I called to flirt
I finished season two of Heroes sometime last week, and I've been silent on the subject, because I'm not really sure what to say about season two, except that it kept the bad things from season one and made them worse, and it kind of sloshed the good parts over the side.
Things I hated about season two even though I tried to like them: David Anders! Seriously, Sark was one of my favorite parts of Alias. But Adam was underwritten, never given the chance to become appropriately threatening, and he spent way too much of his time in feudal Japan. There was more of a chance for him to come alive with Peter, but, since we've proven that even Chris Eccleston acts badly off Milo Ventimiglia, David Anders didn't have much of a chance.
Also, Elle. I was ready to buy the "sweet blond girl in a dangerous situation with super sekrit power!" I've seen it work. I loved the hell out of Buffy and Veronica Mars. But Elle played very flat for me - she enjoys using her painful power to mess with people, which wouldn't have put me off if she hadn't been called home by her "daddie." Even that could have been interesting, I think, if we hadn't seen her pawing all over Peter, lacking emotional development because, as she confesses, she's never been on a date, and just generally trying to please or alternately fuck with the men she meets. I don't know anything about who Elle really is at the end of the season.
Elle was just the start of More Bad With Gender Times by the Heroes writers. Because I can't get into it without entering into a rage coma, things that were terrible and/or broke me about season 2: Maya, a woman who can't control her emotionally-triggered power without help from either her brother or Sylar. Claire's romance plot with the boy with the stupid name. The fact that Niki has even less agency than she did last season. Caitlin, accidentally transported into an apocalyptic future by Peter and then abandoned there. There are more things but I need to watch my blood pressure, so they'll have to wait for another time.
Despite all this, there were some things I did like, believe it or not. One thing, in particular, worth lavishing with praise and was the scene in Powerless with Sylar breaking into Mohinder's apartment, convincing the babysitter that he and Maya are old friends. In the 10 or so hours it must have taken Mohinder to get from New Orleans to new York, Sylar sleeps over, showers, changes into what we can only presume are Mohinder's clothes, uses hair product, reads his computer files, and fucking offers him breakfast when he comes in like he's the ex-boyfriend the subtext says he is.
As a whole, though, it was a wretched season. I can understand being at a loss for what to do when you've written a complete arc now you need to come up with a new one, but the key is....coming up with a new one and not just hoping you can blindly find your way through the dark. I'm thankful it was the writer's strike season, because at least it was over quickly, and I can only hope they had the chance to pull their shit together for season three. Though from what I've heard, I need to be prepared for the opposite.
I've been re-watching season 2 of NCIS, which is much more engaging. Gibbs and Abby continue to be one of my favorite television relationships ever, and Gibbs remains my Platonic ideal of a boss. The early seasons of NCIS offer more random, non-plot related moments to set than tone than the current seasons do, and I miss those twenty seconds or so where DiNozzo was eating a sandwich and Kate was taking a handful of aspirin and McGee gets to tell the Deputy Secretary of State to stick it.
Also, I'm watching Smallville again from the first season. More on that later. By which I mean, more about Lex later. I can't promise I won't go rhapsodizing about villains and destiny and secrets, but it might just be paragraphs and paragraphs of fast cars and purple ties.
Finally, a few months ago, one of you had a dream about the President and you theorized it was part of Obama's plan to find a way to talk to everyone in the country even if it meant some sort of astral-projecting dream walking. Well, perhaps you were not wrong, because I had my conversation with him a few nights ago. We talked about something ridiculous, like the due-date of my co-worker's baby and my new BlackBerry - not at all the things I'd talk to the President about if given the (waking) opportunity, and yet I couldn't help but feel that it was such a positive and wonderful interaction. I told him, in the dream, that I was glad he was President, and that, at least, remains so very true. Who else, after all, would want so much to talk to his country that he learns to visit our dreams?
Things I hated about season two even though I tried to like them: David Anders! Seriously, Sark was one of my favorite parts of Alias. But Adam was underwritten, never given the chance to become appropriately threatening, and he spent way too much of his time in feudal Japan. There was more of a chance for him to come alive with Peter, but, since we've proven that even Chris Eccleston acts badly off Milo Ventimiglia, David Anders didn't have much of a chance.
Also, Elle. I was ready to buy the "sweet blond girl in a dangerous situation with super sekrit power!" I've seen it work. I loved the hell out of Buffy and Veronica Mars. But Elle played very flat for me - she enjoys using her painful power to mess with people, which wouldn't have put me off if she hadn't been called home by her "daddie." Even that could have been interesting, I think, if we hadn't seen her pawing all over Peter, lacking emotional development because, as she confesses, she's never been on a date, and just generally trying to please or alternately fuck with the men she meets. I don't know anything about who Elle really is at the end of the season.
Elle was just the start of More Bad With Gender Times by the Heroes writers. Because I can't get into it without entering into a rage coma, things that were terrible and/or broke me about season 2: Maya, a woman who can't control her emotionally-triggered power without help from either her brother or Sylar. Claire's romance plot with the boy with the stupid name. The fact that Niki has even less agency than she did last season. Caitlin, accidentally transported into an apocalyptic future by Peter and then abandoned there. There are more things but I need to watch my blood pressure, so they'll have to wait for another time.
Despite all this, there were some things I did like, believe it or not. One thing, in particular, worth lavishing with praise and was the scene in Powerless with Sylar breaking into Mohinder's apartment, convincing the babysitter that he and Maya are old friends. In the 10 or so hours it must have taken Mohinder to get from New Orleans to new York, Sylar sleeps over, showers, changes into what we can only presume are Mohinder's clothes, uses hair product, reads his computer files, and fucking offers him breakfast when he comes in like he's the ex-boyfriend the subtext says he is.
As a whole, though, it was a wretched season. I can understand being at a loss for what to do when you've written a complete arc now you need to come up with a new one, but the key is....coming up with a new one and not just hoping you can blindly find your way through the dark. I'm thankful it was the writer's strike season, because at least it was over quickly, and I can only hope they had the chance to pull their shit together for season three. Though from what I've heard, I need to be prepared for the opposite.
I've been re-watching season 2 of NCIS, which is much more engaging. Gibbs and Abby continue to be one of my favorite television relationships ever, and Gibbs remains my Platonic ideal of a boss. The early seasons of NCIS offer more random, non-plot related moments to set than tone than the current seasons do, and I miss those twenty seconds or so where DiNozzo was eating a sandwich and Kate was taking a handful of aspirin and McGee gets to tell the Deputy Secretary of State to stick it.
Also, I'm watching Smallville again from the first season. More on that later. By which I mean, more about Lex later. I can't promise I won't go rhapsodizing about villains and destiny and secrets, but it might just be paragraphs and paragraphs of fast cars and purple ties.
Finally, a few months ago, one of you had a dream about the President and you theorized it was part of Obama's plan to find a way to talk to everyone in the country even if it meant some sort of astral-projecting dream walking. Well, perhaps you were not wrong, because I had my conversation with him a few nights ago. We talked about something ridiculous, like the due-date of my co-worker's baby and my new BlackBerry - not at all the things I'd talk to the President about if given the (waking) opportunity, and yet I couldn't help but feel that it was such a positive and wonderful interaction. I told him, in the dream, that I was glad he was President, and that, at least, remains so very true. Who else, after all, would want so much to talk to his country that he learns to visit our dreams?