Hiro Sandwich
Posted on | September 25, 2008 at 7:13 am | 8 Comments
Last Monday night was the third season premiere of Heroes, one of my favorite TV shows. It was a massive three hour event! The night started off with a useless let’s-pat-ourselves-on-the-back pre-premiere party being held somewhere where hundreds of screaming fans got a chance to lean over a red-carpeted pit and stare at the beautiful stars of the show speaking into microphones about what a great show they’re on. (What… NBC is now morphing into HBO?) They also showed clips from the upcoming premiere episode… y’know, the one that was premiering in less than an hour… which seemed like kind of a waste to me. Good thing the DVR has a skip button! The good part about this event was that it served to bring me up to date on what was going on with the show when we last left it, all those pre-strike months ago. I couldn’t figure out if this event was live or if it had been pre-taped, though they were trying to make it look live with a countdown timer and all. I’m not sure it mattered. There was an whiff of desperation surrounding all the self-promotion.
Then the 2-hour premiere episode itself began. The producers of the show made a big deal earlier in the year of acknowledging how crappy the shortened second season of the show was, and how the third would be a return to form. I will admit it got off to a fairly decent start, and they’ve done some things to fix some of the problems. Most notably, they’re refocusing more on the core cast and on some tighter storytelling. I liked the breakout of the supervillain prisoners from the Primatech facility, and I also like that ubervillain Sylar may be switching sides somewhat. Hiro gaining a nemesis who actually makes him think and sweat is a good thing. But that said, I still had a lot of problems with it:
1) Time travel again? Alternate futures again? Not only is it such a cliché in science fiction, and hard to do well, but this particular show has already gone to that well too often. People from the future trying to change the past, people in the past seeing possible futures, blah blah blah. If the future is so malleable and keeps changing, there’s no real stake in anything that happens. Time travel is one of those tropes that lazy writers trot out to make their show look more science fiction-y when they’ve run out of other ideas. They always end up painting themselves into a storytelling corner, which forces the plot to lose more and more coherence as they try to escape it. To my mind, the only TV show that ever did time travel right was Babylon 5, and part of the reason was because it was used so sparingly (the original Star Trek comes to mind too). It’s just not right for a soap opera about people with super powers.
2) Too jumpy. As I said, I do like that they’re focusing more on the main characters again. However, with such a huge cast and so many stories to attend to, it’s easy for things to get jumbled. Many of the stories are connected or probably will be connected, so that’s good. But when you get two or three 3-minute scenes with each character/story each episode, it’s hard to keep up interest in any one particular story arc. I think they need to feature less characters per episode – no need to cram everyone into every episode, and have a more linear, connected plot running through the episode. They did that to some extent during the first season, even having whole episodes that focused on one plotline. I guess I’m just getting too old and feeble to concentrate when things jump around so much.
3) It appears they may be moving to a plotline that involves being able to give anyone super powers via a serum injection. This plot was already done on the Promicin arc on the show The 4400. C’mon guys, some original ideas, please. Although this storyline does show some promise, since Mohinder, who injected himself with the super power serum, is now turning into The Fly. The actor even kinda looks like Jeff Goldblum already.
4) Can it with the sappy Mohinder voiceovers already!! Speaking of clichés, how often do I have to hear that Yeats poem anyway?
It’s still a bit early to tell how things will play out. Obviously they’ll be fine tuning things as they go along, in order to not duplicate the problems with season two. Hopefully they’ll at least be dumping the confusing time travel plot soon. I know I’ll keep watching no matter what.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 56°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Annabelle” (Mighty Lemon Drops)
- “Smooth” (Steve Wynn)
- “I Am the Storm” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Passing Strangers” (Ultravox)
- “Qu’est-Ce Que C’Est Que Ca” (Pete Shelley)
- “Don’t Call Me” (Girls Say Yes)
- “My Favorite Kiss” (Frank Black)
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Heavenly Sword (PS3)
Comments
8 Responses to “Hiro Sandwich”
September 25th, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Wow, you mean I wasn’t the only one watching The 4400?
My only problem with Heroes is that they are putting it on at the same time as The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Last time it was on at the same time as 24 (not that I watched 24, I just don’t get possession of the remote in the evening). As for the time travel, it made me think of the butterfly effect episode of The Simpsons.
September 25th, 2008 @ 8:09 am
Never seen Heroes.
However, they are re-running The Sopranos here from the start, so my wife is seeing the early stuff for the first time. I’d forgotten how funny the show was in the beginning! And how much hair Gandolfini used to have. But mainly it’s the humor – I lost interest in the last couple seasons ‘cos they’d run out of dramatic ideas, but they ran out of funny years before that even.
September 25th, 2008 @ 9:03 am
My only problem with Heroes is that they are putting it on at the same time as The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
??? No they’re not. Sarah is on at 7 and Heroes at 8. That stupid pre-premiere special was on at 7 this week, but the show itself started at 8. Next week, Chuck will be back in the NBC 7pm time slot before Heroes.
Plus, in this age of DVRs, who cares?
September 25th, 2008 @ 9:36 am
“Dancing with the Stars,” anyone?
Anyone…?
OK, just me, then.
Go Cloris Leachman!!
September 25th, 2008 @ 9:52 am
They obviously kept Cloris on because of the sentimentality factor. I don’t think she’ll escape elimination much longer.
September 27th, 2008 @ 4:21 am
I lost track of Heroes at some point last season, but it was because I was spending so much time at Mandy’s that my TiVo filled up. The ones I saw were pretty crappy, despite the fact that they had added David Anders, whom I loved on Alias as Mr. Sark. I didn’t even make it to a Kristen Bell episode.
But that Yeats poem is like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”: no matter how overexposed it gets, it still completely rocks the house.
slouching toward Babylon and On,
Miles
September 27th, 2008 @ 11:42 am
??? No they’re not. Sarah is on at 7 and Heroes at 8.
You sure about that? nbc.com has Heroes listed at 9pm eastern.
September 27th, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
You sure about that? nbc.com has Heroes listed at 9pm eastern.
Which means 8pm Mountain/Central time. They always lump those two time zones together.
Check your local listings, or your cable guide…
This Monday on channel 9, it’s Chuck at 7, Heroes at 8, and Life at 9, I believe. Heroes has always been on at 8pm Mondays since the first season.