Heroes: Orientation: Jump, Push, Fall

Well the fall season has official started for me with three of my favorite shows starting on the same night.  In fact in order to watch them all I had to record one of them on another TV.

Of the three I suppose Heroes was the biggest question, though I have enjoyed it all along. Which leads me to my first point, I am going to attempt to avoid reading negative reviews this season because it seems to me that a large number of them are giving it negative reviews not because of what the show is but because of what they want it to be, as well as simply complaining because that is what they they think they are supposed to do.

This first episode of Heroes seemed very promising to me. I like the fact that i am not certain if the people in the Carnival are good or bad.  One of the things that do enjoy about heroes is how much of the hero and villain aspect of the show is a matter of perspective. Groups like the company and even Danko are trying to do what they think is right most of the time.

i also thought that they used Zachary Quento very well in this episode. Angela’s dreams were creepy with Sylar doing the lines that Nathan did a moment later, but having him also play the voice of Matt breaking down was good. The question is of course whether it really is Sylar or if Matt is just losing his mind, and either way it could be interesting.

One of the major things the first season had that the others have missed was the guesses about powers. From trying to figure out what it was Peter could do to the guesswork about the visions and the possibility of changing them, I hope that we can experience that again with new characters as we try to decide what it is that they can do. For example I have seen Samuel do two things that feel very different, moving the dirt of a grave and creating odd tattoos. This leads to the question of whether he has more than one power or if it is a single power that the two connect and what it is.

So far I am very excited about heroes and looking forward to Chuck as well.

Internal Consistency– the unbreakable rule in science fiction and fantasy

I like to find my way around rules and ideas in storytelling and I enjoy it when others do so as well. Often what we call rules are little more than ideas that usually work, but there are a set of rules that you must be very aware of and never break. This are the internal rules of the story that you set up.
This is of course extra important when you are dealing with science fiction and fantasy that have internal rules that often break the rules of the world as we know it, but they aren’t the only one. You can’t write a romance set in the 18th century and then have one of the characters call for help on a cell phone.
An example of a movie that fails to do this as well as it should is “Next”. The main character can see two minutes into the future, except when it is directly connected to a specific woman then he can see farther. As the movie goes on though this rule are more and more ignored. The writers were aware of it of course and attempted to write around it but at least for me they weren’t successful.
Perhaps the most frustrating of internal consistency being tossed out the window is in the end of movies where the heroes have been trying unsuccessfully to stop a plot then at the end something often not as interesting as the first works because it is time for the movie to be over. You knew how long the movie needed to be when you started, why not set up the ending?
For science fiction we run into the collective amnesia syndrome when it comes to technology. Some technology, superpower, or other element is on the show. Perhaps a time machine, or a character who can heal people with her blood, but everyone seems to conveniently forget that when the time comes. They have the time show episode and then no one bothers suggesting that perhaps the solution to the problem this week might be using the time machine from last week, and while I understand you can’t expect the writers to always see this, and you wouldn’t want them to fall back on the same technology to solve every solution why not simply explain why it doesn’t work rather than simply pretending it doesn’t exist?
In the end most of the time people will accept any stretch of logic so long as it is written into the basic premise of the show, but nothing will turn of readers and viewers of a show faster than the writers ignoring the rules that they set up, so while the rules of writing can be ignored, the rules of your writing can’t.

The Saturn Awards

It’s still a little sad to me that Science Fiction Films are so ignored by the other award ceremonies that they need their own but there is little doubt that it is true.  That is of course not a slam against the Saturn Awards which are always fun.

The results this year aren’t surprising. Dark Knight came out on top with 5 awards while Benjamin Button and Iron Man each got three. Hellboy won for Horror film, which isn’t where I would categorize it but it was better than any horror film that came out so i’m not going to complain.

Indiana Jones won for best costume which is fitting since the hat was more interesting than most of the actors in the movie.

Lost won best TV series. Not sure if there were any other nominations, perhaps Battlestar Galactica had a chance if you missed the final episode or heroes if you missed the last two seasons.

Leonard Nimoy won a lifetime achievement award which he certainly deserves. Even if you ignore Star Trek he’s had a good career.

