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Posted: Sep 22 2009 07:29 pm

So, who watched the two hour premiere last night? Any thoughts? Who's given up on the series?

Posted: Sep 22 2009 11:40 pm

Done and done with them. Who bloody cares anymore?

Posted: Sep 23 2009 06:59 am

After two mediocre seasons, this was a strong start. We have the guy who played the psychotic Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell on Prison Break as the lead villain and Ray Parks (Darth Maul) as his knifey henchman. I'm willing to give them a chance.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

After 3 seasons I gave up. I just don't care. As this season begins I am happier to record and watch House in that time slot.

If I hear that the season is going well, I'll watch it online.

Posted: Sep 23 2009 07:30 am

I did watch House instead of Heroes. I watched Heroes online last night after the premiere of regular NCIS.

Posted: Sep 23 2009 08:45 am

Unlike most people, I didn't mind Season 2 and looked forward to Season three, but after 3 episodes, it was clear the show had completely lost the plot and the writers had no idea what was going on anymore, so I stopped watching. I've never seen any TV show before that went downhill as quickly as Heroes. Such a waste.

Posted: Sep 23 2009 10:22 am

The show had 2 main problems during seasons 2 and 3.

First, the writers' strike cut short Season 3, Part 1, resulting in a shortened story arc.

Second, the producers took too much stock in what whiny little bitches like Ausiello and fan communities were complaining about. The result? Aborted storylines and sharp changes in direction. Rather than planning out a story abd sticking to it, they tried to pander to the loudest fans. Well guess what? The loudest fans are usually the dumbest ones.

Posted: Sep 23 2009 03:52 pm

on a related note:

Quote:

Hurray Hayden Panettiere is finally striping in the latest movie she’s playing “Room 23”. I have no idea if the direct producer is a naked-chick-digger like I am, but I definitely want to shake his hand for showing us this side of Hayden Panettiere, the full body exposure side I mean. Probably the movie isn’t going to be an Oscar winner, but just for seeing Hayden Panettiere naked I would give her a nominee.

http://www.music-juice.com/celebrity-news/hayden-panettiere-is-naked-in-room-23-knock-knock.html

Posted: Sep 23 2009 04:10 pm

Mr. Aaron Schwartz (he of Nodwick and PS 238)'s thoughts:

"Heroes" returned tonight with a 2-hour season starter (which should be up on their NBC page for those who missed it), but it wasn't as Earth-shattering as I'd hoped. It seemed to drag in places, and I'm almost to the point where any scenes with Claire are causing me mental anguish from the dialogue alone. Not that it's Hayden Panettiere's fault, it's the crowd she hangs out with: Two of the most annoying characters I've seen this side of Melrose Place. But to avoid major spoilers, let me just run down the things that lept out at me, without really revealing much about the story:

- People sure do mention popular websites a lot. And half of your time at college involves playing or mentioning "Guitar Hero."
- Ray Park's martial arts moves almost make you not notice that the FX budget has been cut back considerably.
- A creepy carnival. Some cool power hints there, but not enough to make a final judgment. It reminded me how much I wish HBO hadn't canceled "Carnivale."
- Not time travel again! All they need is a Holodeck and we'll have the same problems as Star Trek.
- I'm not sure who the main bad guy is supposed to be anymore. Doctor Horrible needs to finish conquering the Emmys and start trying to take over the world.

I'll probably tune in again next week, but I'm hoping there are a few more hooks somewhere. And it looks like Sylar will be back in form this season, being the bad guy from the first season that fans wish he'd be again. Though I do wish "Future Hiro" would re-emerge in some form; Hiro needs to upgrade a bit more from his role as comic relief with subtitles.

Posted: Sep 23 2009 06:06 pm

Fun Fact: Claire's roommate tells her that they'll be able to play Guitar Hero III at the freshmen mixer. At the mixer, they play Guitar Hero 5. It is simply referred to as "Guitar Hero".

