20 posts tagged “heroes”

I hadn't gotten around to watching My Own Worst Enemy, and now I don't have to. I had it on the Tivo, and had every intention of watching it. Alas, there's no point as it's been canceled. So that's five hours of my life I don't have to waste.

It's going to be interesting to see how much longer Heroes lasts as well. It's been tanking hard in the ratings lately. I had a look through my old posts and I realized I hadn't mentioned how uninvolved in Heroes I am this season. I used to sit on the edge of my seat, trying to unravel the threads and make sense of it all, watching for all the little clues and the hints of the symbol. Now? Now I kind of half watch because I know it's so tangled up that it's not ever going to make sense. There are so many threads in so many different time lines that I honestly have no idea what's really going on. Turns out I'm kind of okay with that. It's still a fun comic book, it just makes less sense that a lot of comics I've read. It'll probably make it through the end of the season, but if the ratings don't improve, don't expect to see it back next year.

Also on the deathwatch, Pushing Daisies. This is currently my favorite show on TV. It's only going to have 13 episodes this season and they're already wrapped production for the year. There are more episodes to air, but they're not going to produce more beyond the 13. It might come back next year, but I'm not holding my breath. Sad.

In my last post I should have put the bit about Heroes up top. Heroes came back tonight with a bang. Diana pointed out that there was no "previously on" bit, and then later went 2-0 in saying that she wasn't sure it was necessary anyway. In as non-spoiler a way as possible, what did we learn tonight? Heroes is still a comic book. Suresh is still a jackass that will get it as wrong as possible given the slightest chance. Peter is still noble and misguided. Sylar is still scary. Claire is still a little off center. Parkman is still kind of useless but also still endearing. Hiro and Ando are headed for a showdown of some sort. The Greatest American Hero hasn't aged all that well. Nathan has found god and is also seeing things. Related? Discuss. Nikki still can't act. We learned what Weevil'd been up to since Veronica Mars was canceled. He's been living on the level reserved for the particularly dangerous people with powers. That would be Level 5 in case it comes up. And Veronica didn't even stop to say hello before she went all electric and explodey. We also found out what Mama Petrelli's power is. It's not what I thought. In conclusion, I'd also like to state that bringing a known arsonist whose power is fire in to your house to keep your family "safe" is probably not a great strategy.

I just finished watching the Emmys. For a list of winners, go here. Surprises included Bryan Cranston winning Best Actor in a Drama and Alec Baldwin winning for 30 Rock. Mad Men, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show also won their share.

Tivo check time:
I know I haven't made a big deal out of it yet, but let this be the big reminder that HEROES RETURNS MONDAY NIGHT! There's a one hour special at 8:00 "Countdown to the Premiere", and then at 9:00 is the two hour (two episode, really) premiere.

With slightly fewer capital letters, How I Met Your Mother also returns tonight at 8:30.

Tuesday brings us another new House and Fringe twofer. Also new show The Mentalist goes up against Fringe. It's supposed to be good, so I'll check it out.

Wednesday CSI:NY comes back.

Thursday has the season premiere and a second episode of My Name is Earl and the premiere of Survivor, both at 8:00. The Office also returns this week.

Next Sunday is the premiere of The Amazing Race and the Simpsons, both at 8:00.

In a way, I'm kind of glad there aren't all sorts of interesting new shows this fall because I've been busy and I'm already behind in watching what I've already recorded.

Two things of interest:
One, Peter Jackson and NewLine have buried the hatchet and have agreed that he will make The Hobbit. It will be split in to two movies.

Two, Tim Kring (Heroes) showed a trailer for Heroes Volume 3: Villains at some show in France last week. The picture quality and sound is pretty poor, but it shows that they had some stuff shot for the next chapter when they went dark for the strike. Very encouraging. A bit spoilery, so don't watch if you don't want to know.

Just a quick reminder that tonight is the last Heroes for the forseeable future. Hope it's a good one. The promos say two Heroes will die. I know which ones I hope it will be. How about you?

