TV Review: Heroes, "1961"

NOTE: Watch out for spoilers with a bad mood.

In tonight’s episode of Heroes on NBC, “1961,” Angela Petrelli takes her family on a trip down memory lane, and in the process, reveals to us how the idea for the original “Company” came to be. 

During Angela’s flashbacks, we see how she and her sister Alice were taken to an internment camp where Monhinder’s father, Chandra Suresh was researching people with special abilities, presumably with the intent of learning more about them and possibly finding a cure. In the process we see how Angela became acquainted with Charles Deveraux, Daniel Linderman, and Bob Bishop—the founding members of The Company. We also see that Angela had a younger sister named Alice that she never spoke of who had a newly emerging ability to control the weather.


While the young Angela sneaks off with her new friends to try to figure out how to escape the camp (which is weird because they left the camp to try to figure out how to leave the camp?), Alice was taken to be questioned by Chandra Suresh, and ends up starting a chain of events that ends in the massacre of everyone there except Suresh and Alice.


Back in the present day, Angela is trying to find out why she is dreaming about her sister who she presumed was killed with everyone else. Ultimately she finds Alice living as a hermit nearby because Angela had lied to her and told her that if she stayed there she’d be safe. Upon learning that Angela had lied to her, Alice causes a storm that nearly kills Peter and Mohinder and then disappears before Angela can apologize.

Now that I’ve described what the episode was about, can I now tell you how utterly bored I was by it? Throughout much of it I felt like I was watching a stage play put on by a high school drama department. The dramatic moments were so forced and all they seemed to do was sit around and talk about how they felt about themselves and each other!

Lately there's beginning to be so many holes in this series that it makes it look like they can’t make up their minds on what they want this series to be. In the first episodes of Heroes, Chandra Suresh was a geneticist who was seeking out people with special abilities in order to prove a theory he’d been researching, but we were led to believe that he’d never found anyone except for Sylar. Now, according to tonight’s episode, he was involved in this whole government operation back in the early 60s? 

I know someone will probably say that Charles Deveraux most likely erased his memory that he’d ever seen any of them, but I’d say if that’s true, why didn’t they show it? I’ve often heard, and I believe that it’s true, that in storytelling it’s much better to show than it is to tell. Why save a fact for a later episode for someone like Angela to tell Mohinder, “Oh, by the way, your father didn’t remember any of that because Charles erased his memory.” It would have been much more interesting for that to be shown in tonight’s episode. In my opinion, that's where many recent episodes are falling flat. There has been just too much talking about everything when really they need to be out doing things!

It seems to me that the point of tonight’s episode was to show all of the heroes united and ready to begin a new company but I get so frustrated with all of the starting and stopping that this show is doing. I thought the old company was fine, but they destroyed it. Ok, so now we get Danko hunting down the heroes with Mr. Bennet working on the inside as a double agent as they hunt down the fugitives—good, I’m ok with that… that looks interesting. No wait… now we’re changing it again and now the heroes and Mr. Bennet are uniting against Danko? I really wish they’d make up their minds and give us a while to roll with the plotlines they’re giving us before changing things up again.


I’m having such a love/hate relationship with this show that I don’t know how much longer I’ll stick with it. I really love the premise and I want it to do well and be good but there are just some recurring things that keep driving me nuts. Also, the main reasons to stick with an ongoing story like this are because of spectacle and character drama. Well, the shows lately haven’t been very spectacular and all of the characters are so wishy-washy, whiney, pouty and annoying that I’m having a hard time caring whether or not Peter forgives Nathan, if Claire can trust Mr. Bennet, or if Mohinder can forgive or trust himself. I think I just need a really good dose of Hiro and Ando to lift my spirits.

TV Review: NBC Heroes, "Exposed"

Tonight on NBC’s Heroes:

• Sandra Bennett (Ashley Crow) stops playing the gullible, only concerned about her dog, doormat and helps her Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) fugitive friend, Alex (Justin Baldoni) get away from the government agents parked outside. 

• Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) follow their noses through Building 26 and find out where Daphne “The Speedster” Millbrook (Brea Grant) is only to have Matt captured in the process. 

• Sylar (Zachary Quinto) wanders down memory lane in an abandoned diner to learn that his father apparently sold him to someone there and then killed his mom for objecting. 

• Peter almost gets himself killed for believing that the government will, in fact, negotiate with terrorists, and afterwards gets shot shortly before being rescued by his flying brother, Nathan. 

• And Matt becomes the fulfillment of his own painted prophecy as the man standing on the National Mall with a bunch of explosives strapped to his body.
  

What I really liked about tonight's Heroes is that everyone became active again instead of just sitting around bickering about this and that. Heroes is the most exciting when the heroes are out doing something and not just trying to deal with their inner angst.

I really like that we’re seeing in Claire’s mom more of what we saw earlier in the series when she was actually out taking risks with Claire. It was frustrating for me to see her at the beginning of this volume looking as if she’d had her mind wiped once again by the Haitian. I hope to see more of her taking charge of this modern day “Underground Railroad.”

I think it’s funny that they picked an actor to portray Claire’s fugitive, Alex, who can breath underwater, someone who looks a lot like Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps. Oh, that’s right… the 2008 Summer Olympics were on NBC this year. Maybe NBC is still trying to ride his wave.

I’m happy that it looks like we’re finally going to ditch the annoying kid, Luke (Dan Byrd), who’s been tagging along with Sylar. One problem is, I didn’t see anything that happened in their little meeting in the diner that made me think that Sylar had any better idea where to find his dad. If anything, I think he’d want to hang on to the little creep a little longer since he still seems to be the only one who knows how to find Sylar’s evil Daddy. I just hope that when Sylar finally tracks down his dad, that it won’t culminate in an epic talk-off.

Finally, who is this mysterious “Rebel” who keeps offering insider tips to the heroes on the run and who facilitated the happy reunion between Claire and Eric “The Puppetmaster” Doyle (David H. Lawrence XVII). My guess, and hope, is that “Rebel” is Claude (Christopher Eccleston), the character from season one who can make himself invisible and tutored Peter initially on how to control his powers. He was a cool character and it would be great to see him return.

TV Review: Heroes, "Cold Wars"

"You know me, I've always been comfortable with morally grey."

From the previews last week, we were promised that tonight’s Heroes on NBC would answer the question of whether or not Noah Bennet A.K.A. HRG (Horn-Rimmed Glasses) was a hero or a villain.

Whether or not he’s a good guy is something I’ve wondered for a long time, and been frustrated with. He seems to go through spurts where he’s devious and manipulative, and other times he’s playing the part of “inside man” turning the tables in the heroes’ favor. Personally, I’ve always wanted him to be a good guy trying to stay on the inside of a bad situation so he could turn the tables as a double agent.

When we left off last week’s episode, "Building 26," Noah was in the restaurant of the hotel he’s staying in while he works out his family troubles. While there he discovers that he’s been drugged and looses consciousness. We then saw 3 of our on-the-lamb heroes, Matt Parkman, Peter Petrelli and Mohinder Suresh escort him out.

Tonight’s episode, "Cold Wars" began by skipping back a little before the three “supers” drugged Noah where we see that they weren’t all on the same page on the virtues of abducting and interrogating him. Once the abduction takes place, they spend most of their time in a seedy hotel room where Parkman uses his mind powers to probe Noah’s brain for answers about who is pursuing them and what their intentions are.

I’ll admit that Noah Bennet is one of my favorite characters on Heroes. One of the best things about this episode was that it focused primarily on his interrogation and featured many flashbacks from his memories exploring how he came to be involved in the hunt for the supers. There were echoes of what many consider to be one of the best episodes of Heroes from season one, “Company Man.” What both of these episodes have going for them is their focus on Noah and their black and white memories from Noah’s past.

