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.

...At Least He Made the Trains Run on Time

No, no, this is not a post in defense of dictators. But it is a mean ol' gripe towards the CTA.

Today it took me 2 hours to get to work. No, really, no exaggeration. I am dependent on public transportation because I do not own a car, nor do I want one or could even afford one if I did. The trains have been unbearably slow lately, meaning the last six months. When we first moved to our current place, it took me about 30 minutes to get to work. The distance is about 5 miles, which in the city might as well be 20 miles. Over the last year or so, the length of time has gotten longer and longer. For the last month, it's been about an hour. In the last two weeks, the trains have been so erratic that I have been opting some days to take a cab at $25 a ride just so that I can guarantee when I'll get to work.

The trains have been plagued with problems. The opening of the so-called Pink Line has made things worse by increasing traffic on tracks that are already overused. Meanwhile, the CTA has been trying to renovate so many stations and tracks at once that the trains can't move as quickly through bottleneck areas like the stretch between Belmont and Fullerton. On top of this, there have been more power outages at stations, fires and track damage. And then there is just the sad events like the one that happened today: accidents or worse, people purposely doing harm to themselves by jumping in front of trains.

I honestly don't know what to do. Normally I could switch to a different train line, but all of them are doing poorly. I am considering taking a bus, but I fear that everyone else tired of the trains will be switching to the bus lines and put strain on those as well. Plus, no one can guarantee what traffic is going to be like on Lake Shore Drive on any given day.

If I have to leave the house two hours early just to make it to work on time, I am going to be one angry little person.

Heroes - Episode 1 (pilot)

Heroes
Airs Mondays at 8PM (Central) on NBC

I have to admit I was skeptical about Heroes, a new television show from Tim Kring, a creative force behind "Crossing Jordan." Although I�ll watch Crossing Jordan, it isn�t a great television show and the plot tends to go from one silly episode to the next. And the beginning of the pilot was not auspicious. Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor teaching in India, learns of his father�s death. In heavy-handed dialogue with a colleague, we learn that:

1. Mohinder�s father was a geneticist with unconventional theories.
2. Because of his theories, he left or was asked to leave academic life.
3. He eventually moved to New York City and became a cab driver.
4. Mohinder believes in his father�s research and is willing to throw away his own career to continue in his footsteps.

This is a pretty standard SciFi convention: a son or daughter of a brilliant but insane and/or radical scientist takes up his or her parent�s (usually a father) research and pursuit of �Forbidden Knowledge.� I realize it�s not original, but it certainly is expedient and gets the viewer immediately into the story.

As an aside, the theory deals with genetics, specifically in evolution. There are theories about evolution that it actually happens in huge leaps, rather than slowly over time. Individuals of a species mutate so significantly that they are fundamentally different from their counterparts. Those with beneficial mutations survive to pass on their genes to their offspring, thus radically altering the evolution of a species. Sound familiar to you comic book geeks? Yes, it�s the same premise used in the X-Men comics.

The story thus far:

Mohinder goes to his father�s apartment and discovers someone has torn it apart looking for his research. He gathers up what he can find, but hears a cellphone ring. A man is still the next room; Mohinder quietly takes what is most important and flees to New York. There he finds his father�s apartment and takes up his occupation of cab driver.

Peter Petrelli is a nurse who is currently taking care of a dying man. Peter has been having dreams that he can fly. He tries to explain this to his brother, Nathan, a politician running for Congress. Nathan is self-centered and egotistical and brushes Peter off as a dreamer. Later Nathan receives a call that their mother has been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan scolds her, but Peter defends her, saying she is lonely and lost since their father died. In spite of Nathan�s coldness towards her, she makes it clear that Nathan is favorite son and berates Peter for his choice of career. Both Nathan and she remind him that Nathan�s shadow is very large, meaning that Peter will always be overshadowed by his more charismatic brother. Peter, however, hero-worships his brother and believes they have some deeper connection.

Peter has fallen for the dying man�s beautiful daughter, Simone, but she is involved with a painter with a drug habit. She visits her boyfriend, Isaac, and finds him distraught and destroying his paintings. She tries to stop him, but he is too agitated and says that they are evil. He shows her one of a bus in flames and tells her he painted it three weeks ago. On the news that day, he saw a picture of the same bus, the target of a bombing in Israel. There are other disturbing pictures, including one of the solar eclipse that will happen later that day. Simone realizes he is going through withdrawal and needs something to calm him and goes to her father�s house to get morphine. She persuades Peter to come with her and they find Isaac unconscious. Peter gives him emergency aid while Simone calls an ambulance. Peter notices that one of the paintings is of a fire being shown on the news right that moment.

Claire Bennet is a popular cheerleader who asks a friend to videotape her falling from an 80 foot drop. Though he is thrilled at her ability to heal nearly instantaneously, she feels like a freak and asks him not to tell anyone. Later, they stumble on a burning factory and she impetuously runs inside (it seems like Claire is determined to destroy herself). She finds a man trapped inside and she rescues him.

