December 2, 2008
This volume of Heroes is called “Villains,” and when I hear that, I think that it means the villains will come to power and do some serious damage. Thus far, three major or semi-important characters have died: Adam Monroe, Maury Parkman and now Elle Bishop. What do they have in common? They were all villains.
Ironically, all three were also killed by fellow villains. I know bad guys aren't to be trusted, but surely there are better people for them to kill than each other. The cast is loaded with heroes, yet they all manage to elude death. Last night, Claire died, but it only lasted until the eclipse was over. Peter tried to sacrifice himself to save his brother, but then Nathan came back to rescue him. HRG almost got his skull sliced open, but Hiro teleported in to save him.
December 1, 2008
Previously on Heroes: An eclipse eliminated everyone's powers, giving HRG the upper hand with Elle and Sylar, stranding the Petrelli brothers in Haiti with a crazy man and reverting Daphne back into a polio-riddled Kansan. Thankfully, Seth Green and Breckin Meyer showed up to make sense of it all.
This week on Heroes it's time for the second half of the eclipse, which means the heroes and villains don't have powers until about halfway through, when the eclipse passes, all the powers return, and nothing that happened over these past two episodes matters. I suppose last week's interesting episode was an anomaly. If you're still not convinced this episode is bad - Maya returns.
December 1, 2008
After an anticlimactic second season, Heroes season 3 has decided to change tacks and focus on the villains for a change. Because Heroes is the kind of serialized show, it is important to watch the episodes in the proper sequence, without missing a single one. There are always separate chains of events whose importance becomes clearer and clearer as the season progresses, and which eventually come together in a great, big denouement. Practically speaking, what this means is that you cannot miss an episode. It is imperative that you watch every episode of Heroes.
Monday nights are packed to the gills with great TV, and sometimes, life just gets in the way. Sure, you can record it on your DVR, but what if the unthinkable happens and your DVR deletes everything? This happened to me. Twice. Let me tell you, it was devastating. So what is a person to do?
November 28, 2008
The return of former writer Bryan Fuller on Heroes has been pushed by critics ever since the NBC series has been bashed as “troubled.” The idea comes on the heels of the firing of producers/writers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander and the fact that ABC has pulled the plug on Fuller's latest series, Pushing Daisies.
IGN recently caught up with the Pushing Daisies creator and asked him about his chances of returning to Heroes, where he served as writer for the first season and where he garnered special praise for the episode called “Company Man.”
November 26, 2008
Earlier this morning, NBC issued a press release announcing their mid-season schedule for January 2009. The biggest omissions for January are Chuck, Heroes, Life and My Own Worst Enemy. All of those shows, except for the recently canceled My Own Worst Enemy, will return in February. NBC was very clear in making this point. In addition to a brand new Monday night slate for the month of January, there are also some new NBC specials poised to hit the air, including two new Saturday Night Live prime-time specials. Friday Night Lights, which has been airing its third season exclusively on DirecTV, will make its return to Fridays on NBC in January, as we reported earlier.
November 25, 2008
I didn't hate everything about Heroes last night. In fact, I sort of liked quite a lot of it. This is very difficult for me to admit, because I preferred abjectly hating Heroes. But now I find myself liking large chunks of it and, God save me, I may have enjoyed the Claire storyline most of all.
I'm not about to give Heroes a gold star and say all is forgiven. It's not. If anything, the general quality of last night's episode is simply proof that we should be critical of the show when it's bad because it's capable of being good.
November 24, 2008
Previously on Heroes: The battle lines were drawn between Team Angela and Team Arthur, while Hiro was stuck with the mind of a 10-year-old looking at comic books.
Elle (Kristen Bell) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) continue their electrical training when Arthur gives them an assignment: get Claire Bennet. Robert Forster should only play old school mobsters, because he has the perfect voice for it. Arthur goes to Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and shows him a picture he drew of a dead Claire. Heroes has promised major characters dying before, so I'm not going to fall for this again.
November 21, 2008
If season 2 taught Heroes fans anything, it's that a really long patch of bad episodes can occasionally lead to oneHeroes or two good ones. I've been critical of the painfully clunky storytelling in the past few episodes, but the Heroes team seems to be doing something about it: they got Seth Green and Breckin Meyer.
As anyone who's ever seen an episode of Robot Chicken knows, these two are incredibly funny guys who know a whole lot about comic books and geek culture. As a rule, putting Seth Green in something is usually a way to make it better (see the season premiere of My Name is Earl or his episodes of Entourage). In that respect, Seth Green is a lot like the acting equivalent of cinnamon.