jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2008-10-07 11:01 am
jedi_of_urth) wrote2008-10-07 11:01 am
Heroes ranting
Apparently I felt the need to do some serious ranting regarding Heroes, funny thing is, I was enjoying it last night while I was watching it, but...well
Heroes 3x04
This is a weird episode. While I was watching it I was enjoying it, a few things I was put off by but mostly I liked it. But the more I think about it the less I’m liking it. The things that are really getting to me seem to be bigger issues than just with the episode itself, more like it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and since they’re bugging me most I’ll talk about them first.
The Women:
Because this episode/show wasn’t written by Steven Moffat I didn’t exactly notice the sexism right away; I only do with Moffat because I know his comments outside his writing that are extremely sexist and whether or not their (very unfunny) jokes I do think the man is incredibly sexist. But this post isn’t about my Moffat issues, it’s about Heroes (I should probably borrow the "This post only mentions DW a bit" concept).
Tracy, like Nikki, like Maya, hell like Claire I’m starting to think, is not good at controlling her power. While I approve of the fact that however accidentally causing a man’s death upsets her because you’d damn well think it would, at the same time they give the character no real drive. As a side note, I wish Tracy looked and acted more different from Nikki, maybe Ali Larther doesn’t want to change her looks substantially or maybe TPTB mainly see her as a sex object. I mean wouldn’t it have been good if Tracy had been a put together business woman who *wasn’t* sleeping with her boss (by which I mean Governor Sheridan before Nathan came along).
You know, Maya doesn’t really annoy me any more, at least not as a character until I realize that it’s probably because she’s really not anything but arm candy for Mohinder these days. Come in, be pretty, he exposits, storm out. Nothing that tells me who Maya is these days.
Claire can apparently either be helpless or a total hard ass. Granted there may be more reasons to have turned her that way than learning to take care of herself, but the show is really starting to look like it has women fall into those two categories, women are either controlling/evil/bitches (Jessica, Candice, Angela) or can’t help themselves (Maya, Simone).
With one ounce of show defense, it does seem to often come on the side of power corrupts. Even Peter got a dose of that this week (and believe me Peter this week is a discussion in and of itself). Maybe they watch too much Batman, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Which I have no idea if it’s from anywhere other than the new movie, but maybe if it’s an over arching theme I could deal with it, but I’m not sure it’s complete enough for that.
And on a shallow note, (and this kind of ties into the Tracy too much like Nikki point) why are all the women blond? Sure it’s Hollywood where there are a disproportionately high level of “blonds” to women with other colored hair, but it’s starting to bug me.
Ordinary people
I miss season one when there were non-super-powered people who mattered. This may have a huge amount to do with why Noah is still the character I find most awesome, because all he has is a bad ass and morally grey attitude, a gun, and an all encompassing devotion to his family (primarily Claire and Sandra, we see very little of his relationship with Lyle). And why I hate the idea of giving Ando super powers, because Ando is a total hero without them, he doesn’t *need* super powers to make him special.
I miss Zach, I miss Nathan’s wife, hell I miss Caitlin from last season (who by the way I really hope they find one day because unlike most people I did not hate Caitlin even if on the whole the Peter-in-Ireland plot was dull (West on the other hand HATE) ).
Time travel
Look, I love tome travel stories, my Doctor Who obsession is only one facet of that. In fact Doctor Who may be my least favorite kind of time travel, tome travel tourism and we know how much I love Doctor Who. When it comes to time travel, what I really love what Heroes theoretically does with interplay of cause and effect across time lines but…to do the butterfly effect convincingly then actions in the past have to make a difference, for better or worse.
Does this future-Sylar have Claire’s ability? I gather from the premier that in Peter’s original timeline he didn’t, but in the existing timeline now he does, but we have no idea which future this is.
Is this the future where Nathan made the speech or does its history involve the shooting? Well according the Future Peter it didn’t make much difference. Never mind the fact that had he made the speech and not been shot, the Governor would probably have been interested in him for quite different reasons than becoming a senator, meaning he wouldn’t have met Tracy the way he did, would have emerged into the public eye as being able to fly rather than as an assassination attempt victim turned prophet, and probably wouldn’t have Linderman talking in his head. These things make a difference.
I had the same reaction to 5YG, because apparently Future Hiro’s manipulations of the past had had no effect on the world. It made no sense really and still doesn’t. The show clearly *wants* to go the butterfly effect route but has never managed to do it convincingly.
