Review catch up: Heroes

308: ‘Villains’

Writer: Rob Fresco
Director: Allan Arkush

Synopsis: Hiro attempts to delve into Arthur Petrelli's past to uncover the mystery behind him creating a rival company Pinehearst and his hatred towards Angela. Sylar stricken by guilt tries to stop his murderous ways with HRG and Elle vying for his blood. Meredith's training goes up in smoke with the arrival of her brother.

Review: An interesting, if slightly flawed, episode that takes one of the show’s most endearing staples – messing about with chronology – and plays continuity keepy-up with it. Rob Fresco is clearly having a wail of time, sewing together minor plot points from episodes, nay seasons, back with our contemporary cast of characters and their situations; so we get deft nods to the pilot with HRG first stepping into Mohinder’s cab and Meredith causing the fire that Claire ran through, as well as an opportunity to explain some of the more niggling questions that have hung high over the heads of certain players in the cast for quite some time. Angela’s distrusting malice is at least on its way to being afforded some context; Arthur’s death is given an enlighteningly sinister backdrop (how eerie is that scene?); and, of course, Flint and Meredith are revealed to be, shucks, faaaamily which, well, is kinda obvious now we all think about it. Plus we get to see Eric Roberts again which can only be a good thing… where ‘Villains’ stumbles slightly, however, is in the execution of Sylar’s story which, despite admirable attempts by all involved, comes across as rather cack-handed. The key to the problem lies in the inclusion of Elle: while there is a nice foreshadowing line in ‘The Butterfly Effect’ when the two meet in Level 5 (go on… look it up!), I just don’t buy that the two were involved. Perhaps it’s that they have zero chemistry. Maybe it’s the way it smacks of revisionism: all too often in Heroes, the production staff seem determined to connect the current state of play to what has come before, regardless of whether it makes logical sense. It’s as if they feel the need to erase ‘the new’ by making it ‘the old’… but of course, progression is the natural course of an on-running narrative and characters can weave in and out without having to have been there all along. Still, a good effort and kudos for the fan-pleasing attention to detail: changing the show title to the episode title, what scamps! 8.2

309: ‘It’s Coming’

Writer: Tim Kring
Director: Greg Yaitanes

Synopsis: Nathan learns of his father's plans, while Flint and Knox launch attacks on Hiro, Ando, Peter, and Claire. Meanwhile, Matt tries to revive Angela, Sylar meets with Elle, and Mohinder begins testing of his newest superpower formula

Review: Tim Kring puts pen to paper and strikes another one out of the park. After a couple of solid but slightly unimpressive episodes, it’s good to see Heroes on fighting form again. The plot is tight, structured neatly around the impending arrival of ‘something big’, which lends the individual narrative strands a cohesion that has been a little lacking of late. There’s a nice thematic juxtaposition between the gung ho action fest of Flint and Knox’s villainous terrorising of our heroes and the quiet, psychological manipulation of dear, sweet Angela by a gruesomely diabolical Arthur Petrelli (kudos to Greg Yaitanes here too, these scenes are superbly chilling). And then, of course, there’s Sylar’s torture at the hands of a grieving Elle, which has to rank as one of the most horrific, but simultaneously touching, moments of the entire series. A highly effective marriage of plot and character development then, which is exactly what drew us all to the show in the first place. 9.0

310: ‘The Eclipse, part one’

Writers: Aron Eli Coleite & Joe Pokaski
Director: Greg Beeman

Synopsis: The eclipse plays havoc with the heroes' powers. Arthur orders Elle and Sylar to bring in Claire. Hiro, Ando, and Matt follow Daphne to her hometown to learn what hold Arthur has on her, and Peter and Nathan travel to the Haitian's hometown to recruit him for the war with Pinehearst.

Review: Um. Don’t eclipses last for like, seconds? Minutes? And er… how, exactly, can a total eclipse be seen in Kansas and Haiti at the same time? (Okay, I suppose you could argue that the time scales don’t have to match up but come on…) Putting aside the scientific grumbles that will inevitably result from an episode like this, the first part of the big ‘Eclipse’ story is… well… a bit meh, really. ‘It’s Coming’ promised something epic; ‘The Eclipse’ gives us a load of hot air. Great, so the heroes’ abilities have disappeared. So, apparently, has the writers’ ability to make them interesting. Elle and Sylar’s ‘dangerous’ run around smacks of panic-induced padding on Coleite and Pokaski’s part; needing to fill an extra five minutes with material that doesn’t quicken the pace of the over-arching narrative. The Haitian’s story comes entirely out of left field and falls entirely flat. The viewer is given nowhere near enough time to process the context of the situation: Nathan and Peter quite literally fall into the guy’s fight with his brother (the ludicrously named Baron Samedi) while it’s supposedly in full swing and yet we barely get to see any of it. Worse, Samedi doesn’t even appear on screen and is merely referenced in off-the-cuff epithets about how much of a ‘bad guy’ he is. This is no way to ‘sell’ a threat, no way to build it into an exciting, suspenseful race against time to rescue the heroes from the villains. I found it difficult to give a jot about what the Haitian was up to, to be honest, and the Petrelli brothers’ incessant pointless bickering only exacerbated matters. Ironically, it is Matt’s virtual non-storyline that is the highlight of the episode, if only because it gets to showcase the delightful comic talents of Masi Oka and actually lends his relationship with Daphne, and her character, some much needed depth. Something of a wasted opportunity. 6.7

311: ‘The Eclipse, part two’

Writers: Aron Eli Coleite & Joe Pokaski
Director: Holly Dale

Synopsis: The eclipse continues to create chaos. Sylar and Elle face HRG's wrath. Peter, Nathan and the Haitian go up against Baron Samedi. Ando, Sam, and Frack try to help Hiro with his memory loss.

