“Heroes” has been getting slammed a lot this season and I decided to wait until a natural breaking point to discuss it, since to my mind trying to review it as it goes is akin to reviewing a book chapter by chapter. You run into a whole “forest for the trees” thing.
Now, with the first half of the season drawing to a close, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s not actually a forest involved. It’s more of a jungle, and I’m in desperate need of a machete.
What the hëll is going on in this series?
Honest to God, what the hëll is going on?
The first season had a nice, simple through-line encapsulated in six words: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” We were presented with a doomsday scenario and a whole bunch of normal people caught up in abnormal situations, struggling to cope with their new status quo while pursuing a fairly linear storyline. And the comic book roots of the concept were attended to by such things as the aptly named “Hiro” constantly referencing such tropes, and the events in the series being tracked through an actual comic in the show. Granted, we’ve seen the welcome return to some of those aspects, such as the comic book store being run by Seth Green, and the “long lost” final comic that surfaced last night (Kathleen was particularly happy to see that.)
But this season has been all over the place. Events were triggered by the wildly out-of-character action of Hiro directly disobeying the instruction of his father never to open a safe. I’m sorry, the Hiro who’s been established would take such a charge as a sacred duty; he wouldn’t let his curiosity cause him to violate his father’s direct, from-the-grave instruction. And it’s just been downhill from there.
Originally it seemed that the heroes’ powers were a next step in evolution, happening almost spur-of-the-moment because they were needed. Instead we’re now learning that their powers are steeped in a byzantine plot from a bunch of organizations, and I’m having trouble remembering week to week who’s where and who’s doing what to who as part of what timetable. Previous plot points are recycled (ANOTHER doomsday view of Manhattan courtesy of time travel?) and we’re seeing crosses and double crosses and triple crosses. I’m not sure whether I’m simply too stupid to follow it all, or if we’re just seeing a series being written by scattergun. Considering the series has been hemorrhaging viewers and top writers have been fired, I’m leaning toward the latter.
It’s easy to say that this season is about “Villains” as it’s called. Instead it seems to be about trying to find ways to make sure that everyone has something to do, when the fact is that thus far it seems as if you could extract entire characters and storylines from the series and not damage the main plot thread. I say “seems” because since I’m still hazy on what the thread is, I can’t say for sure.
Mohinder is doing an endless slow burn into the Fly. Sylar engages in an extended attempt to reform that hangs on him like an ill-fitting suit. Half the cast is going on spirit walks, Hiro becomes a ten year old. Nikki comes back except she’s not Nikki anymore, she’s Tracy. They killed Veronica Mars and it almost seems merciful. Past, present and future versions of characters are running around, interacting with each other with abandon. It’s like someone poured both previous seasons into a blender, started it up, yanked the top off, and the resultant explosion all over the ceiling is what we’re seeing.
There are moments, yes. Nice moments. Great moments. But it’s hard to get to them and it’s getting even harder to care about them since they’re buried deep in the jungle, the morass that constitutes this season. And who the hëll thought that setting two entire episodes during the world’s longest eclipse was a good idea? I used my DVR to capture one of those episodes and watched it during the daytime; I couldn’t see a dámņëd thing because the screen was so dark and there was daylight in the living room.
I want to see this series succeed. I’m just wondering whether anyone actually producing the show feels the same way.
PAD
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Speaking of “what the hëll is going on?” TV moments, I just watched the season 4 Doctor Who finale, “Journey’s End” on the CBC. To quote the Doctor: “What?! What?!! What?!!!!” Usually, CBC airs Doctor Who uncut (or close to it, and the Sci-Fi Channel chops it up. Not in this case.
(I tried posting the following on Kathleen’s thread reviewing that episode, but wasn’t allowed to for some reason. I hope folks will forgive the side trip. I return to Heroes below).
I’d seen “Journey’s End” back in the summer on the Sci-Fi Channel, because I happened to have access to cable that day, and I recently bought the DVD box set, so I didn’t need to watch the CBC version, but I did anyway.
Here’s what the CBC cut out:
The Doctor reflecting on all those who’d died in his name, such as Lynda with a y.
The Doctor offering to save Davros and Davros refusing.
Rose and the Doctor asking Gwen if she had any relatives who’d lived in Cardiff in 1869.
The various companions saying their goodbyes prior to the return to Bad Wolf Bay.
Rose asking the Doctor what the rest of the sentence starting with “Rose Tyler” would have been, the Doctor’s non response response, and the other Doctor’s whispered reply when she asked him.
Sylvia Noble’s declaration that Donna’s important and the Doctor’s admonition that she should give some indication to Donna that she means that.
Donna’s final, dismissive, “see you” to the Doctor while she’s on the phone.
