Still, it’s interesting to get a look inside the company. I generally give my analysis on the novels, but it’s near impossible to do that. This one left me with no feelings, almost like I’d spent the 90 seconds it took to read staring at my wall instead. There is this little crack in the plaster there that really bugs me. I wonder how stuff like that gets there. It’s been there since before I moved in, I’m certain of that, and I know that I could fix it with some spackle, but then it would look like a big white blob so I’d have to paint over it, and then I’d have to move my bed in order to paint over it and god only knows what the hell is under this bed I mean I haven’t cleaned in so long under there. So I’d have to move the bed, clean, buy spackle, buy paint and then do it one night. But I don’t really want to do it at night because then my bedroom would smell like paint and I hate that smell, it’s so strong. It would probably give me headaches and I wouldn’t sleep well and my days are long enough already without factoring “lack of sleep” into the equation. So I SHOULD do it on the weekend, but I have plans all weekend already.

All that over a hole in the wall, James Joyce would be proud.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

There is no doubt about the following: Without LOST, there would be no Heroes. Before LOST became a smash hit, the idea of a prime-time serial drama with a sci-fi tilt was met with disapproving glares and utterances of “nobody watched Twin Peaks…” Then, fresh on the heals of Alias, JJ Abrams was trusted enough to start a trend which is now taking over the airwaves. Just last year we saw shows like Chuck, Journeyman, Bionic Woman and New Amsterdam. Not coincidentally, only Chuck is going to survive to see the light of day next year, but it’s a well accepted fact that LOST is what made it all possible.

If you haven’t seen the 4th season finale of LOST, I’m not going to give any specific spoilers. Also. WHY NOT? And if you’re not watching LOST I want you to stop reading this immediately, head over to ABC.com/Lost and watch all 4 seasons right now. I know, I know, it gets weird in the second season and kind of slow to start the third, but just keep watching. LOST is THE best show out there right now, and it features Michael Emerson, the best actor on TV right now playing the best character on TV right now. To continue my little lovefest here, I’d just like to point out that the 5 best hours of TV in the last 13 months all belong to LOST, and 4 of them were the last 2 season finales. Both of which featured absolutely shocking revelations that almost nobody (discounting the spoiler-pigs) saw coming. Here ends my effusive LOST praise.
Now, let’s flash all the way back to the season one finale of Heroes. Peter and Sylar square off in Kirby Plaza while others look on and Hiro runs after Sylar with a sword. Then Peter is about to explode. So, knowing all of this was going to happen before the finale even aired, what did most Heroes fans assume? That Nathan would come and fly Peter away, and that Hiro would stab Sylar but Sylar would survive. So what happens? Nathan came in and flew Peter to safety, Hiro stabbed Sylar, and Sylar survived. Sylar, ranking up there with the creepiest TV villains of all time thanks to Zach Quinto, wasn’t going to be killed, he was simply too valuable. Peter and Nathan? Same thing. Hiro back in Japan? Ok, I get that. That could have been an interesting storyline (though Kring has even admitted leaving him stranded back there for far too long.)

To be fair, this did set up S2. Sylar recovering, Peter in Ireland and Nathan in the hospital. But the events that led to Peter being in Ireland (zapped by Elle, thrown in the crate by the Hatian) were ALL season 2 events. The finale really left us with no cliffhangers. We came back for S2 and all of a sudden DL is dead? What? Where did THAT come from?

Though, I do have to say that the S2 finale did a much better job, and it wasn’t even intended to be a finale. Nathan getting shot, Sylar getting his power’s back, Niki blown up and maybe (cough, hopefully) dead, and Adam trapped in the Coffin. Only Hiro seems to be in good shape (and those who would have died from that Virus are sitting kind of pretty.) Don’t forget Peter’s Irish lass Caitlin, off somewhere looking ugly trapped in a future that no longer exists. Paradox anyone? Of course, the biggest question comes from Nathan getting shot. It’s more than likely that he survives somehow, but who shot Nathan is a MUCH better question to be left with than “what happens to Hiro in Japan?”

Though, it doesn’t even approach “WHO IS IN THE COFFIN?”

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

Heroes has proven itself to have widespread appeal, but the fact remains, a show about people with superpowers will ALWAYS be, first and foremost, a show for the slightly nerdy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, not at all. I love Heroes.

