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Heroes: 1961

Angela: "Say good night, Alice."
Alice: "Good night, Alice."

I thought at first that this episode was Heroes continuing to reinvent itself. But instead, it took us back to the core story and filled in a lot of holes. And it got the Petrelli family back together, which is a good thing.

Did they have to dig up all those graves? Peter had a point about them all just sitting down and talking about it in a restaurant, although that would have been a lot less moody and dramatic. And I really had a hard time swallowing the idea that any sister of Angela Petrelli's would spend fifty plus years of her life hiding in a hole in the ground waiting for Angela to come back. Plus, flashback Alice had big dark eyes and present day Alice had pale blue eyes, and it was jarring. I mean, come on. Contacts exist, people.

But it was fun seeing sixteen-year-old Angela meet and bond with Charles Deveaux, Bob Bishop, and Linderman (what was his first name again?) as they talked about forming the Company while eating fries at the Coyote Sands Cafe. Followed by the extended Petrelli family doing the same thing, and possibly preparing to repeat the original Company's mistakes.

But... lots of buts... I was disconcerted by the reboot of Chandra Suresh as Mengele. I could have sworn Chandra Suresh discovered the broken helix and the gifted people because of Mohinder's dead sister. Am I remembering it wrong? Maybe the answers are in that can of film. I'm sure we'll be seeing the film at some point.

Sylar again wound up impersonating Nathan. This time in the present, though, not in a never gonna happen future. Are we working up to a repeat of Kirby Plaza at the end of season one, with the Petrellis and the other heroes all fighting Sylar? If so, I hope this time they do it right.

Bits and pieces:

-- The flashbacks took place in February through May, 1961. Good casting of young Angela and young Charles in particular, even though much of the flashback acting was a bit wooden and the black-and-white prison camp photography had delusions of Schindler's List.

-- I liked the callback to Angela shoplifting socks for Alice. That was a nice bit. Another possibly out of character loose end neatly tied up.

-- There was a sign on the door of the cabin: "Home is not where you live, but where they understand you." If that's so, then my home is my web site.

-- Alice was deeply into Alice in Wonderland (or more accurately, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), which was my favorite book as well. I kept thinking that Claire looked like the Alice illustrations.

-- Charles Deveaux had Matt's gift. That explains some of what happened with Peter when Charles was dying.

Not bad. Not great. Two out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

13 comments:

  1. I’m pulling a Number Three and getting off now.

    Good on you Billie for stick it through to the end but, as much as I loath to quote any representative of Wolfram & Heart, I just can’t seem to care anymore. This isn’t the same show I fell in love with years ago, the entire Villains arc put me off and so far Fugitives has offered little to come back to.

    It was the constant character flip flopping that did it (Syler is good, no he isn’t, yes he is, oh no he isn’t!), once you stop being invested in the character that’s when you know it’s over.

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  2. I get you completely, Mark. I think I'm hung up on the completion thing; I have to see this season through to the end because I started it. But it's unlikely that I'll continue reviewing Heroes next season.

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  3. If there is a next season! They way the ratting keep slipping it’s starting to seem unlikely.

    Heroes is starting to feel more and more like the Twin Peaks of this decade, an bold, exciting, genre busting series that shined ever so brightly and made icons of its stars before quickly going right down hill, tumbling into cancellation.

    Seems Heraclitus was wrong, you can step into the same river twice.

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  4. Man, I need to proof read my posts more often.

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  5. But then, what would happen to spontaneity? :)

    Come on, I was impressed. You quoted Heraclitus.

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  6. Billie,

    This is the way I took the reboot of Chandra Suresh. He was there doing work with people with abilities but after the incident his mind was erased by the company. Angela said they would have to erase minds, I assumed he was one of them. I might be stretching but there could be deeper meaning as to why he rediscovered people with abilities while the company actively seeking to keep such knowledge a secret.

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  7. Good point, Corey. I hadn't thought of that. I just didn't get the impression that he was an evil guy, though. And mind erasure wouldn't change who you are, deep down.

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  8. I thought it was a decent episode (and a fair review) but, as per the norm with Heroes, I had issue with them changing the rules at the end. They seemed to make it pretty clear during 'Into Asylum' that the shapeshifter had to touch the person to shift into their shape. I don't recall Sylar touching Nathan after getting that ability. Sigh, just one more continuity problem.

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  9. It's too bad that you might not review Season 4 but I can understand your frustration with this season to boot.

    Hopefully the finale will fix a few things. Like reducing some of Sylar's powers for starters.

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  10. Mark Greig said..."If there is a next season! They way the ratting keep slipping it’s starting to seem unlikely".

    Yeah, it's been renewed. NBC are planning to order 18-20 new episodes.

    PK

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  11. Not that i necessarily want Heroes to be cancelled but i would love to know how the networks decide what stays and what goes. Is it purely viewing numbers ? Considering all the negative buzz that's been around for the last couple of seasons i'd have thought that Heroes future would be very shaky indeed. But maybe people are complaining but still watching.

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  12. Is this official, Paul? I’ve not heard anything about a renewal but then again most of the major networks are keeping their gods shut until the upfront presentations.

    On another note, I’ve just posted my review of the Caprica pilot if anyone wants to have a read. With any luck it won’t pop up on TV.Com with the hour under a different name ;)

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  13. Hi Mark,

    Yeah, there's an article confirming it it here....

    BBC News

    Plus, I think there's something about it on wiki.

    Lucky us eh?

    PK

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