Heroes - Season Three (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Geez Lou, for someone who has spent years giving grief to people like me for getting frustrated with LOST, you are awfully quick to predict all sorts of doom and gloom based on two hours of a show that has delivered in spades before. How about some... patience? Hmmm?

I am glad Hiro told Ando his vision. Got that out of the way, instead of dragging it out. And it's perfectly in character with Hiro, who is pretty much incapable of deception.

I found the "sex scene" pretty jarring as well. Unlike the Nathan/Nikki/Jess tryst, which served the plot and kept us at a distance (at least that's how I remember it) this scene was intended to engage to viewer, and drew us in uncomfortably close. It felt like pandering.

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H

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Yes, interesting role reversal isn't it? Kinda of like Heroes right now.

The differences between Lost and Heroes is that in Lost the character arcs seem natural while in Heroes they play as artificial. Plus Heroes has already gone through a Second Season with poor results and so far Season 3 shows frustratingly similar gaffes.

Adam thanks for your analysis. You always do a great job! We differ greatly on how the characters have acted so far in Season 2.

Going into patience mode.

 

[Andres Munoz]

So we know that Sylar doesn't eat brains to get other people's powers but how does he get them? I only saw him pointing his finger at Claire's brain and all of a sudden he had her power.

What did I miss?

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Its his talent to look at things and intuitively understand how they work. This is the same talent he has when looking at the inner workings of time pieces.

 

[PhilipG]

Really good opener, I thought, back to s1 standards.


Remember that Sylar's base power is the ability to see how things work just by looking at them. He was examining the workings of Claire's brain, to see how she accessed her power.
...Which kind of points to it not being an adrenaline thing at all, more unlocking powers that are there for everyone.
...And he was able to look at just the top of the brain to work everything out, which was also quite convenient.

Best not to think about it too much!

 

[Holadem]

I dunno, I saw him digging in there quite a bit.

I thought we ruled out the assuption of brain eating ever since we saw Sylar's origin way back in S1. It was made abundantly clear that his ability consisted in figuring out the mechanism of things/people and mimicking them.

Lou, the difference is that I was right about LOST

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H

 

[Andres Munoz]

Thanks guys. I totally had forgotten Sylar's base power. So in a way he's like the black girl from last season that could learn new skills just by watching.

 

[Josh Dial]

Well, Sylar can gain other powers, while Monica can only gain the ability to do something physically possible by a human being (such as backflips or martial arts, etc). You won't see Monica watching Nathan fly, and then flying herself.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

What's the counter - smilie to the tongue one?

The fact that I have found the last season of Lost awesome tells me otherwise!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Thanks for the breakdown, Josh, if you could do that on a weekly basis (via Hanson Yoo's American Idol weekly breakdown's) for us slow people that would be cool?

Of course I don't expect you to be as funny.

 

[EricW]

beyond that, he also has the ability to change is physiology on a cellular level to process the power. it's like i can understand how a bird flies, doesn't mean i can fly myself.

 

[Holadem]

Peter shooting his brother definitely seems strange. But he is the one playing with the different timelines, and the fact is that we have no idea how he reached the conclusion that such a dramatic move was the best course of action.

I suspect that will make sense later on. The writers have certainly earned my trust for now.

(Lou, I think the last season of LOST was awesome as well. The low point was the 1st third or half of S3, when I actually did quit for a little bit.)

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H

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

The way I always looked at Sylar's ability is that of a computer program that is constantly upgrading itself, once he touches that part of the brain he's instantly "uploaded" with the new power.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Thing is, he could have done this immediately after she stole it. So he'd go back like what, a minute, then put it right back in the safe. Don't think he'd have messed up any timelines doing that. Or even better, he burns it. His father only said to safeguard it from anyone else getting it. He never said not to destroy it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Peter should have made a deal with Sylar long ago--let me get Claire's power and then you can pop open my brain and get mine. Then, you can leech without killing. Not that Sylar could be trusted or that you'd want him with that much power, but he's got the biggie now anyway.

 

[Ken Chan]

That's plausible -- to get Peter to chase him into the bathroom, so that FP can replace him.

 

[Josh Dial]

Right. I was more referring to why he didn't turn invisible as he ran away, so as to avoid being spotted by "regluar joes" or Parkman. He could still just go and grab Present Peter whenever he chose, and toss him only level 5.

However, I suspect it was more so the audience (us, not the press conference's) could see where he was going...

 

[EricW]

you'd think Future Peter would just shoot Nathan and pop back to his own time, but another problem is that when Future Peter comes back to change things so drastically, he can't go back to his future because it never happened that way. and he can't go back to the "new" future because there will already be a Peter there, and that Peter's not going anywhere. so whenever he goes, it will already be occupied by another Peter (unless he jumps way ahead or way back).

 

[RAF]

I'm probably in the minority here but I really wasn't too impressed with the 2 hour opener for season 3. I'll keep giving it a chance but I'm still looking for something that really grabs my interest for the long term.

This show is about to go from "must watch" status to "may watch" for me if it doesn't focus shortly.

My 2 cents.

 

[Stephen_L]

I'm sorry but I found the premier two hours to be very disappointing. What turned me on to Heroes in Season One was that although the initial character stories were isolated, I got the sense that a good story was driving developments and would weave the characters together. Season 1 accomplished that goal, though the big finale was a bit of a letdown. Now it seems that there is no central story, just endless efforts to solve story problems, create conflict then scramble to correct it. Endless plot complications feel like lame efforts to plug plot holes. My specific complaints about season three are:

Nikki now has a twin; this is one of the lamest plot devices ever (refer to Denise Crosby in TNG as a footnote)

Silar's schtick has gotten old. Its shock value has worn off. The writers should have let him die in the season one climax and introduced fresh villains. Oh and if he need only see or touch the brains of heroes to steal their powers, why are their brains always missing after he's done?

No one stays dead in this show! Nikki reappears (to be fair as a new character), Linderman is back, Nathan is back, Claire's mom is back. It seems there is no action that some deus ex machina cannot reset.

Plot devices that were once fresh are endlessly recycled. The clairvoyant artist, the future man returning to the past to set things right, the superhero killer, the dark future to be averted (we're on our third reiteration of that).

Some of the more interesting story elements have been dropped. I wanted to know more about the Odessa Paper Company operation and the league of superhero elders that raised and seek to guide this generation.