It’s Latin For “Meh”: The Racialicious Review of Heroes 3.7
by Guest Contributor Arturo R. García, also posted at The Instant Callback
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
“Heroes is, at its heart, a family drama that deals with two main families in particular, the Bennet family and the Petrelli family.”
– Series creator Tim Kring, as quoted in Entertainment Weekly.
“Eris Quod Sum,” the series’ first episode since that unfortunate statement by Kring was published, inched things along for members of both families, but really, the episode just moved sideways. Is the show banking on another big finale to save its season? How are we to feel about the series’ other Heroes? More on that later.
This week’s best development was the prospect of a double-cross contest between the increasingly “good” Sylar/Gabriel and Mr. Petrelli. While breaking the de-powered Peter out of the Pinehearst facility at the urging of their mother, Gabe is detained by Arthur for a father-long-lost-son heart-to-heart, during which, we’re told, he revealed Mrs. Petrelli’s Deep Dark Secret.
When Peter later urges his new bro to “just kick his ass,” however, Sylar demurs, standing right by Papa P. and hurling Pete out of a seventh-story window. How does the mundane Peter stay alive? Looks like Sylar protected him, freeing his brother while he went undercover with Team Pinehearst. Hopefully this leads to a Lionel/Lex Luthor-like duel of wills between the newest Petrelli and the oldest. Hell, the show’s cribbed enough from the X-Men; why not throw some Smallville in? And can we get a side order of Buffy with that? What’s Principal Wood up to these days?
After landing, Peter is taken to safety by Claire and the returning Elle, fresh off a highly-implausible cross-country trip (last-minute plane tickets? Rental cars for people under 25? Could Elle at least have flashed her Primatech ID to explain this?!). While Elle’s excited by the prospect of getting her powers removed, Claire wisely turns to biological dad Nathan, yet unwisely does not turn to Mr. Bennet, who presumably would have more of an idea about how to deal with a superpowered cadre. Nathan, meanwhile, teases an actual working brain cell (he lies, promising Peter he’ll call the Justice Department on Pinehearst) before stomping off with Tracy in tow to “bust a few doors down.” Yeah, ’cause guys who can fly and do nothing else are soooo scary.
Elsewhere in Pinehearst’s tentacles, Daphne further ingratiates herself with hubby-maybe-to-be Parkman, who actually does reveal a working brain cell, by suggesting they go to Primatech for help; Suresh joins Mr. Petrelli’s cause in exchange for a cure for Maya, losing her in the process. But on the bright side, he got to give Sylar a righteous beatdown; and alleged covert op Hiro lands himself into a trance after tasting some of The Artist Who We Should Have Been Introduced To As Usutu’s family recipe for Spirit-Walk Sauce, and much like the episode, flops to the floor.
You’ll note the limited involvement of anybody who’s not a part of Kring’s aforementioned Big Broods. In earlier years, you could explain these things as being part of the season’s natural rotation of characters in and out of primary storylines. And in earlier years, standout moments did involve the Petrellis and the Bennets (Company Man and the first-season finale come to mind), but they felt like natural outgrowths from the bigger story. Kring’s statement suddenly makes one question how seriously the creators originally took breakout characters like Hiro and Mohinder, and Parkman, and now Daphne and Elle.
Hiro was the heart of the makeshift team in the first year, the character we could believe in the easiest before he was refocused into cutesy comedy relief, and Mohinder was the audience surrogate, learning about the complex web of possibilities metahumanity presented, who is now, literally, slinging webs. Are we supposed to invest our emotions in characters, in people, who are just there to prop up the series’ squabbling families? Are we to wait for the next few weeks for this volume’s finale to rekindle the series’ spark? Does the steep decline in viewership – a mind-boggling 50 percent in just two seasons – afford Kring and company the luxury of waiting for everyone to “catch up”? Earlier this year we asked, Is the worst over?
What started with the promise of a generation’s learning to take its’ next step genetically and philosophically has degenerated into just another set of family squabbles. Heroes brought us in by showing us the best we could be. Now it wants us to stay by showing us the worst parts of ourselves in the mightiest among us. The signs are not good.
The Racialicious Scorecard:
Suresh: A strong episode for the character, as he sides with Pinehearst and, despite losing Maya, retains some humanity: both his anxiousness in questioning Peter about his future and his fury in beating Sylar down (referencing Chandra’s murder) shone through well. Of course, this is the second year in a row he’s blindly joined a Company, but you can’t ask everything of a guy.