– Visit the Saturn Awards Homepage

Best Science Fiction Film: Iron Man
Best Fantasy Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Horror Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: The Dark Knight
Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)
Best Actress: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Jaden Christopher Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
Best Writer: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Best Music: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)
Best Costume: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Best Make-Up: Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Special Effects: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)
Best International Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: Wall-E
Best Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica
Best Presentation on Television: The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)
Best Supporting Actress on Televison: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)
Guest Starring Role on Television: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)
Best DVD Release: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Best DVD Special Edition Release: Stephen King’s The Mist (2 disc Special Edition)
Best DVD Classic Film Release: Psycho (Universal Legacy Series)
Best DVD Collection: The Godfather-The Coppola Restoration
Best Series on DVD: Moonlight
Best Retro Series on DVD: The Invaders
The Life Career Award: Lance Henriksen
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Leonard Nimoy
The Visionary Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

Bye Bye Beeman

I still enjoy Heroes most every week. This isn’t to say that It doesn’t have its flaws only that at some point I stopped trying to force it to be the show I wanted it to be and began watching the show that was on the air.

The season finally fit that mold perfectly. It wasn’t what I had expected and in some ways I wish it had been, but it was a very interesting show and I’m looking forward to more heroes in the future.

But when i flipped over to Beaming Beeman I discovered something a little sad. Greg Beeman will not be returning to Heroes for season 4. According to the blog this is a purely financial decision. He knows more about the politics of network TV than I do but I suspect that is only mostly true.

Either way Beeman has been a major part of Heroes. As a producer director he effected every show and he directed many of the major episodes. But this is where I back off a little from my sadness.

Don’t get me wrong he has driected some good episodes, but looking over the list not as many as you might think. Four Months ago was good, but I didn’t care much for Duel. So perhaps this is the push Heroes needs to change trajectory a bit.

As someone who has enjoyed most of it i can say that there are things that need to be done to improve the show, and I trust they can be.  In my opinion the most important thing they need to do is to stop worrying so much about raiting and worry about putting on a good show.

Now you may think that these two are related but the truth is that many of the things that people complain about are ratings over story issues. I think the biggest of those is Hiro. I liked Hiro in the first season, and even in the second season he had something to do, but in this season he has been pointless. He isn’t good enough at anything to be useful without his powers and he hasn’t had his power most of the time, so as much as i hate to say it they need to find a way to make him interesting or take the hit and write him off the show.

On the other hand is Sylar. Sylar has been involved with the plot closely but they still make short term choices with him and then get burned by it.

Beeman will be missed on the show I am certain, but all in all if his paycheck being gone would allow us to afford to see the fight between Sylar, Nathan and Peter rather than closing the door then perhaps they made the right decision.

Heroes: I am Sylar

This was an interesting episode of Heroes and one of the few this part of the season that had most of the major characters but is the title implies it mostly focuses on Sylar.

I enjoy Sylar but one of the problems I have had with the character in the past is that he seemed to have no core personality. In the beginning of the show he was the shadow and killer but in one episode he had become president. He has tried to turn good,  tried to turn worse, tried to stop killing people,  worked as an agent with Noah, fell in love and probably more. Unpredictability is OK, but sometimes it felt as if there was no core at all.

Clearly the writers of heroes have noticed the same thing. I hope that giving him the shape-shifting ability was part of a plan to examine Sylar more carefully as he struggled to understand who he is. Zachary Quinto did a good job with this and it makes sense to me. The ability to take powers can be empathic like Peter’s was, but for Sylar who has never cared for the people who have powers its more about being them. Having the power isn’t all that big of a deal when the power is shooting air pellets or melting things.

Bringing back his mother’s death was a good idea as well and the reveal of what was going on with his mother was creepy and funny at the same time so long as they don’t keep going with it for too long.

Long term for Sylar is the real question. There have been discussions since he got Shapeshifting that he was too powerful to remain on the show. I never really agreed entirly but I saw the point, one that I hope most agree the writers addressed in this episode. The side effects of shapeshifting seem high enough to even out most of its strength. He still doesn’t have a center and as the villain of the show he’s growing a bit old because of that.

This leads to the end of the episode. I am certain that at least a few people will question why Dankos knife to the head trick didn’t stop Sylar. I think they set that up really well assuming that I am right that the knife didn’t stop him because the shapeshifting had changed him too much. That tiny point of the brain just isn’t there anymore.

The end was a great set up for next week too. With most everyone either caught or in some trouble there has to be action. So how will the season end? It seems to me that it has to be a confrontation between Sylar and the other characters.

This gives them a chance to answer mayn questions.  If Peter touches Sylar will he get all the abilities? If he borrows the empath ability will he have his old power again? Are the writers willing to allow him to become that powerful once more? Will Peter touch baby Matt Parkman and then just make Sylars powers stop working? Will Ando finally use his supercharging ability on someone this volume? Is there a cost to stopping time? What is up with Danko? Is there going to be a new company?