What I think was lacking in this episode were the supposed-to-be tense interactions between the 3 heroes, Parkman, Petrelli and Suresh. I think the writing just isn’t up to par… or maybe it’s the direction. They’re supposed to be having this internal struggle, but to me it just sounds like they’re bickering about who are the good guys and who are the bad. In previous episodes it made sense for Hiro to call others, “heroes,” “villains” or “nemesis” because he was a geek growing up who loved comic books, but when it comes from one of the straight man-ish characters, it just doesn’t seem to fit, in the midst of this tense situation, that they'd be self aware enough to label themselves like they do.

Another thing that bothers me is that, as a viewer, I know about the powers that these heroes possess. I know that Matt Parkman can use his abilities to give those around him illusions that can change their environment and make them believe things are happening that aren’t true. So why didn’t he use his ability to get away from the small army that was coming to take him? I guess how it played-out was appropriate since the episode was trying to focus on Noah, but sometimes the writers seem to conveniently forget details if it supports their storyline.

Oh, and when is someone finally going to blurt out that Nathan can fly?? It seems like that would be one thing that would seriously undermine his efforts to hunt them all!

Tonight’s episode ended with Mohinder Suresh captured, Peter (we assume, but it could have been Nathan) rescuing Matt Parkman, and Noah Bennet finishing a conversation with Angela Petrelli that he started 5 weeks ago in his memory. It’s in this last scene that we learn that Noah is still working for Angela and he still has the same goals that he had when he was working for the company, which seem to be noble enough in that he wants to save the good people with abilities, and only lock up the dangerous ones. He admits that he’ll have to go deep under cover and do even more questionable things to convince is colleagues that he really is on their side, but I think we, as viewers, are supposed to remember this and keep rooting for him to succeed as a “good guy.”

All in all, I think tonight’s episode was satisfying. Heroes is best when the storylines aren’t getting spread too thin amongst all of the main characters. Hopefully this will be a trend revisited in the near future. But please, the final shot with another painting on the floor of a city exploding–this time Washington DC. How many times are they going to build up to an explosion that never happens? Can't they change their formula a little?

Heroes Thoughts: Building 26

Warning: SPOILERS.

At the beginning of the fall season of Heroes on NBC, I was pretty hard on the show. I was worried that they were taking the danger out of the mix by killing characters and then bringing them back as if nothing had happened. Well, anyone who has been watching the series since this season began will have learned, along with myself that many of my criticisms were uncalled for. They actually did kill off Niki/Jessica and it doesn’t look like they’re bringing DL back either. So while the writers of Heroes have done many things to increase my interest in the show, I’m also starting to notice some other things that are really going to bother me if they continue.


In tonight’s episode, Claire goes behind Noah’s back and rescues a potential target and then confesses to her mother what she and Noah were really doing when they were supposed to be college shopping. Hiro learns that he doesn’t need powers to be a hero. Nathan gets a skeptical new boss that he needs to convince that there really are people in the world with almost “magical” abilities. And Sylar learns that his new sidekick, Luke, knows the truth that will lead Sylar to his father.

I really like the apparent direction the show is going. The prospect of having our heroes living in the underground as they try to elude the government has the potential to present some very exciting television. Heroes is definitely a show that I intend to keep my Tivo programmed to record every week and I’m sure I’ll want to buy the rest of the DVDs as they come available.

I finally figured out as I was watching tonight’s episode, however, why my enthusiasm for this show sometimes wavers. It came to me as I thought of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Most of that movie seemed to be centered around the build-up to the climactic battle at Helm’s Deep and the associated tension that went along with it. As long as that build-up continued, every element of it ratcheted up the tension more and more until, when the battle actually commenced, all of that tension was released and the resulting energy paid off all of my expectations, and more.

It seems to me that Heroes is forever stuck in the “build-up” mode and the eventual releasing of the tension that is supposed to happen at the end of their volumes isn’t as satisfying as it should be. This goes back all the way to the very first season which I loved, but by the time the season finale arrived, the climactic battle that had been hyped for the entire season, just kind of happened in a very staged way that left me feeling kind of cheated out of all of my efforts as a viewer.

