Catching up with Heroes
Oy, this has gotten long.
Short preface:
I stopped watching Heroes after Volume 3 because the direction of the show itself as well as the fandom and media attitude towards it killed my enjoyment. But my carefully crafted plan to emotionally detach myself from the show and fandom by only reading your reviews and every spoiler I could get my hands on surprisingly didn't work out. I realized that I'm kidding myself because I'm obviously still invested in these characters.
And lets face it: This is going to be Heroes' last season and I rather watch the remaining episodes with you together then continue to delude myself. So, let's squee and speculate and bitch together!
Was that a tad melodramatic? Yeah. I thought so too. I guess it's no coincidence that my favorite characters are the Petrellis. ;)
Now, before I catch up with season four, a few quick thoughts about
Volume 4
Since I marathoned through the episodes in just a few days, I don't have detailed thoughts on each single one. They all blend together and the only standouts for me were 3x20 Cold Snap and 3x21 Into Asylum. It took me a while to get into the new canon but I remember having similar difficulties at the start of season 2 and 3. When I think of Heroes I mostly think of the first season and I still have trouble aligning the new material of the following seasons with the former. Of course it doesn't help that character and story continuity isn't Heroes's strong forte but I'm not here to rant.
Anyway, Cold Snap really hooked me, it had great, almost cinematic moments and put me in the right mood for Into Asylum. I honestly didn't expect to love the episode as much as I did because I remember how weirded out I had been reading your reviews at that time. Particularly the Nathan/Claire arc sounded like bad fanfic but seeing it in context of the episode and the entire volume it worked and I loved it.
The Peter and Angela interaction on the other hand I was very much looking forward to and it did meet my expectations. Milo and Cristine have such a believable family chemistry and it blows me away every single time how much they look like mother and son. How could Arthur treat Peter the way he did when he saw the face of the women he claimed to love until they started trying to kill each other?
The thing I appreciated most about this episode was, that it gave us a few genuine character moments. For the first time in a long period Peter really felt like Peter. I adored his little conversation with God and Milo somehow managed to deliver it heartfelt enough that it didn't felt cheesy. Even though I despise the TWOP recaps these days, I had to laugh about the recapper praising Milo's acting for once in this scene and musing that perhaps he gets distracted when there are other people in the scene which would explain the ups and downs in his performances. Nathan showed a crack in his armor that Claire and I desperately needed to see and even Angela felt more human, like a real mother instead of a crazy, scheming matriarch for once. Of course, I also loved Claire, her interaction with Nathan was heartbreaking but in contrast to the rest of the Petrelli family she had already been given moving material with Sandra earlier in the season.
And yet it was strange to watch it with the knowledge that both of these relationships are dead now (well Peter/Angela isn't technically yet but I honestly think that Angela will lose Peter for good once he finds out about Nathan and her involvement in the aftermath of his death). It added another layer of finality and emotion to their scenes and left me feeling touched but also sad.
To my great surprise I even enjoyed the Danko/Sylar scenes. I found their dynamic much more compelling than the Luke/Sylar interaction. There is something about the uneasy camaraderie and respect they both have for each other that Luke/Sylar was lacking in my opinion. And ironically Danko was the most human and fleshed out in his scenes with Sylar compared to the robotic, obsessed one note villain he appeared to be for the first half of the volume.
The following episodes lost a bit of momentum and I'm sad to admit that I didn't care that much for 1961 and even less for Sylar's identity crisis during the last two episodes. One tiny advantage of my weird emotional detachment strategy was that after I had been freaking out so much about the spoilers of Nathan's death and witnessed your reactions to it, it was a bit easier to watch.
Some random thoughts:
I like Tracy and am looking forward to her return in Vol.5. She definitely has some loose ends she needs to tie up with Nathan but I also hope she gets to interact with Peter. I loved their short team up. It was unexpected and enjoyable. Ali and Milo have nice chemistry - not the kind of sexual spark she shares with Adrian but more understated. I find them enjoyable to watch.
The character that has been the most human and thus became my emotional focus point and grounded the volume for me is Sandra. She had spectacular material and I adore Ashley Crow. The Bennet's martial issues were so much more relatable than the whole government hunting plot and it added a human layer to the entire arc.
But despite my love for Sandra and Ashley, it also makes me feel a bit sorry for Angela and Cristine. It becomes most apparent in comparison with Sandra how much Angela is utilized as plot device or Mrs. Exposition instead of being treated like a real character. Of course she will never have the warmth that Sandra possesses, she is supposed to be that cold, composed and morally grey character but I really wish we would see a few more scenes like the ones in Cold Snap or Into Asylum where she actually acts like a mother and human being.
