USA TV: Heroes

[Marv Orange]

I didn't notice the finales short comings until a couple of hours after it finished. Just enjoyed it for what it was a nice (admittedly flawed) finale to a great story.

Pretty sure Sylar was dragged in to the sewers by who ever Molly was more scared about.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm not sure, George Takei plays Hiro's father, but I don't know if the guy on the horse was supposed to be some kind of ancestor of Hiro's and is also Takei.

I had a bit of a rant on the temporary board about being disappointed by it, and after watching it again tonight I still feel the same way. It's not that it's a bad episode, but it's not that great. If I'd been reading it as a 23 part comics mini-series I'd be really pissed off that I'd spent that much money only for it to end so averagely.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I guess they didn't have the budget to do the big drag out super scrap we all wanted to see, so I suppose you can't really blame the creative staff, but it's still a bit of a pisser after all the build up.

Even if they had bottomless funds, there was still a fundamental problem with the whole setup, in that Hiro was a bit Angel Summoner to everyone else's BMX Bandit. Once he'd gained the confidence to cold bloodedly murder Sylar, all he had to do was freeze time and there would have been nothing Sylar could do to stop him. Then he could have grabbed Peter and teleported him away, accidentally sending him millions of years into the past, where he would become the explosion that wiped out the Dinosaurs.

Still, roll on series 2, in which they will probably have a more generous budget and - with no physical evidence that either Peter or Sylar are actually dead - we may yet see that super scrap.

[Bingo Fury]

The guy on the horse was deffo George Takei, aye?

Wouldn't say deffo. I froze the picture and it could well be him, but they've done a good job of keeping it ambiguous.

I'll have to add my voice to the chorus of disappointment about this one, I'm afraid. I've been more excited by Heroes than by any TV series for ages, but they jizzed away all the interesting twists and revelations without bothering to save any for the finale, leaving an episode that could have been written by a reasonably alert viewer.

The script felt as though it was written in a desperate rush, the direction was below-par, a sense of impending crisis was notably absent. And having got all the heroes on to Kirby Plaza, they didn't seem to know what to do with them. Was the best contribution for Matt Parkman to make to fall back on his cop training and fire a few rounds at Sylar? Did Claire serve any purpose, or did I just miss it? Nathan had his part to play, but his role in the denouement was more or less given away by one of Peter's dreams in the first half of the series in an ill-advised moment of self-spoilerage.

Normally, I scorn the fanboy desire for kewl CGI (and space battles and the Romulan fucking war) in favour of something a little more meaningful and thought-provoking, but it would have helped if they'd ramped up the Peter/Sylar confrontation a bit. If nothing else, it might have distracted Sylar from the fact that Hiro was closing in on him, like, really slowly from about half a mile away - sorry, but Sylar can stop bullets in flight - with a big fuckoff sword.

Of course, he might have let Hiro stab him deliberately in a sudden change of plan, knowing he'd survive, like he did when he "died" in Primatech Paper. But why would he be standing next to an exploding man in the first place, without Claire's powers to protect him, unless he was suicidal after causing his mother's death? Christ.

On another message board far, far away, a lot of people are taking it for granted that Nathan will have survived a nuclear explosion in his immediate vicinity, which seems like wishful thinking, but also complaining that when Candace was knocked out and her illusion crumbled, we didn't see her in her "true form". Was it ever established that this wasn't her true form? She was teasing Micah about it as they entered the polling booth, but it sounded like a joke to me.

[Ja'moke]

Yeah I thought Candice was joking about her having a different 'true form', I assumed she was just trying to act friendly to get Micah on side.

As I said on the temporary forum I was slightly disappointed by the finale, I'm not saying it wasn't enjoyable and it hasn't turned me off the show because the series as a whole has been one of the best TV shows in a while and the most exciting long-drama I've seen since Season 1 of Lost. I just expected more of the final showdown between Sylar and Peter. And as others have mentioned didn't really understand Sylar just standing and waiting for Hiro to run at him from rather far away with that sword. That's the only part I have a problem with, I don't mind Peter not flying away himself because he said "I can't control it. I can't do anything.", and I don't mind Claire not stabbing Peter in the head so that she could regenerate him again later because I believe that Peter wanted/knew he had to die and Nathan then didn't want Claire to have Peters death of her conscience, so he stepped in.

[Slaaaaabs]

A bit of a letdown after some of the intense action and superb set pieces of previous weeks.

Then again it did follow the trend of characters not doing things the easy way.

[surreal]

it was a bit of a letdown , but not terrible - I was hoping Peter would get the powers from the others he hadn't met and really go to town on Sylar, and finish by grabbing him and flying off, and Sylar being the bomb exploding in the atmosphere.  Nathan suddenly having a change of heart made no sense.

If they have any sense they will have Peter survive (he can regenerate, and the bomb could be an energy burst rather than being blown to bits).

I'm hoping the guy on the horse (Kensei?) is actually Hiro's father and he's immortal, or able to travel in time as Hiro can...

Anyway, I think they've set things up nicely for the next season, roll on the DVD and the lengthened pilot and the deleted scenes.

