Television: Heroes
"Heroes" is a serial saga about people all over the world discovering that they have superpowers and trying to deal with how this change affects their lives.
So sorry to cancel tonight amaliestar. I'm sure I'll feel a bit better tomorrow - although Sunday is an official work day. *pout*
While everyone was watching BSG (which is still downloading - I had to ditch my original download and start again), I finally got around to watching the first two episodes of Heroes, being 101 Genesis and 102 Don't look back. I was kind of tired when I watched it so while I liked it, I can't say I loved it. I might have to watch it again when I have time. Some people have compared it to X-Men but although I have watched the movies, I'm not in the X-Men fandom so can't really comment.
Some first impressions - nothing very coherent and deep. The only spoilers are that I list the super powers of the various characters.
The basic story is that there are certain people who have evolved to a higher genetic level and have developed super powers. The first two episodes is dedicated to showing the various people discovering their powers. The heroes are scattered geographically. The list of heroes with superpowers is below. I took the information from here and just supplemented it with my comments.
Heroes (and heroines)
Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), a 30-year-old male nurse and Nathan’s younger brother, who believes he can fly, but apparently has the ability to absorb other people’s powers.
Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), Peter’s ambitious politican brother, who has the power of flight, but would rather hide it.
Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera), a 28-year-old junkie who has the ability to paint images of the future when he is high.
Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), a 33-year-old Las Vegas showgirl and single mother who appears to have a split personality or a double or something like that. Her double appears to possibly be evil or at least ruthless. I find it hard to take Ali Larter seriously because the first time I saw her was in Varsity Blues when she was naked and wearing a whipped cream bikini :P Even in Heroes, when we first see her she's stripping for the camera.
Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey): Son of Micah. Apparently we will meet his father in episode 5. Who knows what his powers are but he is very smart and he is a cutie and acts well for a child actor.
Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), a 24-year-old Japanese office worker and sci-fi geek who can bend the space-time continuum. So far he's my favourite character because he's just so sweet, normal and non-angsty.
D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts), a 31-year-old inmate who can transport himself through walls.
Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) is a lowly L.A. Cop who appears to have telepathic powers. I quite like him - probably because I liked his character when he showed up in an episode of House where his overweight wife dies and has her organs harvested by House.
Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), a 17-year-old Texas cheerleader with very large hair who is indestructible, but wishes that she wasn’t.
At this stage, the villains appear to be:
Sylar, a mysterious serial killer who may or may not have superpowers of his own.
Claire’s father (by adoption) (Jack Coleman). He has some sort of secret agenda, may or may not be working for a government unit that is after the superpowered people and wears glasses.
Characters who do not appear to have powers
Simone Deveaux (Tawny Cypress), Isaac’s wealthy girlfriend and the object of Peter’s unrequited love, who doesn’t have any powers of her own.
Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy)
He is picking up where his murdered father left off and is a genetics professor trying to prove that superheroes really exist. He's kind of the narrative glue character that links the storyline and the characters together. There's possible romantic tension with the girl who lives near his father's apartment. I forget her name but she's cute and perky.
I enjoyed it and will probably continue to watch it but am still debating whether I'll be downloading it each week or just waiting for the whole series to be released on dvd. I'll see how I go. Work's getting a busier and it's much harder to schedule downloads. A few shows like VM, Grey's Anatomy, Numb3rs and Heroes might have to be batched to when I have time or I might wait until the Chinese Pirates batch the season for sale. Stargate Atlantis and Supernatural are still definites for me that I'll watch every week. Probably BSG and House as well, and I'm debating what to do about Prison Break given how flat season 2 has been. What did you do to my show, guys?
I had an Et tu, Brute? moment with my bro on the phone today. Despite making manips for me, he continues to maintain that Apollo/Sharon make no sense. *laugh* I am so going to beat him up when I go back at Christmas time ;)
Then again, he's very anti-ship, not approving of my shippy habits despite tolerating them. When I tried to push him to name a ship, he said: "Hermiod the alien is funny, I love the interaction between him and McKay. There’s my ship. Hermiod and McKay."
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Somehow, I don't think he's taking me seriously.