Volume Three: Villains
Tonight’s episode – One of Us, One of Them
Last week’s two hour, two episode premiere of Heroes was odd. It was at once both fun and cringe-worthy. And that’s why I am keenly interested in tonight’s episode. I am curious to see which was this show is going to go: will it go down the season one track and be fun and exciting, or will it stay in the season two track with fearsomely cheesy dialogue and “let’s throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” stories. Until proven otherwise, I fear it will be the latter. And as someone who would know told me, “Heroes now seems like a show that’s being written by network executives. Too many cooks in the kitchen giving too many notes.”
Last week, Daphne Quick was a welcome addition to the show as Electronica Mars was last year. I’d like to see more of her. I am also really looking forward to the pairing of Sylar and HRG, which could lead to some fantastic stuff. HRG is still the best part of this show. I also look forward to Mohinder trying to have sex with everything that moves.
Now that I think about it, Heroes biggest problem might be too many characters with too many storylines. I realize that that’s silly to say only two hours in, but it’s a worry I have. Season two lacked cohesion, with all of the characters scattered to the wind. The best part of season one was that although there were a lot of characters, the story remained tight with the one clear goal of Save the Cheerleader, Save the World. I said it last season and I’ll say it again: I think that that one simple, brilliant slogan, which was catchy and spread like wildfire, was the biggest reason for Heroes‘ success and they need to find another one of those this year. And find one pronto.
As always, I look forward to your thoughts, opinions, gripes, live-blogging, etc.
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How does HRG make throwing a ball against a pane of glass look badass? Solo ball throwing hasn’t been badass since Steve McQueen in THE GREAT ESCAPE! That was 1963!
does this count as a retcon for sylar?
This Sylar Petrelli thing is either going to be genius or one more nail in the show. I’m not convinced it’s true yet.
@dopehat88 – Eh, it’s not so much a retcon as a reveal. They are slightly different.
"Feed you" – That was FUCKED UP.
HRG is badass no matter what he does.
Wasn’t that ‘touching objects and learning about them thing’ Josie Mac’s power in ‘Gotham Central’?
fucked up indeed
Indeed. That was screwed up.
In the future, there is only black clothing.
o look the brotherhood of evil mutants!!!
Marlo talks too much. He’s scarier when he doesn’t talk.
If you’re going to rip off a show, then you might as well rip off the best, and this whole Peter stuck in another guy’s body device is pure QUANTUM LEAP.
This villains thing is working out splendidly so far.
Oh… shit.
Sylar and Noah?
i think this could be the best pairing all this season
Peter is trying to get home for the second season in a row now. Not a complaint, but the guy seems to get lost/displaced a lot.
@conor If he tries to "Put right what once went wrong" I will laugh my ass off.
does peter have amnesia again?
@Kimbo – No, he’s trapped in someone else’s body.
Take that, deadbeat biological mom!
Sylar needs structure like I need a foot in my ass.
Looking forward to seeing what happens with Brundel-Suresh.
"What kind of overconfident nemesis are you?"
Oh, Hiro. <3
Sylar must be playing some kind of angle here… what’s in it for him to be good?
What DOES he want, anyway? What’s his motivation now.
Hahahaha – Daphne runs funny when she’s slow…
I can’t believe she called him Pikachu. LOL
@conner, who knows maybe sylar mite jump on the good guy bandwagon……………….probably not
yes she did ..great
Mrs. Petrelli and Sylar are very Manchurian Candidate.
They are REALLY lucky that Masi Oka can deliver super corny lines with such earnest conviction as to strip them of all their corniness. This show wouldn’t be what it is without him.
so she-hulks got ice powers now huh..
FUCK!
Damn Magneto just got killed
Meanwhile, on the African spirit walk…
whos the artist thats doing those paintings?
Tim Sale art?
I don’t know how I feel about them having ANOTHER future painter.
Tim Sale is huge in Africa.
i get these visions, this ones called peter:white and this ones nathan:blue..lets keep walking..
Is that Tim Sale’s work again?
I get such a wide smile whenever I see a Wire actor on another show. Marlo is bad ass. I thought I was in west baltimore again. Can we make Cutty a hero?
Parkman was not meant for long exposer in the sun.
I like the spirit guide
this season feels like a sequel to a movie moreso than a continuing storyline to me so far..
Next season’s subplot is going to be about Parkman’s brave battle against melanoma.
