Heroes Watch: Deep Impact

I've been off the bandwagon for a number of episodes now, though I've been told by a number of people that the show has stopped sucking in the past few weeks (and I heard a couple refer to last week's episode as a return to the season 1 glory days). So I'm crawling back... I'll be caught up soon, and Bryan Singer getting on board does give future episodes credibility in my mind.

I'm hoping you're going to make a separate Chuck post, but if not, I'll treat this like a generic NBC post. Am I the only one who was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of last night's episode? I'm not saying I expected it to be bad by any means, but as good as this season has been, I thought last night was excellent. Great humor, great romantic tension, great plot moves, standard (though not as bad as usual?) plot holes... everything we've come to know and love about Chuck, but even better than usual.

Correction: not Bryan Singer... Bryan Fuller. Too many Sci-fi guys named Bryan. I'm easily confused.

Could not agree more. I'm sure when they filmed it the scene seemed pleasantly rah-rah Obama, but now that he's the President-elect, it seemed very off-key.

About that Obama-effect on H-Wood...

In addition to an acceptance of black Drama leads like Lawrence Fishburne, there's already talk of Studio suits being less skittish about doing major storylines in primetime drama series involving mixed race couples--specifically black/white. Seems there's now actually a growing demand for it. Hmm...
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Now that's cool and all but my one beef here is, if they can't upgrade/update the prevailing Hollywood stereotypes as concerns language, dress, mannerisms, intellectual curiosity etc., (stereotypes not necessarily representative of the reality on the ground, esp. in the contemporary 18-49 demo), it could be counterproductive. Viewers might likely be turned off by what could come off as 'hollywood-style' affirmative action and not an even attempt at storytelling and entertainment.
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So far, I'm impressed by the take the 'Leverage' creators have on the character Alec (Aldis Hodge). Maybe I'm more accepting of this character because he's more realistically representative of my own circle of friends (Geeks rule!), than some other shows.
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My advice, (caveat--from a somewhat-jaded-18-35-female-demo-possible-hipster-with-Afro-Brit-sensibilities), for TV series, less 'Color Purple' and more 'Hitch'/'Hancock'/'Pursuit of happyness'--ok, ok, Will Smith's the poster boy. Less is more. More focus on the triumph, less on the tragedy--feature films can tackle the contra.
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But hey, that's just my take. As far as Heroes goes, like Dave uptop, I'll check out the season over the holiday break.

James- you didnt miss anything by jumping off the train for a while, there is no character consistancy week to week. they do what ever is neccessary to advance the plot and if they behave totally differently next week none of the other characters seem to notice.
Spoiler Alert:
here's my other complaint, Ali Larter survives to bring her boringness to yet another season but they kill off super strong marlo from the wire. who makes this decision? boring ali larter vs super strong marlo this seems like a no brainer to me, people who watch this show have been begging them to get rid of Later since the end of season one but no no the interesting black guy dies so the blonde may live on.
say the black president turned to the gf and said "A black president is a cliche now, a white guy would have been much less jaring." so i'm in agreement with you there.

I'm just glad Michael Dorn is getting work that doesn't either involve three hours of Klingon makeup or just lets us hear us awesome voice ...

@Carlos,
eh, Knox wasn't interesting at all, and Ali Larter is hot, which is one of the only pluses to watching this show.

@James,
your whole take on the (previously) fictional black president is fascinating. And what was with all the quick-cut close-ups of his mouth and eyes, as if to tantalize us with the big reveal that he is, first, a black guy, and then - the president!

the presidential notation is an interesting one... if they had a woman would it seem like they weren't giving up on Hil, and a white man like they're not on board with the changing times?
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also, i did finally abandon Heroes after i found it too much of a punishment to try to get caught up on the ridiculous characters and plot, i couldn't stand to see Mohinder turn random and Nathan go through another round of manipulation and... and...

@mcmagnus, that's true but i figure he still had the potential to be interesting where as over the course of three seasons Ali Larter has proved that she is not and will not be interesting.
Maybe Chris can show up in the 2nd half of this season and take down that pederast Parkman.

This was the most disappointing season finale to any show I have ever watched. When the words on the screen read "End of Volume Three," I had to pinch myself, because I had thought through the entire episode that there were at least a couple more episodes left before the finale, but nope, it was a horrible nightmare I was actually watching.
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First off, I'm happy that the show decided to start doing some house cleaning and killing off some key characters in the show who were just dragging it down (but I agree about Ali Larter's character needing to get the axe). But the biggest waste of time character was the superhero marine who for two seconds made last week's episode worth watching only to get killed in the finale like a security guard in a heist movie. And to put all the characters in a Pinehearst in a Saw-like environment with creepy Jigsaw, er, Sylar, trying to get them to kill one another was just ridiculuous. I think that the entire cast except Peter should have been killed, leaving the next season open for new revelations into Peter's abilities and life.
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I had a lot of problems with the many ways some of the characters "died." Claire had plenty of time to grab her mom and get her out of Pinehearst. If anything, Claire is the only person who could save her mom. But instead we get a cheesy goodbye before her mom explodes into a fireball? Same with the blueberry-flamed villain - you wouldn't think of a ball of fire would harm them.
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Hiro's attempt to destroy the formula. Enough said.
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And the "climax" to the entire season is Sylar being partially killed by Claire as he cries over his mommy issues? Please Bryan Fuller! You can be our hero! Lift us from this writing slump into a poetic mixture of drama and science fiction for which we long!