In Sylar They Trust: The Racialicious Roundtable vs. Heroes & the Fall TV Season
Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Heroes begins its’ fourth season Monday night in the throes of identity crises on- and off-screen: the show’s name doesn’t really fit anymore – almost none of the titular core cast wants to be “special” anymore, let alone superheroic – and its’ most important plotline centers around Sylar, a brain-scrambled villain.
Previously, of course, the Big Bad was brainwashed into assuming the identity of Nathan, and subsequently assuming control of a federally-funded successor to Primatech, headed by Noah. In a rare bit of storytelling elegance, this set-up isn’t too far removed from the future Hiro encountered in Season One’s classic “Five Years Gone” episode. The upshot of this figures to be more time watching Adrian Pasdar and Zachary Quinto play opposite/with each other as SyNate.
Otherwise, there’s not much heroism going on: Matt Sr. is not just dealing with the psychic residue of Sylar, but guilt over his role in covering up Nathan’s death. Peter, Claire, Noah and Angela, we’ve been told throughout the summer, are “trying to get back to normal life” – but nobody’s asking for them to be those people again; only for them to have grown beyond that point, and aside from Noah and Angela, we haven’t gotten that consistent character development.
The poster child for the series’ stagnant development, Hiro, might fare better, albeit because his character will be forced to deal with his power threatening his health. Hiro, along with Ando, will reportedly be trying “to help people” back in Japan as the season opens. What, Noah and “Nate” couldn’t spring for Mohinder to run a few tests? (Also, anybody else concerned at the lack of Mo in the preview clips so far? That can’t be a good sign.)
The fly in everybody’s ointment this year figures to come from the Mysterious Carnival – we know they’re Mysterious because they dress in dark colors and their leader, Samuel (Robert Knepper) seems to speak like an old-time … well, carny. They also figure to be at the center of the season’s payoff, as a preview clip shown at San Diego Comic-Con showed them shooting and burying SyNate … and Sylar emerging from the ground.
Whether Heroes itself can pull off that kind of resurrection is, honestly, doubtful. In fact, you could argue that the show’s original premise – regular people doing good for others – has been kept alive most faithfully not on tv, but in the Rebellion online comic, where Micah has expanded his REBEL identity into the Rebellion, a group out to protect metahumans. If the series’ current incarnation can’t pull out of its’ rating doldrums, the Rebellion might provide Tim Kring & NBC a ray of hope: move the whole franchise to SyFy, make the kids the focal point and start all over. Wouldn’t Heroes Reborn fit in nicely alongside Stargate Universe? Just sayin’ …
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As the rest of the Algonquin Snark Table prepares to dig into Heroes, here’s capsule looks at the other shows they’ll be keeping an eye on this season:
Diana
I love watching Sons of Anarchy on FX. It’s like The Sopranos, but instead of mobsters it features SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original), a motorcycle “club” which engages in all manner of nefarious activities to earn cash. It’s a guilty pleasure because the show is so un-PC. The club members use racial slurs and profanity as a matter of course, gang rivalries break down along racial lines (the Nords who are skinheads, the One-Niners who are black, and the Mayans who are Hispanic), police are corrupt, full-on debauchery is a routine past-time, and violence, including murder, is a given. Hard to believe the show is supposedly loosely based on Hamlet. Something’s definitely rotten in Charming, California where the show takes place. The offensiveness is just so over the top that it’s fun. The characters say really bad things like, “Bad things happen to greedy whores.” They do really bad things like when Katey Sagal, who plays Gemma, the matriarch of the clan, hits a young thing in the face with a skateboard for sleeping with Clay, her husband and SAMCRO president, played smoothly by Ron Perlman.
Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is Gemma’s son, Clay’s stepson, and the “Hamlet” of the story. Last season, as SAMCRO was heavily involved in running guns, Jax was seen reading the journals of his late father, who originally founded the club, and questioning the direction Clay was taking it. This season it appears that Jax is stepping up to challenge Clay more directly and asserting his own authority. Since the feds have essentially shut down their gun-running business, SAMCRO will be getting into the porn industry. They also have a new rival in a white separatist group lead by Ethan Zobelle (Adam Arkin) and his thug (Henry Rollins) who in no uncertain terms have told SAMCRO to stop dealing guns to “coloreds.”
There is so much fodder here for any “-ism” you may wish to discuss, season two is surely going to be a bumpy ride.
Andrea
I couldn’t believe how utterly normal Flash Forward is, racially speaking. I say that with this caveat: John Cho deserves top billing over Joseph Fiennes, if we’re going by sheer star power because the man did appear in two wildly popular films in the last year…wait, let me correct that: Mr. Cho appeared in two wildly popular film franchises in the last year or so, one of which he was the star. Whereas, his co-star who did get the top spot on this new primetime sci-fi show hasn’t had stateside hit since Shakespeare in Love in 1998. Plus, Cho just has more sexy-funny charisma that’s needed in these end-of-days shows. In that “situation normal—all fucked up” sense, Flash Forward is not only normal, but typical.
