Finally joined the Heroes cult
I held out for the longest time, resisting the call of Heroes for a few reasons. One: I already read comic books. Love 'em, hate 'em, know all the cliches. Two: Comics are rife with archetypical characters and television is infamous for playing the archetypes without allowing for truly original personalities to shine. Three: Just didn't wanna join the parade.
I watched about five or six eps during Sci Fi channel's Heroes marathon on Saturday, starting with an ep that centered on my favorite hero, Hiro. It's easy to see the stereotypes and the dialogue is almost painful at times but the overall plot is intriguing if only because of its sense of the inevitable, and what a season finale!
It was like getting my eyeballs put through a meatgrinder with broken glass.
For all the sins of the series, it's a comic book onscreen and I can allow it plenty of leeway just for that. Something that allows me to open a dialogue with my comic-impaired folks is always a plus but I draw the line at something that makes me groan and cringe and bitch at the goddamn plot holes! Or as I would like to direct at the writers of the series: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!?!
Let's go easy with the mashup. First up, the Magical Negro. This is a black character who exists to give information to the main (white) character. As someone who came into the series about halfway through, "Charles" only appeared to me in the finale (if he appeared earlier in a significant role, my bad). He gives Peter Petrelli some schlock about being the one with heart, the hero, blah blah blah. He only exists to give this achingly benign speech in a massive verbal diarrhea - and why? This is shit we already know, that could have been disseminated much more smoothly by another character. How about some brotherly love? Nathan could have given the spiel about heart, making the end scene that much more poignant.
Hiro was created as a stereotypical fanboy who takes himself so painfully serious that we can forgive him every line. So I will. Ando, on the other hand, is not made for eloquent loving speeches. So that last bit back in their home company building? Not cool. We don't need to hear this last infodump of "now the hero has become a man". We have eyes. Or we did, before we started fantasizing about non-USDA approved sausage materials.
The appeal of Heroes is that it is so different from the run of the mill comic book. The setup is usually that people have these powers with carefully crafted backgrounds or just a genetic commonality. Heroes does none of that, that I could see. Some people are gifted, some are not. We don't waste a lot or any time worrying the issue. The great part is that these people have powers and in this world of no restraints or accepted behavior, the sky's the limit, sort of.
So that last battle? Sloppy.
Sylar is beating up Peter with a parking meter. So Nicki runs up and smacks Sylar good with a meter of her own. We know Sylar isn't able to heal himself, so she should have smacked him again and been done with it. What happens? Little Micah yells, "Dad needs you!"
Is Nicki a doctor? No. The doctor is with Dad. So what the hell does he "need" Nicki for? If Sylar blows, they're all dead anyway. It takes about five seconds for her to lift that thing and smack him again. But she runs back. This is a curiously male-dominated sense of heroism, but that's another trainwreck.
Can the cop shoot Peter? Or how about Mr. Cheerleader's Dad? No. That's too easy. But wait! Peter has Cheerleader's (what the hell was her name?) power! If you shoot him, he will survive. Like I said, I haven't been watching every episode so I'm not too clear on the solid boundaries of Peter's ability. When he uses one power, does it cancel out the other power? If he is invisible, can he fly? If he can only use one power at a time, then shooting him forces his body to cancel the nuclear explosion and save itself. If he can use two powers at once, then shooting him isn't even an option. There would be no point, and he would be an even bigger villain than Sylar could ever be.
I think the "one power at a time" is the more likely example, but of course they didn't go that route. Apparently this was one of those "check your brain at the door" kind of final battles. We get to Hiro who has the option of killing Peter. Why not teleport Peter over the ocean? From what I could see, Hiro can teleport a lot more easily than mess with time. We know from copious Spiderman, X-Men, and Villain of the Week cartoons and comics that the water will absorb the blow with a pretty spray of liquid and little wear and tear on, say, NEW YORK.
Apparently that would be too easy.
We come down to Cheerleader, minus the handy syringe she used on Ted, and Peter. And of course, all the "heroes" sitting and waiting to die because they can't stop and think for two seconds. So Cheerleader's bio dad sacrifices himself in the best style of comic deaths.
Except...
From what I've seen, he's got the best flight special effects ever. That guy can MOVE! So how about flying dear brother dearest up a few atmosphere layers and flying out of range of the blast - pretty sure he could make it. Then all you have to do is catch the body before it lands. Either hope for a comic book lucky catch, or just assume the body won't survive. Anyway, even if you miss, dear brother dearest has CHEERLEADER'S POWER - HE'S INVINCIBLE.
That would not give us this nicely wrapped ending with the heroic deaths in the true style of comic book cheese. Perhaps in the style of comic book justice, Nathan Petrelli deserved to die. The few deaths I've seen are either vague two minutes of screentime characters, or those who "deserve" to die. Artist who can see the future? Killed his girlfriend. Sylar's mom? Appears to be one half of the root of the problem in the series (Petrelli mother could give the Gilmore matriarch a hell of a run for her money in sheer skin-crawlingly polite evil). Ted? Killed his wife, went a little nuts and tried to kill evil guy's innocent family.
Nathan committed the sin of complicity, speaking up only in the last minutes of his life. He stood by while his creepy villainous mother planned the death or at least tragedy of his younger brother, separated him from any chance at happiness with his daughter, and built him into a Watchmen-esque villain who would slide in and hug the world in a unifying peace in the face of such horror. (Read Watchmen. I think it's being made into a movie. Read now, weep later. By Alan Moore.)
I'm intrigued with the second season, even while I wallow in disgust at the first. We see the tattoo on Jessica's back comes from a banner waved by a samurai - conspiracy, anyone?
