Waiting for Heroes
Sep. 21st, 2008 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe new season of Heroes starts tomorrow. Given that I'll be on the road again on Tuesday, I don't know when I'll be able to post the first review since ages, but the anticipation creates some meta stirrings in me, so, in celebration of the new season: why I love this show. (For which I've managed to remain spoiler-free and would like to remain so these next 48 hours, thank you.)
So, Heroes. First of all: I love the ensemble-ness. I've talked with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kathyh about this more than once - something that changed in the last decade or two for me was that I used to be able not to mind if I liked only one or two characters on a tv show, or if only one or two were characterized well enough so I'd find them interesting. That's no longer enough for me, at least if we're talking about love versus like or mild appreciation. Which isn't to say I don't still play favourites, or am biased when characters I like more than others get episodes focused on them. I'm as human as the next fangirl. But one storytelling element I love about Heroes is that it manages to make me care and be interested in characters that I didn't initially connect with, or who weren't originally my focus of interest. Take Mohinder. In season 1, I found him pretty but boring, and no, not because of the monologues. This changed a bit in late season 1, but he still would have been among my choice of characters to kill off if someone from the original ensemble had to go. This utterly changed in season 2. I've said it before, I'll say it again: giving Mohinder what is essentially a John Le Carré storyline was inspired.
(Of course, wouldn't you know it, at the very point I got interested in Mohinder a lot of fans got turned against him because instead of blindly believing in an increasingly irrational Noah Bennet, he turned against him. Ah well.)
Similarly, I've always liked Matt - Greg has the knack of being likeable on screen no matter whom he plays, see also Eric Weiss in Alias - but while I appreciated his Everyman function in s2, some of his storylines (to wit: his marriage problems) were boring to me, and I definitely wouldn't have listed him as a favourite. In season 2, though? His storyline became the most compelling of this particular volume.
Which brings me to another reason why I love Heroes. The creators are unafraid to try out different things instead of just resting on their laurels. Now sometimes this tanks. (Err, Maya and Alejandro come to mind. Or Peter in Ireland.) But sometimes the results really pay off. The Matt-HRG-Ted trio in later s1 made for some amusing and great scenes, and you know, given that the Bennets move to Los Angeles, i.e. Matt's hometown, most people would have continued the Noah-Matt stick, since it had worked, and probably have given Mohinder's storyline to Matt. Instead, season 2 transferred Matt to New York and brought him together with the Petrellis - and whether it was his confrontations with Angela or his developing friendship with Nathan, those scenes were riveting. They came out of the show being unafraid to try out new combinations among its ensemble.
Speaking of new things: Molly was originally just a one-off character in early season 1. Bringing her back at the end of s1 was another way in which Heroes was flexible, and her relationships with Matt and Mohinder which became a core element of season 2 were both interesting in themselves and important for the overall narrative, not least because something Heroes does really, really well are family relationships. Romance so isn't the show's strong suit, let's face it. Aside from Hiro and Charlie in two season 1 episodes, there still hasn't been a textual (as opposed to subtextual) romance fandom really was happy with, and I can see why, though I think some attempts (like the Hiro/Yaeko/Kensei triangle) had at least potential and some good character stuff, while others... (but this is a love post, so let's not talk about those). Family relationships - and marriages, come to that - on the other hand? At these, they really excell.