And even though I have no idea how Photoshop works, I made a few icons. No snazzy effects or textures, just cropping and playing with colors and contrast. Mainly because I wanted to have a Peter/Angela icon and there haven't been enough of them. But I ended up making a few more. Feel free to snag.
And to the PS cracks on my flist, is there a way to apply all the layers and retouching you did to an icon to another without having to start from scratch?
Onto the new season:
Volume 5
The premiere left me a bit underwhelmed but I absolutely enjoyed "Ink". The new characters are promising with Samuel, Emma and Gretchen being the ones I'm most interested in. I squeed like a little girl when I read that Knepper joined Heroes because I loved him in Prison Break. Perhaps you get now why I was so excited even though you haven't seen PB. Samuel is shaping up to be the layered villain this show desperately needed and Knepper has the talent to fill these shoes. Although it's pretty funny if you look at his most defining attributes to this point: charismatic, unpredictable, manipulative, violent, vulnerable - these would fit Sylar just as well but Knepper manages to make Samuel decidedly different and dare I say, more human.
Gretchen is wonderfully ambiguous (and she has some serious chemistry with Hayden). For me it is one of the appeals of her character that you don't quite know yet if she is hiding something, it keeps your on your toes but I hope she doesn't turn out to be another villain. Claire needs a friend.
Emma's introduction was one of the best the show has ever done. I assume we have to thank Fuller for that. Many little things about her story line had the quirky, enchanted Fuller touch and I hope they manage to keep it that way even if Fuller jumped ship soon after these episodes were written/realized.
I admit it, I had goosebumps during the cello scene. Yeah, I know I'm easy. Just give me pretty colors, cheesy music, a lovable new character, Peter smiling like a smitten puppy and I'm sold. These scenes combined with the hilarious set pictures we have seen of these two make me really anticipating their interaction - whether platonic or romantic. I'm on board even though I'm holding out hope that Hesam finally succeeds in asking Peter out. Or for Peter and Noah to realize that they should share their mustard and cereals as roomies - and now I have the mental image of Peter and Noah mirroring Claire's and Gretchen's pyjama party from the end of the episode...
The Matt/Sylar stuff is much more intriguing than I thought and Grunny is a lot more compelling to watch being seduced to the dark side than his Daphne shenanigans last season. If Sylar manages to take over Matt's body he doesn't need his old one back, right? Just asking.
The jury is still out on Sylar!Nathan. The scenes in his office were great, the ones with Angela were creepy as they were intended to be. I just don't know how to feel about this character yet since he is neither Nathan nor Sylar and watching a new character with Nathan's face is disconcerting. Thinking of the set pics we got last week I'm just curious how they are going to get from point A to B.
And that brings me to the Samuel/Peter scene at the end. Is it just me or was that unintentionally-intentionally cruel? I'm not only talking about the bit where Peter denies having lost a brother but the whole grief conversation. Seriously, Peter trying to comfort someone who has just lost his brother and talking about how messy grieving is? I'm not sure if this is supposed to be some heavy foreshadowing or just the writers amping up the dramatic irony that is Peter's life. Add to this the conversation Samuel had with Lydia at the beginning of the episode where he described his deceased brother as his compass that he needed back and the parallels are clonking against your forehead. The Sullivan brothers seem to be deliberately set up as mirrors to the Petrelli brothers and I can't wait to see where this goes. But that's also one of the reasons why I didn't instantly have dirty thoughts the moment Samuel started interacting with Peter although I was highly anticipating this since I had heard T-Bag joined Heroes. Even though Knepper does play Samuel with a sexual vibe his last scene with Peter felt genuine and our knowledge of Peter's yet unknown predicament made this interaction very tragic in a way.
But in general I'm totally on board this ship as well and if Samuel calls Peter "Pretty" only one time, I will die. (If your are not familiar with Prison Break, that was the nickname Knepper's character gave the male lead of the show) Just, Peter, don't let yourself get snatched up as surrogate kid brother for Samuel before you have found out and dealt with the issues of your real brother! After that you have my permission to tell Angela, Noah & Co to go to hell and join the carnival.
On a side note: What happened to Hayden's voice? I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet. Perhaps it's because I watched Vol. 4 and the new episodes back to back but her voice has changed so much. It's almost unrecognizable. At first I thought she had a very bad cold but it's still that way three episode in. Hayden sounds as if she has chain smoked and hit the booze pretty hard during the hiatus. Her voice is so much deeper and scratchier.
Random observation:
Apparently they changed the tattoo on Lydia's back from this:
as it was shown in the previews to this:
Thoughts?
