(S03E04) A lot of people have said in the comments that it appears as if I don't like Heroes. Believe me, that's not true. I'm actually a huge fan of the show. As a huge comic book junkie for more years and dollars than good sense will allow me to admit, the potential and general premise of this series is tremendously exciting. And the fact that it achieved such mainstream success right out of the gate was nothing short of astounding.However, just like you'll tell your wife whom you love more than anything else that she has a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth, I'm not going to just put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that every scene, line and moment of each episode is solid gold. If I see lettuce, I'm going to call them on it. Because the way I see it, it's just lettuce. It doesn't change how wonderful and beautiful she is in the slightest. It's just a little thing that needs to be taken care of because it's distracting me and it doesn't really fit the whole look her face is going for. Kind of like whatever's going on with Mohinder.
Nikki, Tracy and Barbara were identical triplets who were separated at birth by Dr. Zimmerman, when then proceeded to perform experiments on them. We haven't met Barbara yet, but I already find Tracy a lot more interesting than Niki/Jessica ever was. Sure, she's just as mentally unhinged but at least she seems to be more capable. But in light of what we learned tonight, does that mean Micah's gone for good?
Four Years From Now
Now a world filled with people containing abilities will destroy the world. It's always something new, isn't it?
Claire and Daphne are bad guys and in cahoots with the fear-based powers guy. But they're still under the President's authority, somehow? The future is an interesting place. Lots of mysteries and unanswered questions.
Meanwhile, Sylar is living in the Bennett household and is a 1950's sitcom ... mom (you thought I was going to say dad). And we finally learned what Sylar's true ability is I finally thought about how Sylar's ability really works: understanding how things work. It works with everything, explaining why he looks at people's brains to understand how their abilities to work. It also makes it far more plausible that he and Peter are brothers, as he can do with effort what Peter does automatically. But what does that mean about Nathan? And what about Peter now that he also has "the hunger."
I did like the transition with Mohinder's tape recorder into the "Four Years Later" setting. It also gave us a sneak preview of where his transformation may be taking him. In fact, maybe Heroes should have taken a nod from Desperate Housewives and jumped the whole show ahead four years as what's happening here is a helluva lot more interesting than what's going on in the present era. Well, except for the explosion. That kinda sucked. But the time we did spend in the future really brought together the threads that have been woven thus far this season.
Heroes
- Why do battered women always defend their abusers when someone intervenes to help them on TV?
- Why did we repeat so much of the Parkman in Africa sequence. If you need to repeat that much of it to make the story clear then maybe save it for the next episode. It's going to turn into an episode of Extra where you have ten minutes of content and twenty minutes of blurbs about those ten minutes.
- Future Peter has a raspy voice. He must have taken acting lessons in "badass" by Christian Bale.
- Dania Ramirez managed to show even more boobs than usual. Is this really what she's been reduced to: a sexual object?
- Every time someone's going to die this year, someone else swoops up to save them. Of course, Nathan would save Tracy. He's banging her. Oh, and she's important to his career.
- It was good to see Molly again, but if that's what she looks like for real, and four years in the future, how can they possibly use her in the present era? Puberty's a bitch in shows that play with time travel. Just look what they've had to do with Walt on Lost.
- If Parkman went to the future and saw all that we just saw, he didn't seem to be much more important to the larger arc then than he is now.
- Having a turtle as an animal guide must suck ass. It takes forever to get anywhere!
Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Fact or Fiction: Big Bang, Brothers & Sisters and CSI
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-06-2008 @ 11:40PM
Adam P said...
Blasted DVR quit recording at 40 minutes!
Reply
10-06-2008 @ 11:48PM
James Hofstedder said...
Speaking of superheroes... a filmmaker friend is putting together a documentary about real-life superheroes... men and women in real life, either living as super heroes, or wanting to. It's kind of interesting so far, and worth checking out: http://www.watchusexplode.com/?cat=1
Reply
10-06-2008 @ 11:50PM
dtpollitt said...
Okay TV Squad,
You owe us, your faithful readers, an explanation. Many of our favorite shows are either no longer receiving reviews, or their "reviews" have become something of the past. Take, for instance, Heroes. This current review - if you can call it that - devotes six short paragraphs to the episode's summary, devaluing such supporting characters like Parkman and Nathan to bullet points. Now look at this summary, last season's finale:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/12/04/heroes-powerless/
Each storyline is chock full of details, character development summaries, and more. I understand each and every episode does not deserve as much attention, nor should each blogger be held to such a lengthy and detailed review, but this website is slowly becoming irrelevant. I've started to look elsewhere for my television news and summaries.
Please inform us, TV Squad, both why the bloggers have dropped the ball, and why. I want my TV Squad back.
Dan
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 12:17AM
Ian said...
Apparently you don't read, Mr. Faithful Reader. They covered this last week. Archives, Mr. Reader!
10-07-2008 @ 12:22AM
Raj said...
Uh dude, they did this last week. Here's the link:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/10/01/the-evolution-of-tv-squad/
10-07-2008 @ 12:23AM
dtpollitt said...
And...I feel like a jackass now. Thanks, Ian. Not sure how I missed this one.
