HEROES: Out of Time

Okay, this muddled collection of opinions is coming a week late, and since the next episode airs tonight, I'll keep things relatively short (for me, that is).

Good episode.

Cheerleader Claire's flying stalker boyfriend finally figured out that her dad is the evil abductor. Finally. You'd think a creepy guy with an affinity for voyeurism would've picked up on this earlier.

Hiro finally returns to the present and learns from Ando that Mr. Sulu is dead. To no viewer's surprise, Kensei is the uber-bad guy who did him in. I'm disappointed the feudal Japan sequence turned out so turgid, since I'm a fan of movies such as Ten to Chi to by Haruki Kadokawa. The trouble, I believe, comes from a plot wholly contingent on maintaining the status quo. That's a very passive motivation. If, instead of Hiro trying to make boorish Kensei into the hero of legend, he'd discovered, say, a malicious, already-immortal Kensei pulling strings to use legend to his advantage--a long-term Vandal Savage approach--that could've set into motion Hiro sending messages to Ando in the future to work toward thwarting Kensei's plots in contemporary times as well. That, at least, would give Ando something more dramatic to do than sit around reading tiny scrolls.

Parkman faced down dear old daddy and woke up Molly. It's great to see Parkman finally being something other than a passive wuss, but come on! Daddy is Brainiac of this Heroes universe. He's got years of practice. So what if Parkman has the same potential? He doesn't have the experience or control. What he should've had was a Pyrrhic victory or a Bunker Hill defeat. Think Luke Skywalker getting his head handed to him by Vader in The Empire Strikes Back--yes, he surprised Vader with his ability and even got a couple of good licks in, but at the end of the day he was still over-matched. Parkman turning the tables on his father with that cringe-inducing "This is YOUR nightmare" speech simply oozed cliche out of every pore.

The Nikki/Jessica character is still worthless.

Mohinder is quickly becoming the Lee "Apollo" Adama of Heroes. He's supposed to be the morally pure, ethical soul on the show. The one "unencumbered" by super powers. Fine. That doesn't mean he has to be spineless, disloyal and wishy-washy. The whole "Oh no, Bennett isn't a very nice person, so I'll spill my guts about the conspiracy to Mr. Midas who tries to make me do evil things. Oh, and let me have a gun, too." Very, very, very ham-fisted writing. If you want to give Mohinder a legit reason to switch sides, show Mr. Midas and the agency as a good and noble cause, rather than a shady, shifty and ominous quasi-government conspiracy. Sheesh.

By now, everyone and their dog has read about Tim Kring's apology to Heroes fans. It's a start, but I don't think Kring entirely gets it, even now. He complains about romance not working on the show. But the ones that haven't works are the ones cut from whole cloth as plot devices. Romance can work, but it has to evolve amongst characters naturally, in the course of writing the season. Which would be a lot easier to have happen if Kring & Co. didn't stubbornly stick to the formula of keeping everyone with any ability widely separate from other powered individuals.

Kring also says he thought fans wanted a repeat of the drawn-out season one plot buildup. The slow pacing of season one was my biggest complaint about the series. Too much filler, not enough substance. Granted, I'm not anyone Kring need take notice of, but I wasn't the only one making such observations. And Kring still seems to think plague-ravaged New York is an entirely different macguffin than nuclear-ravaged New York. Dude, open your eyes.

I think a lot of the show's problems would be solved if Kring just gets off his high horse and finally admits that yes, this is a comic book show. Embrace the pulp action heritage that entails. Build the show around episode-ending cliffhangers. And for crying out loud, develop some unaligned bad guys that aren't part of any conspiracy, but only in it for themselves. Have some fun. Here's a thought: Have a funny episode. Even the X-Files did that to break the tension every so often. Introduce someone with lame powers--abilities so embarrassing that Sylar refuses to "harvest" them so as not to debase himself. Anything would liven up the turgid slog season two has become.

But "Out of Time" was a good episode, and the most plot-advancing of any recent installments. Hopefully, this is a sign of the direction the series will be heading from here on out.

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