TV stuff and screencaps
I still really don't know about this show. The mystery is intriguing and I want to know more about that, but so far the characters are falling rather flat for me. That's not a good sign, because the reason I even watch TV shows is because I care about the characters. If it's just a plot that I like then I can never truly get into the story because things happen to the characters and I just don't give a crap. And with a show like this they're just going to drag out giving us the answers to the mystery, so I'm probably going to lose interest in the show pretty quickly. At best, it'll be one of those "Netflix the series after it's over to watch all at once and find out what's going on," affairs, not something I'm going to want to watch every week.
And, knowing how incredibly dull I found the alcoholic angst storyline, the show managed to serve up something even more boring in the "ONOES WILL I CHEAT ON MY HUSBAND WITH THIS OTHER DUDE?" department. Oh God, no one cares! I would like more FBI stuff and less about the unbelievably tedious main family. And that makes me sad, and it makes me think I'm turning into one of those fans. You know, one of those SFF TV fans who are all "plot plot plot" and "characters don't matter" and "stop getting your icky human drama in my clever and thought-provoking hard SF!" No no no! I'm not! It's just this show!
I know it's early yet, and I know it's still finding its footing, but...it wants to be the new Lost. And Lost had me hooked from the very first episode, is all I'm saying. This show had its main hook in the first episode: everyone blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds. Unfortunately, that seems to have been its only hook. The characters are dull, the storyline is plodding, the acting is banal, and the dialogue is atrocious. Everything is, "Everyone blacked out! Why did it happen! I'm having a hard time dealing with this! *fraught moment* Everyone blacked out! Why did it happen? Will the future come true? *more angst and family sniping* Everyone blacked out! Why did it happen? *goes to Utah for no apparent reason* Did you know everyone blacked out?"
I feel less like I'm watching a mystery unfold and more like I'm being beat over the head with it. And it really doesn't help that the show comes on right before Fringe, and it's a sad day for your show when I compare it to Fringe and find it lacking. And again, not entirely fair because Fringe has had a season to build up their characters and plotline. But it's still a comparison I can't help making. Please get better soon, Flashforward. It's very difficult for me to watch more than one show a night because I have television ADD or something, and right now Fringe is wiping the floor with you.
Did I just praise Fringe up above? Huh. Okay, secret time: Fringe has sort of become my guilty pleasure show. As in I know I should probably hate it because it's not The X-Files and because Olivia Dunham is kind of a non-entity and because it's about as substantial as cotton candy, but I find Peter + Walter hilarious and Walter + Astrid adorable and there's a cow in the lab and I love parallel universes and stories about parallel universes. So. That said, I'm kind of ready to move on from the "Weird case of the week" format, even though this most recent episode featured the return of the Observer, so it fits into the overall mythology somehow. But I'm still waiting for a satisfying conclusion to the end of the first season. I might get some of that next week, so hey. I'll wait and not pass judgment yet.
This week was about...people exploding? And there was a scene where the cow was very upset that Peter was eating a cheeseburger. I didn't pay that much attention, honestly. I had stuff to do and not enough time to do it, and also it's like there's this place in my head where my brain puts aside an allotment of attention I'll need to pay to TV. And it must be a very small place because after about an hour it's completely used up. And last Thursday it all got wasted on Flashforward. Actually, I usually have so much to do that I start feeling guilty after about an hour of TV and get distracted thinking about all the actually productive stuff I could be doing, and then I start doing those things and only half-paying attention to the storyline. I understand many people watch TV like this on a regular basis. I cannot. I feel compelled to give shows my full attention, which is probably why I don't watch many.
I really only have a couple things to say about Heroes this week:
First, I didn't realize until later that Bryan Fuller wrote this one. My immediate thought: "Well, that explains why it was good."
Yes, I liked this week's episode. Best one of the season so far, anyway.
But Sylar needs to GTFO. I want him to stay Nathan forever. Nathan who is freaking out over having all these extra powers but not really questioning it because his brother could do the same thing and hey, who's to say it wasn't something Nathan could do all along but just hadn't figured out how? I'm probably the only one in the world who finds that hilarious, but oh well.
I did make Heroes screencaps for this episode. They're here.