Like Comic Books and Dungeons & Dragons, a late night nerd clatch loves setting down into a heated which/what/who would discussion, and it’s with this in mind that we pay homage to the great nerd pastime. So break out the Funions, Cheeto’s and Mountain Dew, it’s time to play: “Who’s power would you rather have?”

Right off the bat there are a few that we can get rid of. Sylar for instance. It’s nice to be able to do that cool stuff, but having to be evil and kill people just isn’t worth it. Adam and Claire? Yeah, I agree that not being able to get hurt would be great, but living forever? To me that means working forever. With inflation being what it is, no matter how much you made you would just have to keep working otherwise after about 50 years your once vast life savings would be worth bupkis.

I REALLY don’t want Ted’s power. Something about accidently killing your wife doesn’t seem like much fun. I can also get rid of Peter. This one is a little bit less obvious. Sure it would be nice to be able to do pretty much anything, but here’s the rub. You NEVER know when you’re going to absorb a new power, you never know what it’s going to be or how your going to react to it or how to control it. Then you end up going nuclear over Manhattan and nearly killing your brother. My brother already gives me enough grief, I don’t even want to think of family get together’s and holidays after I nearly killed him. “Hey Neil, can you get me a beer? Try not to almost kill me with it, thanks.” Or “Could you not put so much salt into the soup, I don’t need you giving me high blood pressure and nearly killing me again.” On an unrelated note, I wouldn’t want to be Claude either. I think his loneliness and hermit lifestyle were a direct result of his power feeding into his mind. The man who is physically invisible becomes socially too. I dont think my fragile psyche could handle that. Plus, once all the novelty of hiding in women’s locker rooms and stealing useless crap wore off, I’m pretty sure my power wouldn’t be too useful.

Assuming we’re only investigating priciple characters here, we’re left with Niki, DL, Micah, Nathan, Parkman and Hiro.

Niki (Super-strength, NOT schizophrenia) would be great. Super strength would be very useful for helping people move or beating up bad guys.

Hiro: One word: paradox. I don’t need to find myself surrounded by dinosaurs being careful not to disturb anything that would mess up all human life in the future. Sure, it’d be nice to go back and place a big bet on the Giants winning the Superbowl, but I can’t be TOTALLY selfish.

Micah: Ignoring the ability to steal from ATM machines, I can’t even imagine the time I would save every day if instead of having to create databased with a keyboard and mouse I could ask the computer to do it.

Parkman: It’s easy to say that you want to know what other people are thinking, but I can tell you one thing, it aint pretty. Sure it would help you get girls, but nobody actually wants to hear “What was I thinking! Look at him! GROSS” the morning after a long bar hopping night

Nathan: The dude can FLY. And he can fly fast as hell. Do you have any notion of how expensive flights are these days? My god, you’d save so much money on gas mileage too.

The winner? Well  this isn’t which character I would want to be, this is who’se power’s I’d like to have. We’re really down to Nathan, Niki and Micah. While all three have merits, I have to go with which one would be most useful in my daily life. Niki would be best in a fight, Micah would get me out of debt, and Nathan would cut down on my commute. So the winner is…

NATHAN: Really, you say? Cut down on your commute? Well, let’s think of it this way. Every day I commute by car, Train and Subway into New York City. It takes me 90 minutes both ways. Assuming I could fly here in about 5 minutes, it would save me an hour and 20 minutes per day, 6 hours and 40 minutes per week, and, discounting holidays and vacations, over 300 hours per year. 300 freakin hours.  That’s 12.5 full days every year.

Still not convinced? How about money. Because of the current gas prices, I end up spending on average $20 a week on gas since I only have to drive to the train station. Add to that $200 a month for the train and about $60 a month for subways, and we’re talking a total of $3,660 per year. Did you know that the average cost of car insurance for American’s is $964 per year? Yup, that brings us to $4,624 a year before we even factor in the cost of the car, finance charges, oil changes and any other necessary maintenance.

Let’s compare that with sharing a power with Nathan Petrelli. Instead of getting up at 5:45, I could get up at 7:15 and leisurely get ready before jetting off. Instead of paying over $5k per year I would pay nothing. Instead of having to pay for airfare, my vacations would only cost me the hotel costs. I want to have Nathan Petrelli’s powers. I want to be able to fly.

