Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Heroes: Fight or Flight
Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to posting this. While I don't think Kristen Bell has saved Heroes, I think last night's episode was by far the best of the season. I was so happy to enjoy so much of it. There has been FAR too much exposition and lead-up in recent episodes, and finally there's intrigue and some revelations.

Not to mention... ding dong, the leprechaun's dead! RIP, boyo.

Elle: We don't know too much about her... she might be Bob's daughter, or the daughter of someone else, but she's someone's daughter. She shoots electricity from her fingertips (OOH, never seen THAT power before!) Ahem. Looking forward to more Veronica coolness in upcoming eps.

Peter: He knows his name but is upset that his little box doesn't reveal much more, until he goes all white-eyed and begins painting. It was great to have the throwback to Isaac from last season, and to get a hint of things to come, even if it's not clear what's up. I don't see the chemistry between him and the Oirish girl, though, so that's a little much. Apparently Montreal is in his future. Go, Canada!

Hiro/Ando: Interesting that Ando takes the strips to a forensics person to try to read them more easily, but will that give anything away? (I thought the forensics guy was hilarious... "Does Hiro survive?!" "How would I know?" haha!) Hiro is more and more in love with the girl, but if there's one person who will set aside his own needs for the greater good, it's Hiro. Can he do this? And how exactly will they take on such a giant army?

Monica: So it's not just TV, but she can copycat anything. Think of the possibilities of this one! She didn't really intrigue me last week, but this week she was more interesting. She can be a pro wrestler, or Glenn Gould. Though killer piano skills probably won't help her much in the next Kirby Plaza showdown...

Micah: Dull, dull, dull. He says to Monica that she must miss her mother, who is dead, and then says "I miss my mom, too." Um... what about your DAD, who is dead? I realize DL hasn't really been in Micah's life lately, but you'd think the kid would miss him just a wee bit and be a little down about it, but he acts like it never happened. Weird.

Matt: After a domestic dispute with his new live-in partner, Mohinder, he heads off to find the Bogeyman, a.k.a. Daddio. This was definitely the best part of the episode, as he hooks up with Nathan (who looks like hell) to go to Dad's place, only to find out he's as much of a swindler now as he ever was. He's not a mindreader: he's Freddy Kreuger, apparently. He puts Nathan and Matt into their own worst nightmares, and then walks away, leaving them there (did anyone else notice when Matt pushes Nathan off him, he clocks Adrian Pasdar's face onto the door frame? OUCH.) It looks like Janice was actually the woman who gave birth to the 17-pound baby in Siberia, and they named it Gigantor (did you SEE the massive arm on that kid??) It sounds like Janice had the child, told Matt it wasn't his, but he knew deep down it was, and left her anyway. (She must have told him this before the baby was born; isn't all of this supposed to be just 4 months later? Janice wasn't even showing at the end of last season.)

Nathan: As I was told last week by an anonymous commenter on my blog, the burn victim is indeed Nathan, and he seems to be dogging him. It's like burn victim Nathan is an alternate universe Nathan, and in his nightmare, NY was blown up. Loved that scene. Nathan has a serious dark side.

Bob: Gonna die.

Niki/Jessica: Looks like The Company is running tests to bring Jessica out, but they can't corral her when she does.

Moronder: Takes Molly to The Company, knowing they're the bad guys. Great. Nice one. How could such a hot guy be so braindead? (Don't answer that.) And now he's on Monica's doorstep. Great.

Quick reminder about the Finding Lost book contest. Send in your entries now! I forgot to mention that I won't be collecting addresses for anything, so don't worry about that. I'll delete emails when the contest is over. Looking forward to reading more entries!

15 comments:

Brian Douglas said...

Heroes might not be as good as it was in Season 1, but it's still my favorate show currently on air (although with Veronica Mars cancelled and both Battlestar Galactica and Lost are on hiatus, that's not saying as much as it used to.

Elle: She's most likely Bob's daughter, which means she's probably isn't. Also, I called it on the electricity.

Peter: Did anyone else find the painting anti-climatic? What did it turn out to be? Sylar killing Clair? An exploding man? No, it's...two people standing outside a building.

Hiro/Ando: I have a feeling that the swordsmith's daughter is supposed to die, which is why Hiro wanted to get him to safety.

Monica: I have a question. Even if you copied the abilities of the basketball player, would she still be able dunk? I mean, the guy's got a foot of height on her, no?

