never obnoxious. And while I'm grateful for the fact that we can tell more complex stories and that not all protagonists have to be white hats, it's sort of refreshing to see a story like his. He's so good and he wants so badly to be good. It's sweet. He's like Superman.
As is his Dad with his unwavering patience. Though seriously, dude, if you knew you faced death, could you not have imparted that legacy you were talking about to, say, Ando, to deliver on your behalf?
I hope they don't kill Momma Petrelli. She's so awesome, and this show is in need of awesome girls.
On that note - my sarcastic-I-love-this-show-but-keeping-track-of-stuff-like-this-is-amusing-meter would like to point out that the new female character? Has some sort of "evil" and dangerous and uncontrollable power that apparently renders her dependent on the presence of her male sibling.
Though, that out of the way, I did find them kind of interesting. It's a little cheap to get me interested with the whole, "Ooooh, what's their power..." spiel, but to be fair, that's Heroes main MO so I really oughtn't have gotten on this train if I weren't prepared for that.
I know that asta77 feels that there are just too damn many characters, and to an extent I have to agree. Because dude, as pleased as I am to get an answer on the Matt being okay question - WHAT'S HAPPENED TO DL?! Where are Niki and Micah? What happened to the Haitian Sensation?!
Then again, I guess we'll find out next week, and even though I think there's a HUGE cast, I don't really want to get rid of any of them, so I'll just deal. Yeah, I'm even cool with the new additions. I kind of wish that there were more international elements to the show. I mean, sure, they'd all be kind of stereotypical or brief, I'm sure since it's amero-centric and also pastiching the western comic book genre, but I think more international sections would be awesome and totally in keeping with that. I want to see more of India, and Japan and the South Americas and maybe some stuff set in atmospheric, cliched European cities like Prague or Rome. Perhaps a subplot in Sibera, and another in coastal West Africa. Come on, you're all already visualising it, with the rich colours and lighting and "Look! Exotic locales to prove it's GLOBAL!" feel? It'd go great with their approach to filming NYC. And, well, everywhere else.
It's be like Carmen San Diego! It'd be AWESOME!
Plus then perhaps those two new characters would have a chance of actually becoming important, but since they're, err, not white, that might be doubtful. Oh god, I feel so cynical... I should stop now before it starts sounding like I don't like this show.
Perhaps what I really want is confirmation that the comic-book feel shooting of the "global" locations is because they shoot the US locations the same way, and it's a deliberate choice both in visual style and also in amount of inclusion that pays tribute to its comic-book roots, rather than, well, tokenism.
But I'm probably fooling myself.
/desire for cliched Lara Croft-esque set-piece locales.
Oh, also, HOORAY for Molly and her two Daddies! That's awesome! Though I'm really worried about Molly. Especially since I'm also worried she's right that if she told Matt he'd get himself killed. But I also think that Matt, while he's adorkable, could have maybe gone after Molly after she screamed at him. I suppose the important thing is he was there when she woke up. And I don't know Molly or her character that well, so perhaps she wasn't screaming for an intervention. /total lack of parenting skillz.
I also disagree with Molly that Matt's use of his powers was cheating. I mean, I get what she's saying in some ways - that Matt maybe doesn't have some of the skills a detective needs - the way he didn't notice the gun. But it's also not straight cheating and I think his comparison with a baseball player is fair. It's not like he cheated by using a resource that wouldn't usually be available to him. And yes, there are privacy issues I suppose; it's not nice to root around in people's minds, and I'm well aware that I'm now moving into areas of relative morality which depend on Matt's being a good guy, which could always slide. By I guess I'd say that I don't believe that anything isn't a potentially slippery slope and I'll judge him when I see him using his ability to screw someone over, or violate someone's privacy rather than with saving a life as his motivation.
I mean, to go back to the sportsman comparison, if he was chasing down a criminal and an ex-athlete caught up with him while someone less fit but smarter realised he could take a short-cut, I don't think either of them would be cheating. It's a matter of using the resources you have.
So, err, yeah, Molly! You eight year old! Take that!
Or something.
Finally, I was a little Meh about Peter showing up. Not because I dislike him, but I do think that they'll have to be careful about this amnesia thing. It's a little...convenient. There could be a good reason. Equally it could be an easy out. We'll see...
In all though, a satisfying season opener. A good set up. I'll look forward to following the story!
ETA As well as proper LJ cuts I have decided to do an informal poll - should I read the comics on the official websites? Do they add anything?
In all, I liked this episode, though the whole thing was one giant ****tease, really. Lots of set up that I think I'd find irritating if I weren't this show's bitch. I think I forgive it a lot because it just takes comic books and puts them there on the screen and so things like the dark, hooded mysterious assassin with Sulu saying such cliched things as, "Of all of them, I never thought it would be YOU," don't make me groan so much as squee. I do like a show that acknowledges its roots and at the moment I still believe things like this are calculated rather than lazy.
