Thursday 23 April 2009

Review catch-up: Heroes

318: 'Exposed'

Wr: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Dr: Eric Laneuville

Synopsis: After a tip from "Rebel", Matt and Peter hurry to rescue Daphne and find evidence that may expose the government's plans to capture those with powers. Sylar uncovers the truth about his mother from past memories on his father, while the Hunter hatches an explosive plan of his own.

Review: Writing this review seven weeks after the original broadcast of the episode has proven to be a somewhat frustrating experience. I really cannot remember very much about it. Unfortunately, this is considerably telling, indicating that there was nothing particularly memorable about the instalment to set it apart from the other hours in the Heroes arsenal. In the end, I resorted to trawling through the TV.com archives for a synopsis and determined that, yup, nothing of much consequence happens in 'Exposed'. Claire helps handsome, buff COMIC BOOK STORE GUY (oxymoron? Go figure)-cum-young-Aquaman escape from the clutches of the evil Nathan Petrelli regime. This is plot stretched wafer thin, barely able to maintain its own momentum. Hell, I know I was drooping during it. Sylar remembers his dad murdering his mom and mysteriously saves Luke when he would normally abandon him/slice his brains open. This is passable, sure, but that's got a lot more to do with Quinto's acting chops than it has with the quality of the writing. The story, again, is predictable and rather trad, taking baby steps toward its ultimate goal and not even having the decency to make them particularly surprising. And then there's Matt and Peter's attempt to expose the duplicitous Denko which, again, seems to lack that oh-so-crucial element of engagement, primarily because we're all painfully aware that it won't come to fruition. Sadly, it seems that in the desperate desire to appease a vocal minority bemoaning the overly complex nature of the show, Tim Kring has overreacted, his knee has jerked, and now Heroes has abandoned the complex altogether. Shame really. This isn't a bad hour of television by any standards... it's just rather blase. And that's not what I expect from this show. 6.4

319: 'Shades of Gray'

Wr: Oliver Grigsby
Dr: Greg Beeman

Synopsis: Sylar finds his father at last, Claire must decide whether to help a sworn enemy, Danko digs into the secrets of the Petrelli family, and Matt must find a way out of an explosive situation.

Review: For all there are some significant game changing moments in 'Shades of Gray', they essentially act as window-dressing to the episode's real feature: giving Zachary Quinto a chance to remind us all just why he's the coolest villain on network television. The interplay between Sylar and his long lost father is definitely the highlight here. John Glover is excellent foil for Quinto, capturing the sad, lonely callousness of this most wretched of men with great ease. It's a shame that the encounter, while superbly written, ultimately amounts to very little other than Sylar returning to his former self (with a possible minor variation in his potential assisting of Danko), and therefore comes as a bit of a predictable waste of time. Still, for a good thirty minutes, this is riveting stuff. The supporting stories are a slightly mixed bag: while Nathan's fall from grace is executed quite well (even if that shove through the window is completely telegraphed), the Claire/Puppeteer narrative just feels like another exercise in water-treading. The same beats are reiterated here as last week: should young Bennet save the day and risk her life or stand aside and let the big boys do their thing? Oh sure, David H. Lawrence XVII is a joy to watch but was his return really necessary? It seems utterly superfluous and, in any case, didn't he die, like, six episodes ago?! Oh yeah and, writing staff, unnecessarily lascivious comic book store scene where everyone lusts after Claire? Yawn. 7.8

320: 'Cold Snap'


Wr: Bryan Fuller
Dr: Greg Yaitanes

Synopsis: The identity of "Rebel" is revealed. Noah wants Danko to let Tracy go in the hope that she will lead them to Rebel. Hiro and Ando continue with the mission that Rebel entrusted to them, to keep the new hero safe.

