Heroes "Fugitive"

The first four episodes of Heroes: Volume Four are a welcome return to the series roots, despite recycling some plots. The overall plot has been simplified and characters writen/killed off which is only a good thing. A new villain in the form of "The Hunter", a government assassin whose conflict with Nathan will definitely spice things up.

Still there are a couple of annoyance. We have more Claire/Daddy(ies) issues to content with. On the upside Claire has already proven thus that she can finally stand up to her adopted dad by finally coming clean with her mum - thus having her pap getting kicked out of the family home. Personally I think it is finally time the writers kill off either Claire or HRG.

Anybody remember that incredibly annoying character called West? Well he hasn't been writen back in (thank you). However another equally annoying character has been introduced. Luke, whose known power is the ability to emit microwave beams, is Sylar's new 'best buddy'. Forcing himself into Sylar's 'road trip', Luke has consistently annoyed me (and judging by forums online, many others as well). He may be written in as a plot device, but that does not make me like him any more. Like West, I think the character will ultimately prove to be a pointless waste of time but I hope the writers will prove me wrong.

Finally I do not like how the writers are so reliant on Matt's precog painting ability as a Deux ex Machine device. In the first series, the whole paint the future plot was ambiguous. Instead now the heroes just use it as a reference to decide what to do next. Back in season one, Isaac Mendez's paintings were used as plot devices that allows the writers to fit everything in as the series progress - allowing for very clever storylines, but here... Ugh. Matt would occasional paint what would happen a minute or two later - which is a complete waste of screen time.

Despite all of these complaints, I am actually enjoying Heroes more than ever (anything is better than the previous two volumes). Looking forward to seeing how the heroes would deal with Nathan. And that Irish chick.

Heroes season 3 (episode 1-5) recap

Admittedly I was a little frustrated with season two of Heroes, but season three (up to episode five) has so far proven to be pretty enjoyable.

Spoilerific opinionated recap follows:

• Sylar is easily now my favourite character of Heroes. He is beginning to control his hunger, while redeeming himself on the way. In Angels & Monsters, he saved Claire and did not kill Noah despite Noah's attempt to off him. He looks classy in a suit.
• Peter is still the most annoying, unbalanced and immature character. He has perfected the skills he absorbed from other heroes and now has Sylar's intuitive ability but does not know how to use them to everyone's benefit. Quite easily the most dangerous person in Heroes he keeps attempting to change the future. Peter also seems to have also forgotten this Irish bird whom he left in an alternate future, which I guess is all for the better.
• Hiro and Ando's relationship takes turn for the worst as they cock up more missions (including losing the formula that can turn anybody into heroes) than ever, and even lose Adam Monroe after digging him up. Hiro eventually agrees to join a rival 'badass' company, but has to 'sacrifice' his best friend first.
• Mohindar has gained a power through a serum he created from Maya's blood. While his body and sense has grown stronger, he has also developed insect like abilities. A modern day reference to Seth Brundle (from The Fly) if you didn't already suspect.
• Claire and Noah's relationship is explored once again as Claire quickly repeats the same mistakes she did in season one and two. How Claire of her. Future Claire works for the rival company controlled by Arthur Petrelli and is frankly, an icy bitch.
• Nathan, surviving the assassination attempt by Future Peter, seems to have found god, in the form of Linderman. Except Linderman is dead and Nathan is actually being indirectly influenced by old man Parkman who is under the employment of old man Petrelli. Confused yet?
• Niki Sanders died at the end of season two, but they bring her back in the form of her twin sister Tracy Strauss. Ali Larter, proving how limited her acting ability is plays Tracy pretty much like Niki. Tracy, like Niki, is very insecure about her ability (freezing) and eventually sleeps with this one former New York senator.
• Usutu, a new character, has the same ability to paint the future like the dead Isaac Mendez. It is also implied that Matt has gained the same precognition ability. A little bit more originallity by the writers would have been better. You did get your pay rise didn't you?

