DVR Break-Up: Heroes
Alan Sepinwall, in the comments thread of his post on Heroes earlier today:
[M]y feeling is that the show wasn’t even that good in season 1, outside of a handful of episodes (“Five Years Later,” “Company Man”), but the novelty of it, the cliffhangers, and our misguided belief that this was all going somewhere fooled us into thinking “Heroes” was better than it actually was. Once we got the season one finale, and especially once we got season two, the blinders came off and we realized the emperor has no clothes, and probably never did.
I’d forgotten about this in the intervening months, but I almost booted Heroes off the season-pass list several times in S1; I liked what it tried to do, but it seemed to have no sense of its own strengths — or weaknesses. For every thing it did right (killing off Tawny what’s-her-nuts; foregrounding HRG), it doubled down the wrong: the damp finale, the crappy acting, the bombastic voice-overs. I frequently found it a chore to watch, but the glimmers of promise it occasionally showed kept me tuning in.
I chalked up the garbagey S2 to disorganization and high expectations, but again, I’d forgotten that I agree with Alan and S1 is not actually that fantastic. Yes, S2 sucked, but not in any way we couldn’t have seen coming; this is a writing staff that, for all its talent at setting a mood and all its skill at leveraging special effects and camera angles to create tension, has never worked out a basic time-travel bible for the show. I can forgive certain liberties taken with science; I can forgive the straight-faced high-school-commencement use of Yeats like either the passage or its meaning is obscure (although I suspect the writers may have misapprehended the meaning of those lines in the second place); I can forgive plot pacing that twitches at some points and drags at others, with such a huge cast; even some bad acting is okay.
All of them together, when the writing staff seems not to have read prior scripts, seen a single ep of Star Trek: TOS, or worked out a season outline? No. I’d thought to give it two weeks to win me back over, but 1) I don’t know why I started dating it in the first place, because it kinda bored me even during the honeymoon period, and 2) things won’t improve.
“But Andre Royo was in the cred–” Don’t care. Here’s your stuff, Heroes. And no, you may not date my friends.
Tags: Alan Sepinwall friends Heroes Product Break-Up shut up Mohinder TV
I still like it. I need pain in my life and I don’t watch Lost, so I have to get it somewhere.
Argh. Tell me about it. The most frustrating thing about this premiere that it seems to be content merely to repeat all the motifs of the first season, with no sense that its audience has, in fact, been there and done that. The only thing I enjoyed about it was finding out a little bit more about Mrs. Petrelli’s powers, but that’s a pretty small drop in a two hour bucket.
I really agree with this assessment. The first two seasons had me hooked, but mostly because I Netflixed them, and could burn through the stupid parts (of which there were plenty). By the time Maya and Alejandro came along and screwed up everything, I began to suspect I was wasting my time. When Mohinder (formerly the hottest man on TV; now, not so much) started speed-humping that whiny blood-eyed bitch, I knew it was time to move on.
Thank you for giving me an excuse to delete last night’s episode off my tivo without watching it. I turned on the season pass out of habit, but when I saw it on the menu when I got home today I felt like, Mom? Do I *have* to?
“When Mohinder (formerly the hottest man on TV; now, not so much) started speed-humping that whiny blood-eyed bitch, I knew it was time to move on.”
And did I miss something, or is this sudden excitement about injecting everyone with Hero Juice ™ totally out of character? Yeah, he expositioned something about his motivations, but it still wasn’t believable.
Also: don’t make Grunberg boring. I resent that.
And, AND — we wait two seasons to find out what Mama Petrelli’s hidden superpower is, and we get: she dreams the future? No. The longer we have to wait for the reveal, the more awesome the superpower has to be. And this is the lamest power ever. Well, after the black eye goo, but I stopped acknowledging Maya’s storyline about a year ago.
I should also add that Sepinwall and I were the two people who watched Journeyman, so I’m not one of those It Violates The Prime Directive fascists across the board, but you do have to make some effort. The “Hiro meets the Williamsburg Speedster” plot was so muddled on the laws-of-physics implications that I could barely follow actual events onscreen; I was too busy trying to figure out how everything was supposed to work. And why she couldn’t slow down for ten minutes to buy a comb.
I punted Lost after the S2 finale and have never regretted it; I doubt I’ll reconsider this decision. I’m all for turgid self-importance if it’s entertaining (see: why I still watch ANTM although Tyra makes my bones itch), but if a foggy air of myth is all you’ve got to offer, I’ve got books want reading.