Review: The eclipse drags on and so does the show, treading water in the advancement of the central storylines for the second week in a row and, in many aspects, failing to generate the weighty level of tension that ‘It’s Coming’ seemed to promise us all. Everyone has a good run around again (apart from Hiro that is, who gets to have a few moments with Seth Green… nice geeky touch there, guys) and, for the most part, it all seems rather superfluous. I still don’t care about Baron Samedi, even after the Haitian killed him in one of the most immensely cool ways possible. Sylar and Elle’s transformation from the hunters to the hunted becomes tiresome after a while as, once again, it falls back on the somewhat beleaguered, well-worn ‘conflict’ between hero and villain. Shades of grey, yeah, we get it guys. Seriously. No need to beat us around the head with it anymore. The decision to have Gabriel murder his lover is also somewhat questionable: while one suspects the writers were attempting to illustrate how he straddles the line between black and white, they actually reveal to us all just how desperate they are to ‘complicate’ their characters. It’s a forced narrative swerve and doesn’t scan at all, feeling artificial rather than immersing you in the show’s ‘reality’. The same can be said of Nathan’s completely unprecedented decision to side with Arthur: all because he saw how powers could help people in Haiti? Um, hasn’t the guy been aware of that since season one? This is conflict created for conflict’s sake and, therefore, the viewer simply cannot buy into it. One to watch on auto pilot, with the bare minimum of thought. 6.7

312: ‘Our Father’

Writers: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Synopsis: Hiro and Claire unite in their bid to stop Arthur by travelling back in time. Peter and the Haitian must face Sylar in order to get to Arthur. Ando, Daphne and Matt search for the last 9th Wonders! story.

Review: Ya-tah! Something good at last. ‘Our Father’ is a dramatic improvement on the laborious trudge-fest of ‘The Eclipse’ two parter and, while there is still a little too much running around for my liking, the overall impression is one of a well structured, nicely woven tale. The obvious highlight is Hiro and Claire’s excursion into the past which is beautifully executed in all aspects: check out the sumptuous cinematography, the highly evocative direction and, perhaps most importantly, the strength of the acting which, by all accounts, is a complete hole in one. Tamlyn Tomita does an admirable job and George Takei is predictably awesome, but what about Masi Oka, eh? Going from token comedy fodder to haphazard cutie to thoroughly moving emotional wreck in the space of thirty short minutes is no small feat; the guy surely deserves some sort of award. I don’t know about you but I was about to ready to bawl halfway through his moment with his mom… in fact, I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it. This is a wonderful piece of character polishing that just hammers home exactly how fantastic Heroes can be when it sets its mind to it. There’s Sylar’s completely unexpected slaying of Arthur to herald too, as well as the guilty pleasure that is the pursuit of the last 9th Wonders and, of course, Nathan’s mission to turn a bunch of soldiers into super-humans which, bizarrely, wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. A solid run into the fall, and volume, finale. 9.0

313: ‘Dual’

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Director: Greg Beeman

Synopsis: Nathan and Peter face off, and Nathan makes a move with far reaching consequences. Sylar takes desperate measures at Primatech and the fates of several heroes hang in the balance. Ando, Matt, and Daphne continue their quest to save Hiro.

Review: Hmm… don’t know about you guys but ‘Dual’ left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Loeb’s script suffers from the weight of fall finale expectation: the script attempts to tidy up too many narrative strands that have built over the course of the last thirteen episodes. Resultantly, certain aspects of the plot aren’t given enough space to breathe and fall rather flat in their resolution: case in point, the retrieval of the formula which is as simple as 1-2-punch, lights out Tracey Strauss. Given the importance lent to this particular strand in the preceding episodes, it seems to deserve more than simply a thirty second quick-fire outcome. Ando and Daphne’s rescue of Hiro also makes no scientific sense whatsoever, despite the script’s attempts to make it do so (Einstein’s theory relates to travelling forward in time, not backward). And then, of course, there’s Nathan’s volte-face, his complete and utter rejection of his beloved brother who, despite inexplicably turning a gun on him at the start of the episode, still demonstrates his love by injecting himself with that ruddy formula and saving his life. Again. Look, I’m all for the conflict; really, I am. It just needs many, many more episodes of build up, much more time to get to the stage of all out resentment that it currently sits at. It smacks far too much of a set-up: the movement of narrative pieces so that they are correctly positioned for the next wave of story. And, at episode’s end, we find that it is exactly that: oh look, Nathan’s only advocating a hero Holocaust… to the President, no less! What a cad! Okay, okay, I’ll back down… I confess, Fugitives certainly does seem interesting and definitely shows promise. But meh… I just don’t really like how we got there. Best part of ‘Dual’? Sylar’s delicious manipulation of the most dysfunctional family never to have set foot on The Jeremy Kyle Show. This is brilliantly suspenseful stuff, chillingly claustrophobic and full of cold, hardened malice, and harkens back to the wonderfully executed sequences between Sylar and Claire in the opening episode of the volume. I loved every eerie second (well, except for that bit about Sylar’s parents being some other freaks… honestly, can’t we have a bit of straightforward honesty in this show?) and it almost makes up for the somewhat lacklustre nature of the rest of the episode. Almost. 7.3