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Recent TV
I was worried about the fact that I'm working late on Monday nights now and will have to tape both T:SCC and Heroes, but after watching the season premiere of Heroes I'm not sure that's going to be a problem.
It's not that I didn't find the episode superficially entertaining, and I actually liked some of the plot twists, but the fact is, I no longer find myself invested in these characters. I don't know if it's the long time lag since last season or what, but the only plotline I was even marginally interested in was the Bennetts, and even that didn't grab me as much as it should have, considering what happened.
I mean, Peter had to shoot his own brother to save all the people with powers from being hunted and confined, which I should have found heartbreaking, and yet I didn't. Possibly because I knew there was no way they were killing off Nathan? And I used to like the time-travel plots on this show, so you would think that the whole idea that Peter might have created an even *worse* future by preventing the one he did would be a little exciting to me, but instead I was just bored, and a little frustrated. I wasn't even excited by Mama Petrelli really stepping up her role this season and chewing out Peter (multiple times), becoming head of the Company, and turning out to be Sylar's real mom. The only part of the whole Petrelli storyline that hooked me even a little bit was Nathan's conversations with the invisible Lindermann.
And if the Petrelli's plots underwhelmed me, I have to say that I was actively annoyed by Hiro's new plotline.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
latxcvi pointed out the stupidity of it in her review--considering all his experiences with Adam last year, Hiro should know you don't always know who the villain and who the hero is in a scenario, based on such a brief snapshot in time. Plus, frankly? The whole "guarding the secret that he couldn't contain his curiousity about and so it gets stolen" thing just seemed frustratingly DUMB.
And speaking of dumb--every season I hope that they'll let Mohinder show his supposed intelligence, and every season they make him even more stupid. Words cannot express how little I wanted to see him have sex with Maya and become the Fly. Honestly? When he told Maya he couldn't use the formula to cure her, I was really hoping she would kill him. At this point I have lost all sympathy for his character, and I have a hard time believing I'll get it back.
Really, the only plotline I felt any real emotional response to was Claire's. I loved what a good job she did fighting back against Sylar, even if she was unsuccessful, and God, that scene where he was eating part of her brain while she was conscious was pretty much the creepiest thing ever. Her mom, later, was so concerned she had been raped, but of course she was violated in an even more profound way, especially if the pain that made her feel human has been taken away. And God, I can't even imagine being told you will never die--what a curse, considering the various dystopian futures we keep seeing in this show.
I was happy Noah escaped and got to have his reunion with Claire, and I'm even onboard with his mission to track down the new bad guys, though honestly I am pretty meh about their existence, and how they are purportedly worse than Sylar. WhatEVER, show. I pretty much think the villains you already had were fine, thanks very much. The only thing interesting about that whole escape plotline was the fun at getting Kristin Bell and Francis Capra in the same scene together.
I think I am giving this show one more week before bailing completely. There's just not enough Claire and Noah in the average episode to keep me taping it, when there are other things I could be watching instead.
I was talking to a friend on Monday about my dilemma about taping Heroes v. Terminator, and how glad I was to find out that the first hour of the three hour Heroes event was just the cast talking, so I didn't have to make a Solomonic decision, and he (a big Heroes fan) scoffed at the whole idea of Terminator: "Isn't that just a big retread of the movies?"
And in trying to explain to him why I love this show so much, I focused on two things: (a) Sarah's moral struggles and (b)the interesting complexity of the Terminators. And both of those themes were very much in evidence in this episode.
I suppose I might get tired of it, eventually, but I really love episodes that make Sarah choose between being a decent person in the here-and-now v. making the expedient choice to protect John (and therefore the whole future). And of course Charlie's situation is very much complicated by the fact that she feels responsible for bringing him into her world, and by the fact that she loves him (or used to) and he helped them and in doing so put his own family in danger.
I think she ought to have warned John more specifically about the danger he was in, but I guess she couldn't do that and keep him away from Charlie, given his behavior in the past, so I at least understood the choice not to tell him. And I loved her comment to Charlie's wife that she expected her to be dead (wow, Sarah, sugarcoat things, why don't you), because that makes sense to me. She wasn't really going to help Charlie rescue his wife; she thought she was mainly comforting him by going through the motions.
But I loved how perplexed she was by Cromartie's trap. And --while I'm not sure it actually makes sense --I loved that Cromartie is now trying these indirect approaches to get John. It makes us wonder what, precisely, is going on in his head--and is he at all connected to the Shirley Manson terminator, or do they each have their own agendas? I like the fact that it's not just Cameron the show is making more complicated, it's all the terminators. And OMG, the B movie they kept showing throughout the episode? Looked so much like "Beastmaster" that at first I didn't realize it was faked, I thought it was just an episode Garrett Dillahunt had been in that they were showing as a joke. That they faked that whole thing, complete with the hilarious stock tiger footage? Is completely made of awesome. I *loved* that. And I also loved that we finally found a weakness of terminators: they don't float! Now we just need lots of underwater battles!