Usutu: Ramblings about choosing fate, “Dark Sun” risings, family potions dating back “thousands of years,” and no name to speak of … man, Jesse Alexander was playing Mystical Minority Bingo when he wrote this one, wasn’t he? And does going from “Africa” to “Somewhere In Africa” on the locator cards count as movin’ on up in this universe?
Hiro & Ando: Usutu’s newest trainees went on the back-burner this week amid bickering over whether Hiro should go back in time and figure out how to beat the Villains (as opposed to, say, using the resources of a corporation which Hiro now controls). But Hiro’s latest foray into temporal tempests should place him in the thick of the action in the next episode.
Knox: His “tracker profile” (seen at right) lists his power control index as 75 percent mental, and it’s been mentioned during our weekly roundtable discussions that he has a college degree. Yet once again, he’s suckered. This time, Parkman fools him via Mind Mojo into thinking he and Daphne are killed by the power of his incredible flaring nostrils. Makes you wonder, if somebody gets really scared around him, is Knox going to yell, KAMEKAMEHA! before taking that person out?
MIA: The Haitian
In Two Weeks: Hiro goes back to the creative well, errr, back in time, as it’s time to play the Secret Origins game!
Previously:
Racialicious Heroes Archive
Images courtesy of HeroesWiki
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
jen* wrote:
I am actually kinda pissed about the Tim Kring quote. That isn’t what I thought the show was at all. I feel totally misled.
Oh well. I’m probably still gonna watch until it just gets unbearable.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:06 am ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
Ahhh, Tim Kring, thank you for the quote! Thank you for confirming my worst fears! That this show would become….*wait for it*….A SOAP OPERA with superpowers. *shaking my head*
All in all, I think this season is an effort to satisfy fandoms that LOVE Claire and LOVE Peter and by extension the Bennetts and the Petrellis. And everyone else falls to the wayside by a *shrug* of Kring’s pen.
Can I wait two more weeks? Will I ‘want’ to watch the show in two weeks? I don’t know….
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:18 am ¶
Anna wrote:
I have tried so hard to pay attention to what’s going on this season. . . and it’s proving impossible. Thanks for continuing to recap the show – I don’t even know how I would have gone about describing it myself.
As a lifelong fan of science fiction, I’m accustomed to a little inconsistency in plot and character development – it’s sometimes the price you pay in exchange for inventive plots – but this is getting ridiculous.
Back in season 1, when they would recap “last week on Heroes” – they would describe the characters for you as: “The Office Worker who can Stop Time” and “The Cop who can Read Thoughts.” The characters had normal lives, ambitions, problems, and just happened to have superpowers on the side. Now these characters are primarily driven by their super-ness, not their humanity. Peter used to be a NURSE! Why isn’t he telling Claire how to properly clean and dress his wounds? You’re right – Hiro owns a company now – where’s the smart/funny/character-revealing scene where he has to run a board meeting for the first time?
In the first season, a lot of time was spent on the mundane worries that regular people have (Parkman’s wife’s infidelity, Mohinder’s daddy issues, Claire’s struggle to fit in) – the superpowers accelerated all those plotlines, but didn’t drive the story in the way that they do now (Peter needs his powers back! Sylar has the hunger! Mohinder is a monster!)
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:28 am ¶
Arturo wrote:
Sorry for not mentioning this in the recap, but, “Eris Quod Sum” translates to “You Will Be What I Am,” fyi. Thanks for reading …
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:41 am ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
The characters had normal lives, ambitions, problems, and just happened to have superpowers on the side. Now these characters are primarily driven by their super-ness, not their humanity.
@ Anna, I wholeheartedly agree and that’s what’s lacking with this show. Where’s “the real”??? Even Superman had to “deal” with life on the regular. Even Bruce Wayne. It wasn’t always the pursuit of superhero-dom or villainy.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:44 am ¶
Mary wrote:
What’s funny about the Tim Kring quote is that the quality of the writing isn’t THAT much better for the central white families. There’s just more of it. We were repeatedly told what a saintly, sensitive boy Peter was, and yet he ditched his nursing job as soon as his cool powers came along. Angela Petrelli is played by an AWESOME actress, but her uber-mysterious schtick is getting old. And I know I’m going to be shot for saying this, but I find the HRG-centric episodes to be completely overrated, and I get extremely annoyed that I’m supposed to give him a free pass on being an asshole (destroying his wife’s brain with memory wipes, spending 17 years kidnapping and torturing people before magically having the epiphany that he wouldn’t want it happening to his own daughter) just because the actor is popular with the fans.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 11:53 am ¶
Lisa wrote:
I’m this close to breaking up with Heroes and running off with Mad Men. But, Ando’s still alive, so I’ll stick around. For now.
