Heroes S1.16: Unexpected
Oct. 22nd, 2007 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkWhile channel hopping I caught the first three episodes of The Riches or to be more accurate the second half of the first two and most of the third one. It’s odd, HBO quality actors, production values and writing scene by scene but it doesn’t feel as if there’s a story yet, can’t tell whether it wants to be a black comedy or something more dramatic. Eddie Izzard is fascinating and keeps you watching just waiting for him to flip into full on Izzardism but he never quite does, it’s positively tantric. He’s not a comedian (he’s a very naughty boy) but a middle aged, semi-(I think) failed con artist, father of four having a mid-life crisis or sorts. Then again if it were an urban fantasy he’d be the pubescent who discovers the netherworld, the audience entry point and part of my current dissonanace with the show is that at the moment he’s the only entry point. So far all the other characters, whether his own family or buffers feel like faeries or monsters not people yet. I can’t remember their names.
Heroes has no such problems with genre uncertainty
So this week the Matt, Ando/Hiro, Sylar/Mohinder and family Bennett strands continue, Peter and Claude reappear along with Issac and Simone but the whole shebang is ignited with a blast from the past in the form of Ted. I do know what the next episode is called but even without that spoiler it would be pretty clear that things are heading for some reveal about Mr. Bennett’s employers. We’re reminded of their methods through Ted and Claude’s storylines, their possible motivations are hinted at in all the sub plots (except possibly Hiro’s). I loved Claude’s reference to Darwin’s work with pigeon fanciers suggesting eugenic breeding programmes as one possible long term project (which would make Peter the prize pouter with his maximised potential).
Still liking Mohinder despite the pantomime levels of dumb, you can almost hear the audience cries of “Behind you!” in response to his total lack of Sylar suspicion. I forgive him because the actor is doing a good job of conveying absent-minded Professor blinded by the joy of data. This sub plot was also enjoyable for the creation of Dale the middle aged mechanic with super hearing who’d learnt to control it through hip hop and use it to read emotions as well as detect cockroaches in the next county. I do begin to see the reasons the series gets accused of “Women In Refridgerator” syndrome but it is so good at creating distinctive female one shots, the two male red shirts Sylar canabilised were completely bland compared with either Dale or Charlie. It makes a difference perhaps whether fictional women are killed disproportionately because they deserve it (sluts), because it gives good man pain or because the female characters will be more missed by the audience for their own sakes.
Mohinder’s research may mirror one of the company's aims (disinterested scientific curiosity) or maybe they do think of the genetic changes as a disease to be cured, a fear echoed by Ted and Matt as well as Dale and Sylar. Or they may be more like Sylar wanting the power for their own ends. Then there’s that very nice scene between Nathan and Simone that sets the politician’s perspective against the idealist’s and Simone seeming so much more three dimensional interacting with another adult than playing the apex of the romantic triangle with Peter and Issac. I can believe her with either one of them but the two of them squabbling over her is just annoying. It’s not that the show can’t do comic book romance, Hiro giving Ando the Mary Jane speech was lovely but Simone’s death in the final scene jarred more than shocked. Partly because I couldn’t quite figure out why Issac didn’t see her coming but if the story were working otherwise I’d be all over the idea that he was trying to see Peter by using his gift not his eyes. Issac’s gift is like a drug to him even when he’s clean.
Still the heart of the episode was the Bennett family storyline rushing up to meet Matt and Ted’s “ We could be Heroes” revenge of the lab rats. The switch from the horror of Sandra not recognising Claire to the sad routineness of her offering to curl up with a Cary Grant movie (Mr. Bennett’s away a lot) to the spilt milk and Mr. Muggles the opportuinist. The twist of the doctor’s questioning about (presumably) physical abuse suggesting that Sylar’s head trauma not the Haitian may be the cause of the current problem. The big father daughter confrontation all perfectly pitched. Next week the deluge and whether Noah is well named.
Heroes has no such problems with genre uncertainty
So this week the Matt, Ando/Hiro, Sylar/Mohinder and family Bennett strands continue, Peter and Claude reappear along with Issac and Simone but the whole shebang is ignited with a blast from the past in the form of Ted. I do know what the next episode is called but even without that spoiler it would be pretty clear that things are heading for some reveal about Mr. Bennett’s employers. We’re reminded of their methods through Ted and Claude’s storylines, their possible motivations are hinted at in all the sub plots (except possibly Hiro’s). I loved Claude’s reference to Darwin’s work with pigeon fanciers suggesting eugenic breeding programmes as one possible long term project (which would make Peter the prize pouter with his maximised potential).
Still liking Mohinder despite the pantomime levels of dumb, you can almost hear the audience cries of “Behind you!” in response to his total lack of Sylar suspicion. I forgive him because the actor is doing a good job of conveying absent-minded Professor blinded by the joy of data. This sub plot was also enjoyable for the creation of Dale the middle aged mechanic with super hearing who’d learnt to control it through hip hop and use it to read emotions as well as detect cockroaches in the next county. I do begin to see the reasons the series gets accused of “Women In Refridgerator” syndrome but it is so good at creating distinctive female one shots, the two male red shirts Sylar canabilised were completely bland compared with either Dale or Charlie. It makes a difference perhaps whether fictional women are killed disproportionately because they deserve it (sluts), because it gives good man pain or because the female characters will be more missed by the audience for their own sakes.
Mohinder’s research may mirror one of the company's aims (disinterested scientific curiosity) or maybe they do think of the genetic changes as a disease to be cured, a fear echoed by Ted and Matt as well as Dale and Sylar. Or they may be more like Sylar wanting the power for their own ends. Then there’s that very nice scene between Nathan and Simone that sets the politician’s perspective against the idealist’s and Simone seeming so much more three dimensional interacting with another adult than playing the apex of the romantic triangle with Peter and Issac. I can believe her with either one of them but the two of them squabbling over her is just annoying. It’s not that the show can’t do comic book romance, Hiro giving Ando the Mary Jane speech was lovely but Simone’s death in the final scene jarred more than shocked. Partly because I couldn’t quite figure out why Issac didn’t see her coming but if the story were working otherwise I’d be all over the idea that he was trying to see Peter by using his gift not his eyes. Issac’s gift is like a drug to him even when he’s clean.
Still the heart of the episode was the Bennett family storyline rushing up to meet Matt and Ted’s “ We could be Heroes” revenge of the lab rats. The switch from the horror of Sandra not recognising Claire to the sad routineness of her offering to curl up with a Cary Grant movie (Mr. Bennett’s away a lot) to the spilt milk and Mr. Muggles the opportuinist. The twist of the doctor’s questioning about (presumably) physical abuse suggesting that Sylar’s head trauma not the Haitian may be the cause of the current problem. The big father daughter confrontation all perfectly pitched. Next week the deluge and whether Noah is well named.