Short preface:
I stopped watching Heroes after Volume 3 because the direction of the show itself as well as the fandom and media attitude towards it killed my enjoyment. But my carefully crafted plan to emotionally detach myself from the show and fandom by only reading your reviews and every spoiler I could get my hands on surprisingly didn't work out. I realized that I'm kidding myself because I'm obviously still invested in these characters.
And lets face it: This is going to be Heroes' last season and I rather watch the remaining episodes with you together then continue to delude myself. So, let's squee and speculate and bitch together!
Was that a tad melodramatic? Yeah. I thought so too. I guess it's no coincidence that my favorite characters are the Petrellis. ;)
Now, before I catch up with season four, a few quick thoughts about
Volume 4
Since I marathoned through the episodes in just a few days, I don't have detailed thoughts on each single one. They all blend together and the only standouts for me were 3x20 Cold Snap and 3x21 Into Asylum. It took me a while to get into the new canon but I remember having similar difficulties at the start of season 2 and 3. When I think of Heroes I mostly think of the first season and I still have trouble aligning the new material of the following seasons with the former. Of course it doesn't help that character and story continuity isn't Heroes's strong forte but I'm not here to rant.
Anyway, Cold Snap really hooked me, it had great, almost cinematic moments and put me in the right mood for Into Asylum. I honestly didn't expect to love the episode as much as I did because I remember how weirded out I had been reading your reviews at that time. Particularly the Nathan/Claire arc sounded like bad fanfic but seeing it in context of the episode and the entire volume it worked and I loved it.
The Peter and Angela interaction on the other hand I was very much looking forward to and it did meet my expectations. Milo and Cristine have such a believable family chemistry and it blows me away every single time how much they look like mother and son. How could Arthur treat Peter the way he did when he saw the face of the women he claimed to love until they started trying to kill each other?
The thing I appreciated most about this episode was, that it gave us a few genuine character moments. For the first time in a long period Peter really felt like Peter. I adored his little conversation with God and Milo somehow managed to deliver it heartfelt enough that it didn't felt cheesy. Even though I despise the TWOP recaps these days, I had to laugh about the recapper praising Milo's acting for once in this scene and musing that perhaps he gets distracted when there are other people in the scene which would explain the ups and downs in his performances. Nathan showed a crack in his armor that Claire and I desperately needed to see and even Angela felt more human, like a real mother instead of a crazy, scheming matriarch for once. Of course, I also loved Claire, her interaction with Nathan was heartbreaking but in contrast to the rest of the Petrelli family she had already been given moving material with Sandra earlier in the season.
And yet it was strange to watch it with the knowledge that both of these relationships are dead now (well Peter/Angela isn't technically yet but I honestly think that Angela will lose Peter for good once he finds out about Nathan and her involvement in the aftermath of his death). It added another layer of finality and emotion to their scenes and left me feeling touched but also sad.
To my great surprise I even enjoyed the Danko/Sylar scenes. I found their dynamic much more compelling than the Luke/Sylar interaction. There is something about the uneasy camaraderie and respect they both have for each other that Luke/Sylar was lacking in my opinion. And ironically Danko was the most human and fleshed out in his scenes with Sylar compared to the robotic, obsessed one note villain he appeared to be for the first half of the volume.
The following episodes lost a bit of momentum and I'm sad to admit that I didn't care that much for 1961 and even less for Sylar's identity crisis during the last two episodes. One tiny advantage of my weird emotional detachment strategy was that after I had been freaking out so much about the spoilers of Nathan's death and witnessed your reactions to it, it was a bit easier to watch.
Some random thoughts:
I like Tracy and am looking forward to her return in Vol.5. She definitely has some loose ends she needs to tie up with Nathan but I also hope she gets to interact with Peter. I loved their short team up. It was unexpected and enjoyable. Ali and Milo have nice chemistry - not the kind of sexual spark she shares with Adrian but more understated. I find them enjoyable to watch.
The character that has been the most human and thus became my emotional focus point and grounded the volume for me is Sandra. She had spectacular material and I adore Ashley Crow. The Bennet's martial issues were so much more relatable than the whole government hunting plot and it added a human layer to the entire arc.
But despite my love for Sandra and Ashley, it also makes me feel a bit sorry for Angela and Cristine. It becomes most apparent in comparison with Sandra how much Angela is utilized as plot device or Mrs. Exposition instead of being treated like a real character. Of course she will never have the warmth that Sandra possesses, she is supposed to be that cold, composed and morally grey character but I really wish we would see a few more scenes like the ones in Cold Snap or Into Asylum where she actually acts like a mother and human being.
