Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Movies and TV => Topic started by: Fellfrosch on September 21, 2007, 06:09:16 PM
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The new season starts on Monday, and I'm buzzing with anticipation. I have high hopes that we'll see some new characters, and I'm really interested to see what they do with the fallout from season one--now that all the characters have met, do they stay together? Do they correspond? And both Petrellis are in the commercials they've been showing, so all the people hoping Peter was dead and gone are apparently wrong.
They haven't shown Sylar in any of the commercials, though, thank goodness. I really, really hope there's a new villain this season.
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As in Sark (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm1044403/) from Alias!
*Nessa is all a-twitter
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I'm not a big reader of fan sites... Why did people want Peter dead? I loved Peter.
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Mustard? Mustard? Now don't let's be silly.
As for Nessa: Sark was cool in the first season of Alias, but in the second has been completely emasculated. Does he ever get cool again?
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As for Nessa: Sark was cool in the first season of Alias, but in the second has been completely emasculated. Does he ever get cool again?
Yes
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You have to be careful, though. Shows like Heroes have a TON of flashbacks. So just cause you see a character in the commercial doesn't necessarily mean they're alive.
(Please also note, I haven't seen the commercials yet, so no shouting at me if they are obviously alive for the next season) :-X
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The creators stated very clearly that Sylar would be a part of the second season. Now, as for what part he'll play, that's anyone's guess.
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I was pretty impressed with the episode last night, though a couple of the plotlines bugged me. Nathan as Whiskers McCrazy is kind of a neat turn-around from the upstanding political candidate, but we already had a whole season of him being an indecisive weakling, and I'm ready for something new. Hiro in the past is cool, especially with Sark as the gaijin samurai, and I love the line "I broke history!"
I was sad to not see Niki, though. She became my favorite character by the end of last season, because her arc was so satisfying. Now that she's strong, and in control, and has her family together, I'm interested to see where the show takes her.
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It's driving me crazy not to know Maya's powers! ARGGGHHHH!
Any guesses?
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I think she's the chupacabra. Sucks people's life from them. :) (Seriously, I was thinking this when I saw what happened to the people on the truck.)
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That's intriguing. I'll bet they mention the chupacabra at least once in relation to her.
My guess on Alejandro is that he's a power damper, so he negates Maya's power whenever he's around her. When he leaves, her power activates involuntarily and kills everyone in range. That's my guess anyway.
What's disappointing, though, is that the doofus in Claire's high school can fly--why bother coming up with awesome new powers for some of them, and then just doing another flying guy?
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Maybe he's actually an alien, and has all of Superman's powers.
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Um. I have no idea what chupacabra is.
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Hmmm, I like your thinking there Ookla. The kid could be a character similar to J'onn J'onez, the Martian Manhunter from Mars. It would be neat to see another character similar to Peter's who has multiple different abilities.
I like how they wrote Maya's character to think her powers are a curse from Satan and that God will help her become "better."
Also, did anyone else catch the fact that they mentioned some disease that's killing off these "special" persons?
My most disappointed moment: When George Takai was killed. Why did he have to be the first? WHY?!
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I wouldn't assume he's dead just because he fell off a roof and splatted on the pavement.
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Um. I have no idea what chupacabra is.
Chupacabras are a Big Foot or Lock Ness type creature since a lot of people think they exsist but there's not real evidence they do. Basically they're small dog (or alien creatures depending on who you ask) that suck blood out of cattle, the stories are based out of central America.
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It's still very hard for me to take George Takei seriously as the serious, traditional, conservative father figure since I learned he was gay.
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He's doing a very authentic authoritative Japanese business executive accent though, in both languages. I'm very happy with his acting in this series.
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Chupacabras are a Big Foot or Lock Ness type creature since a lot of people think they exsist but there's not real evidence they do. Basically they're small dog (or alien creatures depending on who you ask) that suck blood out of cattle, the stories are based out of central America.
I've seen stories where they're a goat, too.
