Heroes talk SPOILERS in the link and in the cut

[gategrrl]

 Heroes spoilers there be here....

Well, let's see... Hiro is still in Olde Tyme Japan for two more episodes and Peter is still with the faceless Irish girlfriend, who still has no meaning, and we find out something is going to happen with Sylar and Alejandro - the brother feels something's up with Sylar and his deadly sister with the black tears. And then there's Claire with that VERY bad of an influence boystalker West convincing her to stand out. 

In other words, bye bye interesting storylines, and hello, we're back to the boring again, for two episodes in a row. Joy. 

If you're a fan and you want to complain, write on Greg Beeman's blog. Others have. Of course, with the WGA threatening to come down and black-ball writers who even *talk* about their scripts (won't be hearing from Tim Kring anytime soon, if he wants to continue writing for a Union job), here's to hoping that, for good or ill, that Heroes and other shows have finished or bought their scripts before this nasty strike happens.

Comments

[szeretni.livejournal.com]

Not just me who feels like there's too much romance then?

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

The romance, it is like cockroaches this year. I'm surprised they didn't start shipping Candice and Sylar back there, before he went and ate her brains.

[nialla]

I'm rewatching the last half of season one on G4 today, which is interesting because it's been a while since I watched it, and it's also adding new layers since I know where it's going. While there were some story threads that seemed to go round in circles, the majority eventually went somewhere.

The only one I was completely unsatisfied was the whole Niki/Jessica thing. We never really found out whether the split personality was part of her power, or if she was just superstrong with a side order of another personality. I get the impression that's still going to be an ongoing question, but right now, I don't really care as long as they're not wasting a lot of time on it.

This season, it seems like the majority of time they bring in new characters it's focused on romance (the Japanese princess for Hiro and West for Claire) and not advancing the overall story. Even with the Wonder Death Twins, it does the same thing -- drags the story to a screeching halt.

I read an article recently which talked about Heroes having the same problem that Lost had with its sophomore season, focusing too much on new characters instead of the established ones that the audience were familiar with and wanted to see.

Not that new characters are necessarily a bad thing, but I think of it like trying to add cold milk into a sauce while cooking. You don't dump it all in at once, you have to add a little in at a time, or the sauce goes lumpy. I think someone needs to fish out the lumps or start a new roux. ;)

What's interesting to me from a technical standpoint is three characters who were prominently featured last season are the ones stuck in the going nowhere plots this year. I have to wonder if it's an attempt to balance out the cast a bit, or if they just don't know what to do with them now that their raison d'etre from last year is gone.

I am still interested in the storylines about finding out about the history of the Company and how they relate to our modern-day heroes. And the "Molly Has Two Daddies" bit gives me massive amounts of squee, and not just from the slashy POV. I'm really curious to see how they rescue Molly, and how much Matt will kick his father's ass... and whether or not he lets Mohinder and Nathan help him do it.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

What's interesting to me from a technical standpoint is three characters who were prominently featured last season are the ones stuck in the going nowhere plots this year. I have to wonder if it's an attempt to balance out the cast a bit, or if they just don't know what to do with them now that their raison d'etre from last year is gone.

Yeah, it's very noticable - more than a few people have mentioned that strange holding pattern. I honestly don't know why or how the writers are dwelling so much on these characters and their ill-fated romances (who cares? oh, well, the inveterate hateful irritating shippers do). I'm convinced these writers need to read some *decent* comic books to be aware of the tropes and cliches of the superhero genre.

Sure, lots of superheroes have ill-fated romances (it's aimed at teens, after all, at least in comic's earlier phases)...but the adaptation of the comic genre just doesn't work the way they're putting it up there.

It was awful when I realized when I read the spoilers in that link how utterly dismayed I was to hear that Mohinder/Matt/Nightmare Man/Molly/Nathan were not mentioned ONCE. Hell, I'll even take Nikki and her problematic power/personality over Peter/Claire/WonderDeath!Twins and Sylar.

It's like (if they're doing this, even) whoever is in charge of keeping track of the character arcs is dropping the balls in a horrible manner. They need someone on staff to keep the beats and make sure certain narrative elements don't take over and, as you say, grind it to a halt.

I wouldn't mind the WonderDeath!Twins as long as I saw some actual progression in their story and they started interacting with the characters I care about! (Sylar doesn't exactly count: he's very flat this year)

[nialla]

Yes, they're definitely focusing on the ill-fated romances and such way too much. They keep forgetting than in comic books (the classic ones, anyway), they purposely tried to keep anything romantic from actually going anywhere for years. Not really anything to do with dragging it out, but simply because the comic book world stayed static and unchanging until it had to change.

I'm a fan of serial storytelling a la comic books, but I will only tolerate a story going nowhere for so long. At least it's better than Lost, in which they giveth an answer, sorta, kinda, maybe, then add in some stupid plot twist to muddy the waters.

The Nightmare Man scenario is mentioned in the 11/5 episode description. And that also mentions some sort of "end" to the Japan storyline, so I've got high hopes for that one.

I think the Sylar thing was a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. They tried to please fans with his return, but were probably thwarted by what they could plan out with him due to limited time. I have a feeling it will soon be similar to the first part of last season, in which Sylar was talked about, but rarely seen.

I wish they've "fast forward" the Wonder Death Twins story and skip to them already in New York, trying to find Suresh Sr. and finding only Suresh Jr. is around.

I have to wonder if maybe they were rushing things too much this year, trying to get stuff done before the writer's strike. Instead of spending time polishing the scripts, they're just trying to crank them out in a rougher form to have a stockpile, just in case.