Also, BSG Razor comes out on dvd tomorrow. This is the extended dance mix with all the deleted scenes and whatnot that they've apparently been showing on SciFi for months now. Turns out that BSG and Doctor Who are the only things I watch on SciFi so I've missed all the promos. I just got the confirmation from Netflix that it's on its way. I'll let you know if it's worth checking out.

WTF was up with Heroes turning in to a soap opera last night? I mean, I saw it coming, and it was done completely true to style with Heroes being a comic book and all, but I didn't expect all the love stories to happen at once. Sheesh.

Other than that, I think Heroes still has what it takes. So far, and I've only watched one week of the new tv season, Heroes is still my favorite show.

Lessee, what else is new? Joss Whedon is directing another episode of The Office. So I guess that means I'll have to watch another full episode.

It's looking quite possible that the tv season could be interrupted by a writer's strike. Bummer.

Even though Sara didn't die on CSI, she's apparently off the show. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Fox is apparently giving J.J. Abrams a pile of cash to make a pilot of a Sci-Fi show called Fringe. Why does Fox even bother? If Alias struggled on ABC, at least they gave it a chance. This sounds like another show destined to be canceled by the jackholes at Fox.

Speaking of which, said jackholes at Fox have sent out some sort of cease and desist thing to places like The Parkway that were staging Whedon nights. You could go to the Parkway, see three episodes of great television in a comfy movie theater, have a pint and a slice, sounds like a perfect evening, right? Not anymore. Thanks a lot. Idiots.

Wallace and Gromit are returning to British TV. I hope that makes its way over here at some point.

The X-Files 2 might actually start filming soon. I wonder if anyone will care.

When I got to work this morning I had a lovely semi-crushed box from Amazon sitting on my desk. In that box was the Serenity Collectors Edition and the Heroes Season 1 DVD set. I also had a bottle of Bookers bourbon on my desk as a thank you for the ass kicking I took at work the week before I went on vacation, but that's a horse of a different color.

I'm sitting here repeating to myself "I must not watch Heroes tonight". I've got so much unpacking and laundry to do it's not even funny. So expect a post tomorrow about how I watched seven commentaries or all the special features or some other nonsense that had me up until 2am.

I'm also very much looking forward to the Life on Mars full set that Chuck brought me from the UK. I hope there are lots of goodies. I've only ever watched the episodes on my computer, so I'm psyched to see them on an actual screen. It's probably a good thing I don't have my mitts on those yet, see above note about 2am.

The three biggest finales of the season were this week and Veronica Mars rode off in to the sunset. I'm going to ruin the Lost finale three paragraphs down, so stop reading now if you don't want to risk it.

I really enjoyed the last few episodes of Veronica Mars and was actually very sad to see it go. This season was so inconsistent. We spent a lot of the season wondering where the hell all the regulars had gone. Wallace, Mac, Weevil, all MIA for a lot of the season. The last few episodes of the season/series had the whole gang. I even grew to like Piz as the season wore on and was glad he got the girl. Even Deputy Leo made a return for the final few episodes. I think it was watching Veronica walk away after casting her vote and realizing that we'll never know what happens next that bummed me out. Goodbye Veronica Mars.

And now in reverse order of how much I cared, here are the three big season finales from this week. First up, 24. This season of 24 actually sucked. I was surprised at exactly how much it could suck considering we'd made it through the daughter attacked by a mountain lion season and lived to tell the tale. I used to think the way this show told stories was kind of stupid, but it turns out if you take that same story and make it more like a soap opera, it's worse. Love triangles? Like, how many of them were there? Sheesh. The office romances used to be kind of fun on this show, but this season they were just stupid. Except for the Bill Buchanan/Karen Hayes thing. Didn't see that coming at all from the previous season but it was a great idea. Making the woman head of the NSA and having to fire her counter terrorist husband? Genius. Plus it set up several great Bill is a badass moments when he had to go rogue to save Jack. Bill has become my favorite not-Jack character since they offed Tony last season. The finale was fun, it mostly went down like it was supposed to. Jack saves the day, loses the girl, prevents a war. You know, the usual. Knowing Kiefer Sutherland is signed for three more seasons takes some of the suspense away as to the ending. Rumor has it that the next season will be somewhere outside of LA. Where else will they be able to get everywhere they need to be in 10 minutes every time?