Wow, I feel so validated now. I stuck it out through season 1 because my boyfriend, now-husband, was enjoying it, but the awful writing drove me crazy. (Especially the Mohinder voiceovers, though it’s fun to make those up and imitate them, so at least for that, thanks, Heroes.)
I also dumped Lost after season 2, though I didn’t stick it out for the finale.
And Alias…just for ONCE it would be so great to have a show that actually delivered on its mythic promises. Whenever it becomes obvious that the show’s “mystery” is as much a mystery to the writers as it is to us, I die a little on the inside from disappointment.
My wife forgot to record it Monday because she completely forgot it was on. I had a brief moment of disappointment, and then I realized it was the perfect excuse to abandon it. And I fear it shan’t be missed.
I quit Lost after the Season 1 finale-all that buildup and the big reveal when they finally open the fucking hatch is a ladder?! Ok, I’m out and I never looked back, despite being told over and over again how good it is now.
Oh goody – I was feeling like I would have to turn in my Nerd Card for being ‘meh’ about Heroes. Good to know I can not watch it and still keep my Nerd Status.
As for Lost, well… I’m a big fan of resolution and a glutton for punishment at the same time, so I’ll be watching that until the final, inevitably disappointing end. G4 started showing them from the beginning starting last week, so I’ve been rewatching Season 1 and it still holds up pretty well. I know what happens, yet I’m still getting a WTF feeling (that I don’t yet resent because in S1 there was still hope that things would be explained). Plus, there is plenty of eye candy to make the rough plot points go over a little better. So that’s nice.
I decided I would give Heroes one more chance, and about halfway through the premiere I was just about to turn it off, and then: Francis Capra. I loved him on Veronica Mars, and he’s lookin’ good, so I think Heroes has me hooked at least for a few more episodes. But if they kill off Weevil or woefully underuse him, I’m gone.
(And I’ll have you know that you were one of *three* people watching Journeyman, thankyouverymuch…)
FYI, I’m pretty sure there were three people that watched Journeyman, because I was one. I liked it, liked where it was going (once it got into a groove and realized the love triangle idea was baaaaad), and was sad to see it go.
Never got into Heroes, and now it sounds like that’s a good thing.
OH MY LORD I HATE DAPHNE’S HAIR SO MUCH. Someone please kill her. Mousse her to death, for all I care.
And was the shameless, blatant, almost shot-by-shot ripoff of “The Fly” necessary? Geez, people, Jeff Goldblum is like, still alive and stuff. Don’t do that. Also, it’s gross.
I still love the show, but it is totally uneven. Matt Parkman is being wasted–you can’t tell me there aren’t better things to do with a character who can read minds and mentally “push” people. The scene with Sylar and Claire in the kitchen will be giving me nightmares for months. “Are you going to eat my brain?” “Claire, that’s DISGUSTING.”
“when I saw it on the menu when I got home today I felt like, Mom? Do I *have* to?”
Felt the same way, Shannon. I decided not to watch it live, thought about streaming it online, and then thought “… ugh. I don’t wanna.” Alan’s review (I love that blog, I read it almost every day) confirmed it for me — I won’t be watching this season. I’m just not interested in any of the characters anymore, with the exception of HRG. But even he isn’t quite awesome enough to make all that groanworthy narration tolerable. Shut Up, Mohinder.
Sars, wanna start a Heroes Break-Up Reading Club?
I’m still watching, but I didn’t miss it in the nine months it was off the air. Also, I’m Kristen Bell’s bitca.
I didn’t realize until just this week that as cute as he is, Ramamurthy is a bad actor. Put him together with Dania Ramirez…gah. Painful.
“And did I miss something, or is this sudden excitement about injecting everyone with Hero Juice â„¢ totally out of character? Yeah, he expositioned something about his motivations, but it still wasn’t believable.”
Argh, yes! I can’t even listen to those expositions because they’re all so trite and circular, so I just assumed that Mohinder, like pretty much everyone else, is actually a shape-shifting Sylar. Because why else would someone who knows first hand, “scientifically,” the possible devastation of such powers, decide the whole world needed it, starting with him?! I used to root for Mohinder, but now the only character I’m even remotely interested in is Mrs. Petrelli.
I’m a Heroes widow. I tried in the first season but I just couldn’t. So once a week I mutter “Fuck the cheerleader: fuck the world,” and hide in my room reading TWoP.
Yerrgghhh. I almost forgot about Maya. If they don’t find a way to kill her AND Daphne, I’m outta there. The only thing worse than Maya and Daphne would be bringing back those horrendous cousins of Micah’s.