And I’m starting to think I’ve ranted enough for one post, not that there still aren’t topics to cover (WTF Peter?!) but I need a break. Also should probably have a Heroes icon one of these days.
Heroes 3x04
This is a weird episode. While I was watching it I was enjoying it, a few things I was put off by but mostly I liked it. But the more I think about it the less I’m liking it. The things that are really getting to me seem to be bigger issues than just with the episode itself, more like it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and since they’re bugging me most I’ll talk about them first.
The Women:
Because this episode/show wasn’t written by Steven Moffat I didn’t exactly notice the sexism right away; I only do with Moffat because I know his comments outside his writing that are extremely sexist and whether or not their (very unfunny) jokes I do think the man is incredibly sexist. But this post isn’t about my Moffat issues, it’s about Heroes (I should probably borrow the "This post only mentions DW a bit" concept).
Tracy, like Nikki, like Maya, hell like Claire I’m starting to think, is not good at controlling her power. While I approve of the fact that however accidentally causing a man’s death upsets her because you’d damn well think it would, at the same time they give the character no real drive. As a side note, I wish Tracy looked and acted more different from Nikki, maybe Ali Larther doesn’t want to change her looks substantially or maybe TPTB mainly see her as a sex object. I mean wouldn’t it have been good if Tracy had been a put together business woman who *wasn’t* sleeping with her boss (by which I mean Governor Sheridan before Nathan came along).
You know, Maya doesn’t really annoy me any more, at least not as a character until I realize that it’s probably because she’s really not anything but arm candy for Mohinder these days. Come in, be pretty, he exposits, storm out. Nothing that tells me who Maya is these days.
Claire can apparently either be helpless or a total hard ass. Granted there may be more reasons to have turned her that way than learning to take care of herself, but the show is really starting to look like it has women fall into those two categories, women are either controlling/evil/bitches (Jessica, Candice, Angela) or can’t help themselves (Maya, Simone).
With one ounce of show defense, it does seem to often come on the side of power corrupts. Even Peter got a dose of that this week (and believe me Peter this week is a discussion in and of itself). Maybe they watch too much Batman, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Which I have no idea if it’s from anywhere other than the new movie, but maybe if it’s an over arching theme I could deal with it, but I’m not sure it’s complete enough for that.
And on a shallow note, (and this kind of ties into the Tracy too much like Nikki point) why are all the women blond? Sure it’s Hollywood where there are a disproportionately high level of “blonds” to women with other colored hair, but it’s starting to bug me.
Ordinary people
I miss season one when there were non-super-powered people who mattered. This may have a huge amount to do with why Noah is still the character I find most awesome, because all he has is a bad ass and morally grey attitude, a gun, and an all encompassing devotion to his family (primarily Claire and Sandra, we see very little of his relationship with Lyle). And why I hate the idea of giving Ando super powers, because Ando is a total hero without them, he doesn’t *need* super powers to make him special.
I miss Zach, I miss Nathan’s wife, hell I miss Caitlin from last season (who by the way I really hope they find one day because unlike most people I did not hate Caitlin even if on the whole the Peter-in-Ireland plot was dull (West on the other hand HATE) ).
Time travel
Look, I love tome travel stories, my Doctor Who obsession is only one facet of that. In fact Doctor Who may be my least favorite kind of time travel, tome travel tourism and we know how much I love Doctor Who. When it comes to time travel, what I really love what Heroes theoretically does with interplay of cause and effect across time lines but…to do the butterfly effect convincingly then actions in the past have to make a difference, for better or worse.
Does this future-Sylar have Claire’s ability? I gather from the premier that in Peter’s original timeline he didn’t, but in the existing timeline now he does, but we have no idea which future this is.
Is this the future where Nathan made the speech or does its history involve the shooting? Well according the Future Peter it didn’t make much difference. Never mind the fact that had he made the speech and not been shot, the Governor would probably have been interested in him for quite different reasons than becoming a senator, meaning he wouldn’t have met Tracy the way he did, would have emerged into the public eye as being able to fly rather than as an assassination attempt victim turned prophet, and probably wouldn’t have Linderman talking in his head. These things make a difference.
I had the same reaction to 5YG, because apparently Future Hiro’s manipulations of the past had had no effect on the world. It made no sense really and still doesn’t. The show clearly *wants* to go the butterfly effect route but has never managed to do it convincingly.
And I’m starting to think I’ve ranted enough for one post, not that there still aren’t topics to cover (WTF Peter?!) but I need a break. Also should probably have a Heroes icon one of these days.