Liked Ando’s chemistry with Daphne a few eps ago, her and Matt is just creepy, but is Ando still with Hiro’s sister as per the web comics? I wish her storyline, and Kaito’s backstory, would get addressed. I love Mama Petrelli and am enjoying the Syler retcon more than I had expected when reading the spoilers, but still that clan has so hijacked the show.
I feel like Hiro’s character is written really inconsistantly, like they’re stuck in season one with “the fans love cute clueless Hiro!” His character progresses, then regresses, and his accent with it. Even Claire gets more character maturation.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 12:07 pm ¶
joie wrote:
This is a bit off-topic, but why is Maya speaking almost-perfect English while Hiro and Ando continue to make baby steps (if that) with their language skills?
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 12:34 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
@Mary — I don’t think we’ll be the ones shooting you. I won’t, at least, I think Bennet is a major asshat. The actor is good, but damn that character is a jerk.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 2:01 pm ¶
Iggles wrote:
@ Lisa -
I hear you.
I’m officially done with Heroes. I hated last season. I tried to get into this season. But the Tim Kring quote just ruined the show for me.
That’s NOT what Heroes was about. It was setup as a show about ordinary people who discover their super abilities. It has BECOME a show about the Petrellis and the Bennets. I can’t watch as show about those two boring families.
As sick as I am of the Bennets (sorry Noah, you should have stayed dead in Season 2), the Petrellis bear the brunt of my hatred. (I think Peter, Sylar, and Nathan should have all died in the season 1 finale.)
Tim Kring’s quote serves as an excuse for the destruction of the Sanders family (Nikki, DL, and Micah), the disregard of Matt, Mohinder, and Hiro (3 major characters who have been dumbed down or exists only as plot devices).
The Petrellis aren’t interesting. What was, is the mix of a diverse cast (racially, nationalities, ages, class, etc) who portray interesting characters struggle to redefine who they are and find purpose in life.
*sigh*
Another sci-fi show with an excellent premise bites the dust due to storyline mismanagement….
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 2:47 pm ¶
J wrote:
I read the Kring quote and gave up hope. I did not stay optimistic throughout Season 2 and throughout the nine months hiatus to be told that the series isn’t actually about the characters I like anymore.
The show used to be about “ordinary people across the globe” with mysterious abilities. Now it’s about the Petrellis and the Bennets, who are special, very special.
At the start of Season 1, the main cast consisted of 11 people: 5 white, 6 coloured.
Now it consists of 12 people: 8 white, 4 coloured. As if that’s not telling enough, there are now more Petrellis than non-white characters. Argh!
And like Mary said, the Petrellis aren’t even written better, or are automatically better characters with more potential.
It fills me with bitter satisfaction that the focus on the Petrellis and Bennets is evidently NOT helping Heroes as far as ratings are concerned.
I wonder how much has been pressure from above, but it’s not like this matters, in the end. The show isn’t fun anymore, and most importantly, it’s not Heroes anymore.
Concerning Bennet, what annoys me is how they are catering to the fandom, who think he is badass. In the first season, Bennet was revealed to be just a small if efficient member in a huge organization. He didn’t even know who he was actually working for, he didn’t even know about the Company’s history or more sinister plan. In Season 2, this was dropped. Now Bennet knows everything, has files on everything and everybody, he even knew about the virus researc, which I assume would have been top secret). He’s the best agent the Company’s ever had. All the Level 5 villains have been captured by him! He’s in the position to set the terms when working for the Company again to recapture them, because he is just that awesome and indispensable.
So. Dumb. But it’s important that they’re all special, special, special, isn’t it?
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 3:24 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
Cosign, Erica & Mary – I can’t stand HRG.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 3:33 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
I continue to love watching heroes. My only beef is that on season one we were giving glimpses of a tougher Hiro..when is he going to begin to evolve into that character and reduce the bufoonary? The wide eyed wonder boy routine is getting old fast.
I was allso really pleased that Maya did not forgive Mohinder for what he did to her. Sometimes the way this show portrays women is so problematic that I fully expected her to give him a pass on his evil deeds.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 3:38 pm ¶
Eric wrote:
This episode was the first time the soap opera quality of the show really started to grate. It was more apparent than ever that this was drama between the two families was coming to the fore, and I didn’t like it. I hadn’t seen that quote before, and now it has me bummed that what I saw bodes ill for the future.