Suit and Tie Sylar?
How many times a day do you reckon Zachary Quinto has to shave?
its not your fault your a cold blooded killer..thats a handsome suit..
Mr. Roboto!
Hiro & Ando make everything awesome.
You cant call dibs. Nice.
Hiro’s surprised fists reaction made me laugh outloud.
i think his beards get beards
so this Quick girl is The Flash and Catwoman?
Speedster has got the tilt of the head DOWN. She should be in a Scooby Doo movie
zombies!! run!!
Someone get Parkman some lip balm!
Maybe there are only X amount of powers in this universe
@dopehat88 – Which is exactly what Impulse is on SMALLVILLE.
Oh, Peter fell for the second oldest trick in the book…
i thought life at my office had drama, HRG has horrible work weeks
Good Cop, Crazy Cop?
Sylar, you silly bastard.
Nice Sylar, not even a badge. Right Noah?
Wasn’t… Sylar just like… pure evil not so long ago?
Oh god, I hope it’s not Magneto/Venom syndrome…
(Although Sylar the FBI Agent was funny)
why does talking like a 30′s movie star accent denote crime busting FBI maverick?
I love company SYlar.
So wait, this is a buddy comedy now between HRG and Sylar? Wasn’t he anti-christ not too long ago (an episode)? I blame that on Loeb mostly because of that last Ultimates I read.
@conor He HAS to have some alterior motive. I just can’t see him being good without a reason.
How many seasons/episodes is Peter not going to know whats going on or "who he is." They need to write in some balls for him.
Peter = that heroic
This group of villains sure is narrowing down
Does Peter have his powers or the guy whose body he’s in’s powers? Or no powers?
…who is this Syler?
I never knew Syler cared, how sweet
I think he has the guys whos body he’s in. Only he doesn’t know what they are.
No! Micah! AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
huh!?
i’m gonna say no powers since he hasn’t TK’d anyone yet
Random thought: every other male face on NBC on Mondays annoys the (_bleep_) outta me. Chuck, this guy from Life … one is supposed to be a nerd, the other smart and i’m left turning it to Rachel Maddow.
Ooh, we’re back. And so is the New Orleans girl finally
OK, who did Ali Larter blow to stay on this show after her first shitty character got killed off?
Too bad micah wasn’t in that coffin
Micah not only talks to machines but he also boosts your computer’s processing power.
Micah will be promoting his new book soon: Living with a Mom thats Bat-Shit Crazy: A Survivors Tale.
"I’m being awesome."
Ando is so going to become Nightwing… an evil Nightwing.
Why wouldn’t HRG or the writers want Sylar to use any number of his powers to help.
The movie hall music – perfect.
Well, that answers my question.
peter-banshee?
So, wait, Weevil!Peter is Black Canary?
is this like Superman III?
@hbkhumanity – HRG, because he doesn’t trust Sylar, he thinks he just wants to steal the villains’ powers. The producers, because it’s cheaper.
Peter is going to need sooo much therapy. So much.
Wow. watching Peter act with Marlo is like … is like … is like watching a chicken act with Marlo
Nice whoa! face from noah
I hope evil Nightwing-Ando wears the disco-fabulous original Nightwing costume.
I never noticed before but they are freeely referencing both Marvel and DC characters on this show. Usually it’s just one or the other.
just wen u think u were gonna get peter vs sylar pt 2…..
Been wanting a good peter vs sylar fight since season 1…
@Conor-Yeah I suppose, it just seems like such a waste.
"And THAT is how you strut in a tank top."
"Thanks, mom!"
somebody get Axel Foley in there stat!
Darth Sylar!
So that was pretty badass
Is mom evil?
is this the Red Shoe Diaries all of the sudden?
Ummm….
The thing about morally ambiguous Sylar is that his evil never had any motivation other than "be evil". So it’s hard for any change to be convincing. At least when Magneto is all over the place it can tie back to different ways of helping mutants.
Also, I don’t know if I need/want ‘Heroes’ to explain waterboarding to me. I’m just saying.
thats the Nick Fury style of instant teenage badassery
Must… eat… brains!
Don’t do it Sylar, no wait do it.
there goes morally ambiguous
I know that wouldn’t last long.
hmmm..that’ll be tough to bury in the report..
well………..good sylar didnt last that long
*knew
They need a Sentry analogue on this show. Just someone who runs off crying every time shit goes down.