Lets hope they answer at least a couple of these.

Heroes: Turn and Face the Strange: Review

I’ve generally enjoyed heroes for it’s entire run, but the one place that I did enjoy the first season more than the following seasons was on the emphasis on personal issues of the characters.

As the story has progressed and the characters became more powerful and their lives more hectic we lost much of that in crazy hunger and spikes growing out of their face. Their families almost all disappeared and the kids were gone.

This episode felt like they were beginning to get back to that. The Petrelli family didn’t show up until the end but they felt a little like a family and the messing with Noah’s family worked well enough, Matt dealing with his son, and even the hunter having someone he cared about. I hope that they continue to make their personal lives part of the show and not a small sideline because I think that was what made the first season of Heroes something special rather than just fun.

Heroes: Cold Snap

With the attempt to make each episode of heroes a little more focused this volume has exclude at characters from every episode. This has been really good for the show in several respects not the least of which was that it allows for character to simply not have much going on and not take up too much valuable time as well as allowing the story to move forward faster.

Two of the characters who have had almost nothing to do  this volume were Hiro and Ando. With Hiro’s powers gone and Ando’s power appearing useless they have been generiously called comic relief.

I haven’t been bothered by this because I’ve been enjoying the episodes but Hiro has always been a fun character and it’s nice to see him with something more to do and the key to that was his powers.

The comic relief with the most powerful ability(discounting Peter who’s power is only as strong as other people’s abilities) worked well because while he could be funny he was also the key to solving the problems, but his power was still to strong.

That was why giving him back just part of the ability was great. With only the ability to stop time he can be very useful while not breaking the plot and it opens questions of what would happen if Ando uses his supercharger ability on Hiro. Would he allow him to once again teleport and time travel for a short while or would it simply allow him to stop time more fully which would be completely useless because it would simply make the world black as he stopped the light and possible make it impossible to breath.

We also found that Ando’s ability can be useful in another way, he was able to shoot one of the assault team with his power. Nice to know he can do something to defend himself.

So with a baby who can touch hiro and make his power work I wonder what else the baby can do. His power is quite interesting, but what are it’s limits? Can he make powers work in people who don’t naturally have them making him a sort of living formula, or could he touch someone who had died and make them live? Can he make things stop working as well as start?

Overall this was a really good episode and the previews really made me want to watch the next episode immediately rather than having to wait a week.

Random Spoilers -

Burn Notice –  Jennifer Esposito will be Michal’s nemesis in the upcoming season.

Heroes — An interview with James Kyson Lee, Ando, revealing a few tidbits. Ando’s power does more than amp up people’s abilities, We’ll see more of Ando and Hiro in the next episodes, new femail baddy in volume 5,

Transformers – Frank Welker, voice of megatron in the cartoons, will, hopefully, voice soundwave. John Turturro will likely be voicing skyfire, whom it seems they find in a pyramyd.

Pictures from Heroes 3×20

Find more at Spoiler TV

Heroes: Shades of Gray

I like it when shows don’t go where i expected. This episode of heroes wasn’t what I expected. From last weeks trailers I expected that Matt’s subplot would take far more of the episode.
Part of that was because I paid too much attention to the trailer at the end of last weeks episode and part of it was the message telling Hiro to save him. That was another of the expectations they broke which I found entertaining.
Then there was Clair and Doyle. I should have seen this part coming but I still assumed that she would help him immediately. This also seems to me to point to someone who can see the future sending the messages. Assuming that it’s not Matt, this leave Angela, someone we haven’t seen before or someone from the future.
I’m fond of the idea that it’s Angela, working with Micah and probably HRG and it appears we are likely to find out in two weeks in the next episode.
The bulk of the episode was, as the title implies, about Sylar. He found his father in this episode and this time I was a little closer on what i expected. I knew that his father was sick and leaving the man alive to punish him was pretty close, but where they really moved the character this episode was the idea that Sylar is hunting rabbits. Killing people who have no way to defend themselves.
This really does make sense, excluding the man with TK he kliled with a rock most of the people he has went after have had powers that were no threat to him. Many of the abilities such as superhearing, telling if people are lying, and healing are very useful but none of those people can really defend themselves and he hasn’t went after people like Peter, Hiro or Matt who could really defend themselves.
I also like the idea that this may change. I enjoyed seeing Sylar in the future as a father and as the president in different times and I would like to see either of them or even another interesting version of Sylar.

I liked this episode and am excited to see the next episode.