Writer: Aron Eli Coleite
Director: Adam Kane
"The greater the fall, the grander the ascension. Isn't that what you wanted?"
Spoilers. The Heroes juggernaut roars down familiar roads, chewing up the tarmac and causing a few crashes along the way. It's a superficial spectacle that will attract the attention of onlookers; but for passengers, we've been on this ride before...
The writers remain unwilling to correct the big picture flaws of Heroes, and are still oddly fascinated by the inconsequential nature of being shown a possible future. While there is mild fun in seeing familiar faces with unfamiliar personalities, this Star Trek-style "mirror universe" trick should be used sparingly...
To explain the plot in a normal manner is almost impossible. There are no real plots in Heroes nowadays; just a cat's cradle of fun, stupid, absurd and repetitive goings-on. As usual, let's take a look at what everyone got up to:
Peter, Future Peter, Future Sylar & Future Claire. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) travels 4 years into the future with his future-self, to find a world where Kaito Nakamura's formula has enabled Joe Public to receive super "abilities". Future Peter believes the only way to untangle the chaotic damage is for Peter to consume Sylar's (Zachary Quinto) power of intuitive aptitude, so he can better understand the timeline's cause-and-effect. Future Claire (Hayden Panettiere) later kills Future Peter, who fails to regenerate because of The Haitian's (Jimmy Jean Louis) presence, forcing Peter on the run. Arriving at Sylar's home in Costa Verde, Peter is astonished to find the serial-killer has become a reformed, dutiful father to his son Noah…
After convincing Peter he's no longer "the boogeyman", Peter makes another of his patented bad decisions and decides to steal Sylar's power (despite being warned he'll also inherit Sylar's obsessive "hunger" to kill). Having soaked up Sylar's power, Future Claire and her cronies arrive to start a fight, which ends with the death of Sylar's son. Furious, Sylar loses control and goes atomic -- destroying Costa Verde in a nuclear mushroom (although Claire and Peter survive, assumedly because their regenerative abilities can withstand a point blank nuclear blast-wave and shrug-off associated radioactive.) Oookay…
Future Mohinder & Mohinder. Peter went to see the Future Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) during his stopover in the future, finding Mohinder fully mutated and hiding his features with a hood. In the present, this future storyline reduces the impact of Mohinder's Fly-like transformation plot, as he becomes aggressive towards Maya (Dania Ramirez) and violently beats-up a neanderthal neighbour having a domestic dispute. Right now, the only interesting thing is seeing exactly what Mohinder is becoming. A better actor? Don't be silly. My money's on a reptile of some type -- mainly because I can hear a rattlesnake on the soundtrack…
Future Nathan, Nathan & Tracy. In the future, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) is again President of the USA, but this time with Tracy (Ali Larter) as his First Lady. Typically, he's been corrupted by power and of no help to the beleaguered Peter, who commits fratricide thanks to the inheritance of Sylar's homicidal hunger. But don't worry, it's only a Future Nathan who technically doesn't even exist when Peter jumps back to the present...
To foreshadow Future Nathan's rise to the Oval Office, the "imaginary" Mr. Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) once again decides to help Nathan become President; a Faustian-like pact Nathan already turned down in season 1, which makes it seem all the more boring. Slightly more interesting is Nathan's rescue of Tracy from a suicide bid, after she discovers she was one of three super-enhanced triplets "created" by Dr. Zimmerman (Ronald Guttman), and is unable to handle the fact she accidentally froze a reporter to death a few episodes earlier. Pasdar and Larter work well together, and their fledgling romance just about rescues the storyline. Given Nathan's sexual attraction to Niki and Tracy, I'm sure he'll be happy when he finds out there's another identical twin out there somewhere. I can already imagine the fan-fiction…
Hiro & Ando. In the present, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) try to escape from a Company cell, with The Haitian dampening Hiro's ability to teleport and time-travel. Their scenes mainly serve to underline Hiro's uncertainty about his best-friend, after witnessing Ando kill him in the near-future. After an unsuccessful attempt to break out, both are taken to see Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), who decides that a familiar face from Hiro's past is required to retrieve Kaito's missing formula…
Matt & Usutu. I seems that Matt's (Greg Grunberg) been palmed off with the boring and repetitive subplot forced on Hiro in season 2; still stuck in the African desert with Usutu. After taking some more drugs, Matt dreams the same future that Peter's living in -- envisaging a time where he's caring for Molly (Adair Tishler) and dating speedster Daphne (Brea Grant). My overriding thought through was: we don't even really know present-day Daphne very well yet, so there's not much fun in seeing a darker, future version of her in episode 4.
Overall, "I Am Become Death" contains ingredients that, in isolation, sound like great fun. But, when put together, it's a recipe that just gave me indigestion. You might not get bored (it's purposefully fast and crammed with incident), but I'm irritated by the thickheaded decisions people make to keep the story going. Plot turning points are barely plausible at times, and usually stem from a character being manipulated into making an idiotic choice by an obvious writer's hand.
Heroes has become something of a whipping boy post-season 1, but while season 3 isn't as tiresome as season 2, I can't help feeling frustrated its huge potential has been squandered so quickly. Now that it's used up ideas and scenarios pilfered from Watchmen and X-Men, it can't decide what to do with itself. The solution? It repeats or repaints old ideas; like Linderman deciding to help Nathan become President. Also not helping is how, unlike season 1's possible destruction of NYC, we know the world isn't going to crack open like an egg -- so why should we be worried about this potential catastrophe?
15 October 2008
BBC Three, 10pm
Cast: Zachary Quinto (Sylar/Future Sylar), Greg Grunberg (Matt/Future Matt), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan/Future Nathan), Ali Larter (Tracy/Future Tracy), Hayden Panettiere (Claire/Future Claire), Masi Oka (Hiro), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder/Future Mohinder), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter/Future Peter), Ntare Mwine (Usutu), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), Adair Tishler (Future Molly), Malcolm McDowell (Mr. Linderman), Brea Grant (Daphne/Future Daphne), David Anders (Adam), Ronald Guttman (Dr. Zimmerman) & Jamie Hector (Knox)
Director: Adam Kane
"The greater the fall, the grander the ascension. Isn't that what you wanted?"-- Mr. Linderman (Malcolm McDowell)
Spoilers. The Heroes juggernaut roars down familiar roads, chewing up the tarmac and causing a few crashes along the way. It's a superficial spectacle that will attract the attention of onlookers; but for passengers, we've been on this ride before...
The writers remain unwilling to correct the big picture flaws of Heroes, and are still oddly fascinated by the inconsequential nature of being shown a possible future. While there is mild fun in seeing familiar faces with unfamiliar personalities, this Star Trek-style "mirror universe" trick should be used sparingly...
To explain the plot in a normal manner is almost impossible. There are no real plots in Heroes nowadays; just a cat's cradle of fun, stupid, absurd and repetitive goings-on. As usual, let's take a look at what everyone got up to:
Peter, Future Peter, Future Sylar & Future Claire. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) travels 4 years into the future with his future-self, to find a world where Kaito Nakamura's formula has enabled Joe Public to receive super "abilities". Future Peter believes the only way to untangle the chaotic damage is for Peter to consume Sylar's (Zachary Quinto) power of intuitive aptitude, so he can better understand the timeline's cause-and-effect. Future Claire (Hayden Panettiere) later kills Future Peter, who fails to regenerate because of The Haitian's (Jimmy Jean Louis) presence, forcing Peter on the run. Arriving at Sylar's home in Costa Verde, Peter is astonished to find the serial-killer has become a reformed, dutiful father to his son Noah…
After convincing Peter he's no longer "the boogeyman", Peter makes another of his patented bad decisions and decides to steal Sylar's power (despite being warned he'll also inherit Sylar's obsessive "hunger" to kill). Having soaked up Sylar's power, Future Claire and her cronies arrive to start a fight, which ends with the death of Sylar's son. Furious, Sylar loses control and goes atomic -- destroying Costa Verde in a nuclear mushroom (although Claire and Peter survive, assumedly because their regenerative abilities can withstand a point blank nuclear blast-wave and shrug-off associated radioactive.) Oookay…
Future Mohinder & Mohinder. Peter went to see the Future Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) during his stopover in the future, finding Mohinder fully mutated and hiding his features with a hood. In the present, this future storyline reduces the impact of Mohinder's Fly-like transformation plot, as he becomes aggressive towards Maya (Dania Ramirez) and violently beats-up a neanderthal neighbour having a domestic dispute. Right now, the only interesting thing is seeing exactly what Mohinder is becoming. A better actor? Don't be silly. My money's on a reptile of some type -- mainly because I can hear a rattlesnake on the soundtrack…
Future Nathan, Nathan & Tracy. In the future, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) is again President of the USA, but this time with Tracy (Ali Larter) as his First Lady. Typically, he's been corrupted by power and of no help to the beleaguered Peter, who commits fratricide thanks to the inheritance of Sylar's homicidal hunger. But don't worry, it's only a Future Nathan who technically doesn't even exist when Peter jumps back to the present...