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Well, they suck the blood from goats (chupa=suck cabras=goats). I suppose they could be cannibals. Here's a recent news story: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0902Chupacabra0902.html
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He's doing a very authentic authoritative Japanese business executive accent though, in both languages. I'm very happy with his acting in this series.
Oh, don't get me wrong. His acting is impeccable. I just keep seeing him at the Shatner roast though, where his accent was quite different.
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Chupacabras are the classic, and most common, "boggeyman" figure in Mexico. The name translates as "goatsucker," like Ookla said, and they're usually portrayed as a really feral or animalistic vampire, though they can be other things. When I lived in Mexico it was very common to see their former president Carlos Salinas portrayed as a chupacabra, because he was a vicious crook who bilked the country out of billions of dollars.
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Huzzah! Go metaphor!
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Last night's episode was pretty good, though I continue to be upset that they're repeating old superpowers (Kensei can regenerate) instead of coming up with new ones. And if Alejandro turns out to just be a healer, that may push me over the edge into futile, meaningless rage.
Thoughts:
Yay cute Irish chick! And boo the Irish accents--we've seen six Irish characters so far, and none of them have them same accent; half of them can't even match themselves from line to line.
Speaking of language, the Spanish is great. I've always thought one of the best parts of the show was its willingness to present entire scenes in foreign languages, but since I don't speak Japanese I had no idea how accurate it was. If the Spanish is any indication, the accents and dialogue are great. Alejandro said one word that I thought was kind of weird, but that might just be a Guatemalan thing for all I know--overall, the Spanish pleases me greatly.
Maya is one spooky lady. I can't wait to learn more about her power, and about Alejandro's--he's got a very "Green Mile" vibe going right now, and I don't mind replacing my "he negates powers" prediction with "he can absorb sickness and damage into himself," especially if that ends up biting him in the butt when he absorbs too much of it.
Creepy flying boy continues to irk me, mostly because all he does is annoy Claire and peep through her window. Also, I don't believe for a minute that Claire would just cut off her toe right there in the living room--she'd go to the bathroom, it would bleed like a mother, and then it would grow back. This was way too clean and painless.
I'm really liking the ongoing story with Suresh and Bennet (and, I assume, Parkman, though they haven't actually included him in it yet). Bringing back the Haitian was great, and when they faked us out with making it look like he ran off, I bought it completely; seeing him show up with Bennet at the end was great.
Whatever attacked Mrs. Petrelli in the police station is creepy. This show can do creepy very well when it wants to.
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I was very happy when Peter started gaining back his powers very quickly. As previously mentioned, I hate amnesia stories, so I hope it doesn't last long. And I also loved the end with Bennet and the Haitian.
Flying boy doesn't bug me as much, I'm just hoping that little story *goes* somewhere soon. And I'm sad to say that I'm totally not enjoying Hiro's story, because I love Hiro and want to care about what he's doing. But the whole ancient Japan thing... just not doing it for me.
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i love the ancient Japan thing. I constantly think about super powers (not magic) in a more medieval setting. I just wish Hiro would get the girl. He has the coolest lines (though I'm sad they're in Japanese so theres no point in recording a sound bite so my computer can say "Have you seen a scary white man." *sigh*
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The ancient Japan stuff is neat, but it doesn't have any of the urgency that we saw last season. For that matter, I think even the modern stuff needs to step up the urgency. Last season we had Isaac's prophecies and Hiro's vision of the nukes--that gave everyone an important deadline. So far this season everyone's just hanging out a bit. Stuff is happening, but there's no one really seems to have much drive.
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The Japanese is great...except I think the stuff back in time is in modern Japanese rather than the kind spoken at the time. I didn't hear any "de gozaru"s, and no one bats an eye when Hiro uses anglicisms. Also, the girl started talking like a giddy anime voice actress after Hiro did his thing. I don't know how issues like that are handled in current historical samurai dramas, so they may just be doing things the same way they're currently done in Japan.
