Heroes: Out Of Time
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This episode was great in that it really set us up for the seasons real arc: stopping the plague. The notepad I use to jot down thoughts while I watch the show has been divided by episode and each passage was longer than the last, meaning more complaints every single time out.This one was a third of the last size and after seeing the teaser for next week, I don't plan on writing another one of these things for at least another two weeks - possibly never again.
That's good.
For those who were paying attention early on (I was not one of you because I'm a retard) it was obvious that Peter was going to be at the center of the story all the way through. This year it wasn't clear at all who things were going to settle on, but now we know, and the as Tim Kring has said in multiple interviews, the formula has not really changed at all.
Season one, it was "save the cheerleader, save the world." This year, it's "stop the plague, save the world." Good, I can roll with that. But there are still problems that need to be dealt with.
The Hondurans - were nowhere to be seen. After having to watch Jimme Johnson win his third straight race AND the Patriots beat the Colts, I couldn't really take another hit this week. Is there any possibility we can just pretend they never happened?
Monica - was nowhere to be seen. After having to watch Jimme Johnson win his third straight race AND the Patriots beat the Colts, I couldn't really take another hit this week. Is there any possibility we can just pretend she never happened?
West - is becoming an extremely creepy stalker. Having to watch him make out with Claire made me wonder if I had accidentally changed the channel and was watching a soap opera. I get the point of the new character and what the writers are trying to do with him, but it's not working.
Claire was already pretty rebellious to begin with yet that was supposedly all cleaned up at the end of season one, why are we having to suffer through it all over again?
I find myself unsympathetic to anyone in that entire family (not blood, I've still got Nathan's back) and so it follows that I just don't care what they are doing or what happens to them. I was down with Noah through the first season because once it became clear he was trying to do the right thing for his family, he became sympathetic.
Once he greased his Russian friend, that went away. That worked, I'm down with it, if that's the direction they want to go with him for a while then I'm all for it - but somebody in that family has to replace him as the good guy.
Misc - it occurred to me that the ancient Japan arc was coming to an end soon. It was starting to really drag, even with Hiro at the center of it, he can't carry it forever no matter how funny and sympathetic he is. I wrote on my notepad, thinking I had already figured this out, that it was going to end in the 11th episode.
For those unaware, NBC had Tim Kring write an alternate version for the 11th episode that would allow it to double as a season two finale, all because of the writers strike which began early Monday morning.
I read that the 11th episode was especially suited for a bait-and-switch because it was already planned to be the end of the "generations" arc, which is the title of "volume two", or presumably what we all thought was the title of season two. Turns out "generations" wasn't the name of the season two (like "origins" was the name of the first season, or "volume one"), it was just the name of an arc that was going to last for about half the season.
Or 11 episodes.
So you can see how I thought that would be the time to wrap up ancient Japan, only to find it ended here and now. To Kring and company I say well played my friends. I made a conclusion and had it slapped right out of my hand in less than half an hour - I love that.
A couple more of those and I'll be totally at home in season two for once. But man, how about that trailer/teaser for 2x07? Also, how does it feel to knowing that there are only four episodes left until NBC runs out of scripts, all because the studios and networks don't want to pay writers at all for Internet downloads?
Bastards.
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