The Petrellis, of course, are exhibit A in the fascinating dysfunctional mess category, but by far not the only one; though I will say that more than one Petrelli in the room, especially if one of them is Angela, basically guarantees you have a good scene coming. Still, if it were only the Petrellis, I would not love the show as much as I do. There are the Bennets with their brightly lit sitcom atmosphere, complete with dog, and the 50s-style marriage between Noah and Sandra being deceptively harmonious... unless you look at the mindwiping, Noah falling back into his lying routine as soon as it counts once that's cleared up, Sandra having to stop him from tying Claire up as a way of problem-solving, and Mr. Muggles ending up chewing the occasional bit of Claire's flesh, whether it's a finger or a toe. I might have problems with Claire's s2 storyline, but the black, black humour and this-side-of-Mad Men presentation of the Bennets is something I wouldn't miss from the show. Then we have the Sanders-Hawkins-Dawson clan, and while poor Niki is put through essentially the same storyline twice (and has a canonical abusive Dad backstory), this particular extended family manages to be close and loving without being dysfunctional. Micah might have been thrown by the whole Jessica thing in s1, less than thrilled with his father's cooking, not that enamored with his male cousin in s2, plus grieving for his father, but he never doubts either his mother or his father love him. No mind games or power plays there, and for all that Niki doesn't get along with her mother-in-law, she gets on very well with D.L.'s cousins, Nana Dawson and Monica both. Monica took over from Hiro as the character feeling joy and glee at the discovery of her powers to counterbalance the angst elsewhere, and the way that played out in tandem with her bonding with Micah was done very well. Moving to the dysfunctional side of family life again, we got the Bishops, aka my favourite new characters in s2. Bob as the new face of the Company, taking over from Thompson, was a great improvement in himself. (There was never a question about Thompson being evil and full of evil (tm) intentions. Bob might just be the Snape type of character, a complete bastard in some ways but actually working for the greater good. Or he could be completely evil. Either way, we don't know yet, and he never fails to be interesting.) In combination with Elle, he made for a effective counterpoint to Noah Bennet and Claire. Elle herself, with her mixture of pyschosis, past scars and dawning awareness combined with a sense of humour is one character whose development I look most forward to in the new season. And lastly, returning to my earlier paragraph: there is the House of M in combination with the Parkman and Mohinder Seniors backstory. One thing that distinguishes Heroes from many other shows is that so many regulars aren't just sons and daughters but also mothers and fathers. Your usual fantasy show makes its main characters young and gives them the advantage of the rebel position without confronting them, at least until later seasons, with the responsibility position. By contrast, Heroes from the start had characters who occupied both positions; Nathan and Niki in season 1 (and it's no coincidence they bond over being parents beyond their sexual attraction, or that appealing to being a parent is how Nathan manages to get through to Niki in s2), Matt and Mohinder in s2. They each have daddy (or mommy) issues, absolutely, and are still dealing with these, but they also are simultanously fathers and mothers themselves. When Matt is confronting Maury for the second time in s2, he's simultanously in the room with Molly, and he knows that the emotional blackmail he used to bring her into this position to begin with isn't that dissimilar to what his father did to him. After Nathan talks with his mother, he goes to visit his sons. (And if the deleted scene with him and Angela in the bar would have been left in, we also would have gotten two mirror scenes there, from Nathan talking to Claire on the phone to Nathan and Angela having their own parent-child mess at exactly the same place.) I appreciate this to no end.
Lastly? I love Heroes for the endlessly inventive way it uses superpowers which genre fans have seen in countless variations before. After the dozens and dozens of variotions of the Superman story, I was really surprised by them coming up for a different way for Nathan (and Peter) to fly. I already mentioned Claire and her penchant for finding new ways of self-mutilation. Say what you want, I loved the toe scene. The Hiro-woos-Charlie-with-origami scene will never stop being one of the most beautiful visuals of the show as well as a stunning demonstration of his powers, while Noah Bennet turning Elle's electricity against her demonstrated the painfulness and managed to say a lot about both Noah and Elle at the same time. The whole sequence with Maury (temporarily) trapping Nathan and Matt in their nightmares was breathtaking even to someone who's seen and read this trapped-in-nightmare scenarios really quite a lot before (from X-Men, both movies and comics, to DS9 to Farscape). And badly written though their storyline was, the visual of Maya walking through Alejandro's dead wedding guests was chilling.
In conclusion: bring on season 3!
So, Heroes. First of all: I love the ensemble-ness. I've talked with
kathyh about this more than once - something that changed in the last decade or two for me was that I used to be able not to mind if I liked only one or two characters on a tv show, or if only one or two were characterized well enough so I'd find them interesting. That's no longer enough for me, at least if we're talking about love versus like or mild appreciation. Which isn't to say I don't still play favourites, or am biased when characters I like more than others get episodes focused on them. I'm as human as the next fangirl. But one storytelling element I love about Heroes is that it manages to make me care and be interested in characters that I didn't initially connect with, or who weren't originally my focus of interest. Take Mohinder. In season 1, I found him pretty but boring, and no, not because of the monologues. This changed a bit in late season 1, but he still would have been among my choice of characters to kill off if someone from the original ensemble had to go. This utterly changed in season 2. I've said it before, I'll say it again: giving Mohinder what is essentially a John Le Carré storyline was inspired. (Of course, wouldn't you know it, at the very point I got interested in Mohinder a lot of fans got turned against him because instead of blindly believing in an increasingly irrational Noah Bennet, he turned against him. Ah well.)
