Heroes Season Four

[The Hitman]

Ernie Hudson Joins the cast of Heroes.

Prison Break's Robert Knepper Also Joins the Cast.

And... Ray Park?!?

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Some bits from a magazine article that I read.

Spoiler

Apparently the main is theme is whether or not the characters should remain content with they ordinary lives that most now have.  They have to decide whether to go public and demand equality or pretend to be ordinary.  Into the middle of this comes a magneto like charmer/cultish leader who is in charge of a traveling carnival made entirely our of specials.

While this is going on again Nathan/Sylar have a Jeckel and Hyde thing going on.

Oh and they're making Claire turn lesbian for some strange reason.  Consider all the guys she keeps kissing, in the case of last season, for no apparent reason, this makes no sense at all.

There's a trailer out.  Ordinarily, I'd post a link, but it's imbedded in second link in the post above this one, so I won't bother.

[Kommando]

Link to trailer

[stumpy]

The trailer could point to some interesting developments. It had a bit of a Carnivale-like feel to it, not that Heroes could really pull that off, but it's a direction with some potential.

Spoiler

It might be interesting to have a cultish group of specials be the major plot driver this season. Obviously, the writers could go anywhere with that, but I can imagine some good story arcs in it.

Nevertheless, it would bother me if last season's primary story arc (the government adopting a policy of placing specials in internment camps without trial) just disappeared. After all, that operation was approved at the highest levels; it wasn't just a rogue operation of Nathan and Danko. For it to go away without fairly major consequences would be a cop-out.

I have no idea what they are doing with Claire. First, just to state the obvious, two women engaged in a non-chaste kiss doesn't actually make either of them lesbian, though that's clearly the speculation NBC is fueling. I don't care if Claire experiences some not-especially-rare self-discovery in college, but I hope the writers aren't just pulling a ratings stunt. To be honest, I wish they had done more with the lesbian character Hiro and Ando met last season. Sadly, Claire has often been a poorly written character, IMO, and I worry that the writers couldn't handle this without it dissolving into the boring morass of teen angst and daddy issues that is the fate of so many Claire arcs.

Really, the most hopeful thing I saw in the trailer was the hint that the Sylar/Nathan amalgam is falling apart. I still think that was a fairly dumb resolution to last season, so I would like to see it go kerblooey. And, frankly, I think Quinto has some of the show's most compelling scenes, so getting him back as a major protagonist is a good thing.

[Silver Shocker]

Although Earnie Hudson being in the show will be kinda cool (Ghostbusters fan here), and Ray Park is kinda neat (is his character going to fight with a staff?  ) Very little about the new season has me thinking it's going to be good. Heroes is going to need a miracle to recover from the mess that was volume 3 and 4.

[thalaw2]

Ernie Hudson is a great actor with a great body of work after GhostBusters....I hope being on Heroes won't tarnish his career.  I like Robert Knepper, but it seems he's going from one failing show (that should have died after the 1st and a half season) to this one

[bredon7777]

Gotta disagreee with Stumpy here- the mistake was not in turning Sylar into Nathan, the mistake is in undoing it so frickin soon.

Sylar has needed to go away for a good long time since the end of Season 1.  It was a mistake making him a regular, it was a mistake giving him his powers back, it was a mistake giving him Claire's power, and its a mistake not keeping him off the show for at least a full season, if not more.

Look, I understand that Quinto is one of the best actors you've got- but Sylar is overexposed and simply played out. I'm sick of seeing him (and I'm especially sick of the constant teasing that there's going to be a knock down drag out between him and Peter that never gets shown - if you're not going to do that, you have NO reason to bring Sylar back.)  I get that he's supposed to be the Joker to Peter's Batman, but guess what- Batman has a HUGE rogue's gallery.  Imagine how BORING it would be if he just fought the Joker every flipping issue and you get how I feel about Sylar.

The evil carny leader looks like he'll make a great villian- let's focus on him and leave Sylar as Nathan for a season- then if we get a season five (iffy at this point) you can bring him back.

[stumpy]

My issue with the Sylar-as-Nathan gimmick is that it was such a convoluted answer to the problem of how to keep Nathan on the show. There had to be a dozen ways to save Nathan that didn't involve the (to me) unbelievable idea that Matt can entirely rewrite Sylar's mind so that he is permanently Nathan. As much of a stupid writing crutch as it was to establish that Claire's blood can bring back the dead (as per HRG), it would have been better to fall back on that than to pull this stunt. And, obviously, the better approach to keeping Nathan alive was simply to not kill him.