All that’s gone. And maybe more, I turned on the TV about 9:15. Who knows what they cut in the beginning.
As to the episode itself, I liked it a lot. But I probably would have been a bit confused by the sudden disappearance of all the other companions from the TARDIS if I’d only seen the CBC version.
From a logistical standpoint, the missing goodbye to the companions scene is the worst cut, for reasons noted above. But in terms of important character moments, I think the worst cut is the one with Donna’s “goodbye” to the Doctor. Yes, the Doctor has said he’s erased all her memories of their time together, but for her to casually dismiss him while she talks on the phone underscores that point.
The cut of the “what was the rest of that sentence going to be?” scene with Rose comes a very close second, if not a tie.
I still haven’t seen “Stolen Earth”, so I don’t fully know everything that led up to the events of “Journey’s End”; but I’ll see it on the DVD soon enough. In fact, the only episodes I’ve seen on the air were “Partners in Crime”, “Fires of Pompeii”, “Planet of the Ood”, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”, and “Journey’s End” on Sci Fi, and “The Doctor’s Daughter”, “Forest of the Dead”, “Midnight”, and “Journey’s End” on the CBC (I watched “The Sontaran Strategem” on the DVD set yesterday).
But again, what the hëll was the CBC thinking with all those cuts? I don’t recall watching any other episodes from previous seasons on DVD and seeing so many “lost” scenes, if any; though frankly, I can’t recall whether the CBC aired the scene of the Master singing along to “I Can’t Decide” while tormenting the Doctor in “Last of the Time Lords.”
Wonder what the CBC cut from other episodes this season? Guess I’ll find out soon enough.
Getting back to Heroes, when it shows up in reruns a few years down the line, how much more confusing will season 3 be with the syndication cuts?
I want to believe that Heroes can get better; that like a long-running comicbook series that’s in a bit of a slump, it’ll hit its stride again. But I somehow doubt it. Not necessarily because it can’t, but because the network might not give it a chance.
And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea that the heroes should have become known to the public when they stopped Sylar. Or at least the public should have learned of the existence of people with special abilities, even if they didn’t yet know who weiled such power. It would have been interesting to see where this revelation would have ultimately led.
Along those same lines, I remember reading stories, and/or watching episodes of superhero cartoons and/or the Adam West Batman TV series where the hero worries that such and such loved one will learn his secret identity due to various circumstances. Part of me wanted that to happen, so I could find out what’d happen next. How would this revelation complicate matters?
Maybe what Heroes needs is for the general public within the show’s universe to learn about the existence of super-powered individuals, and for the show to explore what happens when superheroes appear in the real world. Will we end up with an Astro City type world, or will we end up with “Civil War” type divisiveness?
Heroes had a lot of potential. Hopefully, it still does.
Rick
“Posted by: Rene at December 12, 2008 08:17 PM
To Micha and Thunderstrike –
Any of you guys watched “the 4400”? I liked that show, but it made me realize why a superhero TV show has certain limitations imposed by budget.
Revealing the Heroes to the world and taking the show to the next step and the natural resolution of the cast coming together is a great idea, but I don’t think they have the budget for something epic with lots of big sets and lots of crowd scenes that such a direction would entail.
I know Heroes has a much bigger budget than 4400, but even so… every time they tried to do a big screen scene in 4400 featuring the wars and revolutions and social movements inherent in a world with many known superhumans, the show came awfully short, everything seeming to take place in a Wal-Mart back lot or something.”
I don’t think taking heroes to the next step should mean having Avenngers-like epic battles with massive effects. On the contrary.
Look. In the first season you had seperate individuals who discovered they had powers and then were swept into a big conspiracy + Syler which culminated in them all being in the same spot in NY. So what’s the next step?
1) The characters learning to live with their powers, using hem more regulaly for various purposes, getting more comfortable with them, exploring them. Going beyond the initial surprise. We saw this to some extent with Matt discovering more aspects of his powers, but there was no follow up. Micah and Monica explored their powers but then they were droppd before they could come to their own. Claire became more invulnerable, but her use of her powers is more passive now than it was in season one. They hint about what these powers mean to her all the time, but not in a consistent way. Many other characters are held back. Hiro is still stuck blinking hard as if he’s just discovered the power. Peter first lost his memory, then was trapped in another body, then lost his powers. It’s as if he’s starting every time.
2) Learning, as individual, not as part of a company, to live with the other like them. This does not mean forming a justice league, but it should be like in Marvel or DC where there is a society of sorts, especially when these heroes already crosed paths. We saw Matt cooperating a little with others, and people come in contact with each other as part of the new conspiracies of the company. But for the most part the Bennet circle, the Patrelli circle, the Nakamura Circle, and Nikki’s circle were kept seperate.