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Syd Lexia wrote:

The show had 2 main problems during seasons 2 and 3.

First, the writers' strike cut short Season 3, Part 1, resulting in a shortened story arc.

Second, the producers took too much stock in what whiny little bitches like Ausiello and fan communities were complaining about. The result? Aborted storylines and sharp changes in direction. Rather than planning out a story abd sticking to it, they tried to pander to the loudest fans. Well guess what? The loudest fans are usually the dumbest ones.

To quote a far smarter man than I

Yahtzee wrote:

"Fans are clingy, complaining dipshits who are never ever greatful no matter how many concessions you make and the minute you shut out their shrill, tremulous cries, the better off you are.

Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

I think I know what the problem with heroes is!

Nobody really gives a crap.
The writing isn't (and will never be, it's not a comic book.) as half as good as something written by say, Warren Ellis. The characters are pretty boring, and any merit the show could have by having regular people interact with any of the superheroes, is immediately lost because somehow, someway everyone ends up with a special ability.
I don't know about you guys, but when I read superhero comic books, I expect to see guys with superpowers beating up other guys with superpowers. Every episode of Heroes I've seen is about a bunch of whiny people too caught up with whiny things to do any good or realize
'hey, whoah, holy FUCK. I can fly/shoot lightning/be incredibly creepy and have huge eyebrows (that last one is Sylar for people who don't watch)'
so it's basically a soap drama. it's not even as good as passions!

Posted: Sep 24 2009 06:55 am

One thing that's always bugged me though is that they kill off their villains with complete finality. In comic books, they rarely do this.

Posted: Sep 24 2009 01:53 pm

One thing that does the opposite of bug me is that, to me, Heroes wasn't about superheroes battling each other in epic, Matrixy "let's destroy the entire fucking set too!" superbattles. It's like a comic book, and the premise is that these are superpowered heroes that are explicitly NOT trying to get into huge battles. Think about it this way, if you got superpowers, say being able to talk to machines, would you fight crime, or would you head right to the ATM and tell it to give you a million dollars?

THAT'S the appeal of Heroes to me. Superpowered individuals leading ordinary lives. Hell, Sylar (the main reason I watch) is basically the extreme of this: using several superpowers he's jacked to continue to kill, and although his power leads to his psychosis, who's to say you wouldn't become a greedy thieving serial killer instead of Superman?

Posted: Sep 24 2009 04:15 pm

Fun fact: the linear system that Claire has to solve for her Algebra 170 placement test has infinitely many solutions.

Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

Because I'm not that kind of guy? This is why I think television is boring - I don't go to the movies, turn on the TV, or play videogames, to see the lives of other normal people.
It's not interesting, it's boring as fuck. The only character that does anything remotely interesting with his powers is Hiro - and he's repeatedly punished by the writers for it.

Sylar is also a terrible villain. As far as villains go, I've always thought that if they don't have any real goals or motivations (good examples: lex luthor, norman osborn) and just kill or steal for no reason, they aren't villains - they aren't particularly frightening, their just jerks that have writer immunity.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Kojjiro! wrote:

Because I'm not that kind of guy? This is why I think television is boring - I don't go to the movies, turn on the TV, or play videogames, to see the lives of other normal people.
It's not interesting, it's boring as fuck. The only character that does anything remotely interesting with his powers is Hiro - and he's repeatedly punished by the writers for it.

Sylar is also a terrible villain. As far as villains go, I've always thought that if they don't have any real goals or motivations (good examples: lex luthor, norman osborn) and just kill or steal for no reason, they aren't villains - they aren't particularly frightening, their just jerks that have writer immunity.

I disagree with with you there, every attempt they have made to give Sylar a method to his madness has been boring.

Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

Maybe that's because he's just a boring character

Posted: Sep 24 2009 05:27 pm

Tyop wrote:

Fun fact: the linear system that Claire has to solve for her Algebra 170 placement test has infinitely many solutions.