I agree that the show can get into a situation where there is too much Sylar. I don't think Sylar can be the big bad every season. That's why I was actually happy that last season the writers took the approach of focusing on the government agency rounding up specials. It was a change of pace from the mustache-twirling baddy and it was realistic to deal with the "official" response to the advent of super-powered people. I would have preferred that Sylar went on being Sylar and continued his creepy business of acquiring powers and discovering more about himself and his past (what a great opportunity it was to have John "Lionel Luthor" Glover as Sylar's father). Instead, the writer's just couldn't resist the idea that Sylar decides he want's to rule the world through impersonation of politicians. Bleh.

As a practical matter of television, they can't write Quinto off of the show for a season without likely losing him as an actor. But, they could have kept Sylar peripheral to the main storyline and that's what I would have liked. And I really don't especially care if we ever see Sylar fight Peter. Peter doesn't strike me as a particularly interesting character and I am glad the writers de-ubered him. If there is never a planet-rocking scene with Sylar and Peter throwing lightning bolts and fireballs at each other on a mountaintop, I won't miss it.

[The Hitman]

Just a quick bump to get this back on the fron page, since the 2-hour season premire is tonight. Anyone gonna watch it?

[Kommando]

Just a quick bump to get this back on the fron page, since the 2-hour season premire is tonight. Anyone gonna watch it?

Yeah, I'll probably be watching it.  Hmm, I keep thinking I need to find a stream and forget my roommate has a DVR.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Yep, I'll be there.

Anyone interested in some live chat shack commentary and discussion?

[Podmark]

Yeah I'll be watching it. Here's hoping.

[thanoson]

Well, I forgot it was on. Any reviews?

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Interesting in some ways.  The carnival character make for a potentially interesting change of pace as far the villains go.  I have no idea why there is going, though, which is a good thing.  I may post more later.

EDIT:  Hitman's got one of his reviews up specifically on this episode.  He does an excellent job, but it does spoil the whole story, so be warned.

[Tortuga]

It was two hours long?! Dang, we missed half.

[stumpy]

Yeah, it was okay. I am looking forward to the next episode, so the season opener did its job. I am intrigued about the carnival people. And, it's even possible that Claire's storyline will be interesting this season. I like what I've seen so far of the Sylar arc (excepting Matt's issues with using his power), but that's no surprise since I think the actors who play Sylar and HRG basically carry the show.

I few observations and questions about specific things:

Spoiler

Since she was basically a throwaway character, it's not really a surprise, but I'll give Claire's roommate credit for making herself loathsome in record time.

BTW, I don't exactly know why they wasted so much time with the (essentially ridiculous) sub-plot of Claire trying to get into the linear algebra class. No one who wasn't a real math whiz in high school is going to think she is going skip almost two years of college math curricula. And, her roommate would never assume that Claire had done that. Moreover, the roommate, who's "trajectory" is to finish a poli-sci/pre-law degree in three years, probably wouldn't be taking math courses in the engineering/science track. And, I don't mean that there aren't people who took linear algebra freshman year, but no freshman is going to start off assuming that the roommate she just met is going to be enrolled in some weirdo math track. Unless they are living the in the "I can identify non-full-rank matrices" dorm or something. <grumble> This is the sort of thing that bugs me, less because they got it wrong and more because they easily could have established that the roommate was an overachieving ego monster without spending five minutes to spin this nonsense out of the empty air.

So, Hiro has gone through all this trouble to set up the Heroes for Hire business and Ando is either part of the project or at least sufficiently familiar with it to know it's been going on too long for them not to have gotten any customers yet. But, we are to believe that was the first time Hiro has explained the business to Ando?

I like Claire's new buddy. Of course, the writers really set her up to be likable by placing her opposite Claire's annoying careergasm of a roommate. I am sincerely hoping that Gretchen really has just recently started manifesting her super-fast skill-building power. Otherwise, it just isn't believable that someone gets good at things at a phenomenally fast rate and never noticed it before. Or, she knows and is keeping it secret in sort of a ham-handed way. But, I thought her bright-eyed enthusiasm for investigating the roommate's death was sort of endearing.

