Heroes ‘Shades of Grey”

Last week Sylar ditched his sidekick, Claire and her mom became heroes to Aqualad, and Parkman literally became his own prophecy. That’s the recap, lets get on with the review.

It seems this episode was about people deciding who they are, more than anything else. From Claire deciding that she wants to be the one rescuing people, to Nathan finally deciding how he is going to fight this war. Sylar confronted his father and realized that he has lost his ambition, always going for the simple things, not the bigger things. It’s human nature to do what is easiest, and this episode saw the characters forced to do the hard things. Spoilers and the rest of the review after the jump. We start out our story with Claire and her attempts to go down the path of a savior, as opposed to the one needing saving. She is forced to face her own prejudices to transcend, and this episode does a good job by having Doyle (the puppet master) be the one she has to save. Can someone change and can they be saved in more than one way? Claire also develops a secret identity attempt, but this seems more for comedic effect as she is captured at the end of the episode, negating the need for the cover job she developed.

Nathan and the Hunter Danko continued their dance with HRG watching the moves. Danko has been suspicious of Nathan for weeks, and Nathan finally plays rough and goes over his head and gets the President to fire Danko. Danko then uses his head and forces Nathan to reveal his powers and finally join the resistance. The theme of doing the hard thing is again expressed as both the Hunter and Nathan are pushed to the wall before committing to what they would have always done. Nathan saved Parkman with the bomb threat, then turned him in; now he is on a set path. Like HRG, he was wishy-washy, and after saving Claire, he is on the path.

The last of the three stories is the story of Sylar and his dad. Sylar’s dad is dying of cancer, but the real revelation is how he thinks life is painful and not worth living because he hasn’t gone for the gold as much as he should have. He considers that Sylar’s problem as well, not going for the big fish, but the “small game.” Only after it’s revealed that the dad has the same powers as Sylar, and he sees Sylar use these powers, do we see the old ambition rise in the old man. Interesting in that we see Sylar just leave the man to die, and decide the old man was right, he wasn’t pushing himself. His first goal? Go after the Hunter. Sylar doesn’t like to start small does he?

The final part of the end was Hiro and Ando finding Matt Parkman, and a baby. If the previews for the next episode in 2 weeks is any indication, the baby is Parkman’s. Finally, we see what happened to Parkman’s family! A good episode overall, and carried its theme pretty consistently throughout the episode. Looks like Heroes really is hitting a stride of character-driven as opposed to mythology driven stories, and that’s where the series really shines. Here is hoping for more of that in the coming episodes.

-Jeff “Darkspirit82” Adams-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 9 March Permalink

Heroes Volume 4, Episode 5: Exposed

Welcome back folks to yet another exciting episode of Heroes. Last week we got a brand new prophecy for our intrepid cast to avert, someone blowing up Washington DC, and HRG got a flashback devoted to him. We get a new Heroes episode and a character spotlight for the Watchmen movie.

So this episode dealt with the Alex and Claire storylines, Sylar and his sidekick, and Peter and Matt finding out where Daphne is being held. Going to hit all of these in that order for a review, in my opinion of course, on the direction of the story.

Claire and Alex spend the episode bonding with each other while Sandra Bennet really comes into her own as a bad ass in her own right. Truthfully, almost everyone but Lyle have major stones in this family. Sandra makes a fake ID, makes a diversion, and does it all with calm self assurance. Claire meanwhile manages to get Alex off on his own, and feels pretty damn good about it. That is until Rebel sends her the puppet master to protect. Now that’s some conflict.

Sylar and his sidekick didn’t really have much to do this week. Mostly it was Sylar discovering that a place on the roadside is a place he and hsi dad visited back in 1980. Turns out Sylars dad sliced off his moms head in front of him right after paying somebody to take the kid off his hands. Wow, another reason for Sylars abilities. Anyway, Luke pisses Sylar off one more time and Sylar ditches him to go kill his dad.

