James Kyson Lee-related stories
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 3:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E08) As
promised, this week's episode of
Heroes took us back to the heydays of the first season. Back when this was a world of wonder filled with new and exciting characters and mystery. Their futures lie before them, and it all centered on Charlie, the poor waitress that Hiro failed time and again to save back then.
Now that he's working on his bucket list before he kicks it, the time has come to head back three years and try to undo her death by Sylar's hand. Which means we got to see HRG, Claire, Hiro, Ando, Sylar and even Isaac as they were three years ago.
The question was whether or not he could change the past and save Charlie, when he failed to before. Furthermore, could he do so without changing all the subsequent events that had happened. He'd already had a taste of success with Ando and his sister, but this sojourn had much higher stakes.
Continue reading Review: Heroes - Once Upon a Time in Texas
Posted Oct 6th 2009 1:19AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E04) What are you doing with your life? Are you happy with what you do every day, 40 or more hours a week? If not, then you're not truly living
your life, you're living someone else's. Only when you realize that this life is a gift and it's so much shorter than any of us can possibly realize, can you truly start to live for yourself. Take a risk. Do what you want. Do what makes you happy.
That's pretty heady stuff, but it was apparently on the
Heroes writers' minds tonight, because that's exactly what this episode was about. And it turned out pretty well. There were moments of true growth for several of our characters, some good and some probably not so good.
Continue reading Heroes: Acceptance
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 2:45AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E02) Things are definitely getting interesting again. I'm glad
Heroes went with a two-hour premiere, because it wasn't until the end of this hour that we had enough to really grab our attention again. As expected, Samuel Sullivan and the Sullivan Brothers Carnival are right at the heart of the mystery right now.
There's another mystery brewing at Claire's college. Or maybe there isn't. Could what happened with Annie be as straightforward as everyone seems to want us to believe? But now that's the least of Claire's problems, due to her little impromptu experiment.
This episode focused primarily on four main storylines, and it progressed very smoothly for it. It wasn't too confusing, and I came out if it with a sense of confidence that there's a plan for the season. I'm still not sure if it's accessible enough for new viewers, but you never know. Maybe people are smarter than I give them credit for.
Continue reading Heroes: Jump, Push, Fall
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 2:12AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E01) Volume Five - "Redemption"
A new volume and new faces ... on the show, that is. At this point, I think it's a bit of a pipe dream by NBC to think they can nab new viewers. And as much as I was hoping they'd make this as accessible as possible, things are still pretty hopelessly complex. The situation with Nathan/Sylar alone is enough to make any new viewer change the channel. Maybe see how
House is coping with
life in the asylum.
On the other hand, Robert Knepper has joined the cast as Samuel, the leader of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival, and I couldn't be more excited. No matter how ridiculous
Prison Break got over four years, Knepper was just deliciously villainous as T-Bag. And he's just as enigmatic on camera here.
Tonight's premiere is a two-hour extravaganza, including the first two episodes of the new season. Look for my review of the second hour in a separate post.
Continue reading Heroes: Orientation (season premiere)
Posted Apr 28th 2009 12:20AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E25) In my
early look at this finale, I laid a pretty broad hint as to the major twist at the end of this volume, and I was impressed with some of the deductive abilities of our readers. And the fact that one of you got it exactly right. Now that we've all seen the final cut of the closing chapter of the "Fugitives" volume of
Heroes, we can really look back at it and see how we think things have gone.
What was needed was to wipe the slate clean, resolve as many of the dangling plot threads as possible, and establish a tabula rasa for "Volume Five." Or as much of one as we can this far into a series. After all, these last two volumes have left some pretty sour tastes in many mouths. The set up for interesting things to come next year was definitely well done. I'm more interested in what's going to happen in "Redemption" than I was excited about what happened in this finale.
