Not a proper review as such, more like a question and a brief look-over: anyone actually want episode by episode reviews of Heroes, given it's finally getting good again?
Given I don't normally do e-by-e reviews of US shows, only the occasional Brit show (there's only so much time in the week and let's not commit to anything we can't sustain), I thought there was an atypical lack of symmetry there that might need fixing. Besides, it's about the only US show I'd want to review e-by-e, apart from 24, but my 24 reviews would just be me giggling insanely because each episode has more well executed action scenes in it than any other US show has per season (with the honourable exceptions of The Unit and Battlestar Galactica, of course).
Of course, if Heroes goes pants again, I might regret the offer, but I thought I'd put it out there - over to you.
As for this week's episode, for a mini-review, join me after the jump.
Quite hardcore this one, wasn't it? I think we have Mark Verheiden to praise for that quality - for all the forthcoming Fuller-love we're no doubt going to get (there's a Quatermass joke there, if we look hard enough), Verheiden's an excellent writer and is one of those writers emerging from the BSG stable who are going to revolutionise network TV as we know it in the next few years. And Heroes could do with a bit more grittiness, I reckon.
High points
Bit of a Tracy episode, which has got to be a good thing - clearly she's going on a journey of self-discovery and there were potential hints of the Niki/Peter relationship of the future emerging here, too. Rehabilitation of a new, not especially liked character by pairing her off with the hero? Who knows?
Peter didn't whine once, which can only be a good thing, and Claire was relatively restrained, too. Surprisingly, it was Matt Parkman who showed the most interesting facets of personality and edge, while HRG and Nathan almost got as far as having well thought out motivations this week.
And best of all - no massive great big leaps in logic.
Low points
Microwave boy. Nice to see the guy from Aliens in America again, but that was a bit daft all the same.
The nose-drugs. Seriously, you incapacitate heroes by sticking tubes up their noses?
In terms of emotions, it felt a bit flat, too, as though everyone was going through the motions. Parkman should have been a tad more upset, there should have been a bit more spark between Tracy and Nathan, and HRG was a bit too placid with Claire.
Very good episode though. If they can keep this up, it'll be must-watch again before you know it.
February 12, 2009 | Reply
I lost track of Heroes after about 3-5 eps of season 2. I now feel totally out of the loop to pick up season 3 over here. Is it worth it? Shall I just read ep synopses to fill the gaps and pick straight up?
Having said all that I often go back and look at your ep reviews for things once they have aired on UK terrestrial/DVD and find them great fun and good reflection on what happened.
February 12, 2009 | Reply
"I lost track of Heroes after about 3-5 eps of season 2. I now feel totally out of the loop to pick up season 3 over here. Is it worth it? Shall I just read ep synopses to fill the gaps and pick straight up?"
I'm not going to promise it's going to be worth it since we're only two episodes into Volume 4, but the first two have been very good, much better than Volume 2 and Volume 3.
Although there are obviously events that have occurred that were explained in Volume 3 but aren't really explained in Volume 4 (eg the fact that Ali Larter's playing a completely different character from the one she played in season 2, albeit one who looks the same; why Nathan's gone bad; why Claire's still a whiny git; Peter's new power; why Mohinder now has a power; why Hiro doesn't; why Ando does; why Parkman has a new one as well as his old one), the producers have made a relatively clean break with the past so what I've written just there is probably all you need to brief you for Volume 4.
Plus the first episode of Volume 4 starts like this, so you can imagine that I was happy with it from the first second. Watch it as a taster because it's relatively hardcore and gives you a fair idea of what the first two eps have been like so far.
"Having said all that I often go back and look at your ep reviews for things once they have aired on UK terrestrial/DVD and find them great fun and good reflection on what happened. "
Then Heroes reviews might well be forthcoming. Thanks ;-)