3) Learning to live with the outside world. Superheroes interact with the outside world in many ways — secret identities, having problems wih the law, beig celebrities. In Heroes we saw Matt use his powers a bit while being a cop. We saw Claire having some problems in High School, although this was badly managed and had no follow up. Hiro interacted with the outside world in Feudal Japan, but it was also poorly managed, and he did not grow from the experience. Beyond that it is astonishing how disconnected the Heroes have become from the outside world. Like my sister said: Nathan was elected to ten different Job but has anybody ever seen him do anything at work? Even Bush worked harder. Everything that’s happening is the company or the oher company or people who were prisoners of the company or wanted by the company. I think the evil company trope isa litle overused, as isthe future cataclys + time travel.
Rick: “Maybe what Heroes needs is for the general public within the show’s universe to learn about the existence of super-powered individuals, and for the show to explore what happens when superheroes appear in the real world.”
That’s one good way of doing it
Instead of a steady growth of characters with stories to match that growth, we’ve seen a mess that keeps going to the same old bag of tricks.
I actually think season two was a little better than 3, or at east had potential. With all the unfullfilled promises of season 3 it is hard to imagine improvement. But we can only hope. Lost and PrisonBreak picked themselvs up, so maybe Heroes can too.
From the point of view of the story, the idea to do a story titled Fugitives, in which the heroes will be apparently forced to run away from the government, seems to be a good idea, and a natural progression of the story. How well it wil be executed, I do not know.
I’m not talking about (only) epic battles, Micha. Consider only the cost and time needed for big sets and many extras and you’ll quickly understand why TV shows about supernormal events almost never make them open and worldwide events.
As an example, episode 9 of first season originally would feature a football game complete with cheerleaders. But the idea was ditched, because the time and cost was prohibitive.
And that is one football game!
Consider a world where Nathan Petrelli would be in talk shows, Peter would be helping the military in Iraq, and Hiro would be guest of honor in a big comic con. And that in a single episode.
There are ways to “fake” this stuff, show Nathan on a TV set, and not the talk show stage itself, show Peter in only a few narrow takes in Iraq, etc. But soon it becomes unconvicing. Public superheroes, even those that aren’t a Justice League kind of team, demand more varied, bigger sets, and more extras.
That not counting the special effects for the powers themselves.
That is why they will always keep it a secret.
Peter,
AMEN!!!!
None of the seasons have been perfect but the potential was always there.
Season 1 dragged in some areas but the writers and the producers were trying to find their footing and no doubt lay some groundwork for a huge payoff for subsequent seasons. But season 1 made a fan out of me.
Season 2 hit the sophomore slump and the writers’ strike hit. But the creators acknowledged the problems and promised to deliver in season 3.
And when I found out this season was entitled Villains, I was beyond stoked. I figured this season would be the one to watch.
Heroes vs. Villains in a knock down drag out fight. But this season has just been all over the place. The characterizations have been horrid and contradictory; most notably Elle’s (who was my favorite character) who was all moral about Sylarizing (as someone else said) Gabriel. But when we met her, she was a psychotic sadistic badass. A classic case of revisionist history.
I’ve really wanted to like this season but they’ve given me every reason not to do so. I’ll probably watch the rest of the season just to see how it plays out but I don’t see myself returning for season 4…..if there is one.
Now that the “Villains” arc is done, I can look back at the whole thing and…
still scratch my head. So much unrealized potential for that storyline (and Heroes in general.
I did like elements of the arc finale, though some head scratching moments remain. At then end of the episode, it seems clear that Claire, et al. had been locked in the Petrelli mansion. Or at least somebody’s mansion. Yet Noah released some prisoners from level 5 to help in the battle against Sylar. But I thought level 5 was at the Primatech facility in Texas. Which doesn’t look anything like a mansion.
As to the look at the upcoming “Fugitives” arc, we again have the potential for a great storyline. If they do it well. It reminds me in some ways of Rising Stars, though in that series the general public already knew of the existence of “Specials.” Will the public learn of the “heroes”, or will the government round them up on the Q.T., citing vague national security criteria? How will the general public react to that?
I’ll tune in, out of curiosity, but I wonder how many viewers the show will lose because of this long hiatus?
Rick
P.S. I doubt Nathan let the president know about his own powers (why risk getting locked up himself?); but does anyone think he let him know about Peter? I don’t think so. Not so much to protect Peter, but to keep from drawing too much attention toward his own family.
I gave up on season 3 after five reasons, when I realised what it reminded me of most: issue 101 of Chris Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men. Too much stuff, not enough clarity, and I’d long since stopped caring about once beloved characters. Game over.