Well, I enjoy it still, but I’m easily pleased by shows that hit the right buttons for me, and superheroes secretly amongst us happens to be one of those buttons. The show will have to fall from it’s current “Very Uneven But With Enjoyable Bits” status down to “Makes Me Groan In Pain For the Whole Hour” for me to drop it.
That being said, I was so seriously annoyed with the change in Mohinder too. Did they get new writers who didn’t read the character profile beyond the “scientist” label? I mean, I kinda figured they’d cave and give him and Ando some powers eventually, but this way? Seriously?
I only stuck with Lost for two seasons. I stuck with Alias for three seasons, barely. I’m even giving Fringe a shot, clichéd as it is. It’s possible this season of Heroes may do me in, but it’s not dead to me yet.
My co-worker is a “Lost” fan, so I tried really hard to like it. I read through all the TWoP recaps & then started watching, but I couldn’t keep the blondes straight. Who’s the what now?
I never even tried Heroes or Fringe…(but Dexter S3 starts Sunday! Yay! So I will get my share of wierdness…) C’mon over to the dark side, o ye disillusioned & disappointed…
I might like to quit, but; Petrelli boys. Hugging. It’s my crack.
@Charity: I’m very into that aspect of it too; it’s a great show on paper, and I gave it many chances because it has potential. But the stories always seem so airless and slow, and when the characters have no depth, when their powers are their only traits — and at this point, that’s the case — it requires above-average acting to put some of these pompous lines over. And most of the cast isn’t up to the job. Ma Petrelli is; she got a power David Chase already gave to Tony Soprano.
The subject matter is rad. The execution is unfortunate.
My husband and I were really enjoying the first season, but we just couldn’t get over the fact that the writing kinda sucked. My husband has since finished season one (I gave up most tv at that point thanks to classes), and neither of us have watched season 2.
Given a choice between shows we love but make us pull our hair out, we’ve picked Lost. Granted, I still haven’t caught up on that one, either, but I’d rather spend my limited DVR watching hours with the Lostaways.
Journeyman. Le sigh. It was too good to last- the acting, the writing, the attention to continuity- and that was one tv show where I felt like the writers *did* start out knowing what the big mystery was. I still love to blast the theme song in my car- although it was kind of embarrassing that it took me three episodes to figure out the opening credits were going backwards in time.
Thanks guys! I never watched Lost and had S1 upcoming in my Netflix cue, hoping to catch up with the rest of the world. Now, I can dump it in favor of cycling through the rest of The Wire and Six Feet Under.
That said, I don’t mind Heroes; sometimes the writing is good and the good actors (not Mohinder or Maya, obvs) know how to sell it. See: Claire, that’s DISGUSTING! – a great line and Quinto hit it perfectly.
And I figured they would never bring Life back (what with Lewis not exactly being an LA-based actor) so am pleasantly surprised. Now, that’s a mystery I think might be worth following. Plus: ADAM! ARKIN!
The trouble is that they seem to be addressing the problem of a bloated, mostly boring cast by….adding more castmembers! Yes! And never dropping any of the old ones! Does anyone care whether “Tracy” really is Niki/Jessica? No, because most of us stopped caring about Niki/Jessica about 45 seconds into S2, at the latest. (My theory: Tracy is actually the real Jessica, the twin, who didn’t really die. And if that’s true, I STILL don’t care.) Does anyone care that the character currently occupying the name Mohinder is all Hulking out and boinking the most boring superhero ever invented? No, sir, not having that, thank you. And they committed the crime of ruining Nathan by turning him into the religious zealot, which, if anyone is going to ascribe the Hero powers to God (and someone surely would, it’s terrible writing that that hasn’t come up much before now), it wouldn’t be NATHAN, sheesh!
As Nina Garcia said of a fashion tragedy, “I have a lot of problems with this and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I will say no more.”
Oh, just one more thing, and hopefully someone can back me up: The moment I saw Flashette, she reminded me of someone, and I couldn’t figure out who. Then it struck me. Her look, mannerisms, everything. She’s Chiana from Farscape! Arrrrrgh!
Well, Journeyman Watchers, you just subjected me to five solid minutes of my husband saying “The Journeyman? From the Eighties? Yeah it had this big truck with the cab kinda under the truck that looked like Back To The Future Delorian but cooler, and that big Australian guy from the Energizer commercials–not, not Sam Neil! He’s from New Zealand! What? Are you sure? I thought he was a Kiwi. Anyway…” So, thanks for that, everybody.