Next, Lost. The last time I talked about Lost I mentioned that it was going to be a surprise and/or a relief when the finally killed Charlie. This was so well done. He died well. A great story line in an overall mediocre episode. I loved the way he dealt with the women who were torturing him. He had such a great attitude. He went down there ready to die, so being threatened didn't bother him one bit. There are a lot of people out there complaining about the way he died. To them I say: which show were you watching? It had to go down that way. If what you're hanging on to is the fact that he maybe could have closed the door from the outside, let me remind you that he and Des were in an underwater radio jamming station off the coast of an island that doesn't exist with polar bears and smoke monsters and strange indigenous peoples who are led by a crazy dude who talks to a chair in a cabin in the middle of the jungle thinking it's some sort of divine messenger. Moving on. First off, who the frak was in the casket?! Does it really have to be that big of a mystery? Oooh, spooky, let's watch Jack be crazy in the future that will never be and not tell you why he's upset. Speculate all you want, I'm not wasting any more energy thinking about it. This is exactly the kind of crap I started to hate about Lost. Is it really so important that we don't know? Ok, so theories? Nope. You know what? I don't care. It's entertaining and if I think too much about it it just makes me angry. Fun show, but way beyond me caring about what's actually going on. I used to want to figure it out. All I figured out is that there's nothing to figure out. Mostly I think I'm still watching to see how big a train wreck it can become. I know I'm not supposed to compare Lost and Heroes but I can't help but think about the fact that the Heroes future episode a) told you from the get go they were in the future b) made you completely buy the vision of the future even though you knew it wouldn't happen that way and c) was made of awesome. Lost did the opposite. Yes, I figured out it was a flash forward almost immediately. Yes, I understand it's a future that won't happen. But do they have to be such dicks about it? There were some great moments in the show, don't get me wrong. I still like it, just not for the reasons I used to. Loved the Hurley in the van moment. Loved that Tom the Other didn't kill the three captives and then Sawyer plugged him anyway. Loved the dark turn Sawyer is taking. Loved the fact that Penny almost got to talk to Des. Loved that fact that you just can't kill patchy. Wanna bet he's still not dead? Loved Jack beating the snot out of Ben. Really loved the first words Rousseau ever spoke to her daughter. Loved the body count. At least they're not afraid to kill characters on this show. It's what happens when good writers have bad material. All hat, no cattle. Rest in peace Charlie Pace.

Well, that was more of a tirade that I expected. Which brings us finally to Heroes. I've read a lot of comments on the interweb from people who are disappointed at the Heroes finale. Again, I say to them, which show were you watching? This was a great season finale. It payed off the season while setting up next season without being an irritating cliffhanger. The only complaint I can relate to is that I wanted a little more action in the big fight. Great setup, good job bringing all the Heroes together. Sylar's not dead. Which I have to admit I didn't get on the first viewing. So the question remains, did he crawl in to the sewer or was he dragged by the bigger badder bad that Molly won't look for? After killing two in the penultimate episode, it was almost a little disappointing that nobody actually died in the finale. Several potential mortal woundings, but we didn't see anyone actually die. Yet. I loved this show all season and, after a slew of disappointing season finales, was very pleased to see this one deliver. I'm really hoping they don't suffer a sophomore slump. I'm looking forward to next season very much when we learn that the samurai from the stories is really Hiro's dad. Or something.

And tonight? The beginning of the end for Studio 60. It returns in ER's slot to show the rest of the episodes they've already filmed. There will be no more.

Liverpool lost the Champions League 2-1 to AC Milan. I'm sure you were all dying to know that.

I think the only finale left is House. Which is next Tuesday. Guess I better make sure my Netflix queue is current. Or start playing more video games. Or both.

I love Heroes. Even the moments you knew were coming were pretty sweet. And at least one jaw drop surprise. The only disappointing thing about this episode is that now there are only four more episodes. I won't say anything more because I know some of you haven't seen it. So go. Now. Watch.