Micah: I wanted to slap him upsdie the head when I saw that crease in the comic book, or did he do this one when he was still alive? Speaking of which, who's doing 9th Wonders now that Issac is dead? Could that copycat character be Monica in the future?

Also, are his powers and Monica's somehow related? There kind of similar, but different, no? Wonder if Uhura has a similar power as well?

Matt: I wouldn't discount everything Daddy had to say to Matt as lies. I think his poewr did start with reading minds and developed into full telepathy, which allows him to create dreams (and see when Molly is using her mojo on him). I'm not convinced he's the Big Bad yet. It certainly looks that way though, and his power could explain both the attacks on Hiro's father and Angella Petrelli. Still possible that he might be a red herring though.

Oh, and Matt and Mohinder have the gayest relationship I've ever seen on TV. Either give them some new love interests or have the come out of the closet already.

Giant baby was part of Matt's nightmare, so the actually baby could be normal sized.

Nathan: The first burn victim shown was Peter, the second one was Nathan. We see both here (although Peter vanishes shortly). So was Nathan burned by the blast, and Peter healed him using Clair's power in a new way? If Clair heal others, maybe she'll save Noah from "flyboy."

Btw, if powers are genetic, maybe Linderman is Nathan's daddy (and thus Clair's grandfather). This could also mean "flyboy" is Nathan's illegitimate son, which almost makes him even creepier.

On a related note, can Angella fly like Nathan? Could she be the one who attacked Hiro's dad? Did we see the attacker fall with him or on the ground, or was s/he gone by this point?

Bob: Bob is most likely going to die. Supporting characters don't have a long life expectancy on this show (or even main characters for that matter).

Niki/Jessica: Nothing really new say here.

Mohinder: I never met a scientist that thought so much with his heart over his head.

Brian Douglas said...

Actually, I want to see Matt or Mohinder try to pick up a girl. "I sort of live with this other guy and are raising a daughter with him, but were not gay at all." This could explain the divorse come to think of it.

Anonymous said...

Was it me, or was Peter's painting of Notre Dame and NOT Canada? It definitely looked like Notre Dame. You could almost see Quasimodo swinging from the bell towers, no?
Also, Kristen Bell for the win. She made the episode better, in my eyes. And at least we know who the nightmare man is now, for sure. Didnt see that coming. Matt's dad definitely did a turn when he went from very caring to "Haha, you're in a closet now"

Anonymous said...

Kristen Bell proves just how weak the acting is with the rest of the cast. She is much more believable. And while I hold a great deal of my Veronica Mars bias, she still makes everyone else in the episode look poor (except for Grunberg). I don't think she is Bob's kid. She is someone else's kid in that photo.

It was the Notre Dame in Montreal. I am now more curious as what superpower Canada has?

Riddle me this, we have repeat superpowers from generation to generation - does that mean they get stronger with each kid? If so, what was mama Nathan's power?

Definitely, a step in the right direction but seriously I still feel like if I missed an episode that I wouldn't miss anything. (Ala episodes of Young and the Restless, yes, that's right I said it)

Anonymous said...

What do you think the chances are that Sylar and Parkman are brothers?

It's funny that you enjoyed Kristen. I was just 'heh' and really only enjoyed the Ando part and the fight between Nathan and Parkman. Most of my friends are talking about how terrible Ms. Bell was on the episode - and how far Heroes has fallen (I was right about the season two slump thing). I wonder if my daughter will watch Heroes now - she wouldn't watch VM because of Kristen Bell.

Did you get a chance to watch Pushing Daisies last night. There was a part just before quarter to the hour that I had to stay up and watch again on the west coast feed. It was that awesome.

leor said...

one thing i noticed in the episode was that when daddy parkman left the apartment with nathan and matt in their nightmares, his posture and walk looked just like the hooded person who pushed hiro's father over the roof...

leor

Anonymous said...

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/james-hibberd/2007/10/abc_picks_up_pushing_daisies.php

Daises gets pushed for a full season... whooop whooop

Anonymous said...

I used to work about a block away from the corner in Montreal that was in Ross' -- I mean Peter's painting. And if my memory serves me, he'll be leaning up against a souvenir shop full of tacky shirts, looking down towards an all-year Christmas store.

Oooh... Of course, he's only a couple of blocks away from the world's best sandwich shop and only a handful of clogged arteries away from some of the best frites and steamies in town...

Oh, how I miss Montreal. I may shed a tear when he lands at Dorval/Trudeau. *snif*

Anonymous said...

Oh, quick question, dear beautiful and knowledgeable television scribe...

Nathan's power is just flying, right?