Matt and Peter proceed to be way more bad ass then usual and infiltrate Building 26 and find out where Daphne is. Matt sacrifices himself to allow Peter to escape along with the help of Rebel. Peter manages to get all the information of what Nathan is doing and attempts to trade the info for Parkman and Daphne, but the Hunter just shoots him after HRG warns him. The shot sends Peter over, but he is caught by Nathan and flown off. Peter and Nathan have a talk along with Angela. Peter flies of in a fit and exposes what is going on to the news, while Nathan is told secretly the latest prophecy that Angela has seen.

Meanwhile the Hunter finally gets his chance to shine as he uses the painting he saw of Parkman and the bomb on D.C. to tape a bomb to Parkman, drug him, and release him on Washington, thus making the prophecy one step closer to coming true. Gotta say, that was a well needed twist, and certainly made me anticipate the next episode. So we got some solid plot development and lots of seeds planted for this volume. Here is hoping Heroes continues this goodness next week. Until next time folks!

Dark Spirit

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 2 March Permalink

Heroes Recap and Review of “Trust and Blood”

Welcome back everyone!  Let’s see if Heroes can continue that momentum they built last week with their inaugural episode of the new volume of Heroes. Last week, various characters were snatched from their normal lives to be taken aboard a plane destined for parts unknown. This week, the plane has crashed and we see the consequences.

We start with Nathan talking on the phone, as he will do throughout the episode, with someone, explaining the events of the past 43 hours. We are given a brief flashback of the crash as prisoners escape and soldiers try and hunt them down. Hiro is on the run and is promptly helped by both Mohinder and Parkman, who escape. Well, they want to escape, but the truly random Parkman MUST find somewhere to paint so the Heroes have something to do for the rest of the volume, aside from running away.

Meanwhile, Claire and Peter (how do they always end up together? it’s like they are dating) manage to run right into HRG, who lets Peter go. In this episode, I think Claire is caught a grand total of three times, which makes me think the Hunter kinda has a point that she really is dangerous. Claire says that people will start asking questions and HRG says they wont, as the military carpet bombs the area leaving no evidence, except large chunks of plane. Oh well.

Peter manages to keep running, eventually into Tracey. Peter does his best, “come with me if you want to live.”  Tracey goes with him.  It’s interesting that in one future, someone that looks like her gets with Peter. Meanwhile, HRG, Nathan and the Hunter have a heated conversation, one of many of this episode concerning the treatment of Claire and the rest of the animals (Hunter). HRG and Nathan have a plan, though, and it seems the Hunter is only around long enough to get the people, then he will be cut loose. Mohinder, Matt and Hiro get clothes as Matt speed paints.

Ando is busy trying to get a flight out to Arkansas, but Daphne finds him because she is worried about Matt and has no one else she can turn to. She and Ando quip about the relative dorkiness of Hiro’s operation, then she zooms him to Arkansas. Now, we shift scenes as two new characters are introduced; Luke and Luke’s mom. It seems like her house is the torture center for Sylar and his pet soldier he kept after the last episode.

We return from commercial to Daphne and Ando arriving to the crash site. Ando is broken up but Daphne reassures him that in the future, he will kill Hiro. Not only am I legitimately confused by how this comforts anybody, but didn’t they prevent that future already? *Sigh* Anyways, we get some great Peter exposition on how his powers work, which is nice because Tracy didn’t know and apparently needed to.

We come to HRG and Claire arguing about the same thing that they have been arguing about for three years now. Claire, your dad does bad shit to save your ungrateful ass. HRG, your daughter doesn’t like morally gray stuff.  Either retire to some far off land or get over it. Sorry, sick of this storyline. Anyways, Daphne snags Claire and goes back to Ando. Hiro, Parkman and Mohinder meet up again and Daphne gets shot (and I mean a lot). It looks like two or three shots, along with Claire. The others manage to escape.