Similarly, I've always liked Matt - Greg has the knack of being likeable on screen no matter whom he plays, see also Eric Weiss in Alias - but while I appreciated his Everyman function in s2, some of his storylines (to wit: his marriage problems) were boring to me, and I definitely wouldn't have listed him as a favourite. In season 2, though? His storyline became the most compelling of this particular volume.
Which brings me to another reason why I love Heroes. The creators are unafraid to try out different things instead of just resting on their laurels. Now sometimes this tanks. (Err, Maya and Alejandro come to mind. Or Peter in Ireland.) But sometimes the results really pay off. The Matt-HRG-Ted trio in later s1 made for some amusing and great scenes, and you know, given that the Bennets move to Los Angeles, i.e. Matt's hometown, most people would have continued the Noah-Matt stick, since it had worked, and probably have given Mohinder's storyline to Matt. Instead, season 2 transferred Matt to New York and brought him together with the Petrellis - and whether it was his confrontations with Angela or his developing friendship with Nathan, those scenes were riveting. They came out of the show being unafraid to try out new combinations among its ensemble.
Speaking of new things: Molly was originally just a one-off character in early season 1. Bringing her back at the end of s1 was another way in which Heroes was flexible, and her relationships with Matt and Mohinder which became a core element of season 2 were both interesting in themselves and important for the overall narrative, not least because something Heroes does really, really well are family relationships. Romance so isn't the show's strong suit, let's face it. Aside from Hiro and Charlie in two season 1 episodes, there still hasn't been a textual (as opposed to subtextual) romance fandom really was happy with, and I can see why, though I think some attempts (like the Hiro/Yaeko/Kensei triangle) had at least potential and some good character stuff, while others... (but this is a love post, so let's not talk about those). Family relationships - and marriages, come to that - on the other hand? At these, they really excell.
The Petrellis, of course, are exhibit A in the fascinating dysfunctional mess category, but by far not the only one; though I will say that more than one Petrelli in the room, especially if one of them is Angela, basically guarantees you have a good scene coming. Still, if it were only the Petrellis, I would not love the show as much as I do. There are the Bennets with their brightly lit sitcom atmosphere, complete with dog, and the 50s-style marriage between Noah and Sandra being deceptively harmonious... unless you look at the mindwiping, Noah falling back into his lying routine as soon as it counts once that's cleared up, Sandra having to stop him from tying Claire up as a way of problem-solving, and Mr. Muggles ending up chewing the occasional bit of Claire's flesh, whether it's a finger or a toe. I might have problems with Claire's s2 storyline, but the black, black humour and this-side-of-Mad Men presentation of the Bennets is something I wouldn't miss from the show. Then we have the Sanders-Hawkins-Dawson clan, and while poor Niki is put through essentially the same storyline twice (and has a canonical abusive Dad backstory), this particular extended family manages to be close and loving without being dysfunctional. Micah might have been thrown by the whole Jessica thing in s1, less than thrilled with his father's cooking, not that enamored with his male cousin in s2, plus grieving for his father, but he never doubts either his mother or his father love him. No mind games or power plays there, and for all that Niki doesn't get along with her mother-in-law, she gets on very well with D.L.'s cousins, Nana Dawson and Monica both. Monica took over from Hiro as the character feeling joy and glee at the discovery of her powers to counterbalance the angst elsewhere, and the way that played out in tandem with her bonding with Micah was done very well. Moving to the dysfunctional side of family life again, we got the Bishops, aka my favourite new characters in s2. Bob as the new face of the Company, taking over from Thompson, was a great improvement in himself. (There was never a question about Thompson being evil and full of evil (tm) intentions. Bob might just be the Snape type of character, a complete bastard in some ways but actually working for the greater good. Or he could be completely evil. Either way, we don't know yet, and he never fails to be interesting.) In combination with Elle, he made for a effective counterpoint to Noah Bennet and Claire. Elle herself, with her mixture of pyschosis, past scars and dawning awareness combined with a sense of humour is one character whose development I look most forward to in the new season. And lastly, returning to my earlier paragraph: there is the House of M in combination with the Parkman and Mohinder Seniors backstory. One thing that distinguishes Heroes from many other shows is that so many regulars aren't just sons and daughters but also mothers and fathers. Your usual fantasy show makes its main characters young and gives them the advantage of the rebel position without confronting them, at least until later seasons, with the responsibility position. By contrast, Heroes from the start had characters who occupied both positions; Nathan and Niki in season 1 (and it's no coincidence they bond over being parents beyond their sexual attraction, or that appealing to being a parent is how Nathan manages to get through to Niki in s2), Matt and Mohinder in s2. They each have daddy (or mommy) issues, absolutely, and are still dealing with these, but they also are simultanously fathers and mothers themselves. When Matt is confronting Maury for the second time in s2, he's simultanously in the room with Molly, and he knows that the emotional blackmail he used to bring her into this position to begin with isn't that dissimilar to what his father did to him. After Nathan talks with his mother, he goes to visit his sons. (And if the deleted scene with him and Angela in the bar would have been left in, we also would have gotten two mirror scenes there, from Nathan talking to Claire on the phone to Nathan and Angela having their own parent-child mess at exactly the same place.) I appreciate this to no end.
