Heroes 3x1 - Review as I go

[mllelaurel]

- Oh, Peter. Your Messiah complex is no less annoying in a flash-forward.

- If Claire didn't mean "I've always loved you" in a platonic way... Oh, the Petrellis and their 'cest. That amuses me. The fact that it's Peter, whom I've gone from being neutral on to being actively annoyed with makes me unhappy. Claire, honey, I love you (despite most of season 2), but your taste in men is consistently shite.

- ...Dude! I actually didn't see that coming. Having Peter (albeit future!Peter) turn out to be Nathan's shooter. Nice move, Kring!

- Peter, you condescending shit. You know Claire has healing powers. You've been around Hiro and can thus teleport, so her being in California isn't an issue. But nooooo. (Mitigating potentials: I can't remember if Peter has his memories back all the way, so he might not remember meeting Hiro, and he might worry about not having said teleportation powers under control. But if it was my brother, whom I claimed to love as much as Peter does Nathan, I might risk it.)

- On Nathan dying: As a fan, I want to punch something. Thinking like a writer, though, I'd have done the same thing. Adrian Pasdar may be able to work gold with anything he's given, but he wasn't actually given much to do, in Season 2. Really, the Petrellis' arc ended in the Season 1 finale. Maybe his death will actually prompt Peter to become a reasonable, likable human being. Or at least explode and go Phoenix or somesuch. Sadly, it's more likely to simply make him more emo, as well as take out one of the very few characters who made Peter's scenes interesting by sharing them.

...Only he's not dead, is he? On one hand, yay! On the other hand, giving Peter more powers=not yay. Look at the progression: when he wasn't sure he had powers at all, and when his powers depended entirely on proximity to others, Peter was an interesting, even likable fellow (though still not a little emo.) He remained interesting for the remainder of Season 1 on the power of being the source of the big boom. By Season 2? When he got completely over-powered? All my interest in him went bye-bye. Please, by all the gods, nerf the poor bastard already! Giving him more powers is kind of like that polyamory bingo square: "Relationship broken? Add more people." It works about as well.

I will admit that the couple of seconds when Peter thought Nathan really was dead were touching.

- Meanwhile, Hiro and Ando are still love. And Hiro just invoked Murphy.

- Claire just brained Sylar! That's my girl!

- ...Meanwhile, Maya tried to do likewise... to her allies. My, her competence level has...not risen. Bah. At least it's action, as opposed to victimy passivity.

That said, her learning some control over her powers is progress.

- Yay, more Nakamura senior!

Though I question the wisdom of his posthumous actions. Don't eat that apple, Hiro. That gambit has proved to work so well in the past. The Kaito Nakamura I know is smarter than that. Unless he's trying for reverse psychology, in which case, points back for intelligence, but stop fucking with your kid.

- I think Hiro's coming a bit unhinged. This is not on the side of good.

- Opening that safe was too easy. I'm putting another $1000 on 'reverse psychology.'

- Ok, I'm as confused as Hiro. Way to be obtuse, Nakamura-san. What the hell?

- It makes me sad, when Hiro's written as incompetent.

- ... I'm just realizing that I may have been right, when I predicted Peter was being set up as the/a villain of Season 3. I just think using alt!/future Peter instead of the current version is a cop out. It keeps them from committing.

- Squee for Matt being a good detective, though. Keep it up, Matt! You were one of the best things about Season 2. ...You better be not dead.

- And where the hell did Peter get shape shifting powers? Am I forgetting something about season 2? (If so, that answers my question.) If not, I don't think he was ever around Candace (the show's only known shapeshifter, as far as I can recall.) If I'm right... I said nerf him, you gits, not give him more powers. Overpowered, unstoppable characters are boring.

- Nathan finds religion? Could be interesting. Could be what-the-fuck. If they make him a fundie, well, I'm sure Pasdar could carry it off, but I'd still barf. Personally, I'm hoping that they'll do something interesting instead. Like a religious character who's not a closed-minded idiot. That would be cool.

The good news, he doesn't sound fundie. And that he sounds like he actually believes what he's saying. (Hey, it's Nathan. You never know.)

"Save ourselves; save the world."

Could be an arc? It echoes Season 1's "save the cheerleader; save the world."

- I wonder if the bit with alt!Peter setting out to kill Nathan and drawing back when he sees Nathan praying is intentionally invoking a similar scene from Hamlet.

-Mohinder's made a breakthrough (I'm not qualified to comment how sketchy the science here may or may not be.) Having made this breakthrough, how fucked is he? Considering how cool he got in Season 2, I'd be sad to see him die now.

- I'd be even sadder if they put him in a relationship with Maya, though. Other than my indifference-annoyance toward her, their relationship is doctor-patient, which brings squicky, squicky imbalances.

- Claire just stabbed Sylar. While he was monologuing like a pretentious git! Bad James Bond villain. No powers for you. Go Claire, go! Show the bastard you don't belong in no refrigerator.

- Aw, shit. And Sylar keeps. Bloody. Monologuing. At this point, I hope Mr. Muggles eats him and shuts him up. Sylar's officially outlived his expiration date as a worthwhile villain.

- Why...won't Sylar shut up and die already. How's that for a deep philosophical question?

- Aw, fuck on a stick. Invincible Sylar? What's it with this show doling out powers per square of boredom inducement?

- I'd thought of the possibility of Claire being unable to die. And it's pure, delicious evil, of the evil kind. Too bad her company for eternity will be a pretentious serial killer.

- Maya just called something 'evil'. Which makes her sound ridiculous and undermines her point. Is a concoction that could turn someone into a superhero dangerous? Yeah. Potentially harmful? You betcha. She had a point. And she had to go ruin it with childish-sounding black-and-white morality. Things aren't evil, on their own, dumbass.

- Whattheshit, Linderman? Does no one stay dead anymore on this show? It's getting to be kind of a farce.

- Tracy? Ok, did Nikki's DID flare up again? What?

- Meanwhile, Matt is having a shitty day. In the middle of a desert.

- Dude, does everyone have to explode Tokyo? Are they not going to let you in the sci-fi writers' guild if you don't?

- OMG, Angela wins at world!

- And Peter ends up in another storage container. Sort of.

...Does this count as nerfing him? I do hope so!

- Lucky Mohinder seems to have gotten one of the good powers.


Short version: Angela yay! (I swear to God, that woman can make any scene shine.) Claire-characterization yay! (Claire plot question mark) Some plot developments could develop interestingly. But most of the episode felt like a hash party.

About on par with season 1 Torchwood. That's not a compliment. There are, however, intriguing bits scattered through. Enough that I'll keep watching, at any rate.