Stealing From My Livejournal Part XXVI

As I use my livejournal for little else except for movie rants and decided to switch over here, I thought I'd recruit some older posts so as to show a history. I'll bother with new ones as they come to me.




From February 16, 2009:

"I am so unbelievably happy with Heroes this volume.

I mean, of course the plane crash at the beginning made us all think of Lost and there is some corny stuff going on (but that's always been in Heroes), but, really, the story is coherent, the characters are back to making sense, and reactions happen. Also, I like the new characters thus far.

Let me get a little more in-depth about what I'm loving so far this volume/half of the season. Watch out for some spoilers, of course.

1) Characterization. People are acting within their character. Nathan isn't a total asshole, but he's an asshole, and we're not relying on some stupid "GOD GAVE ME THIS MISSION" bullshit; he genuinely, and understandably, believes that people with abilities are dangerous. Claire is being a whiny bitch, but at her age (she's like 17), she's determined to show her independence and her strength (not just her special power). Sandra Bennet FINALLY got fed up with HRG and kicked him out of the house, which totally makes sense. And Sylar's little speech to miniSylar (Luke) this episode really reconnected us with the purpose of his character: he always has an objective. And yeah, he is a serial killer, although he does it with an objective in mind.

and speaking of miniSylar...

2) New characters: they're doing it better. I like miniSylar/Luke. He's real. He's cool. He's a fucking little punk, but that fits just fine. And he's the surrogate son that took Sylar's place, which actually makes their companionship sensical for a loner like Sylar (who, y'know, butchered Elle, his wooman, last volume). And Alex. Alex, who was introduced this episode. Already has my love. He has a useful ability, but it's really nothing special (like most abilities on Heroes, really; none of them are all too useful on their own save telekinesis, super strength, and the mind manipulation powers; Alex's is the ability to breathe underwater). He is also an adorable looking nerd. And I hope Claire sucks less enough to be worth getting another romantic interest; at least this one already knows her dad's after people like him and that she's not in league with them. Oh and the Hunter. The Hunter is a wonderful new character. I love his cold determination and his kind of extremeist take on Nathan's perspective. The new characters in this volume feel way more promising than last volume.

speaking of last volume's characters...

3) Cleaning Up the Cast. Daphne would have been a really cool character. Really. She was cool until she met Matt last season. The speedster! The perfect villain for Hiro! But no... she just became Matt's little girl. Totally boring and useless. She just made Matt really annoying, and I like Matt. I have to admit, I'm glad she's gone. After she got away from Hiro, she served such little purpose. Matt had more chemistry with the turtle. Really. And I'm glad to not see Maya around. And although I admit that I kinda miss Micah and Molly, I'm glad they're absent in the meantime. And Monica. Well, nobody seems to care about Monica. We haven't seen her since season 2. She had a pretty awesome power for being in such a shitty plotline. It'd be nice to see her back someday, so her mini-adventure in season 2 wasn't totally useless, but in the meantime, like the kids, I'm glad she's absent.

4) The Plot Is Good. This has been a problem for a while. The plot makes sense, for once, and there is one cohesive plot that ties all of the characters together. While they all have their own agendas and plans, there is this overwhelming evil that is constantly going after all of them. And there is a small group (Mohinder, Matt, and Peter, joining up to make their characters much more respectable and less annoying for the first time in a while) that is already focused on the main objective of fighting against this great evil. But there's a plot that affects everyone. Claire is sent to save Alex. The plot is the reason Sandra kicks HRG out. The plot is chasing after Sylar and keeping Tracy detained and et cetera et cetera. You get the point. There is this central elements whilst the characters go develop themselves. Hooray development!

All in all, there is a lot I can praise in the past three episodes alone that I couldn't do for the past season and a half. Don't get me wrong, there were some really awesome elements of volumes 2 and 3. Honestly, Hiro's journey to Japan was pretty cool. Long, too drawn-out, annoying, but cool. It developed his character. It introduced the awesomeness-that-I-dearly-miss that is Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei. But the overall plotline in season 2 was introduced too late and it just became annoying and rather stupid. I read somewhere, I think ew.com, that season 2 would have been way more effective if "Four Months Ago" had happened literally at the beginning of the season; it would have given it so much more direction and focus. And Elle was a pretty bitchin' character. I personally liked Bob, and the evolution of Angela into a bigger character was great.

But... we all know the horribleness. Arthur Petrelli. I think he's probably the worst villain I've seen on Heroes. I'm sorry, the whole Villains volume really sucked in my opinion. You had Mohinderfly in all his annoyingness. You had Maya just hanging around being even more useless than she had been in season 2. And just Arthur Petrelli... a horrible villain. A cool power... but a horrible villain. The shitty chemistry between Daphne and Matt. The ever so annoying Claire. The eclipse shit. Oh my god, I have to say, that may have been one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard of. GOD DAMMIT HEROES, UNDERSTAND CONTINUITY MUCH? Remember "Six Months Ago?" Remember how you introduced all these abilities MONTHS before the eclipse? How tons of heroes had abilities long before six months ago? The concept of the eclipse serving any purpose was really dumb. The only good part? Seeing the funny motions Elle and Sylar make when using their powers... but without seeing their powers!

And, y'know, seeing the ordinary-people-with-powers-you-never-wanted-to-see-with-powers is proving to be interesting. I enjoy the role reversal we're getting with Ando and Hiro. And now that Mohinder is not Mohinderfly, his powers are actually cool. Bah, he was a shitty scientist anyway.

One thing that really did it for me last volume? Peter running around like he uses guns all the freakin' time. Are you kidding me? Didn't he go to MEDICAL SCHOOL TO BECOME A NURSE? I was so glad to see him as a paramedic again.

And, of course, Arthur Petrelli. Arthur Petrelli, Arthur Petrelli, Arthur Petrelli. God, I hated his character. And the whole stupid "Sylar is Angela and Arthur's son" bit. I mean, it helped introduce to us Sylar's current goal of finding his real father, but aside from setting that up, it was just really annoying.

Actually, that's how I feel about all of last volume and most of season 2. It was shitty, but it helped set up where we are now in the show.

Let's hope that Heroes continues to get better and wins back some of its old, disillusioned fans. For those of you who are disillusioned old fans: if you liked season 1 but quit when you saw how crappy the following season and a half were, give it another shot. It's really getting back to being good, in my opinion. I'm really looking forward to next week. And I'm totally going to rewatch the three most recent episodes before next week; they were good. :D"