Heroes - Episode 3

I wasn't watching as closely as last time, so I may miss some details.

Synopsis:

Claire continues her quest to be a popular girl and fit in, in spite of her friend's urging to embrace her powers. At a bonfire/rally, she hooks up with a boy she likes and leaves the party. He comes on to her, but when she asks him to stop, he becomes suddenly insistent and then violent. They struggle and he hits her head on a sharp object that penetrates her skull. She is still and seems dead. Later, she wakes on an autopsy table after the object is removed from her skull. In a very gross and intense moment she finds herself flayed open. (This was pretty horrific)

Mohinder can't make any sense of his father's program and in frustration throws his computer, breaking it open and discovering a book concealed inside with a key. This leads him to Silar's (apparent) apartment, the walls of which are covered with Silar's rantings ("I am sinner" etc.) and a map like the one on his father's wall. Mohinder leads the police there later, but the place is empty and the walls have been painted over.

Niki takes her son to her mother-in-law's house. They fight. The mother-in-law wants to keep Niki's son, Noah, and tells her she can't stop her from seeing him. Niki tells her about the body she found in the desert; it was wearing a ring that she recognized as being worn by her husband's "crew" and Niki believes this is proof that he is guilty. Both her mother-in-law and Noah believe he is innocent and will continue to evade the authorities.

Matt is being questioned by an FBI agent and he tells her the truth, that he can hear people's thoughts. She taunts him, asking him to tell her what she's thinking now. At first, he hears nothing and then hears her worries about being taken seriously. He tells her that no one takes him seriously either. She is surprised and decides to trust him, asking him to talk to the little girl he rescued. Although reluctant at first, he agrees to help. The girl is in protective custody, but when they reach her, they hear her screaming and see a hooded man carrying her away. They chase him down an alley, where he drops the girl. The FBI agent points her gun at him, but he uses an apparent mental powers to shove her away and make her point her gun at her own temple. Matt catches up and empties his gun into the Hooded Man (Sylar?). He drops, but when Matt turns his back, he gets up and disappears.

Matt gets home later and finds his wife in an angry state; he missed a therapy session and she is hurt by what she interprets as thoughtlessness and hostility from him. Hearing her thoughts that she wants him to leave, he does so and winds up at a bar. He can clearly hear all of the thoughts around him, the dispair of those around him depresses him. Looking around the bar, his eyes settle on a man who seems to be watching him. From him, Matt hears no thoughts, only complete silence. He passes out.

Hiro brings the comic book from the future to show his friend as proof. At first, his friend is skeptical, but Hiro decides to try to prove his powers to him, by following the actions in the comic book. According to the book, he is supposed to save a little girl from being hit by a truck. He finds the girl at the last second and uses his time-stopping power to stop the truck and pull her out of harm's way. His friend can no longer deny his power and agrees to come with him to New York to find the artist.

Simone fights with Isaac over his drug use. He claims to need it in order to see the future and she, out of fear for his life, has flushed his stash. She refuses to believe that his paintings show the future (including one that shows a nuclear bomb going off in New York). Later she runs into Peter who tells her he is quitting his job. She is truly disappointed that she won't see him, but he tells her they will run into each other again.

At his brother's fundraiser, he does see Simone again. Nathan talks to the press about his brother's hospitalization; he tells them about his father's depression and suicide and announces that Peter is also depressed and tried to commit suicide. Peter is enraged and embarrassed; he confronts his brother after the party and slugs him for lying and betraying him. Afterwards, he sees Simone and tells her it isn't true, that he isn't depressed and didn't try to commit suicide. They kiss.

Isaac looks over his drawings and finds a picture of Simone and Peter kissing under an umbrella in the rain.

Thoughts: A good episode, even if I was distracted. Lots of mysteries still unexplained - is Sylar behind the killings and why? Was the Hooded Man really Sylar? Who is the Bald Man who can guard his thoughts from Matt?

The special effects were particularly striking this episode, too. Hiro's time-stop power looks particularly awesome, especially with the girl caught mid-jump. Claire's autopsy was pretty gross, but the scene does show a weakness to her power - an object can impede her rejuvenation power if left inside her long enough. My favorite scene was probably the most lo-tech: after the noise of the thoughts around Matt, the silence around the Bald Man made the hairs on my neck stand up.

Commercials

Let's talk a minute about TV commercials, shall we?

