Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Heroes - The Butterfly Effect

Heroes started up the new season with a big 2 hour event the other night ... and I can`t say that I was all that thrilled with all that happened. Sure there were a few good things (and I am really digging some of the new stuff and have a better appreciated for Suresh and his hot abs), but a whole bunch of the stuff happening left me more with a WTF kind of feeling.

First of all, the whole time travelling "Bad" Peter ... seriously? This seems a bit of a rehash of year one and the whole storyline of Hiro trying to save the world. I love the fact that we finally learned what Momma Petrelli's super power is (precognitive dreaming) which doesn't really explain all of her actions but it was a good step in the right direction. The whole attempted assassination of Nathan by Bad Peter was predictable. I expected them to use the excuse of Claire's blood in Nathan's system (from healing from those nasty burns last season) as the reason for his survival and to not have some ghostly apparition (or is it just in Nate's mind?) of Linderman suddenly appearing and chatting him up.

The whole Buttefly effect thing is that the events set in motion by Bad Peter have changed the future, and things are getting crazy because of the ripple effect by the attempted assassination of Nate. Instead of Nate revealing to the world that people with super powers exist (and making a crappy future for our Heroes) he has now been shot, died and come back to life with a new found faith. Death seems to be quite fickle in this show... and why is Nathan suddenly chatting about God? I am not quite catching how Future Bad Peter trapped Present Peter in another body (what?) to keep him safe... it's a strange plot device that I don't really understand.

Sylar is back but his presence seemed to be missing something. The big scene with Claire and absorbing her healing ability was pretty freaky (I was happy to see Mr.Muggles is still around this season) and the revelation that Claire is more than she seems and different than the other Heroes was intriguing. The Bennett's are having a rough time and things should be even more interesting now that Claire's biological mom and resident firestarter is there to help keep an eye on things.

Hiro and the Speedster is interesting (I loved the special effects) and the whole thing with the Formula seems kind of predictable.Hiro is great as the comic relief (sometimes) but I like him more as the unbridled enthusiasm about being a Hero and having a destiny.I am not sure if I like the future Ando playing nasty and having powers but it seems like a direction that the show is going in for this storyline.

Suresh "discovering" the enzyme that causes powers and his self experiment (after all those warnings from Maya) seems to be the catalyst for change in this season. Suresh thinks that every one's chemistry is different and that the abilities will manifest in different ways. By the end of the episode, our scientist was physically changing (in a freaky The Fly kind of way) and maybe some more tests were needed before trying it on a human. Mind you, having some lab rat or test bunny that can shoot fireballs might be just as dangerous and time will tell if he made the right decision. Hopefully he won't be mutating into some hideous creature, he was just starting to get even more interesting. The chemistry between him and Maya is pretty hot stuff....

The Villains part of the story is interesting, we didn't get to see much of the bad guys that were locked away but I was happy to see Elle survive this round (and zap the hell out of Sylar) and with Daddy out of the picture we'll have to see where this takes her. She was only listed as a guest star (crap) so it may mean that we have limited quantities of Kristen.... which is a shame as she was one of the few interesting things from last year's abbreviated season.

No sign of Michah or any of the rest of the gang down south... and this whole new thing with Niki (dead right?) and Tracy (triplets???) is just confusing. I was in shock that it was none other than the Greatest American Hero, William Katt, playing the reporter who got flash frozen and smashed into tiny bits by Tracy. The powers may not be the same as Jessica or Niki, but the look is completely the same and she seems to have the same affinity for Nathan.

There seemed to be a lot jammed in to the 2 hour opener but it left me more with a confused look on my face than anything else.

I hope the rest of the season develops better... there is still great potential with this show and I am not giving up hope yet.