Continue reading Heroes: An Invisible Thread (season finale)
Posted Feb 10th 2009 1:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E15) The second chapter of the newest volume of
Heroes wasn't quite as strong as the first one, but it kept things moving in a positive direction. I guess the writers were wanting to keep the fugitive heroes as weak in power base as possible, based on the casualty we experienced in this episode. In a way, I can say I knew it was coming, but was hopeful that it wouldn't. While I agree that the cast had gotten a little sprawling and out of control at times thorughout the series progression, I never thought this character was a problem.
Continue reading Heroes: Trust and Blood
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 3:30AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E14) Now that's more like it! Yes, we're only one hour into this fourth volume ("Fugitives") of
Heroes, but already we're looking at a vastly improved product. We're no longer fragmented trying to keep track of a million different seemingly unrelated storylines. Everything's connected, there's a very common and familiar enemy that needs to be dealt with, and it's a natural progression from where we've come.
Nathan's progression to the point we see him tonight has been handled pretty well. From the beginning, he was always portrayed as kind of a dick who felt pretty differently than Peter about abilities and those with them. Now we see just how strongly he feels. The addition of Zejlko Ivanek (
Damages) as the man in charge of the hunter squads is a great casting choice. Already he brings an intensity to the role that's much appreciated. It's early to say, but this reminded me so much of the tone and atmosphere of the first season that I think we can declare
Heroes back.
Continue reading Heroes: A Clear and Present Danger
Posted Dec 16th 2008 9:54AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E13) Man, they did it again. Set up a potentially solid climactic final chapter to a "Volume" and then just kind of fizzled out. Sylar's antics bordered a bit on the ridiculous, and I don't at all buy Nathan's character path over the past three seasons as plausible. I was pleased with the continuation and ultimate resolution of Hiro's story as it involved also Ando, Matt and Daphne. As it turns out, while these are by no means the central figures in the plots for this Volume, their story was the best.
Maybe it's because there was a minimum of whining (Peter) or pouting (Claire), and quite frankly there's only so much of that crap you can take. With the end of "Volume Three" tonight, as we've done in the past, we got a sneak peek at "Volume Four: Fugitives." And as has been the case in the past, the few minutes we got on a preview of the next volume was much more compelling than the finale of this current volume. Just like real comic books, you usually get a great build up in these big stories, ultimately leading to disappointment.
Continue reading Heroes: Dual
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 9:42AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E11) Well, that was a whole lot of hullabaloo about nothing. I know, I know can't spoil anything before the jump. Can I say that I'm really enjoying Hiro these last couple of episodes? Maybe all he needed was to be a 10-year old boy. In fact, I wasn't too terribly annoyed by anyone in this episode ... except for Mohinder. Come on, dude. Let it go. Do you really think she's still going to be interested after everything that went down?
You just know that Seth Green and Breckin Meyer were just geeking out about getting a role on this show. In fact, we need more
Heroes sketches on
Robot Chicken. Now there's no excuses. As for the rest, the eclipse came and went and all those huge promises about what a big freaking deal this would turn out to be were for naught. Their powers disappeared when the eclipse came. What happened when it left?
Continue reading Heroes: The Eclipse - Part II
Posted Nov 25th 2008 9:51AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E10) We've reached the climax of this volume of
Heroes. With the coming of the eclipse the first time, abilities manifested in our plethora of characters, or at least some of them. Or at least it was a catalyst of some importance. Now Claire is apparently a catalyst of some importance. Because the writers aren't sure how to make her anything other than kind of annoying, but she's the "hot chick" so they have to keep her. But that's another issue. It's time for another eclipse, and this time what havoc will it wreak?
Maybe it can make Peter whine less. Or Claire be less useless of a character. Or Matt more important of a character. Or Mohinder go back to normal or just die already. Things were definitely turned sideways this episode, and I think it was in a good way. I know all they naysayers will keep saying nay, many of them doing so without even watching the episodes (which makes their opinions irrelevant), but things are getting on track. Now if they can just avoid a disappointing conclusion to this volume, I'll be thrilled powerless.