I am also completely intrigued by Shirley Manson Terminator (whose name, apparently, is Catherine Weaver). When did she step into that life, I wonder, and what does she want with Ellison?
It's not that I didn't find the episode superficially entertaining, and I actually liked some of the plot twists, but the fact is, I no longer find myself invested in these characters. I don't know if it's the long time lag since last season or what, but the only plotline I was even marginally interested in was the Bennetts, and even that didn't grab me as much as it should have, considering what happened.
I mean, Peter had to shoot his own brother to save all the people with powers from being hunted and confined, which I should have found heartbreaking, and yet I didn't. Possibly because I knew there was no way they were killing off Nathan? And I used to like the time-travel plots on this show, so you would think that the whole idea that Peter might have created an even *worse* future by preventing the one he did would be a little exciting to me, but instead I was just bored, and a little frustrated. I wasn't even excited by Mama Petrelli really stepping up her role this season and chewing out Peter (multiple times), becoming head of the Company, and turning out to be Sylar's real mom. The only part of the whole Petrelli storyline that hooked me even a little bit was Nathan's conversations with the invisible Lindermann.
And if the Petrelli's plots underwhelmed me, I have to say that I was actively annoyed by Hiro's new plotline.
latxcvi pointed out the stupidity of it in her review--considering all his experiences with Adam last year, Hiro should know you don't always know who the villain and who the hero is in a scenario, based on such a brief snapshot in time. Plus, frankly? The whole "guarding the secret that he couldn't contain his curiousity about and so it gets stolen" thing just seemed frustratingly DUMB. And speaking of dumb--every season I hope that they'll let Mohinder show his supposed intelligence, and every season they make him even more stupid. Words cannot express how little I wanted to see him have sex with Maya and become the Fly. Honestly? When he told Maya he couldn't use the formula to cure her, I was really hoping she would kill him. At this point I have lost all sympathy for his character, and I have a hard time believing I'll get it back.
Really, the only plotline I felt any real emotional response to was Claire's. I loved what a good job she did fighting back against Sylar, even if she was unsuccessful, and God, that scene where he was eating part of her brain while she was conscious was pretty much the creepiest thing ever. Her mom, later, was so concerned she had been raped, but of course she was violated in an even more profound way, especially if the pain that made her feel human has been taken away. And God, I can't even imagine being told you will never die--what a curse, considering the various dystopian futures we keep seeing in this show.
I was happy Noah escaped and got to have his reunion with Claire, and I'm even onboard with his mission to track down the new bad guys, though honestly I am pretty meh about their existence, and how they are purportedly worse than Sylar. WhatEVER, show. I pretty much think the villains you already had were fine, thanks very much. The only thing interesting about that whole escape plotline was the fun at getting Kristin Bell and Francis Capra in the same scene together.
I think I am giving this show one more week before bailing completely. There's just not enough Claire and Noah in the average episode to keep me taping it, when there are other things I could be watching instead.
I was talking to a friend on Monday about my dilemma about taping Heroes v. Terminator, and how glad I was to find out that the first hour of the three hour Heroes event was just the cast talking, so I didn't have to make a Solomonic decision, and he (a big Heroes fan) scoffed at the whole idea of Terminator: "Isn't that just a big retread of the movies?"
And in trying to explain to him why I love this show so much, I focused on two things: (a) Sarah's moral struggles and (b)the interesting complexity of the Terminators. And both of those themes were very much in evidence in this episode.
I suppose I might get tired of it, eventually, but I really love episodes that make Sarah choose between being a decent person in the here-and-now v. making the expedient choice to protect John (and therefore the whole future). And of course Charlie's situation is very much complicated by the fact that she feels responsible for bringing him into her world, and by the fact that she loves him (or used to) and he helped them and in doing so put his own family in danger.
I think she ought to have warned John more specifically about the danger he was in, but I guess she couldn't do that and keep him away from Charlie, given his behavior in the past, so I at least understood the choice not to tell him. And I loved her comment to Charlie's wife that she expected her to be dead (wow, Sarah, sugarcoat things, why don't you), because that makes sense to me. She wasn't really going to help Charlie rescue his wife; she thought she was mainly comforting him by going through the motions.
But I loved how perplexed she was by Cromartie's trap. And --while I'm not sure it actually makes sense --I loved that Cromartie is now trying these indirect approaches to get John. It makes us wonder what, precisely, is going on in his head--and is he at all connected to the Shirley Manson terminator, or do they each have their own agendas? I like the fact that it's not just Cameron the show is making more complicated, it's all the terminators. And OMG, the B movie they kept showing throughout the episode? Looked so much like "Beastmaster" that at first I didn't realize it was faked, I thought it was just an episode Garrett Dillahunt had been in that they were showing as a joke. That they faked that whole thing, complete with the hilarious stock tiger footage? Is completely made of awesome. I *loved* that. And I also loved that we finally found a weakness of terminators: they don't float! Now we just need lots of underwater battles!
I am also completely intrigued by Shirley Manson Terminator (whose name, apparently, is Catherine Weaver). When did she step into that life, I wonder, and what does she want with Ellison?
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