Meanwhile a single mother, Niki, works as an online stripper to support her young, gifted son. She notices something that disturbs her, that her reflection in the mirror seems to be a fraction slower or makes faces at her. She has borrowed $25,000 from a loan shark to make a donation to a special school, but is unable to pay the tuition and he is rejected. Niki takes her son to a friend�s house for safety, then goes back to her house to get her things. Unable to get the donation back or make payments on the loan, the shark sends thugs to her house. In a rather horrible scene, the men ask Niki to strip for them and then become violent when she doesn�t perform to their satisfaction. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes, the house is full of blood. The thugs are dead. In a broken mirror, her reflection puts a finger to its lips, signing to her not to tell anyone.

Hiro, an office worker in Japan, longs to be different. He sits at his desk and wills a clock to stop. It does for 1 second. Hiro rejoices and runs to tell his co-worker the good news. A geek through and through, Hiro talks to his coworker using Star Trek references and explains that he also made the train 14 seconds late this morning. With practice, he hopes to use his power to teleport. His friend is not just skeptical, but also dismisses Hiro as a geek and hopelessly weird. That night over beers, he taunts Hiro and before leaving for the restroom himself, he tells Hiro to use the power to teleport into the women�s washroom. When he gets back, Hiro is being removed by bouncers. As they walk away from the bar, he tells Hiro to be normal.

Mohinder encounters the Man with the Glasses who had been searching his father�s apartment when he gets into Mohinder�s cab. He so spooked by the meeting that Mohinder stops the car and runs away.

Hiro decides one morning to try to teleport. He closes his eyes and concentrates and when opens them, he�s in Times Square in New York.

Peter asks his brother to meet him in an alley. He climbs to the top of the building. Sure he will fly, he jumps. He falls. Suddenly, Nathan rises, flying up to catch his brother and bring him safely to the ground.

After surviving and healing completely from several alarming accidents, Claire asks her mother to tell her who her real parents are. The Man with the Glasses enters their house; he is Claire�s (adoptive?) father.

My thoughts: A good opening episode. All of this would sound trite except that it is actually done well. After the initial dialogue problems, the characters start to sound like real humans, not plot expositions. There are real moments of tension, fear and wonder: Claire resetting her bones after a fall, Niki being menaced by a loan shark�s thugs, Hiro successfully teleporting himself from Tokyo to New York. Sure, the special effects look good, but there are elements to the story that are intriguing. What is the significance of the eclipse? What is the catastrophe Isaac has painted? And how does a comic book called 9th Wonders have to do with all of this?

One prediction � Peter�s power is actually his belief in his brother; that is, his belief and love for his brother gives his brother the ability to fly or other superpowers.

Boardgames for broke and bored

I love games and I love getting together with friends to play all sorts of games. Usually we play RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, but occasionally we need the fun and ease boardgames can provide. Oh sure, you can always bust out the Star Wars Monopoly set or Clue, but sometimes you're in the mood for something different. Enter Cheapass Games:

http://www.cheapass.com/

Cheapass Games makes unusual boardgames that are easy to learn, challenging and fun. Take for example Kill Doctor Lucky: this game plays like a reverse Clue, where all of the players try to kill off the good doctor as he moves through an old mansion. All of the games are extraordinarily cheap; most are less than $10, though even a good number of those are under $5. And as a bonus, most of the games can be completed in an hour or less.

However, if you're on an even tighter budget, you can simply download and print boardgames from Game-it Yourself:

http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/board_games.html

The downloads give you the rules and a board if appropriate and you use whatever coins, tokens, toys, dice or Lego brick you might have lying around. Most of the games are free, though a few now charge a nominal fee for download.

More Cinema on the Web

Is it an art film or simply special effects shots strung together?

http://www.wehavedecidednottodie.com/preview.html

No matter what you decide, you have to admit that the film entitled We Have Decided Not to Die is an extraordinary piece of film making. Only a snippet is available online, but there are some disquieting images to be found. I'm not sure how I feel about it: some of it seems like a great deal of simply showing off, especially since there doesn't seem to be any context (read:story) for the images. I'm not saying that a film has to have a narrative in order to be good or entertaining or art (or anything for that matter), but just showing me some fantastic CGI, editing or other film tricks doesn't make it automatically good or entertaining or art either.

Do me a favor though. Just watch the preview and don't read the interview. Once a film teacher told our class that if the film maker has to explain his work, then he has failed as a film maker. He can't go to every screening and answer the questions of the audience members. Either the film speaks for itself or it doesn't. If you feel like you must read the interview, wait until after you've seen the preview, so that you can decide for yourself what the film is about and whether or not you think the film maker has done his job.

No, my phone number really doesn't spell anything

I thought this was a fun site: enter a number (as in, your telephone number) and see what it spells based on the letters on the keypad:

http://www.phonespell.com/phoneSpell.html

How disappointing though that the four telephone numbers I entered didn't really spell anything.

There's no excuse not to read...

Here's my newest favorite site/service:

Daily Lit

Browse from 200 titles of classic literature from Dante Aligheri to Emile Zola and sign up to have a book (or two) sent to you by email. The book isn't sent all at once, but in manageable chunks at the time of day and frequency (every day, every week day, etc.) you specify. A "manageable chunk" is about a page of text, not much more than a long email, and because it's plain text, it's easy on the eyes.

Right now I'm reading Leaves of Grass by Walt Witman and Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie. It's a nice break in the middle of my day and takes no more than ten minutes or so to enjoy. I probably waste more time writing this journal.