Review: Is Bryan Fuller a Godsend? Is his return to the Heroes writing staff the change that is needed to give the show a much-needed shove in the right direction? Well, judging by his first effort since Pushing Daisies well, the pun is just far too obvious, yes and no. 'Cold Snap' certainly sees a general upswing in quality: the script is solid, engaging and eventful and contains some of the most sparkling dialogue we've heard in aeons. There's an emphasis on character development here but not at the expense of the story, which is the problem that has plagued Heroes since Kring pressed the 'reset' button at the beginning of volume four. While fans have been crying out for a return to the halcyon days of the first season, it hasn't really been achieved... until now. Although arguably, this is not an exact return to form, it still shows promise. Tracey Strauss gets a satisfying character-arc-resolving death and it looks well cool. Rebel's identity is revealed and it's entirely logical. Hiro and Ando get an amusing side-stpry involving 'baby Matt Parkman' that's silly but rewarding because it advances things. Daphne's swan-song is unexpected and engaging, even if one does feel rather like the aforementioned 'reset' button is being pressed on characters far more frequently than it should. I mean, she renounces her entire relationship with the guy after professing her undying love like, three episodes ago. It's a bit much, a bit fast - one of the paradoxes crippling Heroes is the juxtaposition between slow-moving action and ludicrously-paced allegiance/personality shifts - but as it seems to signify the end of this problematic storyline, I'm willing to overlook it. A good effort on the whole and hopefully a sign of things to come. 8.3

321: 'Into Asylum'

Wr: Joe Pokaski
Dr: Jim Chory

Synopsis: The heroes try to mend their broken relationships as Nathan and Claire seek refuge in Mexico and Peter and Angela hide out in a church. Danko's bid to wipe out the superpowered population intensifies as he unites with a surprising new ally.

Review: Heroes crawls to a snail's pace with this rather more reflective hour. It's a brave decision to concentrate so squarely on character in the manner that 'Into Asylum' does: there's barely a substantial plot development in sight, save for Sylar's rather cool (no matter how you look at it) acquisition of the ability to shapeshift. Instead, we spend a little time exploring the inner workings of Angela Petrelli's warped psyche and attempting to reconcile the differences between Claire and her biological father. The former is actually quite interesting, even if it does drag in places, as it finally offers the potential for some explanation as to the woman's bizarrely malicious nature, teetering towards redemption. The latter, unfortunately, is not so successful. Sure, we get a nice moment of truth between the two when they return, inebriated, to the apartment but the extraneous sequences in which they indulge themselves in tequila shooters are just plain mind-numbing. Get to the (blatantly obvious) point already! There's the aforementioned Sylar's thread to consider too and this certainly helps pick things up as Zachary and Zelkjo just ooze chemistry. At least, with this and certain aspects of Angela's story, the mood is lifted from catatonic to passable. Perhaps not the wisest pace change but certainly not without merit. 6.9

322: 'Turn and Face the Strange'

Wr: Mark Verheiden & Rob Fresco
Dr: Jeannot Szwarc

Synopsis: Someone close to Danko is put in the line of fire as he spearheads the anti-superhuman operation. Meanwhile, Noah's marriage continues to crumble while Hiro and Ando continue their journey to save Matt. Angela faces some demons from her past.

Review: Thankfully, 'Turn and Face the Strange' picks up the pace somewhat after last week's slightly frustrating navel-gazing, although it's not without its problems. Yet again, the plot feels like an overblown run around, with characters and allegiances shifting around for no apparently good reason. So someone has yet another, all-too-easy confrontation with Danko (you'd think the man would at least change his locks or, you know, move house after Petrelli AND Sylar have been able to find him... what does he do, advertise in the local press?!) AND LETS HIM GO. Oh sure, we all get that Matt Parkman isn't a killer but how about taking the morally ambiguous ground for once? Being brave and not making the obvious narratalogical decision? And then, just to make matters worse, having Hiro arrive just in the nick of flaming time and saving the day, fixing Matt's apparently 'broken' character with a visit from his bairn? A bairn, who, I might add, is responsible for one of the most vacuous plots ever to grace the show in the whole 'Ando makes a funny face' trope. I get that this was an attempt at injecting some irreverent humour into the show, building on the 'cutesy' appeal of the Japanese characters, but let's call a spade a spade here... it stunk, no two ways about it. I'm also rather dubious about Angela's sudden revelation and need to gather everyone at this random, abandoned palce so they can 'finally know the truth'. Um, how many times has that sentence been uttered in the show's three year run? Frankly, I'm sick of 'peeling the onion', as it were, finding that there's some secret, probably not so major and really rather throwaway, revelation about the characters' pasts that we weren't previously privy to (and that, usually, retcons what has already been established). What's with the grave-digging, too? Is it really necessary? Why isn't Angela mucking in? And why do they all obey her every, generally evil and malicious, whim? *sigh* Sounds like I hated this one, doesn't it? Well, I didn't really. Greg Grunberg is excellent when he's confronting Zelkjo, Jack Coleman is given HRG's best material in eons as he gets to go super-paranoid on his poor wife's ass and the shapeshifting development continues to show great promise for Sylar's storyline, which Zachary Quinto clearly relishes. I just wish they'd take a little more time to think their stories through before executing them. With a smidgeon of extra attention, the frustrating gripes could be ironed out. 7.1