More Fun Facts: The professor played Ted Schmidt (a lead character) on Queer as Folk and was reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Kojjiro! wrote:

Maybe that's because he's just a boring character

During patches of the last season or two, Sylar was the only storyline thread I actually had interest in.

Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

Everytime I see Heroes he's being generically whispery and sinister to someone

Posted: Sep 24 2009 06:28 pm

Kojjiro! wrote:

Everytime I see Heroes he's being generically whispery and sinister to someone

Nah, that's Arthur Petrelli.

Posted: Sep 25 2009 06:50 am

Kojjiro! wrote:

Sylar is also a terrible villain. As far as villains go, I've always thought that if they don't have any real goals or motivations (good examples: lex luthor, norman osborn) and just kill or steal for no reason, they aren't villains - they aren't particularly frightening, their just jerks that have writer immunity.

So someone has to have a goal and live in a hollowed out volcano to be a "villain"? The word Villain just means bad guy, or antagonist to the superhero. Not every villain in comic books (or real life) has any motivation for what they do, they just do it because they are sociopaths or totally insane. Take The Joker for example. When did the Joker ever have a goal besides, "let's just fuck some shit up and have some fun, and hopefully I can kill Bats while I'm at it".

And why does having that label even matter? Sylar was great in the first season because he was a power hungry sociopath whose only goal was to become even more unstoppable. It was something I think most people could identify with, because we might all plunge into that darkness and react he same way with that kind of power. How quickly would one of us start abusing those powers to get what we want? How quickly would we get bored of what we had and covet a new power? That was always the key to Syler in my opinion.
Basically on one hand, you identified with his need for power, but on the other, you hated his blatant disregard for innocent people, and knew that with each kill, he became more invincible.

Trying to add motivations (mommy and daddy issues, wanting to "belong" which is totally counter to the sociopathy they showed us in season 1, wanting to be the president?) to that character ruined that mystery and identification and made him a stupid, unrealistic character. It's a classic case that adding more depth to a character actually made them much more shallow.

To me, there is nothing more frightening than looking at a complete sociopath and thinking, "Would I do the same things in his position? Maybe." It's not the killing, or the evil plans, or the volcano hideout that make villains frightening. It's the feelings they evoke from yourself that make you question your own sanity.

Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

imo sylar is the hero, killing a bunch of greedy, poorly adjusted people that are liable to snap and destroy the world at any given moment.

sylar doesn't make my skin crawl - villains in TV shows, comic books, movies, and even real deranged murderers don't. one, the first examples are all fictional characters, and two, after the other group dies, they'll just be another black mark on a page in a book.

also, the jokers motivation has always been around messing with (and his obsession with) batman. where as batman has a purpose, the joker has an obsession.

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

Undeath wrote:

One thing that does the opposite of bug me is that, to me, Heroes wasn't about superheroes battling each other in epic, Matrixy "let's destroy the entire fucking set too!" superbattles. It's like a comic book, and the premise is that these are superpowered heroes that are explicitly NOT trying to get into huge battles. Think about it this way, if you got superpowers, say being able to talk to machines, would you fight crime, or would you head right to the ATM and tell it to give you a million dollars?

THAT'S the appeal of Heroes to me. Superpowered individuals leading ordinary lives. Hell, Sylar (the main reason I watch) is basically the extreme of this: using several superpowers he's jacked to continue to kill, and although his power leads to his psychosis, who's to say you wouldn't become a greedy thieving serial killer instead of Superman?

This is my opinion as well, Though I prefer Peter Petrelli to Sylar.

Posted: Sep 26 2009 06:42 am

Kojjiro! wrote:

where as batman has a purpose, the joker has an obsession.

If you consider the Joker to be a villain because his motivation is obsession, then Sylar is a villain as well by the same logic. His motivation was an obsession for power. A thirst that couldn't be quenched, and a need to own every possible super power so as to be unstoppable.