Since the roommate definitely hadn't left a suicide note when Claire came back and it looks like the roommate did jump, I am guessing that someone forced her to jump, maybe via some sort of mind control. That may indicate that a whole new mentalist baddy is on the scene. BTW, didn't it seem like this is the exact sort of incident that Claire would ask HRG about? Not that I have anything against Sandra Bennet, but you have to admit that the murder-made-to-look-like-a-suicide is the sort of situation wherein Claire would turn to dear ol' dad...

What was the deal with Matt Parkman at that "AA meeting"? It seems like most of the people there were his police buddies. Do police departments hold internal AA meetings for their officers? I know the writers are trying to set up some "Matt is addicted to his power like a junkie is addicted to drugs and is trying to quit cold-turkey" plotline. Writers seem to think that's a clever and socially relevant story idea, though I've never seen it do anything but disappoint. *cough*Willow Rosenberg*cough* 

But, none of those are deal-breakers, so I will be tuning in next week.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

As for Claire's storyline:

Spoiler

The preview shows the carnival leader saying that his is intentionally manipulating Claire and trying to isolate her, so I'm guessing he and his minions had something to do with the suicide.

[BWPS]

Spoiler

I think Claire did it. This way she makes straight As due to the Pass by catastrophe law.

[thalaw2]

I agree with Stumpy!   

Spoiler

I went to a school of Engineering and I never met any Poli-Sci majors taking linear algebra....heck it was upper division math at my school.  You had to be in a heavy math major to be on track to take the course.  The scene was a complete waste of time.  Who were they trying to appeal to with this scene?

[thanoson]

But I felt hip. They were using Honest Mistake by the Bravery in the background. I was like hey, I kow that 5 year old song. Wait, 5 years? Sheesh!

[BWPS]

I agree with Stumpy!   

Spoiler

I went to a school of Engineering and I never met any Poli-Sci majors taking linear algebra....heck it was upper division math at my school.  You had to be in a heavy math major to be on track to take the course.  The scene was a complete waste of time.  Who were they trying to appeal to with this scene?

Spoiler

They're trying to work in a new villain, Sylar's brother: Scalar. Man, wait til you find out his identity, this season will be tensor than ever!

[stumpy]

The scene was a complete waste of time.  Who were they trying to appeal to with this scene?

That's what they should have thought more about. The only people who are going to understand it are the same people who are likely to know it doesn't really make sense. Of course it works as a generic "Claire is trying to get into a 'scary' class", but they spent a long time setting it up in a way that I'm sure will never have relevance again.

Spoiler

The sad thing is that I am one of the people who should have enjoyed some of it as an "in joke". And, I'll admit I smirked when I saw the equation they were supposed to solve had no unique solution. But the overall situation was just too much; I couldn't get past the "Nevermind why her roommate would think Claire should be in that class - why would Claire even want to be there?" aspect of it.

[stumpy]

Spoiler

They're trying to work in a new villain, Sylar's brother: Scalar. Man, wait til you find out his identity, this season will be tensor than ever!

Spoiler

Woohoo! A whole array of baddies! 

[JeyNyce]

I started to watch it but had to stop, because I got totally lost.  I missed most of season 3, so I have to go back and watch that before watching this season.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Just out of curiosity, how were you lost?  There wasn't much happening here that was dependent on last volume.

[Trelau]

Just out of curiosity, how were you lost?  There wasn't much happening here that was dependent on last volume.

really? last season had peter changed his power, nathan going bad (so now he has to seek forgiveness), the all sylar/nathan body change, the introduction and apparent death of tracy, the introduction of denko, the revelation that matt had a baby, the depowering of hiro and the introduction of "my power is killing me" concept.
that's 3 new characters and three major character change (and i just said that right of the top of my head, if i rewatch it i'll probably find more). So yeah, i get that he is lost.