Whose powers  would you want? Let me know in the comments!

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/index.shtml?novel=86 

Today is once again Tuesday, and once again Graphic Novel day. Today, Tim Kring and co. present Faces, Part 2. The follow up to last week’s disaster who’s pointlessness I’ve already blogged about.

The follow up to Faces actually does accomplish somewhat of a goal, even though the subject that’s covered, the importance of beauty, actually opens up a lot of really interesting possibilities that the novel really should have followed.

In this one, our “heroin” deals with the consequences of waking up next to Thompson the Younger and finding herself no longer beautiful. Naturally, Thompson finds a picture of this girl in the company database, finds out she’s affiliated with a “special” individual, and freaks out.

Ok. So. Thompson met this chick, slept with her, knew nothing about her except what she looked like, and managed to find her in the company database. What? Are you kidding me? He didn’t have a picture, did he sketch her face and scan it or something? Did he trace it on the screen with his fingernail? Or did he just do an accurate likeness in MS Paint. I call bull on the whole graphic novel because of this. I HATE when tv shows take shortcuts like this. I mean, I understand that a show about a congressional candidate who can fly doesn’t really have to ring true in everything it does, but come on, does the tech stuff have to be this stupid? Couldn’t he have just seen her picture sitting out in an open file? It’s just stupid.

Uhh, where was I? Oh yeah, it doesn’t even matter. So, in the end Thompson tells her he wants to sleep with her again because he enjoyed it no matter what she really looks like. Oh great, a sappy message, thanks Lifetime, that’s really what I needed out of this. Oh wait, there’s panels left. Enough time for Thompson to tell her that her mom can make her look like a different hot girl every night to get him some variety. Ohhh, ok, we’re actually going for the “all men are pigs” angle. Or is it the “ugly people suck?” angle.

The answer? Well it was written by a guy named Mark Sable. So I’m just going to assume it’s the ugly people suck one. Cause, clearly they do. That’s why I only date supermodels. Well, I would only date supermodels, but all the one’s I’ve tried to meet have called the cops on me. I don’t get why holding up a boom box playing “In Your Eyes” worked for Lloyd Dobler, but it won’t work for me.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

Our very own Claire has had a long obsession with saving the whales (including being wanted by police in Japan) and is taking a more legal route now. Hayden Panettiere is currently auctioning off a ton of stuff to help out The Whaleman Foundation, and a complete list can be found here.

Of course, the item drawing up the most interest is a chance to join Hayden at a Save the Whales fundraiser dinner, and take 5 friends along with you as her special guest. Bidding currently resides at $4,180, so be prepared to open your wallet. 

Personally, I think she should just try injecting her blood into the giant beasts. You never know.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

Yes boys and girls, it’s once again Tuesday at Heroes Watch, and every Tuesday here (and at NBC.com) is Graphic Novel day. Since the inception of Heroes, The Powers that Be have been giving us a different graphic novel every week. It’s really an excellent idea, a way to keep hardcore fans interested in the show.  It started off as just a nice diversion the morning after an episode of Heroes where we got to delve deeper into the lives of Mohinder, Claire Sylar and the rest of the L’il Heroes Gang. Where the novels really took flight was in the Summer after Season one when we were treated to continuing Heroes content that was MUCH less convoluted than the ill fated Heroes 360 ARG.

It would seem that the existence of the novels would have been a huge boon for the show in the months following the end of S2 when the writers strike forced the bizarre life we now lead, having to wait 9 months between new episodes. It started out being just as good as ever, we got a lot of additional backstory on Elle and Claire especially, we were introduced to some new characters likely to go the way of Hana Gitelman right into obscurity. Then… things got complicated.

We got a story about Linda Tavara, a woman with powers much like Sylar (without the messy head cutting off though) who we know ended up meeting with Daniel Linderman at some point. Then we met Thompson’s son who’se also an agent, albeit one without any powers. We also met a woman who’s power dealt with her eyesight, almost as though she had a telephoto lens attached to her retina. We’ve also been confronted by a new enemy of the company, someone who goes by the name of Evs Dropper who is constantly in communication with a number of the Heroes we’ve met and is trying to take down the company. Then… then we have today’s issue.

Read me.