On the other hand, I can't quite make up my mind about The Riches. I'm watching it right now (commercials suck) and every time I think I'm done with it I can't seem to turn it off. It's fascinating and twisted, and it certainly has its moments. I'm just not sure it's actually good. Clancy Brown is guest starring next week. That could be fun.

Which brings us to Drive. It started last week with a two night, three hour debut. I watched all three hours. And then promptly forgot it was on tonight before Heroes. At least Fox is posting the show on myspace so if I miss it I can catch up. It's an interesting idea, and the writing is pretty good. I think they're running the first five or six episodes in a row, and I'll stick around to see how those go. It was worth the price of admission alone to see that wicked little smile on Nathan Fillion's face at the end of the third hour.

I'm now two weeks behind on 24. And I miss seeing The Daily Show and Colbert every day. It's hard to remember to watch it at 10:00 after prime time. It's bad enough that prime time is from 7-10. Who's home by 7? Seriously.

And I think there's a leak in my dishwasher. Add that to the list of things I miss from home. A non-leaky super quiet dishwasher. Now that this project is wrapping up, I'm ready to come home. Although (here's a sentence I never thought I'd write) I'm looking forward to going to Cleveland this weekend. I'm going to visit the college roommate. Half the fun of flying to Cleveland is that when you fly back it's like time travel. I leave Cleveland at 8:30 and arrive in Chicago at 8:30. Whoa.

I've also been reading (shocker!) since I spend about two hours on the train every day. I finished the Barack Obama book, The Audacity of Hope last week. It was in interesting read, but I'm still not sure what he's about as a candidate. I think he's a smart dude. And moderate. Big on the "be excellent to each other" philosophy I'm fond of. Now on Diana's suggestion I have moved on to The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I'm enjoying it but I'm not sure I get it just yet.

I just finished watching The Riches. I have to admit I was skeptical. I've seen Eddie Izzard do an American accent before and I was kind of dreading an hour of it. Aside from the few times when he sounded like he had marbles in his mouth it didn't bother me that much. This show was really interesting. It was pitched as a black comedy, but there was very little to laugh at in this show. It was very dark. What humor was there was was so black it's only kind of amusing in retrospect. The pilot was very much a setup for the rest of the season. As, I suppose, all pilots are supposed to. I really have no idea how it's going to go, but I was riveted by the pilot. I'm going to keep watching this show. FX is airing the pilot a couple more times before the next episode on Monday. I suggest you set your tivo or tivo-wannabe device.

On the other hand, I still haven't seen the Black Donnellys or The Winner. Maybe I'll get around to it now that a lot of shows are in repeats before their final surge in to spring. And I'm still looking forward to Drive, which starts April 15th.

I finally got around to watching last week's Lost. I used to be so in to this show. It's still enjoyable but I certainly don't love it like I used to. These people are so terrible at communication. There have to be better ways to introduce conflict. Sayid doesn't tell Locke the bunker is lined with C4, Locke doesn't tell Sayid that the computer is asking it questions about hostiles and for f*ck sake hasn't Locke learned not to push buttons on computers?! Jeezy Creezy! And like you couldn't all see the ping pong thing coming. It's great that we're having a moment with the people on the beach but don't you think they'd be better off telling us what that big four toed thing we saw at the end of last season was? Yeah, let's meet the black lady who was one of the main kidnappers of Jack, Kate and Sawer, find out she speaks Russian, and is pals with the eyepatch man (gosh, all that sounds kind of interesting, oh wait...) and then kill her?! Yeah, I'm probably complaining too much for a show I still watch and like. I just need to reset my expectations a lot lot lot lower. It was interesting to hear from the creator of Heroes last week that they are conscious of the backlash hitting Lost this season. It's hard to make a serialized drama and keep people interested. I think Lost and Heroes are trying two different approaches. I'm enjoying Heroes so much, but it's still in its first season. I guess I should reserve judgement until Heroes hits its third season and see if it still holds up. But right now Heroes is appointment tv, and it took me six days to get around to this weeks Lost. And don't even get me started on BSG. Okay, fine, I'll say something about BSG. More space battles please. That is all.