Heroes Watch: Family Affair

Or--could he be his own great-great-great-etc. grandfather? How Big Love would that be?

Actually, it would be very "Futurama," where Fry is in fact his grandfather.

Wasn't a huge fan, so the first four eps haven't let me down like they have others. But this was finally a good episode. The introduction of the idea that these powers can be refined, like any physical talent, has impressed me - I originally thought the writers weren't talented enough to surpass your usual comic cliches. But mind reading -> mind writing, this is exciting. I can imagine Hiro's dad having a super-enhanced version of time-manipulation.

I think Hiro's dad was a master Samurai of some sort as opposed to a time stopper. Claire shows us that the parents powers don't always pass along in the same way.

Last night's episode was - for me - the best of the season. Kristen Bell is a fantastic actress and was an excellent addition to the cast! That girl is quite a scene stealer, and I was superpsyched for her to finally show up. She can deliver the hell out of any line she's given.

The whole nitemare man thing finally makes more sense, I love that Parkman (one of my favorites!) will have more to do this season, and that his powers will be expanding. That was an AWESOME nitemare fight scene with Matt and Nathan, so so cool. I wonder if the Haitian can block Matt's Dad's powers too. . .

Micah and Monica - what a pair! She is so going to be a crime fighter. I really like watching them interact together. I wonder what the grandma can do. . .

Love Claire and the Bennetts, but was glad to have a break from them for a week, they had had such a central role in, like, every episode so far.

I want a whole episode of Hiro and just Hiro. Or fewer storyline jumps each week...focus on 2 or 3 lines...preferably related ones.

I've been wondering since last year when Parkman would figure out the projective telepathy part of his power. The way Peter was able to heal even as Sylar was trying to cut into him last year suggests even Claire's regen could be an active ability.

The sense I get from this season is that Kring came up with the season denouement first, and worked his way back from there --- unfortunately, he found himself with only 15 episodes worth of plot and most of what we have seen so far has been "filler" -- and not very good filler at that.

Most of the dialogue is horrible, and the characters are acting like idiots. I mean, here is a guy who is so scary that he scares Molly --- who wasn't afraid of Sylar. And Parkman wants to confront him alone?

Personally, I think this season is turning out very poorly -- Kring would have had more than enough material to to the "elders" plot and THAT whole backstory....

BTW, was Peter's haircut new this week? Or am I finally focussing on his face now that he's wearing a shirt?

Does anyone know who wrote Company Man? Whoever that was needs to write again. Or at least check Kring's dialogue to make sure all the "no duh" comments are taken out. That's the most annoying part of the show.

I did like Kristen Bell, a bad teenager to counteract Claire's good will be a fun thing to watch. I think her father has to be Bob.

Still think some characters should be killed off. There is just too much going on right now. It feels like a clip show from ABC a lot of the time.

@Drew
I disagree that Elle's father is Bob; the phone conversation (to me) sounded like her father/handler summoned her back home the instant she killed someone, which means that their moral code is quite a bit stricter than Bob's appears to be.

And "Company Man" was credited to Bryan Fuller, who left Heroes to create Pushing Daisies. I'm not in the crowd that directly links his departure to the state of Heroes' second season (they are busy setting things up in the background), but I doubt it helped things either.

@Tom
Interesting bit about the moral code. I want to believe Heroes will give us another important character with a different set of morals than the company, but then I remind myself that it's Heroes, so its probably simpler than that.

Who else thinks that Parkman's dad was sent to kill Peter's mom and Hiro's dad? That would account for the police saying that PeteMom's wounds were self-inflicted and the missing assassin that was last seen lying next to HirDad--ParkDad created the scenes in his victims' minds, and HirDad fell to his death alone and PeteMom scratched herself silly.

The scenes with the Irish girl and Peter made me really uncomfortable. Who ever wrote (edited? shot?) that scene has the George Lucas curse: can't execute a romantic scene without it making you want to cringe.

What a tease about K Bell! That was barely a debut. Is it safe to assume that she crossed Peter's path at some point between last year's finale and now? That would explain Peter's sudden ability to shoot bolts out of his hands (meaning, he picked it up from her even though he doesn't remember).

Oh snap! New theory: Since Peter is isolated what if he's not in this time period? What if he accidentally flashed forward (or back) in time before waking up? What if Kristen Bell is the daughter of two currently young Heroes like Claire and Supercreepyflyingguy? Or a young Mrs. Petrelli? Oh man, that just blew my mind.

Justin, what a great theory!

I somehow think that Elle is kenseis daughter (they're both blonde). I guess parkmans dad is just the first storyarc that sets up the second and (supposed to be) bigger theme (like last years cheerleader-theme was the setup for the explosion and stopping it). And the big enemy is in fact the hundreds of years old kensei who at some point turned evil. Imagine that: hiro being back in the present meets his friend again just to find out that he has to fight him.

@Justin & Marcel...

Or...this whole season is more centered around the characters rather than plot...

I'm kinda hoping that things will be more character-driven this time around. There's no urgent plot (i.e., "Save the world"). Now the Heroes can take some time to really explore what their powers mean. I really would like to see each of the characters explore and come to find what their powers mean to them.

Plot are fun and exciting...but I really want to see character sketches more than anything else right now.

well, if the writers of heroes make the same mistake as the lost-writers in that they think they can write characterdriven stories they're pretty much screwing themselves (like the lostwriters did). as they obviously aren't good enough in that department (actually as bad as the lostwriters, if not even worse).

[heh, flame on.]

I agree with you marcel wei(beta?)

Corey, remember what happened when Star Wars made three movies about characterization? Yeah...

The reason I watch this show is not for subtle, sensitive, nuanced characters -- there's plenty of other shows for that. I watch for mind-bending twists and plot > development.

hehe, @Justin I am and my familyname is german.
/kraut

An update to my theory:

If Peter is in fact in a different time period, it would have to be a time in the future. The guys that found him in the storage container were originally looking for iPods -- not something thugs in the past would be searching for. The fact that they specified that is leading me to believe my theory even more, qualifying it with a 'clue' like that. Maybe I'm crazy, but it could be cool.