To foreshadow Future Nathan's rise to the Oval Office, the "imaginary" Mr. Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) once again decides to help Nathan become President; a Faustian-like pact Nathan already turned down in season 1, which makes it seem all the more boring. Slightly more interesting is Nathan's rescue of Tracy from a suicide bid, after she discovers she was one of three super-enhanced triplets "created" by Dr. Zimmerman (Ronald Guttman), and is unable to handle the fact she accidentally froze a reporter to death a few episodes earlier. Pasdar and Larter work well together, and their fledgling romance just about rescues the storyline. Given Nathan's sexual attraction to Niki and Tracy, I'm sure he'll be happy when he finds out there's another identical twin out there somewhere. I can already imagine the fan-fiction…
Hiro & Ando. In the present, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) try to escape from a Company cell, with The Haitian dampening Hiro's ability to teleport and time-travel. Their scenes mainly serve to underline Hiro's uncertainty about his best-friend, after witnessing Ando kill him in the near-future. After an unsuccessful attempt to break out, both are taken to see Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), who decides that a familiar face from Hiro's past is required to retrieve Kaito's missing formula…
Matt & Usutu. I seems that Matt's (Greg Grunberg) been palmed off with the boring and repetitive subplot forced on Hiro in season 2; still stuck in the African desert with Usutu. After taking some more drugs, Matt dreams the same future that Peter's living in -- envisaging a time where he's caring for Molly (Adair Tishler) and dating speedster Daphne (Brea Grant). My overriding thought through was: we don't even really know present-day Daphne very well yet, so there's not much fun in seeing a darker, future version of her in episode 4.
Overall, "I Am Become Death" contains ingredients that, in isolation, sound like great fun. But, when put together, it's a recipe that just gave me indigestion. You might not get bored (it's purposefully fast and crammed with incident), but I'm irritated by the thickheaded decisions people make to keep the story going. Plot turning points are barely plausible at times, and usually stem from a character being manipulated into making an idiotic choice by an obvious writer's hand.
Heroes has become something of a whipping boy post-season 1, but while season 3 isn't as tiresome as season 2, I can't help feeling frustrated its huge potential has been squandered so quickly. Now that it's used up ideas and scenarios pilfered from Watchmen and X-Men, it can't decide what to do with itself. The solution? It repeats or repaints old ideas; like Linderman deciding to help Nathan become President. Also not helping is how, unlike season 1's possible destruction of NYC, we know the world isn't going to crack open like an egg -- so why should we be worried about this potential catastrophe?
15 October 2008
BBC Three, 10pm
Cast: Zachary Quinto (Sylar/Future Sylar), Greg Grunberg (Matt/Future Matt), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan/Future Nathan), Ali Larter (Tracy/Future Tracy), Hayden Panettiere (Claire/Future Claire), Masi Oka (Hiro), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder/Future Mohinder), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter/Future Peter), Ntare Mwine (Usutu), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), Adair Tishler (Future Molly), Malcolm McDowell (Mr. Linderman), Brea Grant (Daphne/Future Daphne), David Anders (Adam), Ronald Guttman (Dr. Zimmerman) & Jamie Hector (Knox)