I miss Hiro being able to interact with the rest of the world (Hiro without Ando is just wrong!) but his sidequest has potential. I'm not sure what I make of "Kensei" yet. At the moment he's just a slightly less mad and slightly more historical version of Captain Jack and he could become interesting or an angsty anti-hero cliche. I wonder how long before Hiro realises he's Kensei. Not long, I imagine...
And I continue to enjoy Hiro's genuinely heroic journey. Sure he has crises of faith and worries he's not good enough, but somehow it's never obnoxious. And while I'm grateful for the fact that we can tell more complex stories and that not all protagonists have to be white hats, it's sort of refreshing to see a story like his. He's so good and he wants so badly to be good. It's sweet. He's like Superman.
As is his Dad with his unwavering patience. Though seriously, dude, if you knew you faced death, could you not have imparted that legacy you were talking about to, say, Ando, to deliver on your behalf?
I hope they don't kill Momma Petrelli. She's so awesome, and this show is in need of awesome girls.
On that note - my sarcastic-I-love-this-show-but-keeping-track-of-stuff-like-this-is-amusing-meter would like to point out that the new female character? Has some sort of "evil" and dangerous and uncontrollable power that apparently renders her dependent on the presence of her male sibling.
Though, that out of the way, I did find them kind of interesting. It's a little cheap to get me interested with the whole, "Ooooh, what's their power..." spiel, but to be fair, that's Heroes main MO so I really oughtn't have gotten on this train if I weren't prepared for that.
I know that asta77 feels that there are just too damn many characters, and to an extent I have to agree. Because dude, as pleased as I am to get an answer on the Matt being okay question - WHAT'S HAPPENED TO DL?! Where are Niki and Micah? What happened to the Haitian Sensation?!
Then again, I guess we'll find out next week, and even though I think there's a HUGE cast, I don't really want to get rid of any of them, so I'll just deal. Yeah, I'm even cool with the new additions. I kind of wish that there were more international elements to the show. I mean, sure, they'd all be kind of stereotypical or brief, I'm sure since it's amero-centric and also pastiching the western comic book genre, but I think more international sections would be awesome and totally in keeping with that. I want to see more of India, and Japan and the South Americas and maybe some stuff set in atmospheric, cliched European cities like Prague or Rome. Perhaps a subplot in Sibera, and another in coastal West Africa. Come on, you're all already visualising it, with the rich colours and lighting and "Look! Exotic locales to prove it's GLOBAL!" feel? It'd go great with their approach to filming NYC. And, well, everywhere else.
It's be like Carmen San Diego! It'd be AWESOME!
Plus then perhaps those two new characters would have a chance of actually becoming important, but since they're, err, not white, that might be doubtful. Oh god, I feel so cynical... I should stop now before it starts sounding like I don't like this show.
Perhaps what I really want is confirmation that the comic-book feel shooting of the "global" locations is because they shoot the US locations the same way, and it's a deliberate choice both in visual style and also in amount of inclusion that pays tribute to its comic-book roots, rather than, well, tokenism.
But I'm probably fooling myself.
/desire for cliched Lara Croft-esque set-piece locales.
Oh, also, HOORAY for Molly and her two Daddies! That's awesome! Though I'm really worried about Molly. Especially since I'm also worried she's right that if she told Matt he'd get himself killed. But I also think that Matt, while he's adorkable, could have maybe gone after Molly after she screamed at him. I suppose the important thing is he was there when she woke up. And I don't know Molly or her character that well, so perhaps she wasn't screaming for an intervention. /total lack of parenting skillz.
I also disagree with Molly that Matt's use of his powers was cheating. I mean, I get what she's saying in some ways - that Matt maybe doesn't have some of the skills a detective needs - the way he didn't notice the gun. But it's also not straight cheating and I think his comparison with a baseball player is fair. It's not like he cheated by using a resource that wouldn't usually be available to him. And yes, there are privacy issues I suppose; it's not nice to root around in people's minds, and I'm well aware that I'm now moving into areas of relative morality which depend on Matt's being a good guy, which could always slide. By I guess I'd say that I don't believe that anything isn't a potentially slippery slope and I'll judge him when I see him using his ability to screw someone over, or violate someone's privacy rather than with saving a life as his motivation.
I mean, to go back to the sportsman comparison, if he was chasing down a criminal and an ex-athlete caught up with him while someone less fit but smarter realised he could take a short-cut, I don't think either of them would be cheating. It's a matter of using the resources you have.
So, err, yeah, Molly! You eight year old! Take that!
Or something.
Finally, I was a little Meh about Peter showing up. Not because I dislike him, but I do think that they'll have to be careful about this amnesia thing. It's a little...convenient. There could be a good reason. Equally it could be an easy out. We'll see...
In all though, a satisfying season opener. A good set up. I'll look forward to following the story!
ETA As well as proper LJ cuts I have decided to do an informal poll - should I read the comics on the official websites? Do they add anything?