Ok, now to the important stuff. First off, I'd like to start with a disclaimer: I'm genetically predisposed to liking Heroes. Growing up I loved X-Men and Spider Man (I dressed up as Wolverine one Halloween), and like any normal person, I wish I too would develop some power to help me escape the mundanity (is that a word? Well it is now) of everyday life. As such, I tend to be more forgiving when Heroes gets a little stinky than other people will (reference Season 1 finale, although even I find it hard to defend those final scenes). Fortunately for me, though, Monday night's episode was AWE-some with a capital A-W-E.
Personally, I love it when shows jump into the future so you have to guess what happened to your favorite characters in the interim (e.g., the two year jump on Alias, although that storyline wound up being very poorly executed). I think it makes watching TV just that much more fun and can provide hours of endless discussion when you've run out of important things to talk about with your friends. So to recap all of the changes: The Bennetts are now the Butlers and live in California instead of Texas. Claire is no longer a cheerleader and her dad works for a copy place instead of a paper company. Claire makes friends with some kid who keeps asking if she's an alien or a robot, which he really has no right to do since he's neither (He can fly though). Nathan grew a beard and got drunk and certainly does not seem to have anything to do with Congress. Mohinder and Parkman are roommates trying to take of little girl Molly (the one who can instantly tell you where a person is) and bring down the mysterious company, which we found out was started by the original generation of Heroes, including Nathan and Peter's mom and Hiro's dad. Speaking of Hiro's dad, he gets pushed off the Devereaux building by a mysterious person from his past who also seems to be targeting Mrs. Petrelli as well (They both got ripped pictures of themselves with the little Heroes symbol scrawled over their faces). As for Hiro himself, he's back in 17th century Japan discovering that his hero Takezo Kensei is neither Japanese nor a hero and really just a big jerk and that in order to put history right he's going to have to do the heroic stuff himself. We're also introduced to new characters Maya and Alejandro (I think that's his name), who are on the run and trying to figure out how to control Maya's power (apparently is something to do with killing people and making thwm bleed out of their eyes......creepy). Ok, I think that's everything, right? What I'm missing something? Oh, yeah, Peter's ALIVE in Ireland with no memory of who he is and shooting electricity out of his hands, which, last time I checked was NOT one of his many powers. Also, he's got a cool looking necklace with the Heroes symbol on it.
Whooo, ok, time for a breather. Ready? Now some random thoughts:
- It's good that Claire's made a new "friend" (I say "friend" because it's completely obvious that they're going to be more than friends very soon), but I'm a little disappointed that his power is flying. We've already seen Nathan fly, and unless this is another one of his illegitimate children (which would make the scenario I just described instantly gross), I think they could have come up with another power.
- The scene where Claire calls Nathan: so sad. If I were Nathan, I'd be happy that my illegitimate daughter whom I tried to send to Europe so my real family wouldn't find out about her still wanted to talk to me, because it seems none of my other family members want to.
- So Molly's having creepy dreams about the Big Bad (I love calling unknown villains Big Bads. It's like talking about monsters from under the bed from childhood). I wonder when we're actually going to get to see this guy.
- People we didn't see this week: Niki, Micah, and DL (although I'm pretty sure DL is dead), Sylar, and......well I'm sure there's someone else, but there are so many characters on this show that I probably won't remember who it is until I see them next week.
So, I think I'll leave on that note. I'm really excited to see where the show goes this season, especially since Kristen Bell will be joining the cast in three weeks time (I'll have more on why that's so important to me when the time comes). I'll be back later in the week with more on the Grey's Anatomy premiere and a quick rundown of which new shows are worth watching.