I have bitched about Dohinder mightily and at length over at TWoP (where I dubbed him Sir MohinderFly MarySue) and his all over the damn place willy nilly stupidity, but it bears repeating. When a supposedly intelligent character announces “This formula needs lots of testing and trials” and than INJECTS HIMSELF WITH SAID FORMULA TWENTY SECONDS LATER, with no demonstration of the character feeling frustrated or impulsive or anything, with basically, no backup for this action at all, well–the pain, it is sharp and concentrated. Even his stupid actions don’t relate to each other! He has no through line! I honestly can’t judge the actor as being good or bad–with this kind of random writing I’m amazed he can remain standing.
And after all this, will I stop watching? No, not yet. Because love is stubborn, and keeps trying to believe that cardboard heart will really beat.
Love LOST, was never that thrilled with Heroes, but my husband loved it.
But… it Heroes is the same plot, the same conflicts, the same powers, the same time travel that was in Marvel X-Men comic books in 1970. And still is in X-Men comics and movies now. Some of the players have changed, the powers move to other people, but … nothing new, nothing unique.
Sometimes the good guys switch places with the bad guys. Some mutants want to rule the world, some want to help the world and just get along with everyone. The various future crises just makes each crisis seem less critical. They survived Armageddon last year, they will survive it this year.
And then, there it was the same plots, points, powers, again on The 4400. At least the 4400 had better music.
I honestly love science fiction when it is innovative, when it says something new, when it makes me think. All Heroes made me think this week was, ” Is there a House rerun somewhere?”
No time travel. That is my rule. http://qwantz.com/archive/001307.html
Thank you for letting me know that there is absolutely no reason to resume watching Heroes after I fired its ass last season and chose to sleep instead (and I almost never sleep before 1 am).
I agree that the presence of Francis Capra and Kristen Bell is tempting, but when faced with the thought of continuing with this, I said to myself, “That’s why I own the Veronica Mars DVDs. So I don’t have to get my fix with subpar material.” I am so done with this show. When it starts feeling like a chore to watch it, you have to let yourself be done and not look back.
Oh but, that scene with Claire in the closet and Sylar outside? Complete rip off of Halloween, and totally giving me nightmares.
Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou for absolving my guilt for never quite getting “Heroes” — I’ll cop to tuning in when Christopher!Eccleston! showed up as Claude, the Invisible Guy, but honestly? I fastforwarded through the rest of the hour. . .
Bring back Claude, perhaps? At the very least, he would beat the crap out of the annoying characters.
If I could only get my friends to watching Lost, I would be happy.
I didn’t start that though…
Heros is like the retarded cousin of a J.J. Abrams show. All the flaws, and none of the slick. Fortuantly all my TV buddies have given up on it too.
I still watch Heroes, and I like it OK. I still watch Lost, and I love it. I’VE WATCHED EVERY SEASON OF E.R. AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR TOMORROW NIGHT. I am not ashamed. :)
@Merin: THAT’S where I’ve seen that cocked-head spiky snippy obnoxiousness before. THANK YOU. I just kept thinking, “Gee, fatally annoying peroxide-addled lounge lizard, thanks, but we already have an Elle, and I don’t much like her either.”
I’m also not buying that after having seen the awful alternate future back in S1, Hiro would suddenly decide he couldn’t trust Ando. He still trusted everybody ELSE–why not his best friend? Could it be because he picked up a big case of Narrative Necessity at Costco, or what?
Yeah, I had the show on my DVR and finally got around to watching it, but realized I was actually reading email and working on the computer during the entire episode. I don’t think I’ll be able to last much longer.
And, I may be the only person in the world who LIKES voice-overs and also the letters on Fringe (they look cool to me, what can I say?). I am very into this superhero/mysterious-stuff genre, but I just can not keep up with this show. When Mohinder was injecting himself, I spent the rest of the episode (the parts I was paying attention to anyway) wondering why he does not know this destroys the world and how he is messing around with it anyway? Or, was that a flash forward? Or an alternate universe?? I’m Just So Confused right now!
I’m just going to focus on my much-loved Terminator series. Summer Glau is the most awesome terminator and it always makes me happy to watch her. :)
I’m going to give Heroes a few more episodes before I give up (I freaking loved S1, I’m sorry…but S2, not so much), but I have to say “word” to everything Merin said. My perverted side enjoyed the Peter/Nathan interaction (awww, of COURSE Peter is there to catch Nathan when he collapses, even if it was in a weirdly out-of-character Jesus fervour), and finally finding out what Mrs. Petrelli’s power is was nice, even if it was pretty lame (and was that DL in her dream? I’m getting really tired of this show’s tendency to repeatedly fake out killing off characters, but I LOVED DL). The “Claire, that’s disgusting” line was also good, to me – and freaking finally, we got to see how Sylar’s power actually works, albeit in a slightly too fan-service-y way. But Mohinder the Mack Daddy and Jesus Christ, It’s Stupid Bitchface Nikki/Jessica/Who the Hell Ever AGAIN? Ugh. Ugh! If they give Mr. Bennet, Micah, and Matt more screentime and get rid of/cut way back on Maya and Bitchface, I’ll keep watching. Otherwise…sigh. At least I’ve still got Supernatural, although if THAT goes in the direction I’m really worried it is (Good!Dean having to fight Evil!Sam, NOOOOOOOO), I’m going to be kind of screwed for TV. Damnit!