Meanwhile, Tracy and Peter figure out a way to trap Nathan. Hunter thinks that Nathan is not doing the right thing, but since he is the golden boy of the President right now, he will follow orders. Sylar pretty much tortures Luke’s mom and the soldier he has kept as a pet long enough for Luke to show off that he can heat things up literally. Sylar, of course, is fascinated by this kid because he sees himself in him. To sum up the rest of the Sylar part of the episode, Sylar manages to figure out that the kid is just like him. The kid figures that Sylar can help him with life, so they end up traveling together to find Sylar’s real dad.

Wonky to me too, but Sylar was pretty much gold as the villain here, and him with an apprentice should be interesting.

So Peter and Tracy set up the trap, but Tracy is lured by Nathan’s words. It turns out Nathan didn’t come alone. He has the Hunter and HRG with him. No shots are fired, but Tracy is kidnapped and Peter flies away. He will regroup later with the rest of the group, which wants vengeance! That, and they want to figure out just what the hell Matt pained, and then figure out a reason to go do what he pained. Isaac died guys, so does everyone who paints. Hopefully, either Parkman takes this new power and becomes a stronger character or he dies.

Claire is back home in Costa Verde and gets a mysterious text about fighting back. Meanwhile, we find out the voice on the other end of the phone is Angela talking to Nathan. She knows who the Hunter is and she isnt going to help him. And that’s all folks!

Okay, the storylines of Claire resenting her dad, the future painting and Hiro and his destiny need to stop. Claire either needs to permanently run away or something because it’s obvious her and HRG are incompatible. Next, the paintings need to stop because honestly, it’s getting to be a bit much of contrived storytelling. And Hiro needs to grow up and stop thinking everything is a George Lucas journey. Maybe when he faces death, he will realize that.

Heroes this week seemed to drag as we got some more exposition, which really set up the conflicts between characters this season. Nothing wrong with that, and the writers really have cleared a lot of things up. The clunky parts are the things they hold onto, but I think they might have a few surprises in their back pockets. Let’s hope so.

-DarkSpirit-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 10 February Permalink

Heroes “Clear and Present Danger”

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And we are back!

We open with Tracy talking to the governor, obviously in an intimate connection. Meanwhile, we see Nathan talking on a talk show about his life and goals. Obviously since last season, he has had a meteoric rise as the chair of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Tracy notices her window is open. Suddenly, she is attacked. She defends herself, but her powers didn’t work on the attacker. She is cornered and wont surrender. Eventually, she is tazered and captured. The hooded man unmasks and calls someone, telling them to inform Petrelli that the first one is captured. More after the break…

In what is a great callback to the genre, Hiro creates a lair, computer system, and even a motorcycle for the super character Ando. Sadly, Ando does not appreciate this and thinks Hiro is living through him. He takes off after Hiro injects a GPS implant. To be fair, it apparently hurts for an hour. Meanwhile, Peter is an EMT in New York and fails to save a dead guy. He laments his failure, saying he should be stronger. In New York, Claire and Angela discuss her going to college, the fact she has a GED (nice way to show she didn’t go to school), and the fact that Sylar is still alive, at least she thinks so. She doesn’t want to be on the bench. Then in Maryland, she is proven right as Sylar confronts his father and wants some questions answered.

Matt and Daphne are now trying to live a normal life. Daphne finds it boring, but Matt really wants to make a normal life work. He doesn’t want to use abilities and Daphne agrees a bit quick. Angela is on the phone with someone who turns out to be Nathan. She is concerned about Claire getting involved. Claire picks up the phone and hears that they are going after Matt and Peter. She runs out to warn them, Angela realizes they have a problem. Later, Sylar’s dad is a watchmaker as well and was in a loveless marriage. He wanted out. Sylar was delivered to him by his brother. Sylar knows he is telling the truth, but wants to kill him. Interesting. Peter is still haunted by the death of the accident man. His partner from Iran is nervous about the Nathan talk. He thinks they are targeting Muslims, but Peter suspects. It’s confirmed when Claire calls to warn him. Peter goes to talk to his mom and he gets in a cab encounter with Mohinder. They have a brief moment of reminisce and they disagree on the idea of people with abilities getting shipped off. Suddenly, the Hunter gets in the car and threatens Mohinder to drive to a van, and Mohinder manages to use his super strength to escape. HRG saves him, but it turns out he is working for The Hunter. He seems, like Nathan, to want to keep Claire out of this.

