WRITER: Jeph Loeb DIRECTOR: Greg Beeman
CAST: Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), more...
Hiro returns to Japan to persuade his friend to help him stop the nuclear attack on New York, Niki buries the dead bodies of her enemies in the desert, while Matt Parkman officially joins the FBI's search for serial-killer Sylar...
After the initial rush of new characters, new powers and new threats of recent weeks, things calm down in Episode 3, with new writer Jeph Loeb seeking to clarify and gently nudge along the show's fresh web of ideas.
One Giant Leap is disappointing after the fine work produced last week that made Heroes a must-watch show, primarily because it's increasingly clear some of the character's storylines are plain drab compared to others.
Hiro's journey remains the most addictive, although this week's reliance on the comic-book that predicts his actions is a bit silly -- why not just read the last page and save yourself a lot of hassle?
Nathan and Peter Petrelli are perhaps the most frustrating characters at the moment, although the exploitative Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) is suitably smarmy and Peter's boyish belief in his greater destiny is performed well by Milo Ventimiglia. It's just that the political backdrop isn't being used very compellingly.
Hayden Panettiere (Claire) is sexy and likeable, but despite having one of the best powers (invincibility), and an important link to series mythology (the bespectacled villain is her step-father) her story so far is unremarkable and underwritten. This week a tired and predictable date-rape angle is used to unconvincing effect.
Ali Larter (Niki) spends most of the episode burying bodies, with her son mysteriously able to sleep through it all in the back of a convertible car parked in a desert. It's little oddities like this that wrankle in the show and give it that half-assed atmosphere of writers desperately trying to juggle an overly-complicated sub-plots. Still, we at least get the information that Niki's ex-husband is a murderer. Is he the maniac Sylar introduced last week?
Ah yes, Sylar; the super-villain being tracked by Greg Grunberg's telepathic cop Matt and Clea Duvall's bottle-blonde Fed. It appears Sylar can control peoples' actions and might also have a few other abilities (he seems to vanish, but then again... most villains have that habit in the world of television!)
A review of any episode can quickly degenerate into simply recounting the various plot developments, so I'll stop there. Just be assured that while One Giant Leap lacks the bite of last week, Heroes is still moving in a strong direction and should sustain itself for awhile yet.
At the moment Heroes is 80% set-up and 20% development. The balls are still being thrown into the air (a main cast member has yet to be introduced even 3 episodes in!), so I just hope they don't come crashing down too soon.
Heroes isn't a particularly clever or well-written drama; examples of mediocre writing abound, particularly when you realize that every hero has a lone confidant (Claire's friend, Hiro's co-worker, Niki's babysitter, Mohinder's neighbour, Peter's brother, Isaac's friend, Matt's FBI accomplice, etc... it's spooky!), or consider the unlikely fact Mohinder's next-door neighbour Eden is so acquainted with his father's work! You can feel the writers' desperation at trying to shoehorn in a "sounding board" for Mohinder's character.
But, while flawed at a writing level, Heroes has ambition and imagination to spare. For fans, there's even a strange symbol that seems to be appearing throughout the episodes... and, well... yes, there's yet another eye-popping final scene to make you tune in next week...