Also, reading the comments…I am *so* glad I never even tried to get into Lost.
I actually watched Journeyman! I loved it! Which, of course, is why it no longer exists.
At least I still have Chuck. And NBC Thursdays. ::sigh::
I don’t disagree in any particular point, but apparently I’m not as strong as you are. I can’t quit Heroes, even though I know it’s going to do me wrong. I have no shame when it comes to comic book movies and superheroes, I know. Lost pretty much told me to my face how stupid it thinks I am, so it’s not welcome in my house anymore.
“The ‘Hiro meets the Williamsburg Speedster’ plot was so muddled on the laws-of-physics implications that I could barely follow actual events onscreen; I was too busy trying to figure out how everything was supposed to work. And why she couldn’t slow down for ten minutes to buy a comb.”
Yes, yes, YES! (And hee.) God, that was awful. And besides, they already have an annoying smirky blonde girl! Am I supposed to put up with Elle and Squinty the Causality Fart? I think not.
And the whole Mohimbo squirts himself full of hero-mones “development” was catastrophically lame. Stop it, show.
Can’t argue with your choice of tags, either.
@Jaybird: “I just kept thinking, ‘Gee, fatally annoying peroxide-addled lounge lizard, thanks, but we already have an Elle, and I don’t much like her either.'”
Yeah, what you said. Also: a “big case of Narrative Necessity at Costco” – hee! I think Kring and Kripke got the two-for-one special this month.
Yeah. That. I chalked some of the season 2 weirdness up to the impending writers strike and the need to condense stuff (at least I hope it was a need, ’cause that’s what it felt like), but most of the new characters just irritated the crap out of me (and Sylar is, and always will be, the most irritating villain/whatever the hell he is now I’ve ever come across). Season 1 had so much potential, but by the end of season 2 and now definitely with season 3, I got the sense that the show was becoming too impressed with itself. This is not usually something that happens to a show in season 3, though, which makes the whole thing rather disappointing. I’ll probably keep watching, now that baseball season may or may not be over for my Twins and there’s a lot of time to fill between football Sundays, but I hope it settles down a bit or at least gets off its high horse, ’cause once a show rates more than 2-3 eyerolls an hour, it’s pretty much done for.
Eh, I’ll keep watching it (this season at least, plus I do “Hero-vivor”) until it totally bores me, but yeah, I have to agree on the “few good episodes does not make it brillyunt show” thing. I’m just…watching it to watch it, I guess.
Uggggggghhhhhhhhhh, after tonight’s episode, I’ll…keep watching, for now, but I really wish I knew how to quit this stupid show. Sylar – WTF??? SERIOUSLY? And Claire is now the only female character in this entire cast of thousands who doesn’t completely annoy the hell out of me, and even that is mostly just because I give her the benefit of the doubt for still being in high school. Even Hiro was acting like an asshole! And, and – HEADPHONES that convey powers?? What the hell is wrong with this show? And why can’t I turn my back on anything involving superpowers?
Aaaaand I’m done. I managed to finish half of last night’s episode before throwing up my hands in disgust. Between the fact that they are apparently determined to keep forcing annoying, annoying Sylar on the audience (hint to writers: Don’t spend two seasons building up a character as a sociopathic, utterly remorseless murderer and then out of nowhere decide that he’s actually heartwarming and sympathetic if you want anyone but a handful of drooling fangirls to buy it, mmmkay?), the complete nonsensicality of the Nikki/Jessica/Traci/whatever storyline, and the fact that they just can’t seem to give up the cornball “traveling to the future to save the past!!” plots…this show sucks. What Sandman said above, about Lost telling him to his face how stupid he thinks he is? Yeah. This show.
And I think Supernatural has spoiled me when it comes to TV drama acting (last episode: omgDEAN, and while it was hardly perfect, ahem, that was a much better way to show the futility of time-travel in trying to change events than Heroes and its “in the future, good characters are evil and evil characters are good!!” crapola), because I was able to put up with half of the cast of Heroes being stilted and stiff before, but now…not so much. Oh well.