Heroes, Ep 4: The Kindness of Strangers

Okay, any minute now this show will become a little more interesting. Everyone dumped on the beginning of season 3 of Lost saying they hated it, it was boring, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with the show, and they were jumping ship to the far superior Heroes. I argued that you can't compare one show's first season to another's third, because the first season of a show is always the one that pulls us in; it's sustaining it that is the hard part. I said it'll be interesting to see if Heroes is still this good in its season 3. Now I'm reading everywhere that people are sick of Heroes and jumping ship and complaining that they wish Lost was on because it's the better show. Ah, the fickle fan. I'm still hanging in there... I have faith it's going to get better, because of that stellar first season (minus the finale). (And, just for the record, I really liked all of Lost's season 3...)

I finally got around to reading the EW cover story from a few weeks back (the issue that had Hiro on the cover) because I didn't want to see any spoilers. In it, Tim Kring actually says that he thought most people didn't like the finale last year because they clearly couldn't follow one long complicated arc over the season (so this season will be divided into two), and because the show had done so many great things in the year it put FAR too much pressure on the finale to live up to the season. So, he concluded, they learned their lesson. So... does that mean this year will be kinda sucky so we don't have any great expectations of the finale? Not the way to go there, Tim. The other thing I'm curious about is Bryan Fuller. Watching last week's Pushing Daisies again, I saw his name on it and realized he was one of the head writers on Heroes last year, so by leaving the show to go to this one, does that mean their creative force has left? Because Pushing Daisies ROCKS, and Heroes... does not.

Maya and Alejandro: So... I've been championing the Wonder Twins as the ones I'm most interested in simply because they're new, but... um... did anyone else feel like this week they'd suddenly turned into Nikki and Paulo? They're harboring a very dark secret; they're on the run from the law; they've committed murder; they're trying to get into the U.S. illegally... and with ALL of that going on, Maya goes and spills absolutely everything to Sylar moments after finding him on the side of the road. HUH? How stupid IS she? It'll be interesting to see if Sylar is able to eventually absorb both of their powers, thus allowing him to go black-eyed and plaguey, but able to control it with Alejandro's powers. I'm still curious to see what Alejandro's absorption of her black-eyedness is actually doing to him.

Monica: Whoa. Her power is... seeing something on TV and replicating it. Like no 12-year-old has ever seen a body slam on WWE and done it to his brother. (I once worked with someone who told me her son watched a wrestling move on TV and then did it to his brother, and she took the TV, unplugged it, and put it out by the curb for garbage pickup and they never had a TV in the house again. Um... yikes?) While I thought the spin around the pole and kicking the bad guy was pretty badass, let's hope she's not watching any creepy porn any time soon. Did I miss something, or did the manager seem way off-base in telling her that her "home situation" meant she couldn't get a different job, since she lives with her brother and guardian? Um... isn't that EVERY teenager?? I could see if the rude kid at her house was actually her SON that her home life would be taken into account.

Claire: Goes to the top of the Hollywood sign so she and West can chit chat and he can dare her to jump off, saying she has to lose her fears. Which makes perfect sense, since if HE jumped, he wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of bones sticking through his skin afterwards. He seems to realize that and Claire, showing she'll do anything for Loverboy, jumps, but he catches her and they float up in the air. Bah. I hate that guy. That said, Claire comes up with a pretty brilliant plan to get onto the cheerleading squad, arguing with her dad that she wants to be "normal." Because, as we know, the majority of girls in high school were cheerleaders.

Matt: Ooh, Daddy is the Bogeyman!! I didn't see THAT coming. I'm intrigued. Very intrigued. Since this season is called Generations, I wish they'd actually move to that theme, looking at the ancestors of each of the current-day heroes and dealing with those. I thought we'd go back in time and see Linderman discovering his powers and Granny Petrelli, etc. but instead they're just being offed one by one and that seems to be it (and Takezo Kensei seems to be some sort of ancestor of Claire's, and therefore Nathan's and Granny's, if his powers being the same as hers is any indication). How is Matt going to help Molly now that she seems to be lost in her own head? Does he have to kill his own daddy in order to bring her back?

Nathan: After trying to reconnect with his sons and being sent away, he shaves, and then goes to meet with his mom and she actually seems to have a heart for the first time ever. I want to see more of this storyline. I loved the scene of her talking in Matt's head.

Micah: Sorry, but the kid who plays Micah just has NO charisma for me. His character annoyed me last season, and now he's the little polite kid with the curly hair who's so meek and sweet you just want to hit him. That said, I wanted to slap his cousin into tomorrow, too, so it looks like that family is one of extremes. Either meek as hell or rude as hell.

Absent: Niki (THANK YOU!), Peter and his Irishmen, Hiro, Ando

Next week: Kristen Bell arrives. YAY, VERONICA!!!

Other Heroes news: Here's an interesting interview with Zachary Quinto in TV Guide. Here's Matt Roush complaining about this season of Heroes. Interview with Jack Coleman. EW pleads with viewers not to give up on Heroes. And finally, George comics: