Let's Celebrate The Heroes, Instead

I don't mean 'heroes' like athletes who set records or movie stars who only pretend to be heroic on film.  I mean heroes like Antoinette Tuff, who prevented another American school shooting from being added to the already way, way too long list.

It seems like many of the deranged gunmen - it's never women - do what they do to become famous, regardless of who they have to kill to get there.  But it's the heroes in those situations whose names we should remember, not the villains: the first responders, the teachers who've died trying to shield their students with their bodies and the parents who've somehow managed to keep going through the motions after enduring the unthinkable.  So let's add Antoinette Tuff's name to our short- and long-term memories today.  She talked a would-be mass murderer down, not by leveling a gun at him but by relating to him as a human being.  She's worth remembering, and the courage and compassion she demonstrated is certainly worth celebrating.

I Get It Now: Hiro Is Wile E. Coyote

Tonight's episode of Heroes, while still chock-a-block full of things that made me cringe, was still better than anything that preceded it this season. It had the usual problem of too many characters acting stupidly when it services the plot, and enough coincidences to choke a horse. On the positive side, though, lots of plot advancement was delivered, and not all of it was gibberish.

But all of that pales beside the realization that I had tonight about Hiro: he isn't just written like a moron, he's actually the personification of a cartoon character! Tonight he was clearly (and very humourously) Wile E. Coyote, what with his repeated attempts to catch the future-painter only to get whacked from behind by his prey. All that was missing was him holding up a sign that read, "Help!" just before the shovel came down on his skull. I think in previous episodes he's probably also been cartoonish, with perhaps a bit of Elmer Fudd here and a touch of the Tasmanian Devil there. I guess if you can get your head around that, and not be bothered by the fact that he's a caricature interacting with people who are supposed to seem real (sort of like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, for those with long memories), then maybe it works better.

Now if only someone can explain to be how Traci has only just recently discovered her Ice Maiden powers, despite having them since childhood and them being triggered by extreme emotions (just what kind of Life has she had that she's never been angry before?)...

The One That Didn't Get Away

Last night, around midnight, the final week of the Siegel and Shuster Society charity auctions wrapped up, and I finally got one! This Rags Morales page from Nightwing # 140, showing a magnificent Man of Steel towering above the grown-up Robin should soon be in my hands, for a "paltry" $510 US. (Remember: it's for a good cause!) I would have loved to get the George Perez page last night (showing Captain America facing off against Batman) but it went for over $1000. The walk-on cameo role on Heroes ended up costing somebody over $14,000, and apparently it was the same guy who paid a similar price for the Jim Lee sketch of himself with Superman. Therefore one person will have contributed over $28,000 of the nearly $120,000 that the four weeks of auctions raised. That's quite the super-fan!

Saving Superman's House *Update*

Terrific update on the Siegel and Shuster Society's fund-raising efforts to fix up the birthplace of one of Superman`s creators can be found here. I can only imagine what the bidding on the walk-on role on Heroes will get up to once that one goes up for auction. And any Legion of Super-Heroes fan would dearly love to come away with the Curt Swan LSH page that's up this week... "too bad" it's already at $3,850 and will probably go for at least twice that (only "bad" in the sense that I won't be owning it!)

Ask The Damn Question!

Nothing frustrates me in fiction more than when a character neglects to ask an important question at a crucial moment. I don't know if it's more commonly just a case of bad writing - the author didn't think to have his character ask it - or bad writing - the author realizes that, were that question answered at this point, some much-needed suspense or future shock would be destroyed - but I suspect it may come down to bad writing.

The most recent example of this came in the last episode of Heroes, where Matt Parkman had tracked down his long-lost father, who apparently was tied into the big mystery of Season Two (Who were the previous generation of 'heroes' and who's killing them now?) Matt handcuffed his old man - smart - and then berated him for deserting him all those years ago - annoying - before taking the handcuffs off again - stupid! Parkman the senior claimed that he wanted to tell all, and he even dropped a clue or two, but rather than taking advantage of actually having the upper hand on someone who may know what's going on, Parkman the junior blew his chance by removing the cuffs and ultimately letting his father get away, sans answers. Would a rational person, when faced with a mystery like the one going on this season, really not insist upon finding out what's going on?

A movie that didn't fall into this trap was The Matrix. I had the good fortune to see it on DVD with no idea of what the story was about, and so during the scene were Neo sits down with Morpheus, and certain coloured pills are discussed, I was cheering even before I knew where it was going. Yes, I thought, a script where the obvious questions are asked, and the person in possession of the answers doesn't even dodge them!

Like most people, part of how I enjoy a work of fiction involves immersing myself in it. I think that's the willing suspension of disbelief that people speak of: you'll invest yourself in the story, no matter how unreal its circumstances may be, as long as that trust isn't violated. I don't, for instance, think that the disbelief in question refers to turning your mind off and accepting complete improbabilities. In that light, then, I expect each story to make sense, and its characters to act like real people. And that extends to asking "what the Hell?" whenever a flesh and blood person would.

Comic writers have gotten particularly lazy in this regard of late, it seems to me. Things like characters returning from the dead are the most extreme cases - after all, are you going to tell me that someone who actually came back to life wouldn't be besieged by questions about the afterlife from, like, everybody? - but even more mundane issues like supervillains who never seem to stay in jail seem to get no attention whatsoever. If I were a hero who put my life on the line to capture a homicidal killer like the Joker, or Venom, I'd damn sure want to know why the place they got sent to has a bloody revolving door on it! And yeah, sure, that indelicate question might get in every comic scribe's way of being able to use that villain whenever he or she wants, but that's part of the job. Or at least, it should be!

As Vicki will tell you, I see this sort of thing all the time, and I'm never shy about pointing it out to anyone who'll listen (usually: her and the cats!) I'll suspend my disbelief alright, but only as long as you keep it real!

The Heroes Return

Yes, that was sweet! Lots of developments, most of which worked for me, one or two of which did not (can't say as I buy that Parkman somehow got custody of young Molly, so quickly, while going through a divorce, for example).

I love that they're establishing a set of "golden age heroes" among the older generation, and from what I've read, we'll learn a lot more about them in the coming episodes. I wonder what hottie they'll get to play the younger version of the matriarch? And who are the other seven remaining members?

It seems obvious that Hiro will end up performing the historic deeds that are attributed to Kensei, but maybe they'll still throw a different twist into the mix. Certainly having "Sark" (from Alias) as Kensei was a surprise (since I managed to not have any of tonight's episode spoiled for me!)

With the introduction of another flying man - Claire's "new friend" - are we going to start seeing powers repeated, in ways other than the Sylar/Peter absorption motif? Between this new kid, Nathan Petrelli, and Kara over in Smallville, it may be all about the flying effects this season! And Claire's family? Just weird!

And The First New Episode Watched Goes To...

... The Simpsons! In recent years it seemed like The Simpsons usually debuted sometime after Halloween (with, ironically, the Halloween Special) and yet here it is, one of the first shows returning! It was a fine enough debut, with an opening chock full of what I assume was a series of references to the as-yet-unseen movie by the same name.

Besides the highly-anticipated Heroes season premiere tomorrow night, there's also CSI, ER, and *ugh* Grey's Anatomy returning this week, along with the launch of Bionic Woman. Sadly, I still have a week and a half to wait before Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan return in 30 Rock Season Two. And don't even get me started on how far away Lost is!

If the creators of 24 have gone on record as admitting last season was lousy - and they have, sort of - then does that mean that this year's Jack Bauer story might actually be good? One can only hope.

One Week To Go!

A week from today will mark the end of my first year of blogging.

[Waits for applause to die down before continuing.]

Sometime before then, I should hit blog post # 1200 here at Kimota94's Place. I've got the second chapter of my short story Imaginary Stories all ready to go for that, which I suspect will excite no one but me (and possibly Jimmy Hinckley). In the second installment, those inclined to read it will get some more character interaction, along with (what I hope is) a fairly shocking revelation at its end.

[Pauses to allow for gasps of anticipation.]

I've also noticed, in the six weeks or so that our collaborative blog, The Studio Has A Few Notes, has been open for business, that I'm managing to post more entries here than the entire gang of us are doing over there! That's not a criticism, as I'm really enjoying The Studio and everyone else's contributions to it, but merely a surprising observation. I guess I really am the King of Blogging!

[Gets drowned out by boos and catcalls.]

And let's none of us forget that Heroes returns tomorrow night!

[Gets standing ovation, and decides to leave on a high note.]

Episode Description For Heroes Season Two Premiere Now Out

For those who just can't wait until one week from right now, you can read a not-too-spoilerish description of season premiere "Four Months Later" right here.

Sounds like it has all the good bits we've come to know and expect from Hiro, Peter Petrelli, Claire and the rest of the super-types each week.

Just seven more days to go, people!

Like I Need More Motivation To Drink Milk!

I may just have the teensy-tiniest little crush on Hayden Panettiere.

I'm not too proud to admit it.

(And don't you worry, Olivia, dear. There's plenty of me to go around. More every day, it seems.)

Finished Season One Of The Wire And It Was... OK

That was pretty much the consensus reaction from both of us: we'd watch the second season of The Wire if it fell in our laps (for example, was on free TV), but we didn't really care enough about it that we'd go out of our way to track it down or, God forbid, buy it on DVD! That puts it below Battlestar Galactica, which we are planning to buy the 3rd season of, as soon as it goes on sale. And it's nowhere nearly as popular in this household as other contemporaries like Lost, Heroes or 30 Rock.

I guess that I'd conclude that the folks who think The Wire is the "best show on TV" must really, really love their procedurals... or else they just can't get enough foul language at their local gym! Having a realistic portrayal of something isn't necessarily enough to turn my crank, when it comes to fiction, and while I found that the characters did grow on me - kudos to the writers for that! - I still wasn't terribly invested in most of them by the end of the season.

I also have to wonder why buddy Tim could've possibly named the end of Season One as his favourite cliffhanger, when there's... actually... no cliffhanger at all! Everything's pretty much wrapped up, albeit not to the main characters' satisfaction. Sure, I could see how the writers could pick up from that point and tell more stories with that same cast, but cliffhangers usually have you sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what happens next, and there's nothing like that here. I guess love really is blind...

Anyway, it was enjoyable enough to watch, and we thank Tim for the loan of the DVDs! If he happens to buy more seasons, we'd happily give them a gander... or just as easily not.

Favourite TV Shows

Some of buddy Tim's comments (regarding my thoughts on The Wire TV show) got me thinking about trying to build a "20 Favourite TV Shows" list.

Unlike some other categories I've tackled in the past, like comics, movies or albums, this one's kind of tricky. For one thing, those other interests are more easily re-visited on a regular basis. So, for example, I'm fairly sure that I still consider The Day The Earth Stood Still to be a great film, having seen it many times, including in the last five years (on DVD). But most TV shows get watched once while they're on, and then rarely seen again unless you stumble on them in syndication somewhere (which is certainly possible, but not something I do much of).

So I decided that I'd probably end up with different groups of shows, and then - someday - I could build my list from that. Here are the categories I thought of:

1) The No-brainers. These are the ones that I don't even have to think about. It's a small list: The Dick Van Dyke Show (Rob & Laura Petrie), Babylon 5, The Rockford Files, Lost (so far) and Star Trek (original series). With the exception of Lost, all of those are series that have long since wrapped up, and have been watched by me in re-runs enough times for me to believe they've stood the test of time, and remain personal favourites.

2) The Probably, But Haven't Seen Them Recently Enough. On this list would be shows like Barney Miller, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Hill Street Blues, All in the Family, and St. Elsewhere. I certainly loved them big-time when they were originally on, but are they more likely to induce newfound appreciation, or cringes, if I watched them today?

3) The Possibly, But Can I Ignore The Last Season Or Two? We've all loved some of these, I'm sure, and then been embarrassed when they stayed on the air just a little too long. I'm looking at you, Cheers, The X-Files, 24, E.R., Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons and Frasier.

4) Those That Should Be Considered But May Be Flashes In The Pan. These are some of the more recent (for us, anyway) shows like Buffy, Firefly, Heroes and 30 Rock that haven't yet had to stand the test of time, but possibly will. I think what I'd do with this group is simply gauge how much I enjoy them at the time of making the list, and acknowledge that they may slide over time.

5) The Guilty Pleasures. This would be the "just shut the Hell up and don't ask me to defend them" group, with titles like The Six Million Dollar Man, Columbo and MacMillan & Wife. This is, after all, a "favourite" list I'm making up, not my idea of what constitutes "the best!"

6) The Forgotten Ones. Whenever I build a list of faves I always overlook some gems, so for once I'm going to set aside a slot for those to go in, as I'm reminded of them. Empty to start, of course. :-)

In looking over the above groupings, I notice I've got just over 20 TV shows listed. Even assuming The Forgotten Ones gets a few members as I think about (and hear about) this some more, it may not be all that hard to prune the collection down to a manageable twenty. Maybe that'll be something for next week?

One Thousand Posts Later

As hard as it may be for some to believe - including me! - this is my one thousandth post on this blog (just a little over nine months in). To mark the milestone, I'm going to reflect back on a few of my favourite entries, and encourage you to do the same, if you're so inclined.

It's probably worthwhile to peruse the very first post, Misadventures in Blogland, from way back on October 1st of last year. (And wouldn't that make a good subtitle for this whole experience?) What a novice that guy was!

It probably says something about me that the first series of entries I posted were on the topic of Why Blog? Nothing like starting off introspective! The first answer I came up with was, it's good to have an outlet. And that's still true, 1000 posts in!

One of my first World View Rants was Midlife Crises and Why I Don't Want One and it still pretty much sums up how I feel on the topic.

Around the same time, I put out If I like it, why the Hell don't you? which was - and is - my statement on how people should make recommendations. I've thought back on that one a few times since, as I've encountered Poor Reasons A and B in the ensuing months.

Work issues were occasionally on my mind, such as when I sarcastically exclaimed, You Call This Free Crap A Perk? or pondered the pluses and minuses of Key Performance Indicators.

When I wasn't obsessing over work, chances are I was watching TV, and possibly blogging about Heroes or Lost, two of the best ways to spend an hour each week!

Of the many new short stories I've included on this site, I'd have to say that Skipped was my favourite, if for no other reason than it was the most elaborate and took me the longest to write. I also really, really liked In The Zone and would like to thank Hinckley, once again, for the excellent opening sentence!

Among older, Blast from the Past-type, short stories, it's hard to top The Dice Men, as that one's always worked so well for me.

It's certainly fun to re-read Stupid Things I Know and see not only my list, but many of yours!

Having to think through my Favourite Comic Stories Of All Time, and realizing in the process that I needed to put the work of Alan Moore in a separate list so that he wouldn't completely dominate the first one, was an excellent use of my time! As was, of course, the sharing of some of my Favourite, and Least Favourite Comic Covers.

And whose cold heart didn't melt, at least a little, upon reading about The Loneliest Man On The Planet? Would it be the same person who didn't thrill to each and every promotion handed out during my rise through the Resistance: Fall of Man ranks, or whose pulse didn't quicken at the thought of my bike riding streak? I think it just might be!

Then there was the trivia! Who doesn't love trivia?

Were any lives saved by my ruminations about debt? Almost certainly not, but at least I tried!

And we know a life was lost - albeit a fictional one - as we considered The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking On The Information Superhighway and mourned the passing of a living legend.

No mourning at all was needed where my love of the New York Rangers was concerned, as they managed the only sweep in the playoffs and then did respectably-well in the 2nd Round, as reported on hereabouts, though even that couldn't hold a candle to The Day The Earth Stood Still.

And finally, I'd like to thank the faithful readers who I think have been with me for the entire ride (so far): Jimmy Hinckley, PeterJ, Man from Mars, and of course Vicki and Tammy. Without you guys, as well as the newer arrivals like Boneman, Shane and Tim, it just wouldn't be the same!

Heroes World Tour

Interesting article about the creators and cast of Heroes doing a big promotional tour over the summer, and hitting cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Munich! Included in the write-up are quite a few teases about Season Two, as well as more details on the Heroes: Origins mini-series, which apparently will follow the second season (I had somehow gotten the impression it lead into it!)

Definitely a good read, and recommended for any fan of the show!

October Just Got A Little Better Looking

With all the upcoming excitement in July (start of my five weeks of vacation, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, and the re-launch, after way too many years, of Nexus by Baron & Rude), August (Magnolia Electric Company box set Sojourner, Heroes Season One on DVD, possibly BSG Season Three on DVD, hopefully the Chicago Comic Convention and maybe even taking part in the Silver Age Trivia Contest there) and even September (new TV season, full of hope and future disappointments, baseball playoff races, and probably something else important that I've forgotten), October had been looking a little... well, dull.

But that all changed this week thanks to the ever-watchful eye of buddy Tim. I now know that the great Magnolia Electric Company is playing once more at Lee's Palace in Toronto, on Friday, October 5th, which makes it automatically the concert event of the year, in this household! I'll have to figure out how to order tickets soon, as I don't want to risk a repeat of our second-to-last attempt at seeing them, when the show was sold out and we came home broken-hearted.

Some Answers, Of A Sort, On The Heroes Finale

Since they address at least two of the more common questions asked after the Season One finale - why did Peter need Nathan to fly him into the sky when he already has that power himself, and why did Candice's true form not appear when she was knocked out? - you probably want to read this Q&A over at Comic Book Resources. I can't say as the answers to those two apparent gaffs are all that great, but at least they're not entirely dodged! And there's lots of other material covered that's interesting.

And really... how cool is it that we live in an age where we have this kind of interaction with the creators behind TV shows, movies and comics? Damned cool!

Comics: Then And Now

(This is an expansion of a passing remark I made back in January about comic writers diluting their scripts.)

I've said it many times: This is a great time to be a comic fan! There's all kinds of variety to be found out there for those who don't like their comic book characters to wear their underwear on the outside, and some pretty impressive superhero titles for those of us who do! In fact, with the Hollywood attention comics are receiving right now, we're probably in the midst of a second Golden Age of Comics, and just won't know it until it's over.

Within my own particular corner of comics - the aforementioned superhero universes - there have been some amazing strides made over the past decade. The paper quality is generally much higher than the newsprint stock we grew up with - although crinkles in the pages seems to be a worse problem than ever before, making the selection of my comics each week a harrowing experience - and the colouring on those pages is amazing! We have artwork that's allowed to bleed right up to the edge of the page, instead of being contained to the panel borders like it use to be. And while there are still bad artists showing up occasionally in the titles I read, more often than not I'm treated to a level of art that would've popped our eyes out of their sockets twenty years ago. Series like Planetary and Starman and maybe even Preacher will be cited for years to come for their consistent excellence and revolutionary contributions to the genre. While it's hard to imagine any period as influential as the mid- to late-80s ever coming around again, what with Maus, Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and the start of Sandman, the last ten years have definitely been no slouch!

But having said all that, there's one aspect of current comic storytelling that's really wearing thin on me of late. It's known by various names, but one I've seen that works as well as any other is "decompression." The name stems from the belief among many current comic scribes - most of them very good writers! - that comic stories were historically too compressed in order to fit into their artificial framework of 22, 24, or 32 pages. In other words, among the newer generation of authors working in the field, there's a general eschewing of the need to tell a whole story in the confines of one single issue. The growing popularity of trade paperbacks - collections of a half dozen or more issues into a single volume - has fed into this development as well. And, if that were all there were to it, I'd have no axe to grind. I like extended stories, as shown by my love of the TV shows like Babylon 5, Lost and Heroes, where stories develop gradually, over many episodes or even seasons.

But where comics seem to have gone off the rails in this regard is in how much of their content often reads like filler these days. There are a couple ways I measure this, neither of which are particularly scientific, I'll admit. The first indicator for me is how long it takes to read a comic. Clearly, a long read is not necessarily a good read. I've had to slog through some awful writing, over the past nearly four decades, that's required almost twenty minutes in order to get through a 32-page comic. So I'm not suggesting an automatic correlation between the time a comic takes to read, and its quality. But on the other hand, when I spend $3 and can read the damn thing in less than 5 minutes, I start to wonder if it was really worth the dough! Not to mention, I scratch my head as to just how long it really took to write! More on that shortly.

The second clue as to how under-written many of the current comics are comes over me anytime I take a few minutes to recap the events of one to Vicki, or someone at work, or even right here on this blog. The reality of this period is that, in a typical superhero comic: not much happens! There are lots of splash pages (full or double pages with only one scene, or panel, included), tons of panels filled with people talking about minutiae - often at the same 'deep' level of the Big Mac discussion in Pulp Fiction - and no shortage of pages dedicated to capturing characters moving from Point A to Point B (because there's nothing quite so interesting as watching someone leave an office, walk down a hallway, get on an elevator, ride it down to the lobby, get off the elevator, and exit the building, and God knows you couldn't have simply put a caption that read: "After he left their offices, Tony Stark headed back to Avengers Tower"). To me, as a writer not nearly as talented as any of the people crafting comics today, it seems like that's not the stuff I'd focus on if I were trying to entertain tens of thousands of readers. Or, rather, I'd show it once in a blue moon, as a change of pace, or to provide a brief respite in the action. What we often get, though, is very nearly a steady diet of that sort of thing!

So is this approach a valid tack to take in decompressing comic stories? What I'd hope for would be actual longer stories, with bigger arcs and a greater sweep to them. Instead, I interpret what I'm seeing as being a case of taking what used to fit within a single issue, and simply stretching it out to fill several. In other words, imagine I wrote a short story that told a lovely little tale in five thousand words, and you asked me to keep the story the same but make it twenty thousand words long. I'm sure there's a way to do it such that you'd actually get a better experience than the shorter version; and then there's the method that just pads it out to four times its original length by adding in filler everywhere! I fear we're seeing more than a little of that in the comics being published today.

Why do I think this is happening? Well, for one thing, I'm sure I've read it somewhere, even though I can't think where right now. Plus it makes a certain amount of sense, for a number of reasons. If you're a writer with an idea for a kick-ass Batman/Two-Face tale, and you can easily stretch it into five issues, instead of one or two, you're going to make more money off that one plot. Sure, to sell all five scripts you need to fill it out with stuff that you wouldn't bother with if it were only 22 pages long, but that's easy! Throw in some full-page spreads, and several pages of Bruce Wayne and Alfred bantering about the relative merits of reality TV as a social barometer, and you've just made enough money to buy your own bigscreen! Along similar lines, there've been rumours for awhile that artists were imploring the writers to include less and less actual story in their scripts, because lots of things actually happening slows down the drawing, compared to repetitive shots of talking heads - where sometimes you can even copy one panel many times! If you can skew the plot the right way, it increases the number of pages an artist can crank out (and be paid for). I don't know if there's any truth to that theory, but it wouldn't surprise me if at least some of that were happening.

And of course there are great comics coming out today that don't fall into this trap. Kurt Busiek's Astro City continues to be a joyous - and not quick! - read each time a new issue comes out. Joss Whedon wrote for TV for years and presumably gets the need for making each installment special. The same is true for JMS, although both gentlemen have seemed more inclined to work in a slightly more decompressed (diluted?) manner of late. Maybe their artists have finally gotten to them... :-)

Anyway, in the final analysis, I still love the state of comics right now. I wouldn't want to go back to the days of densely-written crap, thousands of examples of which are filling boxes in my basement. I just wish more of the current crop of authors would read their own product, and ask themselves, "Was there enough actual story there to make it worth $3 or more?"

Is There Life After TV?

With the 2006/07 seasons of all our favourite TV shows now wrapped up, there's the inevitable feeling of emptiness that always descends in late May. This year's cream of the crop - Heroes, Lost and 30 Rock - provided thrills and laughs aplenty, so I have no complaints. Also, we're getting the last few Studio 60 episodes now - which I can't help but liken to the experience of finding a wrapped gift from a recently-dead relative when going through their affairs - but even that's not going to last much longer. Then what?

For Vicki and I, it'll be more episodes of Angel Season One, courtesy of Tammy's DVD collection, along with selections from our stack of unwatched movie DVDs, and maybe some game-playing (although I haven't solved the PS/3 situation yet, now a month later!) Buddy Tim also mentioned something about lending us some favourite show of his on DVD (The Wire, perhaps?) but that's yet to materialize. And of course there's always baseball, the only sport in town once you hit mid-June anyway.

What about the rest of you? What's your life after TV like?

Tim Kring Discusses Heroes Season One

Lots of interesting commentary by Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes, can be found here and here. Some of his comments about the upcoming spin-off Heroes: Origins are reassuring, as it sounds like there's more to it than simply milking the popularity of the "mother ship," as he calls it. On the other hand, the threat of a writer's strike could certainly make a mess of next season, across the board. I'm just hoping a work stoppage like that doesn't result in more vapid reality shows, as a way of reducing the importance of having good writing staffs.