So you might be asking, what do I like about this show? Well, I do like the Peter Petrelli, Matt Parkman, and Mohinder Suresh team-up. I still really enjoy Hiro and Ando and I hope that Hiro gets his powers back soon. I really like the threat of the government hunting down people with abilities and I think some exciting times are in store with that storyline.


What don’t I like? I’m not thrilled with Sylar. Personally I think Sylar should have died at the end of the first season so the heroes could encounter a new and different threat. I don’t like Noah’s flip-flopping between is-he-good-or-is-he-bad? I like him when he’s good, and I like him when he’s bad, I just wish they’d make up their freakin’ mind! (Something that the preview for next week is promising to resolve… yeah, we’ll see.) And I’m starting to get really annoyed by Claire. She’s starting to seem like one of those annoying kids you see in movies who’s always wandering off chasing their lost pet and getting into trouble that almost kills everyone, but nobody ever does anything to stop the kid in the first place. They either need to lock Claire up like they keep threatening to, or Claire needs to finally go out on her own and get over her misguided loyalty to Noah and her attachment to her real father/creep Nathan.

I still have high-hopes for this show. I think the storylines have real potential but I think that the writers need to be brave enough to break out of some of the seemingly crippling formulas they’ve developed. And for crying out loud, it’s OK not to show us every one of the main characters in every episode. You can cover just one storyline from start to finish in a show and I don’t think the world would end.

But really… I do like this show.

What's Wrong With Heroes?

What's wrong with Heroes? No, I don’t mean the kind of heroes that inspire you to be better than you are—we need more of those. No, I mean Heroes, the NBC series that’s due to start it’s next season on Monday with a three hour event which includes a one hour recap show and two new episodes.

So, what do I think is wrong with Heroes? Simply put, there’s no danger anymore! They’ve already shown us in recent commercials that the Nicki/Jessica character, who supposedly perished in a fiery explosion at the end of last season, is alive and well. They’ve shown us that Nathan Petrelli, who was gunned down at the end of last season is also very much sporting a pulse.


So why is this a problem? There’s no danger to the show anymore. If you take away the possibility that a character can actually die, then you take away what makes a show suspenseful and thrilling.

Take ABC’s Lost, for example. How many characters who were set up to be series regulars have we seen get killed and actually stay dead? There was Boone and his sister Shannon who seemed to be almost as well rooted into the story as the three main characters and they died. We sadly saw my personal favorite character Charlie Pace drown at the end of the third season. With all of these deaths, I have no doubt that Michael actually did die in the boat explosion at the end of the last season. Additionally, whenever any of the characters is facing danger, there’s an added edge to the fact that it could really be the end for them.

So, back to Heroes: the first time this non-dying problem bothered me was at the end of season one where Sylar should have died. It would have been appropriate for that to be the end and for a new and badder villain to be introduced at the beginning of season two, but instead, they just had him lay low for a while only to come back stronger than ever in this upcoming season. For me, that’s when they lost it. They could have made it into a high-stakes show where nobody is safe, but instead they left it an episodic romp where everybody is literally invincible. Where’s the excitement in that?


What can they do to fix it? Well, I don’t mean to sound bloodthirsty or anything, but they need to kill off a major character and really mean it! Any angst the Peter experiences would mean so much more if it were because he was dealing with the hole left in his life by Nathan’s death. How much more would we root for Micah and his cousin and their fight against evil if we knew that they really had seen his mother die in that explosion (which, by the way, I’m convinced that we’ll see the once-believed-dead DL pull her out just before the big boom).

Anyway, I’ll still watch the show because I’m hoping that they can improve it, but if they don’t change something soon and make it a lot more engaging, it’ll quickly change from a “Gotta See It” show to a “I’ll Catch It If I Can” one.