Posted 29 Oct 2008 at 7:43 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
It kills me to say so but I’m hating Hiro at this point…he is all tics and floppy hair. He is like Ross in season two of Friends: everything that was charming about him at first has become grating.
I thought they missed a bet with him last season by NOT having him “become” his hero when he went back in time. It could have been a turning point for his character but it seems they want him to be a sexless bumbler forever. I don’t know why more people weren’t pissed off that it ended up being an English white guy instead (!) Come on.
It seems to me that they are focusing on white characters this season less out of some racial tone-deafness than fear that they are losing their audience, thus the “two families” comment. It just seems like a panic move to narrow the focus and play up the recognizable characters, but it isn’t a creative solution to the corner they have painted themselves into. The Sanders clan would be a great counterpoint to the other two families. Where the hell are they?
Meanwhile I caught the second (third?) episode of Fringe completely by accident and decided it was much better and more subversive than I originally thought….
Posted 30 Oct 2008 at 12:06 am ¶
ieishah wrote:
co-sign madame zenobia’s first comment. this is totally a case of art imitating life and trying to catch some of the glow from a cover-of-people mag relationship. are hayden p. and milo v. still dating? did you see claire rubbing a shirtlesss-peter down after his 7 story fall? so inappropriate. seriously . . . do y’all rub your uncles down like that?
Posted 30 Oct 2008 at 5:32 am ¶
Mary wrote:
@Mary — I don’t think we’ll be the ones shooting you. I won’t, at least, I think Bennet is a major asshat. The actor is good, but damn that character is a jerk.
Hooray! My people!
What actually offends me isn’t that the character is a jerk, it’s the way the show implicitly seems to excuse his actions. For example:
Wiping your wife’s memory so the Company doesn’t kill her, and causing near-fatal brain damage in the process = Awesome from a dramatic and moral storytelling perspective.
Having the wife in question be completely okay and hunky-dory with her husband’s total violation of her trust and body = skeevy beyond belief.
But hey, Bennet’s a badass, so it’s OK!
Posted 30 Oct 2008 at 7:03 am ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
@ ieishah,
I have never laid hands on my uncles in that fashion. Great point. LOL. Gross all around, I’d say. God forbid it had been Nathan injured…*cringes* at the imagery of that particular scene.
I spoke to a friend of mine last night; the same friend who actually introduced me to this show in the first place. There’s such a great sense of “uggghh” when it comes to this season; even from a die-hard fan like him. It’s like frustratingly-entertaining almost and not in the good kind of way. It’s like he’s fed up with the show, nothing sits well with him, but he has to watch it regardless…therein lies the frustration of it all. Heroes is crack to some folks (myself included) but God knows how I grow weary of it…yet I keep hanging on.
*sigh*
Posted 30 Oct 2008 at 10:13 am ¶
Mr. Noface wrote:
I was afraid that the show would become more focused on Peter and Family at the expense of the ensemble feel that the show had in its first season. All the signs were there if you paid attention. The killing off or mysterious disappearances of minority cast members (D.L? Where are Micah and his cousin? What happened to the Haitian), the comic book deaths (i.e. non-permanent) of the more popular characters (How many times has Peter died now?), and the lack of introduction of new characters (in the first season, even if they didn’t last long, a new hero would be introduced every episode).
In the beginning Heroes was more story driven rather than character driven, and you got the feeling that no character was more important then the others (so the sense of urgency and danger was more real, because if so and so dies…he/she is not coming back). The show has lost that feel, so when Hiro stabbed Ando, I knew he wasn’t going to be dead for long.
Since I was never really a fan of Peter’s naïveté and his incessant “I’m the only one that can save the world” complex, I’m not looking forward to a show that is centered on him or the rest of the Petrelli family. Sadly, I don’t think I am going to waste anymore of my time with this show. I had such high hopes for its success too.
Posted 30 Oct 2008 at 2:18 pm ¶
Lauren wrote:
The whole thing with Daphne and Parkman was a setup to get him to trust her. So it’s entirely probable that Knox was in on it. (And even if not- Parkman can CONTROL MINDS. I really don’t think it reflects poorly on Knox’s intellect.)
Posted 31 Oct 2008 at 9:43 am ¶
Alston wrote:
Heroes parody: “Negroes”. Has this been done?
Posted 02 Nov 2008 at 12:31 pm ¶
diza wrote:
When Maya walked out they got rid of yet another person (and specifically woman) of colour on the show. Why are all the ladies petite blonde and “pretty” and all the men tall dark and “handsome”. give us some variation, please, I expect more.
Posted 02 Nov 2008 at 2:58 pm ¶