| Bless you Loeb |
[Oct. 11th, 2007|05:30 pm] |
Now that I have an inkling of why season 2 of Heroes feels so different, I'll try my best to pin down the vague ideas in my head onto words ...I'll probably suck at it though. I've said before and I'll say it again: I'm no writer.
Okay, first off, it's all set-up with little introduction. The first season started with a little of both. I took its time to plant your legs firmly in the setting while constantly hinting at and building up to impending doom (a thing about the first season that I really liked). With the second season, it's all set-up. Moreover, even you you think you're familiar with the character's and how things work, the show tries to throw in stuff from left-feild just to emphasize (I guess) that things aren't where there were.
Second, while it still very much a facsimile of a comic book, it's of a different kind of comic book. The first season felt very Vertigo or DC to me (more on this later), this one feels a lot like Spider-man or X-men. 3 episodes in, I think it's because of all the time-traveling and "hero virus" (as opposed to X-men's mutant virus) stuff. Others may think less of Heroes because of it's similarities to comic books, I however, don't. Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's names on the credits pretty much explains to me why the series is comic book-ish.
Third, Mohinder's narrations and philosophic musings aren't there. I miss hearing those. Yeah, my sister may be right about it being philo-babble most of the time, but it really added to the flavor of the series. Whenever I heard Mohinder's voice-overs, I always pictured yellow narration boxes in my head flash over screen while the scenes play. Needless to say, if you've been reading Vertigo stuff (Fables, Sandman, Y, Lucifer) you dig those things. The absence of the voice overs makes the series as it is right now feel a lot like DC's 52 - issue after issue of pages with scenes filled with panels of people either doing something, or talking to someone else. No "thinking" here.
Finally, the scenes cut from one character/group to another character/group a lot faster in the new season. Yes, this relates to set-up stuff, the vertigo stuff, I've mentioned earlier, however I feel the need to single this aspect out because I feel it's more of a pacing thing than anything else. Even though the new season has been criticised so far for not having anything "happen" in it, if you step back a little you'll notice that it's moving forward a hell of a lot faster than season 1 did when it was starting out.
Well that's that, now for episode 3 spoilers (for those who haven't seen it yet):
- Takezo Kensei can regenerate, and kills 90 ronin
- Peter Petreli is with the Irish mob, is now an amnesiac, and just got a brand new tatoo that's exactly like Niki Sander's back tatoo and Takezo Kensei's flag and sword. Yep, the helix makes another appearance
- Mohinder found an Isaac Mendez painting that prognosticates Bennet's (Horn-rimed Glasses dude, not Claire) death.
- DL Hawkins is dead, Micah is left with ...someone.
- When weird-hispanic-brother "heals" the "disease" of weird-hispanic-sister, it's an area effect thing. People in the area who also have bleeding eyes are also cured by weird-hispanic-brother.
- Sylar is alive. However, he's badly injured AND he's in the middle of nowhere. Well, the camera did zoom out to reveal a tropical jungle or what not, so unless he's in the middle of Mindanao, he's probably in the Amazon. Oh, and by the way, he lost all his previously acquired powers, and he can seem to get newly stolen powers to work.
- Candice, the illusion lady who eats like a fat person, is dead. Sylar wanted to see if he could still do what he does, apparently he can't. Neo-spock is a Virus victim perhaps?
- The base of Katanas serve as decent time-capsules. Really, they do! Ask hiro. He sen't a message to Ando all the way from the 1670s.
Obvious plot theory that Kring and co are probably betting the viewers will come up with:
Guy who killed Kaito Nakamura probably did so via flight since both assailant and Kaito fell off a height but only Kaito fell to his death (hey it could've been "Bamf-ing" but go with me on this). Kaito and Bennet are both on the "Series of 8" paintings made by Isaac Mendez. Claire's new boyfriend, West can fly. West has been taunting Claire right from the start. A shadowy figure is seen kissing Claire in the background of the Noah "death painting." Does this all mean that West is a member or an underling of whatever power it is that is killing off Daddy Nakamura and Mommy Petreli's generation?
Is that power, the one that Molly so often dreams about, the Company? Are they even aligned with the company? Do they somehow have something to do with the very British Takezo Kensei? Are all the murders connected to the virus/weird-hispanic-siblings plot bunny? Why did Nathan say "You're Ebhil!" straight to his mom's face? Does Nathan know something that we don't? ARRGGGH!!!!!
Bless you Loeb. |
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