I’m giving Heroes one more chance
November 18, 2008 | 3 Comments
The best storyline possible to write is that of an ordinary person put into an extraordinary situation. The original episodes of Heroes nailed that idea. There was the cheerleader who couldn’t get hurt, the congressman who discovered he could fly, and the geek who could bend space and time. All of these people didn’t know what it meant and thought they were completely alone. Because of this, I was a fan of the show since it debuted.
Then, once everyone was introduced, the Heroes writing staff decided it was time to show that all of these ‘heroes’ needed to come together in order to save the world. Visions of the future and the introduction of an villain lead to the season one slogan: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The ‘heroes’ found themselves, came together, defeated the villain, lost some people along the way, and saved the world. Then came season two.
Season two started out with yet another chance to save the world, what with the butterfly effect and all. Season two also showed that not only was the villain from season one still alive, but a ton of new ‘heroes’ were waiting to be found. However, instead of focusing on these ‘heroes’ being ordinary people in extraordinary situations, their extraordinary abilities became much more ordinary. Season two was also interrupted by the Writers Strike. Instead of pausing the storyline mid-season, the Heroes team decided to wrap up the storyline early leaving a few large plot holes along the way — Peter’s Irish girlfriend anyone?
Season three promised villains deeper and darker than any yet to be introduced. But deeper and darker villains brought many more characters into the fold — so many that keeping track of all of them grew quite difficult. The line between good and evil was blurred at the beginning of the season leaving questions about who was a hero and who was a villain. All of this was set against another vision of the future that required the world to be saved. Basically, season three was repeating season one.
In tonight’s episode the lines were finally clearly drawn between who is a hero and who is a villain. There is still that pesky ’save the world’ issue lingering about though it looks like it’s going to be taking a backseat — which, given season two’s decisions, isn’t surprising.
I’ll be frank, the show has gotten bad. Really bad. Possibly jumped the shark bad. So bad I’m tempted to give up on the show altogether. However, one thing in the preview for next week is going to keep me watching. Evidently an eclipse is coming that’s going to remove the ‘heroes’ powers leaving them ‘normal’. Considering them having abilities has become ordinary, it looks like they could once again be put into an extraordinary situation. If this is the case, they might have a good thing going. If not, well, the show is no longer worth watching. I guess we’ll find out what happens next week.
Has Heroes jumped the shark? Is there still some good in it? Let me know in the comments.
Did the Writers Strike Make Writers Worse?
September 24, 2008 | 0 Comments
The WGA writers strike seems like so long ago but it seems we might still be feeling it’s effects. Since the new television season has started, it seems the quality of the writing has diminished after taking a half season off. I’ve watched three shows so far this season and all of them have had writing “issues” so far.
The first show is Saturday Night Live. To say SNL has writing issues is an understatement. The show has downright problems. In the two episodes that have aired so far there has been one sketch that was actually funny: the Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton season opener.
After watching the rest of the episode, and a majority of the one aired this past Saturday, it seems as if Tina Fey herself might have written this one. The SNL writing has been in trouble for a very long time and this season it just seems worse. It begs the question, will NBC grow a pair and clean out the write staff or *gasp* cancel the show?
The next show that makes me wonder what the writing team is thinking is Fringe. I’ve talked about Fringe before, it’s a great show that is part LOST and part X-Files. One of the main characters is a former mad scientist who has been locked up in a mental institution for the past 17 years. While most of the writing revolving this character is done well, there seems to be one “out” the team is using.
In the first episode Bishop, the character in question, wanted to use his lab from 17 years ago. Good thing it still exists! Harvard just decided to use it as storage. And by storage they meant cover the equipment with a tarp and put a few boxes in there. Convenient. In the second episode Bishop needed a file he left in his car. Well guess what? His car is in the same pad-locked garage it was 17 years ago! Again, how convenient? Finally, last night, Bishop needed a piece of equipment he hid in the wall of his former home. Well guess what. It was still there. But it wasn’t in a wall, it was in a dumbwaiter merely covered by a bookshelf. Do the writers really expect us to believe that the key to all of Bishop’s experiments are littered all over Boston and somehow completely untouched and right where they were left 17 years ago? Come on?
The final show I’ve watched so far this season has been Heroes. Cut to only 11 episodes last year because of the strike, it’s been a long time since Heroes has been on the air. But watching the two hour premiere on Monday, a few things struck me about one of the main characters, Peter.
Peter can absorb every power that he comes in contact with making him pretty much the most powerful “hero” of them all. Yet, somehow, Peter manages to constantly make poor decisions and, as a result, the world ends four to five years later. This season, future “Dark Peter” has come back from the future to prevent bad things from happening. But here’s what I don’t get: Dark Peter has a giant scar across his face. Lest we forget Peter has the ability to heal himself. Curious? Even more curious is that two of the powers Peter has absorbed involve being able to see the future. Given this, you would think Peter would know that his horrible choices have an effect down the road. Either that or the writers just assume we don’t remember these things.
None of these writing slips will cause me to stop watching the shows, well except maybe for SNL. But after waiting so long for good TV to come back on, I’d like to think the writers would be willing to not treat the audience like children and actually write the show without the sloppy “outs” they have been given themselves. Maybe it’s just been so long that I forgot this is the small screen norm and am being overly critical. If Toby shows up on The Office on Thursday I’ll know sloppy writing abounds.
What do you think? Have you noticed other instances of sloppy writing on TV so far this year? Leave it in the comments.
LOST - Confirmed Dead
February 7, 2008 | 0 Comments
Despite a lackluster season premiere, LOST just went and had the best episode in a very long time.
We learned a few things worth mentioning:
- There is a very large conspiracy, one that has been rumored for a long time, involving our survivors and the island. A conspiracy so large that whoever is behind it has the ability to sink a 747, complete with dead people, in an oceanic trench. Whatever the secret to that island is, someone wants it really bad!
- Ben is seemingly extremely important to whoever is behind the conspiracy. So much so that they were willing to send a rag-tag group, complete with psychic “ghostbuster,” to find him. But the question is why?
- Whoever was supplying Ben — be it Dharma, Hanso, or some other organization — has a lot of power as well as they were able to get some sort of mole into their rival’s organization, even on their boat!
- Dharma’s Hydra station — the one where Jack was kept underwater and Swayer and Kate were kept in the (polar) bear cages — evidently had collared polar bears roaming Tunisia… either that or there is another Hydra station?
That’s a lot to think on and yet only a fraction of what was going on in the episode. Hopefully on Saturday the WGA votes to accept the deal their leaders have agreed to in principal so they can finish filming this season because really, only having six episodes left kind of sucks.
Give the Writers What They Want
December 3, 2007 | 0 Comments
An open letter to the AMPTP:
This writers strike has gone on long enough. The networks may think they can get by on reality TV and game shows until the strike ends, but when TV viewership is already down across the board, how could worse programing possibly help? Give the writers the fractional percentage raise they’re asking for and let’s get Hollywood back up and running before real damage is done — like the entire support staff on every scripted television show being fired. With over a hundred people per show, that’s tens of thousands of people who could loose their jobs just in time for Christmas. So take a small cut in your already enormous profit margin from the $50 you’re charging for a season on DVD and give it to the writers, because without them there wouldn’t be television worth watching.