I may download the next season. (Since I'll be in Europe, I may have to) Stay tuned, true believers!
I watched about five or six eps during Sci Fi channel's Heroes marathon on Saturday, starting with an ep that centered on my favorite hero, Hiro. It's easy to see the stereotypes and the dialogue is almost painful at times but the overall plot is intriguing if only because of its sense of the inevitable, and what a season finale!
It was like getting my eyeballs put through a meatgrinder with broken glass.
For all the sins of the series, it's a comic book onscreen and I can allow it plenty of leeway just for that. Something that allows me to open a dialogue with my comic-impaired folks is always a plus but I draw the line at something that makes me groan and cringe and bitch at the goddamn plot holes! Or as I would like to direct at the writers of the series: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!?!
Let's go easy with the mashup. First up, the Magical Negro. This is a black character who exists to give information to the main (white) character. As someone who came into the series about halfway through, "Charles" only appeared to me in the finale (if he appeared earlier in a significant role, my bad). He gives Peter Petrelli some schlock about being the one with heart, the hero, blah blah blah. He only exists to give this achingly benign speech in a massive verbal diarrhea - and why? This is shit we already know, that could have been disseminated much more smoothly by another character. How about some brotherly love? Nathan could have given the spiel about heart, making the end scene that much more poignant.
Hiro was created as a stereotypical fanboy who takes himself so painfully serious that we can forgive him every line. So I will. Ando, on the other hand, is not made for eloquent loving speeches. So that last bit back in their home company building? Not cool. We don't need to hear this last infodump of "now the hero has become a man". We have eyes. Or we did, before we started fantasizing about non-USDA approved sausage materials.
The appeal of Heroes is that it is so different from the run of the mill comic book. The setup is usually that people have these powers with carefully crafted backgrounds or just a genetic commonality. Heroes does none of that, that I could see. Some people are gifted, some are not. We don't waste a lot or any time worrying the issue. The great part is that these people have powers and in this world of no restraints or accepted behavior, the sky's the limit, sort of.
So that last battle? Sloppy.
Sylar is beating up Peter with a parking meter. So Nicki runs up and smacks Sylar good with a meter of her own. We know Sylar isn't able to heal himself, so she should have smacked him again and been done with it. What happens? Little Micah yells, "Dad needs you!"
Is Nicki a doctor? No. The doctor is with Dad. So what the hell does he "need" Nicki for? If Sylar blows, they're all dead anyway. It takes about five seconds for her to lift that thing and smack him again. But she runs back. This is a curiously male-dominated sense of heroism, but that's another trainwreck.
Can the cop shoot Peter? Or how about Mr. Cheerleader's Dad? No. That's too easy. But wait! Peter has Cheerleader's (what the hell was her name?) power! If you shoot him, he will survive. Like I said, I haven't been watching every episode so I'm not too clear on the solid boundaries of Peter's ability. When he uses one power, does it cancel out the other power? If he is invisible, can he fly? If he can only use one power at a time, then shooting him forces his body to cancel the nuclear explosion and save itself. If he can use two powers at once, then shooting him isn't even an option. There would be no point, and he would be an even bigger villain than Sylar could ever be.
I think the "one power at a time" is the more likely example, but of course they didn't go that route. Apparently this was one of those "check your brain at the door" kind of final battles. We get to Hiro who has the option of killing Peter. Why not teleport Peter over the ocean? From what I could see, Hiro can teleport a lot more easily than mess with time. We know from copious Spiderman, X-Men, and Villain of the Week cartoons and comics that the water will absorb the blow with a pretty spray of liquid and little wear and tear on, say, NEW YORK.
Apparently that would be too easy.
We come down to Cheerleader, minus the handy syringe she used on Ted, and Peter. And of course, all the "heroes" sitting and waiting to die because they can't stop and think for two seconds. So Cheerleader's bio dad sacrifices himself in the best style of comic deaths.
Except...
From what I've seen, he's got the best flight special effects ever. That guy can MOVE! So how about flying dear brother dearest up a few atmosphere layers and flying out of range of the blast - pretty sure he could make it. Then all you have to do is catch the body before it lands. Either hope for a comic book lucky catch, or just assume the body won't survive. Anyway, even if you miss, dear brother dearest has CHEERLEADER'S POWER - HE'S INVINCIBLE.
That would not give us this nicely wrapped ending with the heroic deaths in the true style of comic book cheese. Perhaps in the style of comic book justice, Nathan Petrelli deserved to die. The few deaths I've seen are either vague two minutes of screentime characters, or those who "deserve" to die. Artist who can see the future? Killed his girlfriend. Sylar's mom? Appears to be one half of the root of the problem in the series (Petrelli mother could give the Gilmore matriarch a hell of a run for her money in sheer skin-crawlingly polite evil). Ted? Killed his wife, went a little nuts and tried to kill evil guy's innocent family.
Nathan committed the sin of complicity, speaking up only in the last minutes of his life. He stood by while his creepy villainous mother planned the death or at least tragedy of his younger brother, separated him from any chance at happiness with his daughter, and built him into a Watchmen-esque villain who would slide in and hug the world in a unifying peace in the face of such horror. (Read Watchmen. I think it's being made into a movie. Read now, weep later. By Alan Moore.)
I'm intrigued with the second season, even while I wallow in disgust at the first. We see the tattoo on Jessica's back comes from a banner waved by a samurai - conspiracy, anyone?
I may download the next season. (Since I'll be in Europe, I may have to) Stay tuned, true believers!