Btw: the episode was good. not season 1 good but still, the plotlines seems more interesting than season 3. HRG and tracy is an interesting pair. the carnival people with T-bag looks pretty good (not at all what i imagined, and i'm very pleased with what i see). Peter looks interesting again (no more angsty, no more godly unstopable) and might be my favourite storyline so far. Claire still has the short end of writing. i almost fast-forwarded through some of her scene (the math exam scene, the guitar hero scene...btw, mentioning facebook and playing guitar hero doesn't make her "more real" and i hope that not the writer's idea to help teenagers relate to her). And another good surprise, the jekyll/hide played not by Nathan/Sylar but by Matt/Sylar! Didn't see that coming at all (weel, as soon as he mentioned there was something inside him...yeah, that killed the surprise but still, good idea)

So yeah i'm hooked for next week. But i'm not getting my hope too high....season 3 premiere was pretty awesome, and we all know how the ret of the season went...

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

really? last season had peter changed his power, nathan going bad (so now he has to seek forgiveness), the all sylar/nathan body change, the introduction and apparent death of tracy, the introduction of denko, the revelation that matt had a baby, the depowering of hiro and the introduction of "my power is killing me" concept.
that's 3 new characters and three major character change (and i just said that right of the top of my head, if i rewatch it i'll probably find more). So yeah, i get that he is lost.

Well I suppose if you've seen older seasons and mission one, maybe.  If you were knew to the show, I'm not sure that there would be much confusion though.  I could be wrong.  I was asking partly because I wanted to what it was like from his perspective, so it was an actual question.  In any case, since you did see last season, you don't really help.

EDIT:  Sorry that probably came across as a bit rude.  At any rate, I asked the question because I genuinely want to hear the perspective of someone who has not been following the show recently or at all.  My perspective makes it impossible for me to understand, so I want to know how the writers are succeeding and failing at their goal of making it not necessary to keep following every season to understand the newest one.

[Mr. Hamrick]

Am I the only one who wound up disinterested after watching? 

The only thing that remotely kept my attention was the HRG/Tracey storyline.

I am completely sick of Hiro and Ando.  Every scene they were in got flat out annoying.

Matt/Sylar/Nathan... ugh.  especially when...

Spoiler

The carnival tattoo girl showed Sylar tattooed on her back as a "future target" which suggests that the Matt/Sylar/Nathan thing will be done before mid-season

As for Claire, despite the joke that was played on her by Christina Rose and I as of DragonCon, Hayden is my next to least favorite person on the show.  Hopefully, this will be remedied but I somehow doubt it.  As for the math scene and the roommate suicide, that's the one thing that gives me hope for liking what they could be doing with Claire.

Spoiler

The math scene was more about the roommate than it was Claire.  I am willing to bet that something occurred to throw "her trajectory" off which lead to her freaking out and jumping out the window.  And if not jumping then startled and falling by someone. 

[Trelau]

really? last season had peter changed his power, nathan going bad (so now he has to seek forgiveness), the all sylar/nathan body change, the introduction and apparent death of tracy, the introduction of denko, the revelation that matt had a baby, the depowering of hiro and the introduction of "my power is killing me" concept.
that's 3 new characters and three major character change (and i just said that right of the top of my head, if i rewatch it i'll probably find more). So yeah, i get that he is lost.

Well I suppose if you've seen older seasons and mission one, maybe.  If you were knew to the show, I'm not sure that there would be much confusion though.  I could be wrong.  I was asking partly because I wanted to what it was like from his perspective, so it was an actual question.  In any case, since you did see last season, you don't really help.

EDIT:  Sorry that probably came across as a bit rude.  At any rate, I asked the question because I genuinely want to hear the perspective of someone who has not been following the show recently or at all.  My perspective makes it impossible for me to understand, so I want to know how the writers are succeeding and failing at their goal of making it not necessary to keep following every season to understand the newest one.

hey don't worry i didn't took it bad at all. it's true that on my side, i don't know anybody who has never seen one single episode, but from what i understood Jeynice wasn't a newcomer to the show and had just skipped a season. But it kinda makes me wonder if that sort of show can attract new viewers after 4 years...

also, Mr. Hamrick ; am i the only one who think they're going to use an excuse like her roomate failed her math test so killed herself? i think that would "make sense", but since we caouldn't read her suicide note it's hard to know what clair's gonna investigate. And her new friends seems...odd. she's completly shy, then she becomes excited by the death of a girl she knew, sits on her bed the next morning without any akwardness... she very well could be the killer, as a mean to get closer to claire (she knows her name and history, she's obsessed by death/murder...i dont know, she really look like she's the type)

[The Hitman]

Just a heads up, looks like they've moved Heroes to 8:00, the place where TV shows go to die.