I know its a show, but is it just me or is level 5 a 10 ft stretch of hallway, they couldn’t have added a little something else?
moms immune to fire, heat, and sweat
Save Yourself, Save the World
This dude is the best finger painter ever.
you know your style reminds me a lot of tim sale, you must hear that a lot..
Is Parkman holding Daphne?
so wait, does that mean all future painters paint like Tim Sale?
"I would tell you of the future, but right now I have to finish the last few pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE #1"
cloning?
dum dum DUMMMMMM
He’s listening to the Shins
I kind of love Claire’s duelling mommies.
And. . .is not!Nicky a clone? Is she Maddy Pryor? Does that mean Micah will grow up to be Cable?
even his voice feels like velvet
WTF? Food, check. African music, check. Time to paint the future.
@piscespaul – They will change his life.
@conor..and you caught the reference
Best episode of the season!
next week another vision of the future..not that future that we dealt with already but ANOTHER one with Peter still having a scar on his face…hello? hello??
Sylar hugging Peter?!? WIN!
@conor…i totally agree and im guess this season is really gonna focus on Sylar changing
"If I knew you were ocming I owuld have made extra."
Syler: Lethal Protector
was unsure last week, I’m in for the season this week, excellent
So did Sylar kill that guy?
I was typing a message. I missed the first few seconds of when the got back to level 5.
I oculd have sworn they were escorting the bald guy to a cell….
Anybody else as sick of Claire as I am? She’s nice to look at, especially when she’s all sweaty but her character bores me.
Why is the two most popular characters are stone cold killers? Sylar and bennet the best characters ever
@Kory I am liking Claire’s storyline this season. I thought the encounter with her birth mother was one of the best parts of season one, and I’m glad it hasn’t been forgotten. I hope she and Nathan meet up soon.
@Kory- the character that bores me to death is Niki/Jessica
I fell like nothing happened. At all…
My wife hated it.
Wow, Housewife Sylar looks way cooler than Corporate Sylar. A middle management Red Skull kind of thing.
@Kimbo- Trust me Nikki/Tracy/Jessica bores me as well. There are a few characters that bore me, Claire is’nt the only one. That’s one of my problems with HEROES.
@Conor – As someone who didn’t like the fist half of last season but grew to like it, so far this feels likes something of a reboot. Taking elements they know we like but throwing in nods now and again.
I’m liking it so far, despite huge plot holes (if Future Peter can heal himself years before he becomes Future Peter… why does he have a scar???) but it’s interesting again. I doubt we’ll ever get a season like the first again, which was majestic and had soul to spare. But this looks good enough to watch.
I hope that Nathan’s "If we save ourselves, we save the world" isn’t planned to be the new slogan, and was hopefully a little in-joke.
@Eyun – Oh, as I said last week, time travel always leads to all kinds of problems and conundrums. It never makes sense. It’s all very heavy.
Overall I found nothing too enjoyable about this episode (Surprise Surprise TNC doesnt like something again).
The acting is still either over the top or not good enough. The plot makes as little sense to me and it is just jumping around all over the place, never finding a true spot to linger on. There are waaay to many characters now, it has the Lost syndrome where we can only focus on certain characters for a certain amount of time. Finally I just care little about some of the main characters. Nikki, Michah, Mohinder, Peter, that reporter chick, Charlie, and now even Sylar I’m getting tired of at this point.
Season 1 was so damn good only because it was a huge hit that literally came out of nowhere. But now the minor complaints I had about the first season are suddenly growing into huge problems for season 2 and now this third season. At the end of the day I really dont know what was going on and I just dont care. It is too early to say this season is a bust but….well I just dont think I’ll stop sleeping at night if I just stop watching this all together. Nice ride while it lasted though.
hmm i liked it it was a good episode. i like the way sylar is going and hes now onea my fave characters for some odd reason…lol
@Conor. There’s that word again. Heavy. In the future, is there something wrong with the Earth’s gravitational pull?
Well played xebix. Well played indeed.
Thank you, sir. I was waiting to see who would catch that first.
Does anyone think Tracy is Jessica?
Meh, this episode wasn’t any better than the other ones were for me. I half expected them to say that Claire didn’t even need to breath anymore, thought that was where her mom was going with that. Nikki’s, or whoever that is, storyline has got me interested. And Sylar’s "redemption" isn’t really working for me. In the comics, you can easily redeem people like Hal Jordan. But on TV…ehhhhh, not so much.