I was annoyed that Hiro's dad seems to actually be dead.
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So far we have several major plots (along with some stupid ones like "Claire needs to fit into high school"), but there are a few that seem to be the driving forces behind the season:
1) Someone is killing Sulu and Mrs. Petrelli (and, I assume, the others in the company). Unfortunately, since these were all bad guys last season, I don't feel bad about them dying, so there's no sense of urgency.
2) There's a plague affecting the supers. But so far it's only affected 3, and the only one who died was 30 years ago, so again, no urgency. Compared to a nuke going off in New York, this plot problem is boring.
3) Bennet and Suresh are infiltrating the company. Yay, but too pro-active--they're not racing against time to solve a scary mystery, they're just being calm and methodical.
4) Someone scary as all crap is haunting Molly's dreams. This is the plot that's going to take us somewhere--this is season 2's nuke, so to speak, or at least it's the only thing we've seen so far that has the right potential. Sometime in the next two episodes we need to learn more about this guy, see the devastating effects of his power, and get a glimpse of mankind's horrible fate if he is not stopped.
Now, obviously there are more plots than this, but somehow I don't see "Hiro helps Kensei become legendary" or "Peter becomes an Irish gangster" turning into the main story that ties all the other threads together. It needs to be one of these four, or something new we haven't seen yet, but whatever it is we need to see it explode very soon. I think the main problem this season is actually not the plot but the mystery--the heroes are all too comfortable with their powers, with the obvious exception of Maya. Season one, regardless of nukes or Sylar or anything else, was primarily about "holy crap what's happening to me," and we don't really have that this season. I don't want to complain too much, because the plot seems more planned this season, and we're likely not going to have the long stretches of treading water while the writers tried to figure out what to do next. I just hope the urgency comes, and comes quickly.
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I'm liking this season so far.
I'm liking the Feudal Japan story-line and the story-line with the old gaurd heroes.
I also like that Nikki/Jessica hasn't made an appearance yet. She just annoys me.
I agree that Claire cutting off her toe in the living room was stupid. But Claire is turning into quite the little masochist.
Unlike Fell, I like that they are repeating super-powers. The premise of the show demands it. It doesn't make sense in their hyper-evolutionary psuedo-science for every person with the mutation to have a different power. A lot of people should have evolved similar, if not identical powers.
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i'm going to rein in the horses on Fell too. He's freaking out about repeats, but he counts Peter and Sylar as repeats too -- which means we have at least two of *every* power now. so uh.... too late -- it was at least a big in problem in season one too.
Anyway, also, the Peter becomes Irish Gangster -- hardly the plot there, my boy. Yeah, we may be tired of amnesia, but still, we have to ask, HOW did he end up in Dublin in an empty cargo container that was a) supposed to be full of iPods, and b) was clearly going to be found. We can only suppose that he was put there intentionally so someone would find him. It's not about the gangsters, that's just a ministop on the way.
You're also dropping out Maya. Come on, whenever she's left alone all kinds of people die!
And they're all linked, more tightly than they were in season one, especially by this point.
The someone scary as all crap haunting Molly's dreams is prompting her to make Kensei's kanji. The person who is killing off the company is using the kanji as a message/signature. And the source of the kanji needs help fulfilling his destiny. So uhm. Why is it you're ignoring two thirds (at least) of that whole complication?
My mind has been wrapped up in that -- not so much how Kensei is going to become the hero, that plot is old school and we already know how it's going to turn out, though it is by far the most "fun" of the plots so far, imo. but how he is linked to a) the company, an b) Molly.
Now, extrapolating to comic books. Until recently, no one knew how old Logan was. He could be centuries. Because his body heals itself -- including of old age symptoms. Could Kensei be the guy killing off the company? And is he doing it because he's a hero or because his destiny went all FUBAR and he's a villain? That would explain why they chose to end season 1 with Hiro going back in time. Him being a villain would also explain why he's tormenting Molly.