(Spoilers) Heroes season/volume 2 house cleaning

Apparently in next week's volume two back-up finale of Heroes, when they will cram four episodes worth of materials into one episode, a major house cleaning will occur. Meaning plenty of unnecessary boring characters will be killed off. Yay. Confirmed are at least two heroes (evolved humans with power) will die and a villain will rise. Obviously since they decided to bring back H.R.G. after 5 minutes of lifelessness, death has become meaningless in the Heroes world now. Anyway who do you think the two dead heroes will be? I have no idea, but I do like to speculate.

Niki - Her storyline bores the hell out of me. Her dying will hopefully spur Micah to actually do something useful other than moan or read comics or moan or dream of being a hero. She will most likely die saving St. Joan.

Matt - He was 'shot' at like five times during last season's finale and he somehow managed to recover. If he survives any shooting next week I would go livid. Frankly I find the character very uninteresting and his willingness to dive into people's mind is the opposite of heroism. Professor Xavier he isn't.

Maya - Rumour has it that she will be killed off only to be brought back alive using Mo's deus ex machina veil of wonder blood. Which would be annoying. But so far the writers of this season has exhibited an unnatural liking to her boring storyline so we may yet see more of this crazy annoying character next season. Come on Sylar, kill her already.

West - He isn't a villain after all. Still looks like one though. Flying boy will most likely survive the massacre but he will is also likely to be written off as the Bennetts goes into hiding. Which is okay. If I wanted to watch teenage super heroes getting all luvvy I will be watching Smallville instead.

Bob - Bob was an interesting character the first couple of episodes but since then is shown to be a rather lame duck with only a couple of good one-liners. So just maybe they will kill him off. But Bob and Elle daddy/daughter issue is also much more interesting than Claire's. Maybe Elle will kill him out of vengeance.


Elle - Elle's personal issues with Peter, Bob and Claire (okay, pretty much everyone) has yet to be resolved so I doubt she will be going anywhere soon. If anything I am sure the writers would be wanting to give Caitlin a chance to whack her a little bit and we know when Caitlin is stuck in. Personally I hope she fries Caitlin and makes out with Claire. And she makes a great sociopathic villain. Go Elle!

Nathan - Peter is a little bit of an idiot this season and him killing Nathan would prove his ultimate idiocy. That or Nathan dies protecting him, again. Either way he will most likely contract the virus as seen in Peter's future timeline.

Claire - She is obviously immortal so she can't die (yet). Sometimes I wish she would, if only to stop her from moaning. Her wishing to be 'normal' has been discussed and explored in depth last season and yet the writers decided that we can take in more of the exact same melodrama. I really can't be bothered by her daddy issues any longer.


Peter going all X-Men. W00ooo...

Peter - He won't die simply because the creator of the show moulded the character after himself! And creators don't usually go killing off their favourite characters. Personally I find the character to be so gullible this year. If I was a writer I would kill him off just to shake things up and balance the show. Peter just has too many power.

Hiro - I doubt he will be killed off. This guy is one of two reasons people are watching Heroes. In fact many people identify Hiro as the Heroes (is it a coincidence that his names is Hiro?). Also James Kyson Lee is a principal cast. Just what will Ando do without Hiro? We can't watch him surf for porn forever.

Sylar - Unless they want to destroy the other reason people are watching Heroes I doubt they will kill him off. He will probably regain his powers, get killed off only to be resurrected yet again next season/volume.

Adam - This guy is an immortal hence he can't die. But he can be defeated.

93% of the population - With Peter acting all trusting Adam will succeed in releasing the virus.

So there you go. I really have no clue apart from maybe 99% sure that Niki will die. What I am sure we will be getting is a rushed and cramped back-up season 'finale' with plenty of cliffhangers that won't be solve possibly until Autumn 2008. Bugger.

Heroes recap

While the rest of us continue to follow Hiro's love triangle plight in Asuka Japan, the BBC will be broadcasting 'Company Man' tonight (9pm, BBC2). This was an important milestone in the first series of Heroes where the viewers were finally brought up to speed with Mr. Bennett's shady background and his history with The Company. If you were always wondering whether Mr. Bennett is a villain or a good guy be sure to catch 'Company Man' tonight as Jack Coleman gives one of his best performance yet as HRG.