HERE BE GRAPHIC NOVEL SPOILERS, TURN BACK IF YE’D JUST AS SOON READ IT YOURSELF

So… This ugly chick’s mom can make people’s faces look however they want? And the girl gets pretty for a day and sleeps with Thompson’s son.

And that’s IT. A novel which had some promise once again falls by the wayside and is utterly pointless. I truly truly believe that they have simply run out of peripheral stories to tell. I also, however, believe the the issue we’re going to get the morning after the 3 hour Heroestravaganza Premier can MORE than make up for this claptrap. But until then, stay tuned every Tuesday for more Graphic Novel Day right here, at Heroes Watch.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

Not sure I want to know who is getting their head opened.   In the meanwhile, watch the video and enjoy a shiver – we’re counting down the days here at HeroesWatch!

Posted by Alyx | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

We’ve all thought about it while watching Heroes, there is no denying that. At some point during any number of episodes you have, at least once, stopped and thought to yourself “why the hell is Peter Petrelli so stupid?”

I mentioned this briefly in my previous post where I spoke about Matt Parkman’s possibly becoming too powerful. We know that from a creative standpoint it almost makes sense, every character needs a fatal flaw, and Peter’s is the fact that he is way, way too trusting. Sometimes it comes in a sense that defies all logic, with the only explanation being that he’s a complete nincompoop.

The entire first season was spent with Pete trying to avoid NYC getting blown up. By the end of the season, Nathan, Peter and the viewing public knew one thing: Linderman was in charge of the company that HRG worked for, the company was bad news, and Linderman wanted NYC blown to hell as part of his .07% solution. Peter knew that the company was behind it, he knew that he had been used as a pawn because Isaac’s paintings had foreshadowed his exploding and he knew that the company was bad. And then comes the second season.

Bob tells him the company is going to be different and Peter happily trots into his cell? How long did he stay in that basement? How long did it take for Adam to convince him to stop taking the pills? And how long before he remembered that he could walk through walls?!

This, of course, was followed by the crowning achievement of dumbnitude: believing Adam Monroe, who’s been held prisoner for 30 years, is actively trying to save the world. Peter never even questioned Adam’s intentions.

But the real kicker came in Primatech after Hiro explained everything to him. Rather than believing the guy who helped him “save the world” not 4 months earlier, Peter decides to stick with Adam? It finally takes Nathan, (the one who seriously considered letting Peter blow up Manhattan) to convince Pete he might maybe kinda wanna watch what Monroe was up to. The logical thing for Peter to have done, barring the Hiro, Parkman Nathan save the day moment, was to be a bit hesitant about trusting Adam destroy the virus himself and be on his merry way. But he had no plans to do that, he was just going to take Adam’s word that everything would be A-OK.

Peter Petrelli is very clearly “the good guy” in all of this. Like Hiro, his interests lie in protecting people, and saving the world. However, even as starstruck as he was when meeting Takezo Kensai, Hiro STILL was never half as stupid as Peter was when dealing with: Nathan, Adam, Bob, Elle, The Hatian, His Mother, Ricky, Caitlin, Isaac, Simone and even The CDC guy in the future. Please keep in mind we haven’t even mentioned Sylar in this conversation. Let’s consider Peter’s second meeting with Sylar, the one that took place in Mohinder’s apartment. Let’s revisit this scene. place.

Peter fights, Peter turns invisible, Sylar telekenetically points a bunch of sharp glass all over the room. Peter has many options, what does he choose? Picture Claire taking the glass out of his head… out of the BACK of his head. Sylar had this glass pointed in his general direction, and his solution is to just turn around?

No doubt, Peter has the potential to be the most powerful being on the planet. Perhaps it’s his power that’s his downfall, maybe he’s not just an empath in terms of power, maybe he really does feel too much. Whatever the case, he’s clearly too trusting, and it’s in this desire to believe the best in everyone where Peter’s fatal flaw lies.

Going forward, Peter will only get more powerful, and with that comes more danger as his gullibility and his powers combing to raise his dtsf (danger to society factor). Let’s just try to keep Bunnies named Nathan as far away from Peter as we can.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

Daphne is going to debut in Season 3’s ‘Villains’ chapter and if you think she’s got badgirl written all over her ands her villainy (love that word) is going to bring her front and center with Hiro (what does this charming, however naive young man, do to engender so many bad guys: Takezo Kensei, Sylar and now Daphne?).  An interview with the Associated Press, Grant revealed this little gem:

I’m stealing a secret that’s been kept in Hiro’s family for a long time that he’s just now found. He stops time right as I grab it, but in that second it took him to grab it, I almost make it out of the office.