323: '1961'

Wr: Aron Eli Coleite
Dr: Adam Kane

Synopsis: Angela uncovers the dark secrets of her past, while Mohinder learns of his father's involvement in a forgotten government operation.

Review: And so Heroes lets loose with the flashbacks again, lending credence to the notion that it's becoming the new Lost. The black and white retrospective was an original and rewarding concept when it was first utilised in season one's 'Company Man' but by this point, it's so old hat, so passe, that you wonder why the production staff seem so obsessed with it. Oh sure, it looks nice and gives the director of photography an opportunity to revel in all the chiaroscuro possibilities, but as a viewing experience, it's tiresome... particularly when one considers the rather blase and ultimately pointless nature of the episode itself. Great, so it rebuilds the seemingly annihilated Petrelli bridge, bringing Angela, Peter, Nathan, Claire and HRG back together in at least a fairly understandable fashion, but the method by which this is achieved is pretty lacking. We aren't given enough of an opportunity to engage with Alice in order to empathise with her plight and, in any case, it's a bit difficult to believe that she's been living in that government bunker for fifty years. Furthermore, there's some woeful over-acting from a large number of the cast, not the least of which is Christine Rose who is uncharacteristically hammy. Perhaps it's the less-than-stellar dialogue that hampers things. Still, it's not all bad: there's a promising cliffhanger, young Alice and Angela are arguably better than their adult counterparts and there's a lovely nod to continuity with Angela's sock-stealing, which is actually referenced in 'Genesis' (the pilot episode) and given a thoroughly logical explanation here. It's just a shame that, for a show so desperately in need of some forward momentum, it continues to produce episodes like '1961' which, while passable in their own right, when taken altogether, frustrate rather than satisfy. 6.4

324: 'I Am Sylar'

Wr: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Dr: Allan Arkush

Synopsis: Sylar, still engaged in an unlikely alliance, faces an identity crisis as his newest power begins to affect him in strange ways. Hiro and Ando try to bring down Building 26 as Matt grapples with fatherhood. Nathan begins to unfold a plan to to set things right.

Review: Or 'the one with the homage to Richey Edwards'. Did ya see that pain-inducing, self-mutilating episode title reveal? Bet that would've hurt more than '4REAL'. Anyway, 'I Am Sylar' is a vast improvement on '1961'. The episode shows considerable promise because it actually drives its myriad narratives forward in a variety of exciting ways. Hiro and Ando finally get to do something of consequence in their attempt to gain access to Building 26 and it's all mired in some wonderful, meaningful character development that's been a long time coming. Hiro's mysterious nosebleed is also unexpected and shocking, leaving the viewing genuinely intrigued to see what happens next. Sylar's story is also engaging. In fact, it's generally excellent. There's some superb dialogue, fantastic acting and really interesting beats in his confusion with the development of his shapeshifting ability and, like the Japanese boys' story, it's mostly unpredictable. The return of Gabriel's doting adoptive mother is a lovely touch and plays beautifully, demonstrating yet again why, when written right, the brain slicer is the best damn character in the show. And what's more, we get Micah in the mix too which is always a treat. Even the Petrellis get a fairly decent plot this week as Nathan confronts his doppelgänger and nearly snuffs it. All good, then? Well, almost. If only it weren't for Matt Parkman's uninteresting dalliance with his ex-wife which essentially runs around in circles and does nothing. He's gonna help take down Danko, he isn't, oh wait, he is. It smacks of filler and sadly, illustrates just how thin this whole 'fugitives' story really is. Thankfully, this doesn't detract too much from the quality of the hour, although the jury's out on the closing scene in which Sylar heals from THE ONLY THING THAT CAN KILL HIM. This kind of thing never bodes well. Time will tell though and for now, I'll make do with this being the best damn episode of Heroes in ages. 8.6

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