“Heroes” - Lizards
Why is it that I enjoy watching this show, but, with one or two notable exceptions, never feel like I enjoyed it a few hours later? It’s completely entertaining and engaging, yet seems to never leave its audience fulfilled. Even the cliffhangers, which inexplicably tell us that the story is “to be continued” when we already assume that, don’t seem to make me want to watch next week’s installment immediately, the way that LOST or 24 in their primes did. I think this all comes down to story structure. More after the jump…
Heroes is really built more as a whole season-long story that’s split into hours, instead of individual episodes coming together to make a season. I’m not sure if that’s particularly clear. I think what I’m trying to say is that because of the enormous amount of plotlines going on at once, there are very few stories each week that actually have full arcs, with a beginning, middle and end. Even when there are a few, they really doesn’t have as much of an emotional resonance, because maybe they haven’t shown any of this story in about a half hour or so (they went at least a half hour this week without cutting back to the Parkman story, which I even forgot was going on). If you think back to last season, the two best episodes, “Company Man” and “Five Years Gone” were the ones that stick out, and worked individually because they told one story, and each one had a whole arc.
This episode could really only be described as trying to move each plot to a new moment; the moment when Mrs. Petrelli got attacked, or when Hiro found out that Kensei had a duplicate of Claire’s power, or the introduction of Peter’s box, or Claire being stalked while cutting off her toe. I guess you could say that Mohinder’s plot or Claire’s story for the week had complete arcs, but again, Mohinder’s seemed to just be an excuse to get the Haitian back in the picture, and I really don’t care about whether Claire can regenerate a toe. While I’m on it, having her car stolen had no practical purpose at all, unless it was being used to start that conversation with her dad at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Staples”, in which case it was way too forced and stupid.
They continued to show the Central Americans (I forget which country they’re from already, Honduras?) making their way to the U.S. I hope these people are really important, because, like the Sanderses last year, they really don’t seem to have any discernible purpose at the moment.
They added two more storylines for characters that we saw last week, bringing that total to eleven or so. HRG is going to be taking time off from working and bringing down the company to get out his fedora and bullwhip to search for the 7 lost scrolls of Isaac. I’m not sure why a California-based newspaper would put a murder in New York on its front page; that just seems kinda silly. Also new, Parkman, in addition to caring for Molly, conveniently got put on the Nakamura murder case, and somehow doesn’t remember Ando, and barely knows Nathan. You’d think that after all that stuff went down at the end of last season, they’d all make up some sort of roster or something.
In any case, it just seems like there’s way too much plot going on at once to really give any meaning and heart to any of the stories, no matter how much they try to philosophize about God and evolution and testing. Somehow, though, it’s still likeable enough for me to watch every week, even with no real emotional investment in the characters.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Claire cutting off her toe was the coolest thing that happened all episode.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I don’t know.. it seems to me that when Peter acctually used his powers to save the girl, instead of just standing their and complaining about it was one of the best Peter moments ever… except for future Peter of course.