Heroes Season 2: Spoilers ahoy.....

the shutdown man · 02 November, 2007, 10:13:58 AM

Okay, what are other people's opinions in what's happening in this? I want to like this season, I really do, but it's getting harder and harder with each episode. It's still good, it's decent watching, but it's nowhere near as good as last year. And they are wasting the best characters (Hiro wandering around ancient Japan with a stiffy) and in the latest episode, it seems like they're totally re-hashing last year's plot, except now it's a virus instead of a bomb.

I want the real Heroes back dammit!!!!

Bico · 02 November, 2007, 01:28:32 PM

I don't think they're wasting Hiro, as his bits are probably the best parts of the current crop of episodes, but I get what you're saying about everything else seeming same-old same-old. Claire's storylines seem like the writers are trying to go back to the really obvious stuff they managed to avoid doing in series 1, not noticing that series one got along just fine without yet another anaemic riff on Mean Girls. Isaac is dead, yet his storyline remains healthy, and Sylar mopes about doing nothing much. Expository dialogue threatens to make up about ninety percent of what comes from the character's mouths, too.
Interesting that the girl from new Orleans doesn't have a New Orleans accent - even Uhura made the effort. Bloody kids.
This could all be feet-finding, however - there could be a big turnaround being prepped for the mid-season cliffhanger for all we know. It would certainly explain the cliched big threats if they were nothing more than red herrings - I'm not convinced by the virus that came from nowhere, for a start. Mohinder's sister had it decades ago and now suddenly it's everywhere over the season-break? Whatnow? And why does everyone call Mohinder 'Suresh'? That's his family name, and it seems a little rude now.

Okay the second series is a little underwealming - but it still ain't Flash Gordon. That sounds like damning with faint praise, but it's actually something for which we should all be thankful.

the shutdown man · 02 November, 2007, 01:51:28 PM

Maybe there is a big turnaround waiting in the wings for the cliffhanger, but I think it's bad writing to make your audience think you've lost it for the first 11 episodes of the season and then go "WAIT, come back folks, now the good stuff is starting!"

They introduce important plot strands in one episode (Matt's dad, Niki going to the company) and then completely ignore them in the next while we spend time with Claire and West.

Also, a lot of people have said this, and I see where they're coming from; A lot of characters have had the reset button pushed this season. Peter, no memory, so now he has to learn his powers all over again. Claire, for some reason is cutting of her toes to learn the extent of her powers, despite having survived car crashes, being shot, being speared through the head, and a mini-nuclear explosion in season one. Mr. Bennett is now back to hiding things from Claire, who is also back to hiding things from him. Sylar is not dead, so Hiro's journey last season seems kinda pointless.

I've heard that one of the better writers from season one left before this season started. If that's true, it's really showing.

Satanist · 02 November, 2007, 03:42:47 PM

Too many characters and not enough time to do any of them justice.

Thats the problem I have with it.

the shutdown man · 06 November, 2007, 09:36:41 PM

I gotta say, the latest episode (number 7) is really quite good. It finally feels like the show has caught its breath again, and there wasn't a single scene of the annoying Mexican twins. Although we still had some Claire and West bullshit.....

skurvy · 06 November, 2007, 10:26:31 PM

ok, where are you viewing this? I had been streaming through tv-links but that is now closed down. After that I caught a few episodes at joox but that seems to have dried up too. Do I have to resort to torrents again?

the shutdown man · 06 November, 2007, 10:54:19 PM

Yeah, I use torrents. To be honest I prefer those to tv-links, they're better quality.

Art · 06 November, 2007, 11:06:40 PM

SPOILER: It's awful. Give up watching at Season 1.

Bico · 06 November, 2007, 11:47:27 PM

"I gotta say, the latest episode (number 7) is really quite good."

Really? This was where I drew the line at making excuses for it anymore - the writers' strike has granted this show a mercy-killing if this is what it's going to be like. The entire episode was a grim parody of a bad comic-book, but acted out by people who - and until this point I never realised it - actually deserve better, even her out of that last Resident Evil film. Even Hiro's bits lost their charm as they painted the backstory of the major villain (who was never mentioned before) as being identical to the big bad supervillain recently retconned into Wolverine's history - only to be universally savaged by readers. That's right, Heroes' new villain is ripped-off from a character who's derided as cliched and shite by PEOPLE WHO READ WOLVERINE COMICS.

It's almost an act of self-destructive genius how much of a turnaround they've managed in the space of one episode. Amazing in a way.

Roger Godpleton · 06 November, 2007, 11:52:30 PM

Would I get more fun from those pictures of Hayden Panettiere crying at a anti-whaling demo?

the shutdown man · 07 November, 2007, 10:00:27 AM

Well, maybe I'm only considering it good in comparison to the rest of the series (which isn't hard), but they've finally started pulling the various dangling plot strands together into what looks like being one decent storyline, if it goes the way I think it's going. And it turns out there was actually a point to Hiro being in Japan after all.

As for the villain never having been mentioned before, like the company man said, he's been locked up for we don't know how long. And the Company aren't the kind of people to go sharing secrets, so why would we have heard about him before now?

My opinions may flipflop again next week if the Wonder Twins show up, and Sylar keeps doing the same ol' shit he did last year again, but for now, I think they've picked it up.

the shutdown man · 07 November, 2007, 05:13:24 PM

Tim Kring has apparently got the message, promises to make things better:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20158840,00.html

Bico · 07 November, 2007, 08:10:22 PM

Simpleton - that sounds like a disturbingly specific sexual fetish to me.

the shutdown man · 09 November, 2007, 04:13:13 PM

This is pretty cool, it's footage of the Season 1 finale as seen from elsewhere in New York. It's not taken from an episode, but made for the web as part of a Lost-style ongoing extra story.

http://samantha48616e61.com/popups/drucker_clip.shtml

Jim_Campbell · 10 November, 2007, 09:33:11 PM

"Really? This was where I drew the line at making excuses for it anymore"

I'm a bit mystified, to be honest ... I'm only up to Episode 5, but I've no particular objections so far.

I'll concede that this may be because I was bullied into persevering with the first series even though I thought the first few episodes were fucking rubbish.

So far, Season 2 has passed the time amiably enough, although I'm now looking for the plot to move up a gear.

Cheers

Jim