“Heroes” — Truth and Consequences
Mmmmmmmmm…
My apologies for missing my last post. I’ve been incredibly pre-occupied with the holiday and some other things as of late. The Heroes episode from over a week ago probably ranked as the best of the season, even though that isn’t saying too much. The stories were focused, the acting was great for the most part, the plot moved ahead, and the dialogue was actually pretty good, instead of the usual cliché-ridden stuff they’ve thrown out this year. What made it stand above all the rest though was that it actually had a deeper theme running through it, how the actions of the parents affect the lives of their children. The comparisons and contrasts between the relationships of Noah/Claire and Bob/Elle were the strongest points of the episode. Parkman starting down the dark road to becoming like his dad and Hiro’s story with his father also played on this theme and had something to say about it, without having to unnaturally go into philosophical debate like the scene earlier this year with Noah and Claire at the office supply store. There was finally some real emotional and dramatic build-up and payoff with the characters, and even though you could probably guess where the whole thing was going, it was very easy to actually get wrapped up in it. More after the jump…
This week on the other hand, they focused mostly on the stories that fell by the wayside last week. What they failed to realize was that the other reason last week’s effort was so good was that all the fluff that hasn’t amounted to anything at all this season wasn’t included. It was so focused because we weren’t dealing with Maya and Sylar’s “love†story, or the New Orleans stuff.
This week’s episode went back to being completely “meh†just like most of the first half of the season. At a point where they should be building to a big climax for next week’s abbreviated season “finale†(read: half-season ender that had to be re-written and shot due to the writers’ strike), the plot should really have a good idea where it’s going, and all extraneous plot should be eliminated. There was ABSOLUTELY no reason that our time had to be wasted with the terrible storyline about Monica robbing comic books from a bunch of street thugs who don’t have anything better to do than steal mostly-worthless things from some little kid. This sort of thing takes away any sort of momentum that’s driving the main story, and the time could’ve been better spent having something about Parkman tracking down the same woman that Peter and Kensei were looking for, which would’ve given that story a little bit more tension. And what was the point of stunt casting Uhura as the grandmother if she isn’t even going to get a single line.
Speaking of tension, I can’t really point my finger on the cause, but I couldn’t believe how run-of-the-mill the death of Alejandro was. For someone who was supposed to be a new main character, it really wasn’t made out to be that big of a deal at all. When it was over, I didn’t say “wow, that was coolâ€, or “wow, that was well-doneâ€. There wasn’t even any relief that the character was finally gone. It was complete indifference, and when that happens, you know someone’s somewhere along the line is not doing his job correctly.
In the battle of who gets the worst lines between Micah and Claire, I think Claire got the win last night, with all of her heavy-handed grieving. I called the direction of the “nothing hurts more than this†speech after the first three words. Why specifically can’t her family go to the police to tell them about the murder or ask for some sort of official death notification? They never even saw the body; they just assumed that this company that has lied to them from the beginning is telling the truth when Bob hands them an urn of ashes? That’s not suspicious at all?
The stuff with Peter and Kensei was mostly fine, but there probably could’ve been a little more done to develop their relationship. And how, by the way, did they find out where that woman lived, hidden back in the woods somewhere? They just showed up at her door demanding the location of the virus. And why would someone who hasn’t worked for them in like twenty years know where they were holding the virus now? All of these plot holes and logic flaws just take away from something that could be so much better. There’s so much potential for this show, but the story people need to get their act together when the writers’ strike ends.
NBC is promising us that two people will die next week. Let’s hope they can make these deaths actually memorable, and that by paring down the number of characters they have, they can give the story some sort of focus for the next big arc.