Peter goes to talk to Angela, only to find Nathan. They exchange barbs and Nathan wants to have dinner and exchange ideas. Peter agrees, but is very suspicious. Nathan then asks what he can do. Peter doesn’t really answer. We shift to Matt who is talking to a turtle and the painter from last season. It turns out Matt is the next prophet, he will paint the future. Matt doesn’t want to, but he has no choice, as his eyes go white. Okay, what else do they do with Matt really? Anyway, Hiro finds that Ando is using his new cycle to get some ladies. Hiro is dismayed, but then captured by the men in black and Ando runs to see what happened to him.

Matt draws remarkably competent at this point. It seems to be a part of the prophetic power, which has some root in actual stories of prophets. Anyway, Claire comes to warn him and they realize there is a picture of the future that shows Matt getting hit, which he does. The black suits come in and captures Matt and Claire. Meanwhile, Peter goes home and is met by Nathan, who seems deperate to have Peter a part of his plan. Peter wont budge, so Nathan gives him a hug and the distraction allows HRG to taze Peter. Sylar goes back to his roots and sees that the brother of his fake dad is a taxidermist. Inside, he sees a picture of a boy with glasses that looks like Sylar, a snowglobe, and then three tazers rock on Sylar. Sylar also gets a nice rope around the throat, but he turns it all around and just dismantles the team like no other with TK and lightning bolts. He then tortures one of the men to figure out who they are. I might add Sylar generating lightning bolts or healing factor may allow him to ignore the pain. Not too cheap.

Ando attempts to break the password of Hiro’s computer. It’s cute that the password is ‘Ando’. We see he is tracking Hiro, who is apparently in a hanger with the rest of the captured people. Nathan finds out Sylar escaped, and wants him dead. By the way, the captured seem to be doped-up and sensory deprived. Nathan finds out Claire is captured and he sets her free, which will no doubt bite him in the ass. Claire is driven away, she recovers from the sedative, and then kicks the driver’s head. Somehow, his head busting does not crash the car. Claire escapes and boards the plane by its wheel.

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”They all got uniforms!”][/caption]

Inside the plane, she sees the guards and surreptitiously starts unmasking people. She frees Peter but he doesn’t have any powers, except when he touches Mohinder. We get a neat special effect out of the deal and Peter uses super strength to clobber the guards. Meanwhile, Claire goes to the cockpit after unmasking a lot of known and one unknown people. In the cockpit, she tazes a soldier, but it turns out that HRG is piloting the plane. Peter accidentally touches Tracy, gets her ice powers, and inadvertently freezes a wall, causing it to crack. Massive decompression happens and we have a crash…to be continued.

Okay, the only nitpick is that Parkman’s powers seem odd. It seems a part of the show to have someone that can paint the future, and by golly lets give it to the one guy who doesn’t want powers. The unlikely prophet and the Heroes journey. Sylar still hasn’t found his real dad, but he knows people are after him. It seems that Ando and Daphne are destined to team up again to find their significant lovers. Sorry, but it’s not called ‘bromance’ for nothing. Peter’s abilities could be seen a bit weird, but maybe getting powers back from the formula altered how he absorbs powers, which is an interesting twist actually.

Overall, this is a setup episode for a season of them on the run and having to work together. We shall see if it holds up, but I gotta say that the pieces of the puzzle were well laid. Here is to hoping they can keep it going. Next week looks at the crash and what happens after.