Masi Oka (Hiro) told the Associated Press that:

Her character is supposed to be Hiro’s Joker. Batman has the Joker. Hiro has Daphne. This is the season where Hiro finally finds his arch nemesis, and it happens to be this Speedster. I kind of equate it more to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, except Daphne says more than ‘meep-meep.’

I hate to break this to Masi, but I think Takezo Kensei was enough of a nemesis, but Grant’s Daphne sounds like a lot of fun.

So Who Is Daphne?

Other than being super fast and more than a match for Hiro, there’s not a lot known about the speedster.

Personally, I’m hoping she’s the chickie that Claude (the Invisible Man) got busted for helping escape the Company all those years ago — but then that’s a great excuse to see Claude (and the wonderful Christopher Eccleston) again. What do you think?

Posted by Alyx | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | Comments

After Matt met his father last season he discovered certain aspects of his power that he never knew existed. Not only could he hear the thoughts of others, but he could project his own thoughts to them and, even worse, he was able to manipulate their minds to either convince them to do things or, apparently, trap them in a 1970’s version of their kitchen.

It almost seems like a logical step to take with Matt’s power, doesn’t it? It provides an intriguing storyline as we ponder “How does Matt handle this? How can he remain honest?” Not only that, but it greatly increases his usefulness in a fight. Whereas before, reading minds only helped him to fend off an attack (until he gets, ya know, tossed out a window) his newfound abilities put him right at the forefront of the most powerful characters, trailing only Peter, Sylar and maybe Hiro. But is this really a good turn for the show itself?

This is something that bothered me ever since I first saw Superman’s red cape. So… he’s super strong, he can fly, he can’t be hurt, he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, he can see through walls he can… wait… can he lose? And until that whole Doomsday saga, the answer was a resounding no. Superman couldn’t lose. But at least with Superman the drama was more about how he coexisted with humans. The fighting was more or less superfluous to the actual storyline, his abilities and fighting bad guys was almost a macguffin in a story about an alien trying to coexist and hide among humans.

This brings us to what I refer to as the “Neo Problem” that first emerged in the crapfest sequel Matrix Reloaded. I’m going to assume everyone reading this has seen the Matrix since, well, you’re on a Heroes blog, it’s a fairly safe assumption. The first Matrix was excellent, it didn’t chronicle Neo’s having powers, it chronicled how he came about those powers. We discovered who he was right along with the characters in the movie, and this provided the drama. Is he the one? What does that mean? OH MY GOD BULLET TIME?!

Then the hurriedly released sequels brought tHe world The Neo Problem. How do you deal with a character who is inherently infallible? It’s like having a movie about god getting into a fight. Maybe it’s interesting if George Burns is bumbling about with a cigar, but it doesn’t work in an action movie setting. He’s too perfect. Ours is a culture that roots for the underdog and by making the protagonist omnipotent, you’ve effectively turned him into a the favorite. Neo became The Empire, the New York Yankees, Galactus and Anheuser-Busch; unless you were on their side, it’s hard not to route against them.

This is where Kring and the writers/producers run into problems with Parkman. Every other powerful character has a fatal flaw: Sylar is demented and too obsessed with obtaining powers, Peter Petrelli is a gullible idiot who goes along with whatever people say, and Hiro is so obsessed with doing the right thing that he’d never abuse his powers, even if the situation called for it. But what about Parkman? He’s too smart, and his powers make him capable of anything. Aside from Peter, nobody else we’ve seen so far has the mental capacity to defend against him and as I said before, the best way to convince Peter to do evil things is to ask him nicely and tell him it’s a good thing.

I firmly believe that only villains should be able to have the kind of power Parkman is likely to acquire and how his development is dealt with is going to be crucial for the show going forward. What legacy will Heroes leave? We can only hope it doesn’t become the next Matrix Trilogy.

Posted by neils | Heroes Watch | WebbleYou Blog Network | © 2008 | Permalink | One comment