Continue reading Heroes: The Eclipse - Part 1
Posted Nov 24th 2008 3:22PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Interviews, Celebrities, Heroes, Reality-Free
Though
Heroes has fallen in the ratings, do not despair, my friends. I recently talked with
James Kyson Lee, who plays Hiro's sidekick, Ando, and he assured me that things will pick up in the coming weeks. In fact, the upcoming chapter, "Fugitives," promises to give the series a reboot.
"I know there have been a couple episodes where people got a little confused in terms of the storylines," said Lee. "But overall, I feel like the writing has been really strong, especially the last three or four episodes. I think it's really starting to come together, and we're going to have a very strong rest of the run for this season."
Continue reading James Kyson Lee reveals a few Heroes teasers
Posted Nov 18th 2008 3:10AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E09) It's a shame that nobody's watching this show anymore, because tonight was all about setting the stage for the battle to come. With "Volume 4" coming either in December or early next year, we should be moving fast and furious to the big confrontation between Team Pinehearst and Team Primatech. By the end of this episode, all of our major players appear to have chosen sides. The stage is set, after only nine episodes, to get to the meat of this volume.
Remember when we were told that there was going to be an examination of the generations of
Heroes, and possibly struggles between them. It looks like the Writers Strike swept all of that off the table. Hell, the only people left from the "first" generation are Angela and Arthur Petrelli, and now they appear to be on opposing sides. It took awhile to get to this point, what with wasting all that time on Mohinder and Maya early on this season, but it looks like we're finally getting to the good stuff. Creator
Tim Kring took pen to paper, or more likely fingers to keyboard, to write this pivotal episode. Is there anybody left watching to appreciate his efforts?
Continue reading Heroes: It's Coming
Posted Nov 11th 2008 12:50AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E08) Maybe they should have done this one a little earlier in the season. There was only one scene set in the present era, but it was a good one. The rest of the episode was "One Year Ago," weaving and interlacing with the events we did see during the show's first season, showing us what a lot of the characters we either didn't know or didn't follow then were up to, like Ma and Pa Petrelli, Linderman, Gabriel, Elle and even Claire's mother and uncle.
I remember that the second season was supposed to explore the elder generation, revealing more of their connections to one another and their motivations. We were going to learn more about The Company and what they were up to in regards to Peter and the rest of our main cast. It looks like those aborted promises are finally coming to fruition. It's unfortunate that the last season and so much of the start of this season was so lackluster, as things are really coming together nicely. And we're gaining sympathy for almost every member of the cast by learning more about them.
Continue reading Heroes: Villains
Posted Oct 28th 2008 8:48AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E07) Have you noticed how quickly an episode of
Heroes goes by? It's not a bad thing, but it just goes to show you how much they pack into each episode. It helps that they're juggling forty to fifty storylines at any given time. It's one of those things where when you're looking at writing up a review of the show there's just so much that happens. Again, I liked this episode but there weren't any major developments as far as the bigger events.
We did have another de-powering as well as another death. Kristen Bell returned to the show as the troubled Elle, and Claire's mom again showed us what her power was by holding her palm up and having fire dance on it. Hey lady, we're sooo over it! Does Peter get his powers back? Does Sylar really just need a hug? Did Hayden Panattiere finally get any acting lessons so she can show more than "earnest" on her face?
Continue reading Heroes: Eris Quod Sum
Posted Oct 21st 2008 5:10AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E06) Say what you want, but I think this episode continued the good streak established last week. It looks like, after a shaky start, the
Heroes train is finally back on the track. All it took was some patience. That's a good sign for the rest of the season. Now if it could just get some of those lost viewers back. I hope NBC is factoring in downloads, DVR playbacks and streaming views online into their decisions regarding this show as I know it performs extremely well there.
Continue reading Heroes: Dying of the Light
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