Heroes: Truth & Consequences
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The better the series gets, the less I have to say about it because I'm busy enjoying it and would rather just let it simmer in my mind after watching it, trying to extend the suspension of reality for as long as possible to, as I said, enjoy it rather than eating it.I only have two notes for Truth & Consequences with another floating in the background, and it figures that just when we're at a point where I can sit back and enjoy Heroes without bitching about anything, we've reached the end of the strike shortened season.
The thing I wanted most finally happened, or least half of it did. Sylar killed one of the Hondurans and it couldn't have happened soon enough for me. As a bonus though, he turned the other one kind of evil. That's lovely, I really missed Sylar being an evil bastard.
Unfortunately, Monica is still boring as hell, still doing her own story in the Heroes universe that has absolutely zero impact on everything else. I know it's hard to integrate new people in different places into the new season, but there needs to be a new hard and fast rule about this to make sure this stops happening.
Heroes isn't the only show that is heavily serialized and suffers from at least one boring, detached thread.
It may be arbitrary and even stupid, but I say you have no more than two or three full episodes before you must begin merging divergent arcs back into the show. I think leaving it up to the creative whims of people - even if they are virtual geniuses - is a bad idea. I'm not talking about plotting here, but you need to have an idea of where and when you are going to start plugging things into each other.
You can't just wait until an opportunity presents itself to do it, as is tempting to make it feel organic, you've got to invent that stuff before hand and then use your crazy creative genius to make it make it feel organic when it wasn't.
When you don't, you end up with a divergent arc that grows like a tumor and isn't properly integrated until well after people just want it to go away. Here we are in the 10th episode of the season, and only now has the Honduran's arc become important. Half the season is gone and half a season's worth of story has been wasted on it.
Know what you want to do with the thread and just get it done.
That said, I'm fairly happy with what's going on in the other arcs. Forgive the sexist remark, but Claire has grown some balls finally, and I couldn't be more happy. Reactive people are boring, proactive people are stars. It's time for Claire to be a star.
Peter is on the path, but I'm actually a bit concerned about something we were reminded of in Four Months Ago. The Haitian can suppress other peoples abilities from a distance, that's one of the things he can do. We already know Peter doesn't even have to be in direct physical contact with others to gain their abilities, so you have to think back to every single person he's been near so you can figure out exactly what he can do.See where I'm going with this? It's already impressive that he can do what everyone else can do, he has all the flashy abilities: He can fly, be invisible, heal, move things by thought, paint the future, walk through walls, and move through time and space.
That should mean that even if he hasn't realized it yet, he can also wipe memories and suppress abilities at a distance. Not only can he do whatever everyone else can do, he can stop them from doing it just by thinking.
Kind of spoils it a bit, doesn't it? How can any other "hero" possibly stop him when he can just turn off their abilities like a light switch?
More over, Sylar presumably has abilities we don't know about it yet. There was a lot of time when he was hunting and killing Heroes that he could have taken many different abilities, all of which Peter now has as well.
Do you remember the mechanic that could hear just about anything? Peter has that now as well. He was also standing right next to Nikki in the final scenes of the season one finale. Whatever the heck her ability(s) were/was, are his now. Will he develop another personality at some point as well? (Note to the producers and lawyers of Heroes: I here-by waive all legal ownership and claim over that idea. You are free to use it at will.)
But isn't it a bitch that corporate studio greed that is making money from Heroes hand over fist are the reason you aren't getting anymore after next week? All of this because they want to make money streaming these shows, but don't want to share.
What a shame.
Thank you Tim Kring and company for what turned out to be a fairly decent season. You had your rough spots but you came through in the end. You guys rock, and I'll be waiting for your return once the strike has come to an end.
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