Heroes - Season Four ("Redemption")

Did they?

I also like Ali Larter. It's about a 6 "like" though, with 5 being completely indifferent, and 1-4 being dislike. I'm glad she's back. I don't find her characters all that compelling, though. Given that she's had more than one, it does throw her acting and/or accessibility into question.

HRG too old? Because cute younger women never go for older powerful guys? It does seem they're going in the direction of something between them and I can't say it'll bother me. I doubt it'll be a full on Bridges of Madison County as this is Heroes.

It doesn't bother me at all seeing T-Bag as another bad guy if that's how it turns out. Typecasting? Maybe, but it's not like he just shows up to every job acting like himself. He's acting. And I think he's pretty darned good at it. I didn't want to see Michael Jordan play baseball. I wanted to see him do what he excelled at -- basketball. The same goes for me watching T-Bag. If he's the bad guy, he'll make one I'll enjoy watching. I had no idea he was going to be in this season of Heroes, so it was a pleasant surprise for me.

The Claire storyline didn't do much for me. The Hiro storyline didn't do much for me. The Peter storyline didn't do much for me.
 
It's amazing to me how much more enjoyable it is watching Sylar as Sylar versus Nathan as Sylar. That reminds me... I just have to see Star Trek. Based on his Heroes work, he really seems like an actor that resonates with me. I was indifferent about the Sylar personality surfacing, except when they showed Sylar.

Matt Parkman swearing off using his abilities so he can have a normal life was slightly irritating to me. Hey, I have an idea. A young child is kidnapped and stored somewhere. You (as a cop) find the guy who kidnapped her, but he refuses to tell you where she is. She'll likely soon die. But don't dare read his mind. It's not your fault if she dies. His wife can't possibly be that asinine. It's not like he has a bad gambling habit or something. His ability can save lives and I'd think she'd understand how special that makes him -- and that she'd appreciate it, not just dread it.

I'm sure many of my complaints would be addressed by saying this was the first episode, and it just laid the foundation for the season, but I would suggest that every single episode should be satisfying and entertaining, and just happen to lay groundwork.

Well, Robert Knepper's character did try to choke someone into submission, and, he's wearing evil purple sunglasses at night. And he said something about how he put Hiro on a righteous path but that it would lead him to them, or lead him astray to them, or something with that kind of implication... But I take your point. The carny folk might be good guys who just have a severe pecking order.

It's really annoying not having a commentary track to listen to now, to get more of a sense of the episode.

"I also like Ali Larter. It's about a 6 "like" though..."

I thought for a moment you meant Ali Larter was like Tricia Helfer ("6" on Battlestar Galactica)! In which case I'd agree, they were both pretty to look at. Though Helfer is a more powerful actress (or at least she's had opportunities for greater range than the simplistic "evil or good" levels that Heroes is limited to).

"HRG too old? Because cute younger women never go for older powerful guys?"

Naw, it's the combination of his dorkiness and his age together. If he grew out of his middle-management appearance, I'm sure she'd give him a try.

The first half was terrible.  The second half picked up a little.  It's kind of bad when the series creator is the weak link, but that may be the case.  Anyway, it picked up, but it wasn't great.  I liked the second half Hiro stuff, but Claire was a snoozer.  They've been hyping this "ooh, she's going to kiss a girl" stuff.  Is she going to kiss Gretchen?  I'm sorry, but that actress has zero appeal to me.  I like carnival settings, so maybe that'll help this chapter out.  They should bring in the Knaufs.

I'm not sure if you are saying the actress who plays Gretchen has zero appeal to you, or the actress who plays Claire. Anyway, the actress who plays Gretchen was appealing enough on Californication.

Probably because as Mia, she showed off her goodies and cursed like a sailor on Californication.  But I digress...

I take it Knepper's character's power the ability to locate others with powers via compass?

So this season looks like Heroes meets Carnivale.

The Nathan-Sylar-Angela stuff is just offputting and icky.

Hiro and Ando's scenes literally stop the episode flow for me.  Yes, I note the irony.

I kept waiting for her to bring up sex & punching (if you haven't seen Californication, that will make no sense)

I watched this morning on Hulu.. let's just say, I'm glad I watched House live and DVR'd Big Bang/HIMYM instead.

After seeing the premiere last night, I am cautiously optimistic. 

 

I like that everyone is trying to live a normal life again.  This type of show works best when the extraordinary is grounded in something close to reality.  Previously, Heroes has overdone the extraordinary, which I found alienating. 

I like the idea of a "crime circus", which goes back as far as Jack Kirby and Walter Gibson's The Shadow.

But I still don't like that the writers treat Hiro like an idiot.  After all his protests about the dangers of changing the past, one thrown slushy later, he's off to correct his life's mistakes before he dies.  He's more of a plot device than a character. 

I like that they came up with a different way to use Sylar this time.  His semi-possession of Parkman looks promising, as does Nathan's unraveling. 

 

I hope everyone working on the show realizes that if they screw up this season, it's over.

 

I was talking about Gretchen, and to be less kind, I meant, "That is one unattractive girl."  Hayden is not ugly at all, but she's not really my favorite, either.  I don't know why.

Judging by the ratings, I wonder if Heroes gets pulled after volume 5 is done, even though they have 19 episodes on tap for this season.

Gretchen is a little too CSI-driven, but it was sort of funny to have a Tim Kring show refer to another Tim Kring show (Crossing Jordan).

For the longest time, I thought they had cast Joshua Gomez (Morgan on "Chuck") in the Ray Park role, but then I realized it was Ray Park given all the knife-wielding moves.