Heroes Season One Finale: Bang Or Whimper?

If you're a Heroes fan - like me - then I wonder how you're feeling today? I resisted the urge to post anything last night, right after the finale wrapped up, because I wanted to think about it some more first. I even had some dreams and not-quite-asleep, not-quite-awake musings about it overnight. So clearly it had some effect on me!

I can't say that I didn't enjoy the episode, entitled "How To Stop An Exploding Man". It completely pulled me in and held me there for the duration. There were quite a few moments to like, after all: most of the regulars finally met up all in one place - Holy Superhero Team-Up, Batman! - and got to react to each other in fun ways, as well as use their powers in service to the story (even Micah, getting the elevators to run again). The final scene, with Hiro landing in 17th century Japan, looking like he just stepped into an Akira Kurasawa film, was amazing, and certainly left me wanting more. And I loved the interaction between Noah - yes, Noah! - Bennet and Peter, where the elder of the two pays homage to the other for having saved his daughter at the homecoming dance, and the debt he feels he owes him as a result.

But then there were the litary of scenes that just... felt wrong!

Hiro voicing his battle cry before running at Sylar to pierce him through... and Sylar does nothing to stop it? It was that easy to shish kabob a guy with a mastery of telekinesis, ice powers and nuclear fusion, just to name a few? I was expecting something really clever in the taking down of Sylar and instead got... that?

And speaking of powers, did Peter forget that he knows how to fly? After all, he gets the powers of other people if he can remember what he felt like when they were around - or something like that - so why did he need Nathan to fly him into the sky? He couldn't remember his own brother well enough? And if he needs to be able to concentrate to use a power, then how in the world did he ever use Claire's power of regeneration/mutant healing after she pulled the big shard of glass out of his head? Wouldn't he have been too... well, dead?... to have pulled that off, if it's that hard to do?

Continuing along the same line, subtle clues were dropped last week to make us believe that sexy young Candice has been using her power of illusion all along to make herself look so sexy, and yet when she was knocked out by Nikki, her form didn't change. (The indicators that she was a fatso projecting a skinny image were in her comment to Micah about how eating all that junk food would make someone huge, like her, and in the way she hugged Linderman, which was more of a Big Person hug.) So are we to believe that her illusions persist even when she's not awake to maintain them? Would they continue after she died? Is she actually re-shaping reality rather than just casting illusions? Will we ever find out?

There've been two high level areas that have bugged me about Heroes pretty much from the start. The first is what I've touched on above: the inconsistency of the powers. Without speaking a word of a lie, I can say that I've had the pleasure of reading tens of thousands of stories about people with superpowers of every sort you can imagine. That makes me, in this lowered standard world in which we live, something of an expert on the topic. And I have to say that I've found the application of the powers introduced by the writers of the show to be quite frustrating. I realize that part of the tale they want to tell is about how all of these characters are experiencing their new abilities for the first time. And yet they always seem to somehow master those powers just when it most suits the story, and forget about them or are totally inept with them the rest of the time. It takes me right out of the story when there's an obvious resolution that one or another of the characters has within their reach, only to have it not be addressed in order to prolong the tension.

The other nagging pattern exhibited by the show, which I mentioned in my very first post about it, is the lack of believable follow-through. This has showed up in nearly every episode, and the finale was no exception. Sylar, the master villain, who several of the heroes have regarded as their nemesis for weeks, is lying on the ground, bleeding out. And yet not a one of them thinks to keep an eye on him so that he can't crawl off to bedevil them again in Season Two? Now, the cops who arrive on the scene are similarly incompetent at making sure someone's watching the corpse, but I can forgive them (they're not used to bizarre happenings). The heroes, on the other hand, have two of their numbers who've come back from the dead - Claire and Peter - so why wouldn't they worry about Sylar doing the same? A simple, precautionary decapitation might've seemed... I don't know, prudent?

And there are moments like that, all the way through the season. It's unfortunately one of those things where, as a viewer, you start to realize that the only possible way events could play out in the manner they're being shown would be if they were... you guessed it, written that way! Nathan having to fly Nuclear Peter up into the sky, so that Nathan can die a hero's death - if, in fact, he did die - only works as such if you turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride.

Which, I suppose, isn't the worst of fates.