“Heroes” — Five Years Gone
Okay, I’ve made it very well known that I am not a Heroes die-hard and that nine times out of ten when matching Heroes against just about anything else that I watch regularly I’d probably chose the unknown latter… but last night’s episode was f—ing awesome. It was so awesome I’m contemplating never watching the show again.
The episode did exactly what you want from televised narrative entertainment: in 20 short weeks it took a character like Peter Petrelli, the world’s biggest pansy/whiner and transformed him into the ultimate badass. The end sequence with future Hiro and Peter storming the homeland security building was right out of the first Matrix and yet better. Perhaps its because we never really see anything — only flashes of what might have just happened. Heroes does a terrific job at misdirection. You’d think a show about people with super powers would be chalk full of special effects, but if you watch closely we rarely see the goods. You know what that’s called? Filmmaking.
Now, the awesomeness of “Five Years Gone” was largely due to the episode taking place five years in the future — a future that we likely will not see again assuming Hiro does, in fact, save the day. This is why I may jump ship on the show. What we saw in the episode, complete with its X-Men themes on hunting down those who are different, almost came off as something of a tease. I mean, is this show really capable of delivering that week in and week out. The track record suggests the answer is no, so why not go out on top.
The problem is that Future Heroes is far more interesting to watch than Regular Heroes, in that it makes the show actually about something on a bigger scale. Suddenly the series could be as much about the war on terror as it is on saving the damn cheerleader. There’s HRG and his underground railroad. There’s Parkman working for the man. And there’s The Man who may or may not always be Sylar. Most importantly though, there’s politics, which have always had a significance in the comic-book world. It would be an absolute shame if we never go back here, but HERE is really really good.
Arrrgh! I guess I’m locked in for the rest of the season. You have to see if the day is in fact saved, though right now I’ll be rooting for evil. Evil promises the best future for television drama.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:43 am
My prediction is that Hiro does save SOMETHING by killing Sylar, but that it’s not enough because Peter still blows up, which means Nathan will actually have to be in charge and MAYBE he handles it differently than Sylar, who I think was POTUS the whole time.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 am
Yeah.. I think the future will be different.. but there is still the possibility that NYC might blow up. (God I hope so)
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:21 am
Adam, after that comment you are so on a List.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
eep!