Lastly? I love Heroes for the endlessly inventive way it uses superpowers which genre fans have seen in countless variations before. After the dozens and dozens of variotions of the Superman story, I was really surprised by them coming up for a different way for Nathan (and Peter) to fly. I already mentioned Claire and her penchant for finding new ways of self-mutilation. Say what you want, I loved the toe scene. The Hiro-woos-Charlie-with-origami scene will never stop being one of the most beautiful visuals of the show as well as a stunning demonstration of his powers, while Noah Bennet turning Elle's electricity against her demonstrated the painfulness and managed to say a lot about both Noah and Elle at the same time. The whole sequence with Maury (temporarily) trapping Nathan and Matt in their nightmares was breathtaking even to someone who's seen and read this trapped-in-nightmare scenarios really quite a lot before (from X-Men, both movies and comics, to DS9 to Farscape). And badly written though their storyline was, the visual of Maya walking through Alejandro's dead wedding guests was chilling.
In conclusion: bring on season 3!
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 01:55 pm (UTC)On reading over this meta again, I just have to give an extra "Word" to loving the Heroes crew trying new things all the time. Now, as a Peter fan this was somewhat frustrating in early S2 (*g*), but I love the fact that they're not afraid of mixing it up, instead of playing it safe.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 01:26 pm (UTC)OH! Oh, that is so excellent. You don't miss anything, do you? I never noticed that. *beams* HEROES! \o/ *bounces*
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 01:40 pm (UTC)Also...
Date: 2008-09-21 01:51 pm (UTC)Re: Also...
Date: 2008-09-21 02:07 pm (UTC)And about the possibility of an Angela vignette: \o/! Looking forward to it. I, too, am unspoiled, and this post just made me even more excited for the premiere than I was before.
Re: Also...
Date: 2008-09-21 02:12 pm (UTC)I know. But then I find Bush unbelievable, over-the-top and too much a caricature to be true, and yet he insisted on existing in real life and making the world a worse place these last eight years...
Re: Sorkin-written RPF, the apologizing a lot to Abby had me in stitches as well.*g*
Re: Also...
Date: 2008-09-21 02:52 pm (UTC)The only bit I found a tad inaccurate is the part where Obama doesn't know anything about TV. From what I've seen, he's familiar with a *lot* of shows: even some of the more obscure ones...
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 03:11 pm (UTC)Can't say more, as I'm actually a little spoiled, but just for the first few episodes, and just for elements. It's an interesting feeling.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 04:13 pm (UTC)Which is a shame, because... well, I love Noah--or at least, I loved him in season one--but he was totally off the rails by that point, and from where Mohinder was standing, shooting him was totally the right thing to do, and even pretty damn badass.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 09:33 pm (UTC)(I think the weirdest argument of all I've read was that Mohinder was worse than Sylar (?!?) because he killed Noah in front of Claire whereas Sylar, that humanist, only killed because he neeeeeds those special powers and never in front of the children. (Guess Molly must have been orphaned by someone else then.) (And of course Noah sending Claire away with West before getting to the business of killing Bob and Elle - made all the difference.) That was when I gave up reading Mohinder or Noah-relevant threads at the Television Without Pity Board.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-22 06:50 pm (UTC)And thank you for reminding me what I love about this show besides being partial to a certain family. ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-22 07:16 pm (UTC)And hey, you're welcome. I love the Petrellis to bits, but they're really not my only reason for watching the show, and I love that Heroes gives me others...