Incidentally, another nod to comic books (dunno if anyone has mentioned this) is the guy in the wheelchair who knew Peter was there was called Charles....

[MojoJojo]

Yeah, a disappointment. They did seem to pick and choose which visions came true and which didn't on a fairly arbitrary basis - even Peter's vision of blowing up happened in a different place and during the day. I don't care about about having an intricately worked out timetravel style plot, but considering Mendez's paintings were pretty much the motivation for everything, it's a bit crap that his power wasn't much better than guessing. I dunno, I think my problem is that the series was far better at building up anticipation than pretty much anything else. Once you pull out all the foreshadowing, your left with ... the great future episode, Hiro, a handful of other good scenes, and then lots of fairly mediocre stuff; the Niki/Jessica storyline being the most obvious, but lots of the other storylines were pretty weak - the Mendez/Peter/that bird love triangle, Chandra going back to India. I'm being overly harsh, but it did rely a lot on having lots of different storylines rather than good ones.

[Milo]

I was hoping Peter would get the powers from the others he hadn't met and really go to town on Sylar

I was kinda hoping that he'd be able to get all the powers that Sylar had nicked so he'd be able to do everything Sylar does plus his other stuff.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

it would have helped if they'd ramped up the Peter/Sylar confrontation a bit. If nothing else, it might have distracted Sylar from the fact that Hiro was closing in on him, like, really slowly from about half a mile away - sorry, but Sylar can stop bullets in flight - with a big fuckoff sword.

Exactly, it just didn't make sense that Sylar wouldn't do something when all he had to do was point at Hiro. Plus it totally invalidates Isaac's heroic "At least I showed them how to stop you." speech if all they needed to do to defeat this seemingly unstoppable monster was subject him to a common mugging.

[Joy Nktonga]

Bumpety-bump. (Any mods reading, this should probably be in Picture Box these days.)

If you haven't seen this outstanding TV show yet, and even if you have, you must watch BBC 2 from 9pm today. The first two eps are being aired followed by a 10 minute short, "Heroes Unmasked," some behind the scenes thingy.

I can't praise this show enough, even if the finale is a slight let-down. The first few episodes are a little slow going, but by the third I was getting in to it, and the ending to ep 3 was the point at which I became hooked.

If you love great telly do yourself a favour and watch this programme. Don't be put off by the lack of pace in the first few as the pay-off for sticking the course is worth it (even if it wasn't quite what we expected). I have rarely become so emotionally involved in a TV programme - I really felt all the highs and lows, and some of the cliff-hangers were excruciating. Truly great television.

EDIT - If you are going to take my top advice, do not go back to the start of this thread and read it all!

[Still Not George]

Seconded. Over the last few months I've frothed at numerous colleagues and friends about Heroes and not one of them has been anything less then enthusiastic once they've seen it.

[ziggy starbucks]

is there only one season of this?

[Still Not George]

So far, yes.

[ziggy starbucks]

I ask about the number of seasons just to see if it turns into a ER style ramblethon with all the original cast leaving.

Well I really enjoyed that. It was quite funny, especially the japanese fellow. Also the internet porn woman with the mad alter ego was impressively dark and unpleasant, I liked the hacked corpses a lot. It was all a bit confusing at first, with all the characters being introduced in a random way but thats the nature of most series.

Will definitely be watching for the next 20 weeks (20 weeks!!!)

[Still Not George]

Current rumour is that the next series of Heroes will follow a different group of evolved humans around and the current lot will only have cameo parts.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I heard that a while back, but then saw another rumour saying that as the current cast were so popular, most would have strong recurring roles. But I could be wrong and they might've changed their minds again - just out of interest George, where did you read that?

[Marv Orange]

Current rumour is that the next series of Heroes will follow a different group of evolved humans around and the current lot will only have cameo parts.

about season 2

Kring: Well, no. We still have a huge cast to service, but the season is going to feel different definitely. One of the things about a show like "Heroes," it sort of lives or dies by its ability to defy expectations on a weekly basis and that's a big chunk of why people are watching it. They want to have that experience of "Oh, I didn't see that coming." In many ways, the second season has to fulfill those same expectations, so it can't just be a redo or replay of the first season. There are a few new themes that we're playing with. Volume II which will probably last until the middle of the season is called "Generations" and for those people who were watching closely, they've realized that there is this other generation of people, parents like the Petrellis' mother and Linderman and Richard Roundtree's character and George Takei, all those characters represented another generation of people who dealt with these same issues. Season 2 will deal with some of the legacy that they've left behind, some of the mess they've left behind for the next generation to fix, so there's a big thematic as far as that in the sins of the parents being visited on the childen.

SHH!: Are there any new characters coming on board with the new season?
Kring: Yes, there's a few new characters as well. I mean, one of the other things about the show is that again, if we are positing this idea that this is happening all over the globe, it does seem kind of strange not to meet these people, plus the show has a need and a desire to constantly be moving and constantly be reinventing itself and regenerating. As new characters come in, older characters will fall away from the show, so it's got that as well.

Terristial veiwers might want to start a new thread.