-Dark Spirit-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 3 February Permalink

Heroes Season 3: Our Father Review

Okay so here we go, the second to last episode of the season, unfortunately I am severely disappointed. A brief recap:

Hiro and Claire travel back in time to recover Hiro’s memory. During this process Claire bonds with her mom and dad and we see some healing, at least on Claires side in the father-daughter dynamic. Hiro meanwhile rebounds with his mother, who turns out to be a healer. Still have no idea what the hell Kaito can do. Anyway, she heals his memory and Hiro finds out she holds the catalyst or ‘The Light’. Don’t ask me what the hell it is, but its energy, it washes over you. Its very chi like actually. Then she dies, and adult Hiro remembers how much he misses her. Actually this part and the Sylar part were my favorite. Right up until Arthur shows up. Back to that in a sec.

Sylar decides to go back to the good ol’ days after offing Elle. Probably the only victim he says sorry to aside from his mother. He calls Arthur and warns him that he will find out the truth. Finding Sue Landers (which has to be some kind of joke. Imagine if Ann Landers was a human lie detector.) He offs her on her birthday, kills her friends, takes their cake and then goes on the elevator covered in blood and flesh. highly comedic, Zach kicks ass in these scenes.

Daphne, Ando and Matt discover the lost comic, and that’s about all they are worth in this episode, aside from some cool power displays.

Nathan and Tracey find out that Arthur wants to make Marines into the first batch of supers. boy I bet the producers of the 400 series on USA are pissed. Nathan bonds with one marine, who turns out to be the first recipient of the treatment. Meanwhile Nathans brother, Peter, travels with the Haitian to kill Arthur.

Right about here the episode kills me. Arthur time travels back in time and takes Hiro’s powers and the light. Then tosses him off the roof where he catches himself on a pole. He then sends Claire, somewhere I assume the present. He then comes back in time. he then puts the light into some scientific goop and that makes the formula. Awesome. What does the eclipse have to do with powers? Beats the hell outta me.

he then goes outside to confront Peter. The Haitian blocks his powers. here we have another wrinkle. Apparently Arthur is so powerful the Haitian has issues holding his powers at bay. I guess you could explain that by the fact he holds a lot of abilities. Too bad Sylar did too and the Haitian has no problem whatsoever. Anyway, Peter gets a shot off but Sylar stops it. He asks Arthur whether he is daddy, to which Arthur says yes. its a lie. The bullet then is allowed to blow his ass away. The light escapes, and Sylar is done. Haitian and Sylar both head towards the lab where the first prototype is being tested.

Essentially the guy gets super strength,

Yay! Okay so what the hell? Do these writers even think continuity is an issue? Or are they racing for the finish line? And good lord Arthur is dead with a bullet. Sylar can use his powers but Arthur cant? The show essentially should be watched in such a way that each episode is in its own little world. Props on naming the Issac Mendez story Hiro lost in time, a close rendition of the actual lost Hiro story from Season 1.

7 outta ten. just some good scenes marred by the lack of effort on some storylines. This is DS, signing off.

Jeff aka DS

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 9 December Permalink

Heroes Review ‘The Eclipse Part 2’

So last week the eclipse made people lose abilities. This week they get them back after the worlds longest eclipse. Here we go.

Elle and Sylar get attacked by a vengeful HRG, who attacks and stalks them throughout the episode, at one point getting into a brawl with Sylar that ends with HRG slitting Sylars throat. Elle also gets shot, which caused much fun among those wondering how much blood it takes to lose before you pass out.

Claire meanwhile fights to stay alive as her immune system goes into shock. unfortunately she dies. Also unfortunatly every viewer knew it was a cop-out. Oh and she blamed dad for not being around her. Too bad mommy never thought to tell her that dad wanted blood vengeance. Wouldn’t have made a difference, but oh well.

