(S02E11) When Kristin offered up the chance to review the Fall (Season?) Finale of Heroes, I couldn't resist stepping in to help. While this episode lived up to a lot of the promises of the season, much like last season's finale, it may have been a little lighter on the action than you'd want. There are a lot of big changes for a lot of the characters and yes, the promised "hero" death. We get resolutions on the virus plot, the Sylar/Mya journey, Hiro's quest to stop Adam, the Bennet situation, and in the end, there's enough to entice us to come back for more. It's all here and let me tell you, if Kristin was yawning and checking her watch through the last episode, there wasn't time this week. This episode is absolutely jam-packed from start to finish. "Volume Two" wraps, and as with last year we get a teaser of Volume Three. But we'll get to all of that after the jump.
(S02E09) "You've gone native. Are you kidding me?" Noah Bennet to Mohinder Suresh.
Just when you thought Mohinder couldn't get any stupider, he goes and shoots Noah Bennet in the eye. He is really in too deep with this company. And lately, he is making Matt Parkman look like a genius. (Wait, did Parkman just make me say that? Dumb joke, I know.) More on this after the jump because it basically took up the whole episode.
But before I go through all the storylines for this week, let me just say that I was so relieved that those ridiculous mascara-plague twins were absent from this week's Heroes. And just so I don't get too excited about it, I put a picture of them in the post to remind me that they are still on the show. (However, they are the vehicle to get the devilish Sylar back in the states so I suppose I forgive them on some level.)
To boldly go where other Star Trek actors have gone before: Heroes! A few days ago, TrekMovie.com revealed that Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the original Star Trek series, was cast in a recurring role on NBC's hit show Heroes. The actress joins George Takei, Sulu from the original Trek, and Dominic Keating, Malcolm Reed from Enterprise, who are already on Heroes' pay roll (Keating was cast in a recurring role earlier this summer). To add to the Star Trek-Heroes links, Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar, was cast as Spock in the upcoming movie. Slight spoilers after the jump!
While there are still a couple of panels left to go, things are definitely winding down at the Comic-Con. Stormtroopers are starting to smell a little rank, and the Junior Justice League isn't looking nearly as plucky. As the dust settles and the marketing teams rest their weary heads, what news items are we left with from Ye Old Comic-Con?
The best TV-related news items, in no particular order, follow:
Alright, kids. The Paramount panel. This is what Comic-Con is all about - big, marketing juggernauts produced by massive corporations. I'm sure a handful of indie comic producers turn in their graves at the thought of what Comic-Con has become, but you can't deny that it's all about the passion. There's something beautiful and deeply sincere about true fans connecting with the creators of their obsessions. The love of good storytelling and making life more bearable through sharing in an aesthetic experience can't be besmirched by even the crassest of capitalist gestures, and there's free stuff. Nothing wrong with that.
The Paramount panel was loaded with tidbits - mostly for the film, not TV, buff. (You can check out TV Squad and Cinematical scribe Kevin Kelly's live blog from this afternoon's event here.) However, some of our TV friends have made the jump to the big screen - SNL's Andy Samberg, Alias and Lostcreator J.J. Abrams and Heroes' Zachary Quinto.
When it comes to television, Comic-Con is one enormous marketing machine for early adopting fanboys and girls. Each panel is constructed around dropping one or two spoilerific bon mots to the core fanbase so let's not waste any time and just cut to the chase. I'll follow-up with full panel reports, but in the meantime, here's the big news from Comic-Con this Thursday, July 26th. (WARNING: Potential spoilers for all things pop culture and most things J.J. Abrams-related ahead.)
It's tough being Tori Spelling. She's spent better than a decade living under the spotlight and having every mistake magnified. Granted, she brought a lot of it on herself, but I think she has probably taken more than her fair share. It's just so easy. But given all that, I think she gains a lot of points for being able to make fun of herself, because when you get right down to it, that's what so noTORIous is all about. Laughing at the absurdity that is her life.
I think that those years of bad press and bad jokes may have been the biggest problem that this show had. One that it faced before they ever shot a scene, and one that they were never really able to overcome. A lot of people simply dismissed the show for no other reason than it was starring Tori Spelling as herself. And that's too bad, because I'm here to tell you that they made a pretty funny sit-com.