Simultaneously, the show is also normal in the way that doesn’t make a big racial-moment deal about Cho or Courtney B. Vance as the head of the FBI investigation unit to whom Cho and Fiennes report their surveillance activities before they, everyone else in multi-culti looking Los Angeles, and the rest of the world have a collective blackout. Everyone awakens to smoke pouring out of skyscrapers, massive car pile-ups, major and minor injuries, and, in the case of the (white) teenaged babysitter who was having sex in Fiennes’ home while his (white) daughter slept upstairs, a prophesy by the child about there being “no more good days.” I, however, think Flash Forward has a few good days ahead…if the lead actors were switched.
Mahsino
I would’ve written on Project Runway, but since moving to Lifetime the show has gotten so boring, it’s not worth it. It’s almost as if they need to sandwich it between commercials of Real Housewives and the Rachel Zoe Project in order for it to be more interesting than it is. And on a technical level, the final products all seem like a steady parade of mediocrity trotting down the runway. There are no “wow” worthy dresses, and a lot of them look like they could’ve been designed by almost anybody. Last week they finally got back to using unconventional materials, but I think it’s saying something about a show when 2 of the main judges have been MIA for the past 3 weeks.
So instead, here are some scattered thoughts on the awesomeness that is Glee:
Choreographed dance, singing, and a lovable gang of misfits is a recipe for pure gold in my book. Yes, I’m aware of how incredibly dorky I sound whenever I talk about any sort of musical, but I like shows where I don’t have to think too much and there’s a happy message at the end. It’s why I watch Ugly Betty, and honestly, this is about as cheesy as Ugly Betty with snazzier musical numbers. It’s like the people at Fox were like: okay Mahsino, we know we took King of the Hill away from you, here’s our peace offering, we’re cool now, right? And while me and FOX aren’t totally square, I’m willing to ignore Brothers.
I realize that in terms of racial portrayals, to say that the stereotypes are troublesome is putting it mildly, but considering my favorite musical of all time is West Side Story, it’s safe to say I’m willing to put up with some cringeworthy moments in the name of a jazzy dance number (also see: my addiction to America’s Best Dance Crew). This isn’t to say that I don’t have my limits (it’s not like I’m about to pop in Song of the South) or that the portrayals of Mercedes (sassy Black girl) and Tina (silent Asian girl) don’t make me hang my head in shame, but at least Glee is getting better, which is more than I can say by looking at the previews for Heroes. In last weeks episode Mercedes and Curt got some depth. Now, I would like to hear Tina get to have a complete sentence worth of lines, but if I can stick with Heroes for 4 seasons, I can stick with Glee for a little while longer.
And really, who doesn’t appreciate a cappella renditions of New Jack Swing?
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Erm, not touching that one. But hey, tell us – what are you watching this fall? And stay tuned, so to speak, for more Heroes dissaction in its’ (final?) season!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
jen* wrote:
Mahsino – I’m with you all the way on Glee. I love my cheesy musicals. And the Acafellas weren’t stellar, but the song choices were *just* right to make me nostalgic for the 90s – meanwhile I still can’t believe I remembered all the words to a Color Me Badd song.
And I’m rearranging my DVR schedule to make room for FlashForward. I’d watch a powerpoint presentation of John Cho stills every week, but getting to see him act will be even better. Hopefully they won’t waste too much time on whoever else is on the show.
But yeah, Arturo, Heroes Reborn sounds better than whatever else is coming tonight…but I’ll be watching anyway…
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 1:54 pm ¶
Tamara wrote:
“Flash Forward” is one of the new shoes I thought to look to. Here’s hoping I can remember.
Ah, “Heroes” return. No great expectations whatsoever, but I am a little geeked at seeing Sylar!Nathan and of course Robert Knepper. Here’s hoping for a conflicted “Profit” with superpowers by way of Pasdar and T-Bag 2.0 by way of Knepper….
I say here’s hoping because I’m sure that’s what we’ll get and guess what? I’m actually okay with that!
*whistles*
oh where oh where did Micah go…oh where oh where may Monica be? oh where oh where did Mohinder…go; oh where oh where is Molly?
What IS IT with characters whose names begin with “M” on this show? Oh how they disappear and are sometimes never heard from (via tv) again…
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 3:14 pm ¶
April217 wrote:
I LOVE Glee. I am not a huge fan of musicals on screen (or FOX programming). Something usually gets lost in translation and the material fails miserably compared to their stage renditions. However, Glee is a refreshing exception. I view the stereotyping as part of the campiness of the show. Yet, I agree that relying on these stereotypes can hurt the shows longevity. However, being on FOX the show’s life expectancy is precarious at best. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a second season.
I am looking forward to John Cho’s Flashforward and Daniel Henney’s Three Rivers. I am hoping that the networks will not let me down by wasting their time (and mine) with the same lame one dimensional characters. I would love for both to have secondary storylines where we see more of them than just interactions with leads characters.
