MasiOka-related stories
Posted Nov 17th 2009 10:41AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E10) For some reason, while I was watching this episode I got to thinking: "What if this had been the second season of
Heroes." Would it perhaps still be a top-rated show; one that NBC could rest its laurels and future on instead of Jay Leno? As with that first season, I feel that sense of wonder about what's going on, and things are really coming together.
That said, there is some sloppy thinking on the parts of both Tracy and Hiro this week. But there's also the continuing consolidation of power by Samuel, and finally an explanation of both why he's doing this and what Mohinder's been up to.
I'm going to admit to being wrong now. For weeks I've been saying that I haven't missed Suresh at all; that I would be just as happy if he never showed up. But his return and appearance (and even explanation for his absence) were handled so well, that I liked him all over again.
Continue reading Review: Heroes - Brother's Keeper
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 27th 2009 4:25PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Heroes, Reality-Free
It's no secret that
Heroes has been slipping in quality and in the ratings since the end of its first season. Things have improved a bit this year thanks to Robert Knepper's fantastic turn as manscara-wearing carnival boss Samuel Sullivan. Watching Sylar torment Matt Parkman with some Tyler Durden-esque head games has been a hoot too.
But, as we TV critics like to bring up every now and then, the current season isn't nearly as good as that great first season. Maybe that's why
Heroes is taking us back to season one, sort of, with the Nov. 2 episode, "Once Upon a time in Texas."
The ep follows Hiro as he travels back in time to try to change the events of season one's episode 8, in which he fell in love with Texas waitress Charlie, played by
Glee's Jayma Mays. Fans of the show know that Hiro was unable to save Charlie from Sylar's clutches even though he tried more than once. Will he be able to change history this time?
Continue reading Masi Oka gushes about Charlie's return to Heroes
Posted Oct 20th 2009 1:55AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E06) If there was a theme this week, it's about nurturing and guiding people with abilities. We followed up with Sylar, now in the nefarious embrace of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival, as well as Peter and Hiro, and by extension Emma. The quest to save Hiro's life from the brain tumor that's killing him even affords Noah the opportunity to atone for his cold past by providing support to a former kid he and the Haitian had "visited" back in his Company days.
We got some very nice character moments this week. I like Hiro in the role of mentor to Emma, as it gives him a focus for his crazy optimism. Plus, we got to see how stopping time makes a magic show even more awesome -- I know that's the kind of crap I'd be doing with that ability. Screw saving the world, watch me make this woman vanish.
Continue reading Heroes: Tabula Rasa
Posted Oct 13th 2009 4:15AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but sometimes I wonder if we don't have more people reading TV Squad than
Heroes has viewers. And so I want to keep reminding fallen fans who may have jumped ship over the past two not-so-great seasons that things are going much better this season.
There's a better balance in each episode than there's been. In the past few weeks, we've been sticking to mostly three storylines per week. This time around, we checked in on Peter, Claire and Sylar (after his unearthing last week). They're allowing the characters room to breathe and be themselves, rather than just rushing into the next adventure.
It was character growth and development that I'd missed the most, and we're finally getting it. Zachary Quinto was fantastic this episode, and even Hayden Panettiere showed an inkling of range. Oh, who am I kidding, she was as wooden as ever, but that's why we like her ... right? That kind of looks like a cardboard cut-out up there, doesn't it?
Continue reading Heroes: Hysterical Blindness
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 Aug 24th 2009 6:30PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Heroes, Casting, Reality-Free
Remember Charlie, the cute and spunky waitress who stole Hiro's heart in the first season of
Heroes? (They even
released a novel about their short-lived relationship.) Well, she's
coming back to the show next season, but reportedly only for one episode.
Glee's Jayma Mays will reprise her role as the Texas waitress with an enhanced memory when a dying Hiro takes a trip back in time to finish off his bucket list.
Fans will remember that Charlie met her end thanks to Sylar only a few eps after she first appeared on the show. Hiro tried to save her, but he was unable to change her fate. It's doubtful he'll be able to save her this time, since Mays is only slated to return for one episode, and the actress will be pretty busy this fall with her role on Fox's
Glee.
Continue reading Glee's Jayma Mays heading back to Heroes
Posted Jul 26th 2009 12:42AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Heroes, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Remember when
Heroes was about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities? Well, after the last few seasons of time travel, daddy issues and government interference,
Tim Kring and the team are taking Heroes back to basics. They'll have regular jobs an regular lives. In other words, they remembered why we liked the show in that first season, so they're trying to recapture lighting.
So you've got our cast trying to live regular lives after all the excitement they've been through. Add in a traveling carnival with an earth-moving leader luring other people with abilities into his troupe and you have the premise for at least the start of the season.
Oh, and that lesbian-esque relationship between Claire and her new college roommate we've been hearing about. Well, have to get buzz somehow, right? And make Claire interesting. Nothing else worked so let's try girl-on-girl action.
Continue reading Heroes returning characters to their "normal" lives
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 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 31st 2008 2:00PM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: Late Night, The Amazing Race, Video, Celebrities, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, The Big Bang Theory
Yes, I am the odd duck. Well, wait. Perhaps it's not all just me. I mean, I'm talking some really odd duck television crushes I have. Some are odd because other folks might not understand such a crush. Others are odd when considered in correlation with me, in particular. And some are odd just because I'm odd and so are they.
Of course, the duck in the image isn't so odd. I looked for an odd duck and kept thinking I didn't want my own image plastered here on the main page. So, we'll suffice with your basic common duck from New Jersey. He could be mob-related, so he could be a tad odd. Read on!
Continue reading Seven odd duck TV crushes - VIDEO
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 4th 2008 10:02AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Heroes, Casting, Reality-Free
Besides being renowned for his spoilers,
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is also know for his blind items. The gossip columnist has been toying with readers with his "you'll never guess who" type of gossip posts since his
TV Guide days. This week, Ausiello announced to the world that
one major TV star was about to get booted from his or her show and didn't know about it yet. Since this is one of Ausiello's blind items, he doesn't reveal just who may exit a popular TV series. However, he does leave clues for us to try and find out who he's talking about.
Why not join me in trying to find out which TV star is about to get axed and doesn't know it yet? The picture on the right gives you an idea of who I hope will get axed. However, she is not who I think Ausiello is really referring to...
Continue reading Which TV star is about to get axed and doesn't know it yet?
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