Wednesday, May 23, 2007

'Heroes' Wrap-Up

I wanted to give everyone who needed it a day to catch up if you hadn't seen the finale of "Heroes" yet.

THE REST OF THIS POST INVOLVES SPOILERS, SO PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK



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STILL HERE? OK.

For the most part, I loved the finale for several reasons. For one, it wrapped up Season 1's storylines, as the producers promised it would. For another, it contained solid twists. And finally, we got a lot of great moments of interpersonal relationships (Peter-Nathan; Peter-Charles; Claire-HRG aka Noah Bennet; Hiro-Ando; Niki-D.L.). Not to mention the symmetry that ran from the pilot to the ending, such as the eclipse, Hiro and Ando returning to the office cubicle, and Nathan flying in to save Peter.

Some people have complained that the fight at the end wasn't big enough; maybe that's a valid point, but I think people were expecting X-Men-style teamwork among characters who barely knew each other.

For me, the producers could have solved some of the complaints with a few pieces of dialogue. Some people are asking why Peter needed Nathan to fly away at the end when he should have been able to do it himself, but I'm guessing Peter was expending all his energy to keep from not exploding and couldn't fly. And it allowed Nathan his nice moment of redemption.

What I liked was the way the show ended Chapter 1 and began Chapter 2, making that the cliffhanger, which I found to be inspired. We still have a lot of questions from Season 1 - who survived, who didn't, who is the new Big Bad that the little girl was referring to that is worse than Sylar - but one thing "Heroes" has done throughout its run has been to set up the various plotlines by asking questions that it will answer later down the line.

I'm not really sure what people expected from the finale - or the finales of any show, for that matter - but if there was disappointment among some viewers, it's only because "Heroes" has set the bar so high.

Anyway, feel free to post your thoughts about this, or any other finale.

WEDNESDAY'S BEST BETS: And, speaking of finales...

"Lost" (ABC, 9 p.m.) wraps up Season 3 with what critics are saying is one phenomenal plot twist. Expect certain characters to die is all I really know. With a reported four deaths still to come this season, I'm really worried they're going to kill someone I really like. After a slow start, "Lost" has been very strong this season (minus the Jack's tattoos episode). Tonight's two-hour finale follows a rerun of the "Lost: Answers" special in which the producers of the show look at some of the key plot points over the life of the series.

Also tonight, we learn who the newest "American Idol" (Fox, 8 p.m.) will be. Though she has left The Telegraph for hopefully bigger and better things, Maggie Large is continuing to blog about "AI" on her music blog, Amped.

NBC is running a two-hour special looking at "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s.

You may also want to check out PBS tonight with a couple of shows. The first is a documentary looking at Tony Blair's term as Britain's prime minister at 9 p.m., followed by a rerun of "Nova" at midnight I forgot to mention yesterday. It's a special about the robots that university teams are building in the annual DARPA competition, which is always cool.

Finally, "Hustle" (AMC, 10 p.m.) is also new and has picked up after what has been a slow start.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, this was my disappointment. First as I mentioned in yesterday’s post there where some great moments (ie Hiro/Ando moment), in fact I like the episode but was disappointed in the last 7 minutes of the fight scene. I didn’t have to be “X-men” type fighting, but needed to be more what the rest of Hereo’s season was about. I know Peter couldn’t fly because he said he had no control of his powers. But how was the cop shot by his own 4 bullets by Syler, but Niki could swing a parking meter at him and he could not stop it? Also Hiro just walked up to Syler and killed him, I mean none of that practice he and his dad worked on came in play? And also Syler just let Peter punch him over and over? Ok maybe Niki gave Peter her powerful punch but still, as a viewer I found that a little lame. I mean Syler was such a badass and he went down quite easy.

So really that was what I was so disappointed about. But I do believe both brothers made it though, I think Nathan flew away before Peter blew, and as we were led to believe, Peter should be able to ‘fix’ himself a la Clair.

Anyway that was my two cents….

Anonymous said...

Edge,

Your complaints, I must admit, are very fair. I was also scratching my head at how easily Hiro took out Sylar and not even really needing Takei's training.

What may have helped is if this had been a 2 hour episode and far more of a mortal struggle...maybe we see Sylar kill 1-2 of the Heroes in the process, but something more on the "epic" level of how a "Buffy" typically ends a season.

I think of when Buffy had that epic fight to end season 3 with the Sunnydale students taking up arms against a swarm of vamps or Buffy battling Glory in an epic finish to season 5 or maybe the last Buffy ever which was a "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" level scene between an outmanned group of slayer wannabes and hundreds and thousands of demons.

Yes, not everything van be "Buffy", but I was expecting the "Heroes" finale to be more like those.

Also, it appears they may have killed off Matt Parkman (not for sure...) but he was one I hoped would be back next year--a character that was one of the more interesting ones. Though they didn't kill them off, they can probably lose the DL/Nikki/Micah thing for next season.

Phillip Ramati said...

I had pretty much assumed Peter used Niki's superstrength when he was hitting Sylar. That's why he said "Go back to your family, I've got this." I thought it would have been better if (from Sylar's perspective) Hiro pops in, then pops out, then pops back in right next to Sylar with the sword in his gut.

I'm also guessing Sylar's ego had something to do with his performance in the fight. Remember, he laughed at Ando when he saw the comic book of Hiro stabbing him, and said Hiro had his chance and failed. With Niki, he probably didn't know about her strength, so he didn't expect her to do so much damage.

But while the final fight sequence could have been done better, I still maintain that with all of the other elements in the episode, it was a great hour and good way to end Season 1.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Heroes"

During the episode, I stopped fast forwarding (I only got to watch the finale last night, finally) when I saw a 'glimpse' of the "Bionic Woman" pilot...let me just say, from the glimpse I saw and finding out that BSG honcho David Eick is behind it, I have this on my must try list for the Fall.

I thought the pilot looked pretty kick a-- and certainly nothing like the cheesy effects of the 70's Lindsay Wagner film.

Though let me say this to Eick and the other 'Bionic' people...if this show is a hit (and between it being on NBC and a fantasy show, I will root like hell for it) you definitely should do like "Battlestar" and "Smallville" and pay hommage to your past by having iconic actors guest starring.

In fact, I am calling for it right now...Lindsay Wagner & Lee Majors should play the parents of the 'new' Bionic woman. That would be awesome.

Phillip Ramati said...

What, no guest role for Oscar Goldman himself, Richard Anderson?