I appreciate them. No really, I do. I don't always watch them and yes, they do annoy me (such as when the robot that controls when commercials are aired decides to show the same 3 commercials every break during an hour long program). But you have to admire the artistry that goes into them. Think about how difficult of a job it is to create a TV commercial; you have to hold people's attention and get them to make a decision about your product or service in less than 30 seconds. Oh, and did I mention that most of your audience hates what you are doing and will either change the channel, leave the room or hit the fastforward button while your hardworks gets its half-minute of fame?

What makes a good commercial? It's attention grabbing for one thing. Friends of mine have heard me rave about the Jetta commercials that show actual collisions. Sometimes a commercial has to be a little weird, such as the one featuring Abe Lincoln and a beaver. And a good sense of humor is a must. The commercials of Thomas Richter have all three: they are strange, funny, a little bit uncomfortable at times, but never boring:

http://www.thomasrichter.net/

Lost: Season Three, Episode One

First, great opening, although I suspected from the beginning that we were looking at the Others' camp. I liked how normal it all looked, especially with the bungalows, the middle-class-nice furniture and book club.

This episode is also a bit scary for me, because they are essentially torturing/brainwashing Jack, Kate and Sawyer. There's a neatness to how they tailor their methods to the person. Jack is held in solitude and darkness and being perhaps the most stubborn and rebellious of the three, he has to be broken in a bunch of little ways (like making him put his back to the wall when they bring food in). For Kate, it's a kind of humilation - she's strong and capable and something of a tomboy, so making her wear a dress is a painful reminder that they can make her feel vulnerable. And putting Sawyer in an animal cage is a pretty strong statement, even if he doesn't get that yet. I also think it's very telling that they put Kate in the cage outside of Sawyer's; they realized immediately she is closer to him than Jack and I think they're going to exploit that to its fullest.

Some other tantalizing details: I think there is a power struggle between Ben and the blonde woman (did we ever get her name? - EDIT: Yes, Juliet!). I think the woman is the leader or has assumed leadership, especially since last season the others deferred to a mysterious "she." I'm also not sure how much her heart is into the operation: there's something about her interactions with Ben that makes me think she doesn't approve of him.

But having said that, I really hope the story picks up. Intriguing as this episode was, the few little clues and answers we got just weren't enough. We need to see what's going on with the other castaways and what happened to Locke, Eko and Desmond, and I hope they don't drag out the resolution of that storyline too long.

Courtesy of my friend, Souvir, here is a site full of amazing digital images. I know "amazing" gets thrown around way too much these days, but take a look at this somewhat disturbing image and tell me that you're not impressed.

Well, okay...

So I watched the next episode (from 2 October) of Studio 60 last night.

OK, it was a little better.

But they still talk about Harriet being Christian waaaaaaaaaaay too much for my taste.

Oh, yeah, and it still isn't funny.

Why Studio 60 disappoints the hell out of me

Fantastic pilot opening aside, I'm not liking this show much.

Mostly, I'm annoyed with the religion angle. First, I don't think the character of Harriet Hayes is, as the wiki entry states, an "effortlessly sexy", "multi-talented" performer. In fact, I find her intensely unlikeable and not because she is a Christian character. I just think her performance is forced and it is not entirely the actress' fault. She mentions Jesus, her religion and being Christian pretty much every scene she is in. We are constantly hit over the head with this storyline and not even real-life Christians talk about God, Jesus and their religion this much. This character is more than her religion, right? Then show us that - if she is "effortlessly sexy," show us how and it has to be more than just seeing her pretty face. Show us how talented she is and for Jesus's sake, let her be funny!

Also, the dialog that seemed so snappy on The West Wing just seems very out of place here. When, in the second episode, Harriet says to Jeanie "I wish I had your body" and Jeanie replies "I wish I had your talent," I threw up a little. This isn't how people talk. Well, maybe in Hollywood.

No, not even in Hollywood.

While we're at it, can we talk about how unfunny this show is? I get that it is a drama, but it is a drama about a comedy show. And it has funny actors on it! Show us how they write (and really write, not the after scenes where all of the hard work is already done). Show us the actors bombing or doing really well.

Show us the show, dammit!

Heroes - Episode 2

Synopsis:
Another girl is jealous of Claire and competes with her in nearly everything. When the sheriff's department shows up looking for the girl who saved the man from the burning train, the other girl takes the credit. Claire lets her, but asks the sheriff how the man is doing. There is an odd accident in which Claire is hit by a football player and breaks her neck (it actually turns all the way around in a nice bit of sickening special effects). Only her friend sees it happen luckily, but unluckily he tells her the videotape of her "exploits" is missing.