Parkman's looking a little more Chip-a-Hoy than Chippendale (Mr. Menard, the kettle's calling...)

So, that said, if Nathan's got to carry Matt from New York to Philly while flying, I figure his arms would give out about... oh... the Statue of Liberty.

No super strength, just flying. So how the hell does Mr. Dixie Chick, this overgrown budgie, carry Parkman all the way to Philly?????

Your thoughts?

Unknown said...

sorry for the off topic comment but I wanted to coment on a previous blog post of yours that I have a question about.
Being the hardcore Lost fan that you are how can you root for the survival of the cbs show cane. cbs has forbid Nestor Carbonell from reprising his role as Richard Alpert in season 4. They won't even let him do a quick guest spot to explain him away. If cbs would give more leway towards his lost role I would be watching cane every week because I think it is a well made show. However with only 48 episodes left of lost I don't want anything no matter how trivial impeading the vision Cuse and Lindelof have for lost.

Nikki Stafford said...

Brian: Actually, someone posted on my Heroes blog last week to correct me that the first burn victim was actually Nathan, so I went back to the episode and they were absolutely right -- it's always been Nathan, and never Peter. On Lost, Claire's baby is a giant, too, so I think TV execs have something for massive infants.

Sarah: I'm curious about Granny Petrelli's power, too... I wish we'd see it soon.

Colleen: Haven't seen Pushing Daisies yet, but can't wait to!! And while I LOVE Kristen Bell, she didn't blow me away in this episode. I hope next week she's better.

Jay: HAHAHA! I thought exactly the same thing! Methinks he didn't actually fly them there. Matt makes the suggestion and Nathan shoots back, "I'm not a cargo plane" so I think he's saying there's no way I'm going to lug your large body around with me.

doyousmellcarrots: Blog post coming soon on how I've given up on Cane, but if Nestor Carbonell takes a role and knows what he's getting into, it's HIM you should be pissed with, not CBS. It's normal to not want your person to jump networks if they commit to your show, and it's Nestor's fault. Don't worry; Cane will probably be cancelled before Lost starts up again. :)

Anonymous said...

It was better than the last two weeks, but still not the best of the season and even if it were, it wouldn't be saying much. I'm not sure why I think this, but the position of best episode still belongs to "Lizards"

Anyway, I thought some things were interesting, like what Niki feels about The Company and the importance of Montreal, and they brought in a few new ideas, but nothing in the episode really held any importance, it was all just a new look on things we already knew.

Overall, it was pretty mediocre. The "fight" between Parkman and Nathan was alright, but only in the way it "revealed" what Daddy Parkman's power was; the fight itself, and what they saw in their "dreams" could've been executed better. However, they did catch my interest in Nathan's "bad" side with the conversation the two had in the "dream," and I hope they handle that well in the coming episodes. Kristen Bell was a disappointment and you can tell she isn't used to being the star. Hopefully, her acting will improve as she gets situated in the role, but I don't mind as long as the story is interesting. Her whole character was kind of an anticlimax to the hype they've been bringing, and her power is far from "shocking," but I do like that she's a loose cannon and I enjoy seeing someone with a power that isn't constantly saying "OMFG WUT'S HAPPENIN TO ME?!"

Ando's story was boring. Hiro's story still has non-existent dramatic tension (Seriously, does he keep on forgetting that he can just stop time and walk right through the army? He's invincible and doesn't seem to know it). Peter's story is still the most interesting, and I like the way it's going, but this Monica story is just bad and needs to be stopped.

The best story-line in the episode were the events surrounding The Company and the worst was the Monica/Micah lovefest.

Micah saying "How about something rad? Like a kickflip!", the "Jumprope" scene and the fact that Hiro is staying in "Feudal Japan" because he's "in love" makes me want to gag on the vomit caused by each of these scenes. Honestly, the cheesiness of the lines really ruins the visually entertaining scenes.

PREDICTION : ELLE IS BOBBY'S SON

I know I said this before, but even the viewers are starting to forget that Hiro can stop time. Come on Nikki, you know it shouldn't be any trouble for Hiro to fight the army.

Anonymous said...

Oh and I really, really miss LOST and I just ordered your new book!

Brian Douglas said...

Nikki: Really? I was certain the first one was Peter, but since I lack the technology to go back and watch that episode again (I'm still using a VCR!), I'll have to take the word for it.

Anonymous said...

Why does Niki matter? Seriously? Her power is stupid. She adds nothing to the story. I hope this is one of the characters that gets axed this season