This show has more chances - many more chances than much better shows. They proved that they had no real plans beyond the first season and have gone all over the place since. It's a trainwreck in every way. It's really too bad to see what could have been an interesting show become a joke (especially as quickly as did).

Wow.  a 46% ratings drop.  Just.. whoa.  NBC unfortunately has nothing on tap to fill in if this plummets but we are talking monumentally bad start.   It feels like one of those old "Can this marriage be saved" newspaper columns, except.. "Can This Show Be Saved"

 

I don't know.  Heroes may find itself shuffled to Friday if this keeps up.

Did anyone expect a ratings increase for Heroes when it was going up against the season premieres of Dancing With The Stars, House, all those CBS comedies and Monday Night Football? Unless NBC creates a show where they kill people live on TV every Monday night, they're never going to do good against those shows.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me more, your shame as I`ll show you the door.

I'm not singling you out but it seems like alot of people feel that way and yet they keep watching despite not having liked the show since the first season. I can't figure out why anyone would keep watching a show that they haven't liked for more than half its run.

Car wreck spectator curiousity I suspect.

"I can't quit you!"

Haha.  I was wondering who he reminded me of, and it hit me that it was Morgan midway through.  I knew it wasn't him, but I saw the resemblance.  "Hate to sound like a broken record" (a little Tom Anderson from B&B there), but I thought the slomo knife stuff was terrible.  I hope if Park is staying around, they don't use that too much.

As to the question of why people who aren't thrilled with the show stick around, I can't really answer that.  There have been several shows that have frustrated me to the point of quitting, and it ends up nagging at me and I seek out the episodes I missed online.  Even if I don't like those episodes, I keep watching.  It's weird, I know.  The point where it becomes a problem for a forum like this is if people who hate the show but keep watching drop in every week just to be a nag.  I'm expressing my overall displeasure with the season premiere, but I'll try not to come in just to drop weekly hate bombs if I continue to not love it.

As much as I enjoy Zachary Quinto and Sylar.  I think its time they moved on.  It's like the Borg on Trek.  They were mysterious and scary.  Yet, when Voyager came on.  They overused them and they became boring.  Sylar is too powerful and its time they focused on other bad guys.  Which they seem to do every season...yet it always comes down to Sylar coming in the end and killing them.  And the only one who could have stopped him (Peter) was depowered.

On a similar note.  Does anyone think they will bring the real Nathan back??

Hayden is pretty, but wooden as an actress. As for Madeline Zima, tastes vary, but I wouldn't call her unattractive.




One reason is grading on a sliding scale. To me, I can sit through the worst episode of Heroes before I can sit through the best episode of, say, How I Met Your Mother. That says nothing about the quality of How I Met Your Mother. Rather, it says something about the type of TV shows I'm predisposed to enjoy. 99% of sitcoms not only bore more, but they border on actively irritating me. The only one I've been able to stomatch in any dose is 30 Rock, and I basically watch that on DVD. So I'm going to watch Heroes because it's the type of entertainment I enjoy, but within that genre, I'm still going to feel completely comfortable calling a spade a spade when it fails to deliver. Besides, there can be moments of enjoyment alongside moments of irritation.

On the other hand, I'm with you when it comes to people who aren't so much disappointed, but just completely don't like anything about a show and see no hope for it.

Madeline Zima has come a long way from "The Nanny"  :-)

She can punch me anytime!

This was what I liked about it too. Season two started too slowly, so they overcompensated started season three too fast. This seems to be getting back to a better equilibrium, letting them be fairly normal for a while before falling off the deep end.

I would have said yes -- the moment they run into a hero who can make clones or something -- but for the fact that they made a big deal out of how they were not able to copy Nathan's mind, and had to simply hope that the fragments (combined with Sylar's ability to learn about people by touching objects) would provide enough for him to be Nathan-like. So they made it clear that the real Nathan is gone.

At this point the only way to save him is via time travel. Which I suppose might happen.

I didn't find that interesting at all.  To me it seemed like they were just finding a way to give Sylar screen time.



I think it's the pudgy face.

Overall, the premiere was okay.  Seemed like mostly more of the same, but the carnival stuff might be interesting.  They definitely killed off the wrong college girl and should have had Gretchen take a plunge instead.  And they really need to come up with something better for HRG to do.

I agree. Unfortunately, it looks like they'll be anchoring him to Tracy in an attempt to make Ali Larter's character(s) work after 3 unsuccessful tries.

For me, it is the way her limbs are really short.

Hey -- idea! What if the Nathan that Sylar killed was actually Sylar-as-Nathan via some time travel? 

I think it's mainly her age for me.  When we met her, she was underage both as a character and an actress.  She could probably be 30 and I'd still find it a little icky to see her as a sex object.

The dead chick on the other hand?  Yeah, she was hot.  They should have kept her around.  

They haven't realized it's not the character.  She can't act her way out of a paperbag.  It's like watching someone read a book aloud. 

It's subjective but I think she's an adequate enough actor for the role she plays. For me, the biggest thing is that I've never cared at all about her characters. She had nothing to really do with the main plot of the first season and the only thing that made her even remotely bearable was D.L. and Micah. Then in S2, D.L. was killed and they had nothing to do with her so they killed Nikki off. And then Tracy was brought into Nathan's story (who, thanks to his loyalties that seem to shift to fit the story, I'm also bored/annoyed by him) and that did nothing for me. I was hoping when she got shattered near the end of last season that was the end for her but no such luck.

All that being said, HRG is one of my favorite characters so maybe putting Tracy with him will make her character more appealing to me.