And even though I have no idea how Photoshop works, I made a few icons. No snazzy effects or textures, just cropping and playing with colors and contrast. Mainly because I wanted to have a Peter/Angela icon and there haven't been enough of them. But I ended up making a few more. Feel free to snag.
And to the PS cracks on my flist, is there a way to apply all the layers and retouching you did to an icon to another without having to start from scratch?
Onto the new season:
Volume 5
The premiere left me a bit underwhelmed but I absolutely enjoyed "Ink". The new characters are promising with Samuel, Emma and Gretchen being the ones I'm most interested in. I squeed like a little girl when I read that Knepper joined Heroes because I loved him in Prison Break. Perhaps you get now why I was so excited even though you haven't seen PB. Samuel is shaping up to be the layered villain this show desperately needed and Knepper has the talent to fill these shoes. Although it's pretty funny if you look at his most defining attributes to this point: charismatic, unpredictable, manipulative, violent, vulnerable - these would fit Sylar just as well but Knepper manages to make Samuel decidedly different and dare I say, more human.
Gretchen is wonderfully ambiguous (and she has some serious chemistry with Hayden). For me it is one of the appeals of her character that you don't quite know yet if she is hiding something, it keeps your on your toes but I hope she doesn't turn out to be another villain. Claire needs a friend.
Emma's introduction was one of the best the show has ever done. I assume we have to thank Fuller for that. Many little things about her story line had the quirky, enchanted Fuller touch and I hope they manage to keep it that way even if Fuller jumped ship soon after these episodes were written/realized.
I admit it, I had goosebumps during the cello scene. Yeah, I know I'm easy. Just give me pretty colors, cheesy music, a lovable new character, Peter smiling like a smitten puppy and I'm sold. These scenes combined with the hilarious set pictures we have seen of these two make me really anticipating their interaction - whether platonic or romantic. I'm on board even though I'm holding out hope that Hesam finally succeeds in asking Peter out. Or for Peter and Noah to realize that they should share their mustard and cereals as roomies - and now I have the mental image of Peter and Noah mirroring Claire's and Gretchen's pyjama party from the end of the episode...
The Matt/Sylar stuff is much more intriguing than I thought and Grunny is a lot more compelling to watch being seduced to the dark side than his Daphne shenanigans last season. If Sylar manages to take over Matt's body he doesn't need his old one back, right? Just asking.
The jury is still out on Sylar!Nathan. The scenes in his office were great, the ones with Angela were creepy as they were intended to be. I just don't know how to feel about this character yet since he is neither Nathan nor Sylar and watching a new character with Nathan's face is disconcerting. Thinking of the set pics we got last week I'm just curious how they are going to get from point A to B.
And that brings me to the Samuel/Peter scene at the end. Is it just me or was that unintentionally-intentionally cruel? I'm not only talking about the bit where Peter denies having lost a brother but the whole grief conversation. Seriously, Peter trying to comfort someone who has just lost his brother and talking about how messy grieving is? I'm not sure if this is supposed to be some heavy foreshadowing or just the writers amping up the dramatic irony that is Peter's life. Add to this the conversation Samuel had with Lydia at the beginning of the episode where he described his deceased brother as his compass that he needed back and the parallels are clonking against your forehead. The Sullivan brothers seem to be deliberately set up as mirrors to the Petrelli brothers and I can't wait to see where this goes. But that's also one of the reasons why I didn't instantly have dirty thoughts the moment Samuel started interacting with Peter although I was highly anticipating this since I had heard T-Bag joined Heroes. Even though Knepper does play Samuel with a sexual vibe his last scene with Peter felt genuine and our knowledge of Peter's yet unknown predicament made this interaction very tragic in a way.
But in general I'm totally on board this ship as well and if Samuel calls Peter "Pretty" only one time, I will die. (If your are not familiar with Prison Break, that was the nickname Knepper's character gave the male lead of the show) Just, Peter, don't let yourself get snatched up as surrogate kid brother for Samuel before you have found out and dealt with the issues of your real brother! After that you have my permission to tell Angela, Noah & Co to go to hell and join the carnival.
On a side note: What happened to Hayden's voice? I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet. Perhaps it's because I watched Vol. 4 and the new episodes back to back but her voice has changed so much. It's almost unrecognizable. At first I thought she had a very bad cold but it's still that way three episode in. Hayden sounds as if she has chain smoked and hit the booze pretty hard during the hiatus. Her voice is so much deeper and scratchier.
Random observation:
Apparently they changed the tattoo on Lydia's back from this:
as it was shown in the previews to this:
Thoughts?