Or maybe Sylar's back and he's taken Kensei's brain and gunning for Maya and/or her hermano, which would make him just as dangerous as any nuke.
Finally, I like that it's less urgent. It's starting off subtle. That's good story telling too. Don't reveal the whole of the bad guy's plan at first.
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A note on the evolution aspect: at this point in the process, when the powers are generated by random mutation, it makes more sense that they're all different. After a few generations, when natural selection has had time to weed out the chaff, then it makes more sense for the powers to be more similar.
And I'm not discounting the other plot lines, I'm just saying that none of them has the urgency of "oh no, New York asploded."
As for the Godsend kanji being related to every plotline--yes, that's true, but it was also true last season and didn't mean anything. It may end up meaning something this season, but I'm reserving judgement on that.
I do think you might be on to something with the undying Kensei idea, though. It makes a ton of sense that he would still be around in the present, possibly as the assassin or the leader of the company or something else entirely. Good call.
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And it makes me wonder, given the Eight and given Kensei, if this has been happening far longer than anyone knew--but that for some reason it manifested for everyone of this generation at a particular time for a reason none of us know.
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A note on the evolution aspect: at this point in the process, when the powers are generated by random mutation, it makes more sense that they're all different. After a few generations, when natural selection has had time to weed out the chaff, then it makes more sense for the powers to be more similar.
But it's not random mutation. Random mutation goes Suresh's against whole plot line. The mutations are a step in the evolutionary porcess. Otherwise all the Petrelli's wouldn't be super-powered. Course, it is kind of lame that all the Petrelli's have different powers.
What I'm saying is I like the repeat of powers and what to see more of it. It allows us to see how different characters would use those powers. I like that the teenage flyboy uses his powers wantonly unlike Nathan who is far too reserved about his ability to fly. Repeating powers hads a level of depth to the story that was missing last season.
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As for the Godsend kanji being related to every plotline--yes, that's true, but it was also true last season and didn't mean anything. It may end up meaning something this season, but I'm reserving judgement on that.
I do think you might be on to something with the undying Kensei idea, though. It makes a ton of sense that he would still be around in the present, possibly as the assassin or the leader of the company or something else entirely. Good call.
The kanji is much more significant now though. I mean, it's the focus of Molly's dreams. If her plot means anything significant, it means the kanji is too. Plus it was made famous by Kensei. If he doesn't become the hero, the symbol loses meaning. I'm putting most of my eggs into that basket, myself.
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This article (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20158840,00.html) makes me hope Heroes comes through the writer's strike fairly unscathed.
Now I just want an apology from the writers of Lost.
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Well, this thread seemed to stop quite abruptly.
Well, something I wanted to bounce off of you all, was the powers of those in the Company. It was stated that the Company was formed so that those who are in the Company could use their powers to help the world. I was guessing that everyone in the Company had powers, but there hasn't been evidence of that with several of them, such as Hiro's father, the guy (I forgot his name) who Peter was taking care of in the beginning of season one, and the Patrelli's mother. I just wonder if they have powers that haven't been revealed yet, or what.
Also, the threat of the virus wiping out the entire planet sure gives this season a sense of urgency (there you go Fell!). Too bad it seems to have already started with Niki. So, what was the date that Peter jumped to in the future? I forgot already. Just wondering how long until that is supposed to happen.
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I just want to say...Masi Oka came to my workplace yesterday. I made eye contact with him twice (and live to tell about it).
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Well, something I wanted to bounce off of you all, was the powers of those in the Company. It was stated that the Company was formed so that those who are in the Company could use their powers to help the world. I was guessing that everyone in the Company had powers, but there hasn't been evidence of that with several of them, such as Hiro's father, the guy (I forgot his name) who Peter was taking care of in the beginning of season one, and the Patrelli's mother. I just wonder if they have powers that haven't been revealed yet, or what.