Meanwhile in Haiti Peter and the Haitian take on the Haitians powerful brother Baron Samedi. Nathan is broken out of jail, but not before connecting with the female prisoner. Here we get a great glimpse of a fight that had no point as Nathan air charges the invulnerable one. How does Nathan air charge with the Haitian around? Probably cause the Haitian can choose if he dampens powers. Anyway, the invulnerable one is mind wiped, and Nathan decides to ditch Peter and go join the dad to give everyone abilities.

Elsewhere Hiro uses the Ninth Wonder Comic to regain jog his memory but hates the stuff his grown up self had to do. Daphne gets her powers back and makes up with Matt. The comic geek oracles divine that the eclipse is the reason for abilities. Hiro decides to be the hero and goes to find Claire who according to the comic, will help his memory.

Mohinder loses his artificial powers, even though he didn’t receive the catalyst of the eclipse. he goes hardcore and beats up the flame guy. Then goes to meet Maya which gave me a weird feeling of Ben Grimm and Alicia. Anyway before he can, he gets scaly and goes back to work for Arthur.

Finally HRG goes home to find a pouting Claire. Sylar is alive (eclipse makes power work immediately. Who cares if your a corpse). Sylar beats the crap outta HRG but not before Hiro comes and teleports both Sylar and Elle to a beach. There Sylar realizes he has the hunger, and I believe either kills or seriously injures Elle. Who knows. Hiro then takes Claire and goes back to the past to when Claire was given to HRG.

Overall an okay episode, just ignore continuity or weird character changes and go with the flow. Good action, lousy suspense, but watchable. here is hopin next week we see the catalyst really is the eclipse and not the cheerleader. Till next week, this is darkspirit sighin off!

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 2 December Permalink

Heroes Season 3: The Eclipse Part 1 Review

Last Week Hiro turned into a 10 year old, Sylar and Elle almost got it on, and we found out that “IT” is coming. Well tonight we see the continuation of those themes in Part 1 of ‘The Eclipse.’

We start with a summation of where everybody is. Arthur and Mohinder ponder what the eclipse means, Peter and Nathan take off to find the Haitian, and Matt and Daphne are found by Hiro and Ando. Meanwhile HRG returns to the Bennet home. Also, Elle and Sylar are sent to find and bring in Claire, who we see in one of Arthur’s vision paintings is shot.

HRG trains Claire how to fight, something she sorely needs.  By the way, exactly where did Meredith go? I think HRG lost her in one of the Company’s cages. HRG lambasts her for being such a brat. God, he is my hero. Sylar and Elle team up and Elle wants Sylar to be his own man. Sylar agrees as they steal a car to get Claire. Sylar lets off one of the better lines when he says that he hates Heroes. He speaks for half the Internet. Hiro in his comic needs Matt to help him, but Daphne is the one who needs help. She has trust issues with Matt so she races home. Hiro teleports Matt there. Oh and Mohinder makes a cocoon for himself.

The Eclipse hits and the storylines all go blooey. Mohinder is cured of his condition but Arthur and Flint want the powers back. Nathan and Peter crash into Haiti. Nathan is taken prisoner by the Haitian’s brother; Peter and the Haitian are gonna team up. HRG absolutely whoops the shit outta Sylar and Elle, but not before Claire is shot and hurt. Hiro loses his powers as do Matt and Daphne, who without her powers apparently needs crutches to walk. Now we have to wait till next week to find out what happens.

Okay review part, I have to say Seth Green showing up as one of the oracles for the comic shop was pure geek genius. Also his exclamations of holy crap were cute, but I feel like Hiro is wasted, still lots better than last week. Still want to know what Arthur did to him. HRG absolutely kicks ass, so that was great to see and he called Claire on being a brat. All in all a good episode…

Except the damn eclipse took powers from people who got them artificially. I cannot wait to hear the explanation for this. I reserve judgment till next week though. A solid 7 outta 10. Cant wait to see it next week.

Jeff

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 25 November Permalink