@drakedangerz – Which is why no one here really believes that Sylar is good now. He’s got something working.
Considering how they were teasing how particularly dangerous Jesse was among the other inmates last episode, I’m kind of disappointed he died before actually doing anything. In fact, Flint and the German dying so quickly bothered me, too. That’s a quarter of the villains that escaped dead before the third week. Still, Noah is pretty boss and I’m actually interested in what Sylar’s doing this time around, so that’s an improvement. Plus, Hiro and Ando was always chuckle-worthy at the very least.
I also have to laugh how the producers keep needing to put Peter in these random subplots in order so he doesn’t deus ex machina the whole season away in five minutes without looking like a total idiot (like he tends to once the random subplot of the season is over).
Am I the only one who was bothered by Claire’s mom being able to breathe in the dumpster (storage container?) Her power is creating fire AND not needing to breathe? Seems a little convenient.
Anyhoo other than that I loved this episode! I thought the write out of Micah was a relief, cause he’s friggin terrible and I hope we don’t see him again. Also I didn’t miss Mohinder AT ALL. In fact I’m pretty sick of his intro and outros, why couldn’t those be divided throughout the cast?
@ Conor- yeah, it seemed a little to convenient for their Villians season to have one of their main threats try to find redemption. Total Loebism. "You want Sylar to be more ambiguous? Leave it to me!!"
@CAM – I was also wondering that for the longest time. She didn’t seem affected by the heat at all, which I understand. Figured she would be immune to the heat she produced. But she still has to breath right?? I think she is going to have a face-off with Mr. Blue Flame later on in the season. I can only assume that since his flame is blue, its hotter and therefore he is totally going to kill Claire’s mom. Every hero needs that one tragic life-defining moment right?
And totally pissed that Magneto went out like a punk.
@drakedangerz- I’m totally with you, I was upset Magneto died. He had potential to be a good villain, especially with the German accent because there is not a scarier thing than a person with a German accent.
Everyone’s upset about Magneto but noone cares about Banshee…isn’t that always the way.
i can’t wait to see "domestic sylar" next week. i wonder if he’s share his needlepoint with us…
worst dialogue since house of M. "why do you wanna fight bad guys?" are you serious?????
ah well.
People seem really quick to pawn off any of the show’s preceived problems on Jeph Loeb. There are a lot more writers/producers involved in the writing and creating the storylines than just him. Having the villain be (possibly) morally ambigiuous is certainly not new to fiction.
Finally Hereos starts here in the UK tomorrow night. Can’t wait. Only a couple of episodes behind for a change. Smallville season 7 only just finishes tonight and you guys have several of 8 already, sodding Channel 4.
@Connor – True, I think we just like to blame Loeb because most of us don’t like his comics as of late. I officially apologize for drinking too much Loeb flavored Haterade.
@CAM – Poor Banshee…never gets any love. The fact that he looked like a street thug bugged me, so it was easy for me to not care that he died. I feel for the girl that was fodder for Sylar in the beginning though
@drakedangerz
(maybe I should add in BSG SPOILER!!!!!!)
Was it just me or did she look like a certain Callie killing Cylon?
Personally, I’m glad they got rid of Magneto. Besides adding a level of seriousness and immediate danger to Strong Guy (what is his actual power?), in my eye, if it’s not Magneto from X2, it’s not worth it. He really needs to be all or nothing in the magnetic control department. Not just moving metal, but reshaping it, flying on it, killing with it. Remember when Magneto escaped in X2? This guy would need to be doing that all the time in order for him to live up to my expectations.
Also, did anyone see the webisodes on nbc.com before this season started? There was a three episode thing with a guy named Echo who had Banshee powers and was put in Level 5. Why would they need to introduce Jesse when they had Echo already prepared in the webisodes? I mean, I know not everyone saw them, but it just seems redundant to introduc a new character who has the exact same powers as someone else (cough-cough-Issac-and-the-spirit-guru-cough).
I was talking with my friends the other day and we came up with a interesting theory about the people with the painting power. Maybe its not that they can paint the future, maybe its that someone from the future is mentally feeding these sensitive people images that he is painting in the future. That would storywise explain why the art always looks the same regardless of who is painting it.