So, what was the date that Peter jumped to in the future? I forgot already. Just wondering how long until that is supposed to happen.
Angela Patrelli, and others of the Company, have alluded to having powers. The abilities of Kaito Nakamura and Charles Deveaux may never be revealed though, there is always a chance. Angela and some of the others still living may yet reveal their powers. We do know the powers of a few though, like Linderman's healing, Bob's ability to change things to gold, and Maury Parkman's ability so like his son's.
As for the time that Peter went to, it was about a year in the future, however, the virus had been released about ten or eleven months before that.
The heroes have their work cut out for them.
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I speculate that Peter started having those vision/dream things from hanging out with Charles Deveaux. Either that or he got it from his mother. Either way, one of the two had/has some sort of vision quest ability.
Someone I know has conjectured that Mrs. Petreli has an ability that is the opposite of the Haitian's. She can restore memory or help people remember what they've forgotten.
Just some ideas.
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I dont' think that would be Mrs. Petrelli's power. It doesn't make sense. In ep 7 (?) when she meets up with Peter she has to do a heck of a lot to get him to remember her. If it was her power, couldn't she just touch him and restore it all?
Maybe she just has a very weak power.
Speaking of powers though, the Hatian. I don't remember him having the ability to suppress powers during season 1. Am I forgetting something?
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The Hatian supressed Parkmen's powers all the time during season 1.
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ok, you're right. I was stupid.
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Okay, so after getting bored and skipping three episodes I've started watching this show again, and it's actually good now. Yay. Also, I seem to remember them establishing Deveaux's power pretty solidly in season 1 as being related to visions and such.
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Yeah, I was really worried at the beginning but they're pulling things together. I admit I'm of the opinion that the whole "Hiro goes back in time" plot wasn't worth Adam's backstory. The ancient Japan stuff just dragged. And I was hoping for some more interesting character development from Sylar, but he's still just a creepy psycho. He's good at it, but it's just the same thing as last season. I guess we'll see where it goes.
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Wikipedia quotes:
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Heroes creator Tim Kring commented on criticism of season two, and the series' 15% decline in the ratings. Kring said that he felt he had made mistakes with the direction of season two. He had thought that the audience was looking for a "build-up of characters and the discovery of their powers", similar to that of season one, when viewers were instead looking for "adrenaline."
Kring also outlined what he felt were problems with plot development, stating that the second season "took too long to get to the big-picture story", explaining that Peter's vision of the viral armageddon should have occurred in the first episode instead of the seventh. He feels that it would have been better to introduce new characters within the context of the main storyline, as with Elle, rather than in unattached arcs such as that of Maya and Alejandro. Kring also admitted that he should have resolved the "Hiro in Japan" storyline much more quickly, and that the romantic stories aren't working well. With regards to Claire and West, and Hiro and Yaeko, he said "I've seen more convincing romances on TV. In retrospect, I don't think romance is a natural fit for us."
At least he knows what was wrong with it...
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I have to admit, I agree with him on every point. I don't know that I was specifically looking for "adrenaline" in season two, but I would have much rather had further development of existing characters. We've seen them discover their own powers, and other people like them, so now I want to watch them DO stuff with it. Which probably would have involved more action, so sure, I guess adrenaline.
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I admit I'm of the opinion that the whole "Hiro goes back in time" plot wasn't worth Adam's backstory. The ancient Japan stuff just dragged.
I agree with you for the most part. However, I think that the purpose for going back was two fold; first, Adams back story, second, to show that Hiro was actually the hero he had idolized as a child.
And I was hoping for some more interesting character development from Sylar, but he's still just a creepy psycho. He's good at it, but it's just the same thing as last season. I guess we'll see where it goes.
Just an interesting side note, Zachary Quinto, Sylar, will be playing Spock on the next Star Trek movie, currently in the works.
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Maybe he's actually an alien, and has all of Superman's powers.
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I find this quite likely
Sylar... er... QUinto, will make an excellent Spock, I thinks.