A cop who has failed his exam to become a detective stands dejectedly outside a crime scene. Inside, a woman is pinned to a wall with knives, while a man (most likely her husband) has been frozen solid and the top of his head sawed off, his brain removed. The cop hears a little girl's voice begging for someone not to hurt her. Following the voice, he finds her hiding in a closet. The detectives are skeptical about how he was able to find her and accused him of committing the crime in order to "play hero." Without realizing it, he overhears the thoughts of the detectives and tells them that "Silar(spelling?) did it." They are alarmed that he knows the name and the detectives become even more suspicious.

A strange man pretending to be an exterminator breaks into Mohinder's apartment and tries to bug his phone. The man pulls a gun on him and after a short tuffle in the hallway of the building, one of Mohinder's neighbors, a young pretty woman, scares him away with her own pistol. She befriends Mohinder and tells him that she had befriended his father, too, and had spent a lot of time with him. She did not know he was dead and is very upset when Mohinder tells her. She also tells Mohinder that his father told her about his work and the map he used to track "patient zero," someone he suspected as being one of the evolved humans. She finds his father's answering machine and listen to part of a conversation he had with a man named Silar, who was obsessed with Mohinder's father. They seemed to have been working together and had a parting of the ways. Mohinder's father wanted nothing more to do with Silar. Later, they find a flash drive with his father's research on it; he had found a way to find the evolved humans.

In Times Square, Hiro finds a comic book that features himself and his amazing feat of teleportation. Stealing it from the vendor, he looks for the artist, Isaac, and find him dead in his studio - apparently shot and the top of his head and brain removed. Stupidly, Hiro picks up the gun and police find him standing over the body. They question him and he tells the truth, that he teleported here from Tokyo. He tells them to call his friend at work to confirm that he had seen Hiro just yesterday. His co-worker however tells them that Hiro went missing 5 weeks ago. Hiro thinks it is October, but in reality it is the middle of November. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and through the window, a mushroom cloud can be seen. Hiro "wakes" and finds himself back on the subway train in Toyko.

Isaac is confronted by his girlfriend who tells him the paintings and visions mean nothing.

Niki leaves her house to pick up her son and has another blackout that lasts 4 hours. She gets to her friend's house and they have a conversation about Niki's boyfriend/husband/ex-husband who seems to be on the lam. Niki tells her about the incident and she urges her to go to the police or leave. When she returns to her house with them, her garage has been cleaned and the bodies are gone. She finds a set of keys to the red cadillac parked outside her house. The bodies are in the trunk with instructions to follow a map. She does and finds a spot marked by a shovel. She doesn't have to dig long before she finds skeletal remains.

Peter wakes in the hospital and asks his brother what happened. Nathan denies that he flew and tells Peter that he tried to commit suicide. Later their mother reveals their father was depressed and had tried to commit suicide twice before succeeding. She tells Peter that his father had delusions of grandeur and became depressed when they turned out not to be real. Peter worries that he has the same problem as his father and later confronts his brother, again on a rooftop. He threatens to jump. While they argue, Nathan suddenly relents and looks at his brother in wonder. Peter is floating several feet off the ground. Nathan finally admits that they both flew.

Claire confronts her dad, Mr. Glasses, about her birth parents. At first, he is against the idea, then later he tells her that he contacted the adoption agency and started the process for finding her birth parents. Mr. Glasses seems to be a loving father, but sobers and becomes colder as watches the stolen tape of Claire.

Analysis:

First thing - It seems that Nathan wins the election, if we can believe Hiro's time traveling incident!

Second, Mr. Glasses is way over the top evil. I was very glad at first to see how loving he seems when he interacts with Claire, but that seems to be an act. I really hope they give some depth to this character. Also, the shady character of Silar isn't impressing me just yet (especially if he is "just another serial killer"), although I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt for now.

I'm a bit disappointed my theory is disproved - it seems that both brothers have the gift of flight or possibly something more.

Also, I am somewhat impressed by the horrific scenes of the "lidless" bodies. Besides being pretty gross, they are frightening and intriguing - where did those brains go and what is Silar doing with them (if it is indeed Silar's doing). I'm really surprised this got past the FCC.