Dan
10-07-2008 @ 12:27AM
Manal said...
I asked the recapper of Supernatural why a lot of shows weren't being reviewed anymore, and here's what he said.
Joel explained in this post on TV Squad that changes are being made there. Among those, is a change in what shows get reviews. Supernatural didn’t make the cut, so I’ve continued with it on CliqueClack.
The post is:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/10/01/the-evolution-of-tv-squad/
Here's the site:
http://www.cliqueclack.com/tv/
To Jason Hughes, I thought the same thing you said about battered tv wives while I was watching, and I thought of Christian Bale when future Peter was talking, too. I also thought about Molly and the age difference, and chuckled when I realized Parkman had to follow the turtle. Are you sure we weren't separated at birth?
10-07-2008 @ 12:47PM
Dan said...
Honestly, I agree with Dan, and not just because we have the same name. I started coming to TV Squad because it was the only place where I could get a fully detailed summary, review and be able to discuss with other viewers...but that's slowly going away. Powerless had a full review, in this review, the longest part was the part where Jason told us he was a fan of the show. No mention of a lot of what happened and just a couple of thoughts. This show lasted an hour, the review should take longer than 45 seconds to read. I don't need short opinions about the show, I want to see detailed reviewcaps that allow me to relive the episode while I am stuck at my desk at work. Otherwise, what's the point? TV Squad just becomes another lame blog about Heroes and other shows instead of the best place on the net for Television news, reviews and recaps, which it was 1 year ago.
10-08-2008 @ 7:48PM
jim said...
Agreed with the Dans, I miss the old TV Squad. You're rapidly losing this reader... Have you stopped paying your bloggers or something?
I applied for a job with you last year (I'm a senior reporter in my country's second-largest daily newspaper so I'm not just a random pot-head wannabe), and it's a shame I got no reply as I'd love to have (freely or at a cut-rate) reviewed Heroes, Sunny in Philadelphia, House, South Park, American Dad, Family Guy, and maybe Sarah Connor for you. Instead I can't find any reviews for shows I like on this site anymore.
10-06-2008 @ 11:51PM
Richard Lawler said...
This storyline was a lot better when it was called The 4400.
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 5:26PM
William said...
LOL, I never thought about it like that...so true though!
10-07-2008 @ 7:24PM
MK said...
I'm so upset that 4400 was cancelled - it was a much more intelligent and dark show. Not to mention that Heroes is a total rip-off of 4400. They could've transfer 4400 to Sci-Fi channel at least. Instead they continue to show the lame "Eureka".
10-07-2008 @ 12:01AM
joel said...
Is it just me or does this whole spirit guide thing with Parkman mirror the Simpsons episode where Homer ate the chili that Chief Wiggum made from "the Merciless Peppers of Quetzaltenango - grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum"? He also had the turtle to lead him which he then kicks.
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 12:46PM
Dan said...
I totally thought that too...but there was no Talking Coyote. Parkman and Homer look kinda alike too...
Great reference, that was one of the top 5 episodes of all time on that show.
10-07-2008 @ 12:07AM
Saurin Patel said...
I totally agree that Heroes is turning into a 4400 clone. At least in the 4400 there weren't like 50 characters to keep track of. There was a core cast then a 4400-of-the-week. It was good and interesting.
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 12:13AM
Adam said...
I thought the explosion was one of the coolest effects I've seen on TV. We learned in Season 1 that Sylar's power was to see how things work. He killed Suresh sr. b/c he didn't believe that was an actual power, and he abandoned Sylar to focus on people with powers. I don't think fear guy, bad ass claire, and too slow daphne are bad guys. Everyone in the future agreed that Peter became some sort of a mass murderer, so Peter's naievete finally caught with him and turned him to the dark side.
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 11:43AM
Wes said...
I'm thinking future Peter manipulated present Peter to try to make himself stronger.
Couple of points.
1. The fight in the house was eleventy billion time better than the 'finale' fight in season 1.
2. Angela Petrelli seems to be playing both sides of the us/them super/normal factions.... is she a super or no?
10-07-2008 @ 12:38AM
vacelts said...
Is anyone else blown away by the fact that the supreme villain from the last two seasons is not only playing house, but has a son of his own now. Just who is Noah’s mom?
This episode really blurs the line between right and wrong. Just who are the real villains?
http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/heroes-i-am-become-death/
And are the paternity/maternity issues from the last two episodes going to come to a head next week?
http://vacelts.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/30/1932643-sylar-isnt-only-hero-with-paternity-issues-in-one-of-us
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 1:19AM
maestro610 said...
Did anyone else notice the whole Future Peter being killed by a bullet thing?
This should be an impossibility considering that having Claire's power saved Present Peter. Is there supposed to be some paradox where Future Peter didn't have Claire's ability somehow? Does Claire have special bullets?
Whatever the answer I completely jumped to the other side on this show when Future Peter was felled by the bullets he so easily dodged in the Season Premiere.
Reply
10-07-2008 @ 8:20AM
I miss my stars! said...
Didn't the presence of the Haitian explain how they killed future Peter? (I expect future Peter to make some miraculous recovery, btw.)