Heroes and the Manchurian Candidate
Over the past month or so I’ve been getting quasi-obsessed with the television show Heroes. I watched Season 1 (very good) and Season 2 (very bad) on DVD and I’ve also been watching the current Season, 4.
On Monday night about my favorite character Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) got killed off which I thought was a shame as it interferes with my fantasies about he and his brother Peter (Milo Ventimiglia). The lead up to his death involved a knock down drag out where Peter nailed Syler’s (Zachary Quinto’s) hands down. Oh, heavy handed Christian symbolism. I love crap like that.
My main problem with this scene is that Zachary “Spock” Quinto is about a foot taller than Milo “That guy from Gilmore Girls” Ventimiglai so I did find it hard to believe that Peter could get the upper hand on Syler in a fight. Superpowers are one thing but I just couldn’t get my suspension of disbelief around that one.
My favorite thing about the three episodes I’ve seen of Season 4 is that Robert Knepper is a featured villain. When I got into fandom several years ago it was through writing about Robert Knepper’s Prison Break character T-Bag and I love watching him on anything, especially with black nail polish and his eyes lined with kohl.
Tonight I’m going to start on Season 3. Based on reviews I’ve read it’s an improvement over Season 2 which really wasn’t very good. During the past couple days, in honor of Heroes character Angela Petrelli I rewatched the original 1964 Manchurian Candidate with Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury and then watched the 2004 remake for the first time. The original was definitely better but the remake wasn’t entirely bad, Merly Streep managed to bring a chilling new twist to the role of the candidate’s evil mother which is saying a lot considering how good Lansbury is in the part. Also the creepy mother/son scenes went a bit beyond the original's scandalous on the lips kiss though I was sort of disappointed that things didn’t go further (I’d read in a review that it went much further, it didn’t). Supposedly the mother and son sleep together in the 1959 novel on which both films are based. Apparently a 1950’s novel can go much further than a mainstream motion picture in 2004. Not that I think graphic portrayal of incest = good movie making. Really.
On Monday night about my favorite character Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) got killed off which I thought was a shame as it interferes with my fantasies about he and his brother Peter (Milo Ventimiglia). The lead up to his death involved a knock down drag out where Peter nailed Syler’s (Zachary Quinto’s) hands down. Oh, heavy handed Christian symbolism. I love crap like that.
My main problem with this scene is that Zachary “Spock” Quinto is about a foot taller than Milo “That guy from Gilmore Girls” Ventimiglai so I did find it hard to believe that Peter could get the upper hand on Syler in a fight. Superpowers are one thing but I just couldn’t get my suspension of disbelief around that one.
My favorite thing about the three episodes I’ve seen of Season 4 is that Robert Knepper is a featured villain. When I got into fandom several years ago it was through writing about Robert Knepper’s Prison Break character T-Bag and I love watching him on anything, especially with black nail polish and his eyes lined with kohl.
Tonight I’m going to start on Season 3. Based on reviews I’ve read it’s an improvement over Season 2 which really wasn’t very good. During the past couple days, in honor of Heroes character Angela Petrelli I rewatched the original 1964 Manchurian Candidate with Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury and then watched the 2004 remake for the first time. The original was definitely better but the remake wasn’t entirely bad, Merly Streep managed to bring a chilling new twist to the role of the candidate’s evil mother which is saying a lot considering how good Lansbury is in the part. Also the creepy mother/son scenes went a bit beyond the original's scandalous on the lips kiss though I was sort of disappointed that things didn’t go further (I’d read in a review that it went much further, it didn’t). Supposedly the mother and son sleep together in the 1959 novel on which both films are based. Apparently a 1950’s novel can go much further than a mainstream motion picture in 2004. Not that I think graphic portrayal of incest = good movie making. Really.