Meanwhile for those who likes to keep up to date in the Heroes world will find that Mr. Bennett has returned to his good old habit of smacking people up in 'The Line'. Old habits die hard I guess. Glad to see that, despite his rebellious and ungrateful daughter, he is still willing to be the ultimate bad ass in order to protect his family. In what is a complete reversal to last season's plot, we also find that The Tooth Fairy in which he seeks to destroy isn't all what it seems. Oh and we have another "save New York" mission, this time instigated by Peter. My money is this new calamity will be caused by Maya.

Heroes "Kindred" recap

I really hope that the producers will kill of West soon. His courting scene with Claire is just so corny it makes me cringe just to watch it. I have a sneaky suspicion that West is a bad guy (the hooded killer maybe?), but Nick D'Agosto's going all Peter Pan was so cheesy I believe that they really should just get rid of him. Also Claire's realisation of her dad's ruthlessness seems to hit her quite badly, but wasn't those already explored in the first season? Claire going all moody with her dad isn't something I really wanted out of this season.

D.L. is now resting in peace(?) inside a tombstone. Finally. He and Nikki's relationship has been explored for far too long in season one. Not too sure about Nikki but her joining The Company is bound to be interesting. More Jessica, less Nikki please. Meanwhile Nikki dumps Micah with his aunt Uhura (!!!). Now we only need Spock to guest as a father to one of the heroes.

Still not sure about David Anders as Takezo Kensei, but unless he is one of the main villains, Hiro's adventure in ancient Japan can't end soon enough as I can't wait till he returns to Ando. James Kyson-Lee was upgraded to the main cast for season two so I expect more adventures between his character Ando and Hiro. We need more future Hiro and less romantic one. Don't forget Charlie, Hiro!

Another thing that I have so far unable to get into is the Maya and Alejandro storyline. So far three episodes has been shown and all we know is they are trying to get into North America and Maya cries black goo when she is upset, and kills people with it. They keep escaping of course, this time with Claire's stolen Nissan Rogue (ugh, product placement). It is getting far too annoying to care about their plight.

It is pretty great seeing Peter Petrelli in a villainous position (albeit as a petty criminal!). Hope that he eventually equals Sylar in terms of badness, but who knows, he may yet find another reason to save the world. Speaking of Sylar, he is back and what a great way to make a return. He has lost his ability and the first thing he does is lose his patience and smash Candice's head in order to gain hers! Go Sylar! Too bad he is probably stuck on the Lost island.

Plenty of villains to look forward to in season two: Bob, West (rumoured), Kenzei (rumoured), Sylar, Peter, Molly's bogeyman etc. Notice also that almost all the main characters are in their opposite spectrum to their season one's personality.

Not a bad episode, but a bit too cramped. You can tell that they really wanted to squeeze in the twins despite it not forwarding the plot much.

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I would like to take the opportunity to rant a bit here. The first half of Heroes season one DVD boxset was recently released here. Guess how much the suggested retail price is? 35 quid. And that is just for the first half. If you want the whole season you will have to wait till December when it will be priced for £60. Amazon UK will be selling it for £42, but even that isn't a consolation considering that Amazon USA is selling the complete boxset for US$40 (£20)! Daylight robbery indeed. And what is up with the trend on spiting DVD releases into two halves? It happened with Lost, CSI, Prison Break, Supernatural and now Heroes.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

This Wednesday's BBC2 terrestrial debut of Heroes' ninth episode "Homecoming" is the episode to watch. It basically concludes the 'Save the Cheerleader, Save the World' arc that began with "Hiros" a couple of episodes back, and is one of the more memorable episodes since the series was incepted. Richard has a very nice write up on the episode that you should read.

You should also aim to catch "Six Months Ago" on BBC3 after "Homecoming" at 10pm as it is one of the more important episodes and partly explains the main arc as well as the origin of season one's main villain and 'patient zero' Sylar. The minor arc will conclude next week on BBC3 with "Fallout", where Peter discovers something shocking and Hiro finally meets Isaac.

I always thought that the next couple of episodes are pretty weak, though it does introduce a very important character played by the fabulous Christopher Eccleston. The next minor arc will follow Peter's attempt to understand his powers as more revelations will be revealed such as Mr. Bennett's mysterious company. Anyway don't let me ruin it for you. Just make sure you clear your Wednesday evening schedule.

"Volume Two: Generations" will begin in two weeks for lucky Americans (and downloaders).