Hero’s lost me around the beginning of last season. I can’t put my finger on it but the show no longer holds my interest.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 4:17 pm ¶
Lola wrote:
The show has some rather appalling racial stereotypes but they have given Mercedes and Curt some character development recently. I mostly enjoy the cheesey performances.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 4:49 pm ¶
Drew wrote:
I still wonder why Monica and Micah were written out after season 2. I’ve seen shows drop recurring characters with no explanation, but both were main characters with a significant amount of screen time. I’ve only seen The West Wing do that, and said character could hardly be termed major.
And Monica was, along with Adam, easily the best new character to come out of that season: her power was original, her relationship with Micah was fun and I loved the that in a cast full of morally ambiguous characters, she was destined to become a honest to god superhero.
The best thing that could be done for the show would be to put everyone except Noah and Angela on a bus, reintroduce all those great vanished characters like Monica and Micah, and create a group of well-written, complex new characters, ones that we can really care about, ones that are regular people dealing with their abilities and problems in their normal lives instead of overly powered demi-gods fighting constant secret battles for ill-defined reasons.
But I doubt that’ll ever happen…
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 6:00 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
Let’s just rename Heroes to Bozos, shall we?
I’m most interested to see what Hiro does to help people, but expect that to be a pretty minor plotline compared to more Petrelli stuff. It’s pretty sad when the show’s most inspiring part is vastly overwhelmed by insipid soap-opera melodrama — and that’s assuming Hiro manages to not be insipid himself!
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 6:41 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
Drew, huge freakin cosign. Especially about Monica. And it irks me to no end that they killed off Micah’s dead right after he too had started using his powers to be a superhero (not only did he start using his powers for good but doing so under the guise of a firefighter no less, double hero whammy). I think Micah, his cousin Monica and his dad would have been such a killer hero family. And I also think the father’s past would have kept them from coming across as to sappy.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 7:46 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
Oh and when does Hiro become the hardcore person he was portrayed as becoming in season 1? I don’t think he necessairly has to cut his hair,bulk up and start wearing all black but come on. I would like to him and Ando do a lot more than learn life lessons. Watching their character development feels like a PBS special on friendship and growing up.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 7:49 pm ¶
Piper wrote:
Does anyone who reads or writes for the site watch the CW’s Supernatural? There’s a show I would love to see on weekly TV roundups!
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 8:59 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
I loved,loved Heroes and can not wait for the return of the Haitian and hope he gets a regulary used name and more character devleopment. Also, Hiro deciding to live with his powers induced illness rather than let NY possibly be blew up was great.
And Supernatural is another great show.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 10:11 pm ¶
Keith wrote:
They should rename the show to marginally attractive white people with problems that happen to have powers and a Haitian guy, but that would probably be too long.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 10:34 pm ¶
DigitalCoyote wrote:
@Tamara:
The hope for Pasdar to go “Profit” again is what got me to sit down to watch the show in the first place. I was 12 when that show was originally aired on Fox, but was old enough to recognize it as awesome TV. It’s supposedly inspired by “Richard III” and, at one point, they were trying to get the character in to the Wolfram and Hart firm on “Angel. ”
Profit is something that needs to be resurrected.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 11:14 pm ¶
Tamara wrote:
I’m inclined to agree with Erica #6, as this premiere episode basically lived up to what she described.
It is soap-operaish and melodramatic (AGAIN) with the Benetrellis. Maybe that’s all they ‘can’ be and it’s left up to other characters to be ‘heroic’ and ‘other’.
I loved Hiro’s storyline; loved that direction. I even love this Carnivale take and how it’s all switched up in the future as opposed to the past as I had expected.
My only question to that is what is the “Big Boom”, as it were, in the future that propels those Carnies to want for Peter, Nathan!Sylar and Claire? What’s the big to-do this time around? Also, how many times is it, will it be “the fate of the world as determined by the Benetrellis and their participation/non-participation in the scheme of things?”
And I realize I ask that question with a knowledge of ‘why’ but it seems even when they bring in an outside element (characters/plotlines concerning characters that aren’t familiar: Benetrellis, Parkmans, etc.) why is it that ultimately it becomes a Benetrelli soap opera again instead of………….nevermind, I just realized. Silly me, this show is all about the Benetrellis. Wow. How could I have forgotten this? Why am I wanting for something OTHER than this family-affaire?
I digress.
The premiere I thought was good. I’m loving the building up to something huge. I’m on the edge of my seat (not literally, but you get my point) wanting to know what? who? why? when? etc. But something tells me (and I hope against it) that when it comes to that climactic moment that it is not dampened by something incredibly underwhelming…
I’ll save my thoughts on the premiere for the roundtable/review post.
Welcome back Heroes/Racialious
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 11:50 pm ¶
hypatia wrote:
I agree with Piper and Tracey–having a roundtable on Supernatural would rock my world.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 10:19 am ¶
vcious wrote:
Started to friggin’ hate Heroes since the crappy S2 and the fact that as my friend pointed out, “All non-blonde females die horrific deaths.” Yawn.
I’ll be watching Flash Forward for John Cho only. Though the promo seemed to suggest his character actually gets killed off since in his “flash forward”, he didn’t see anything? Hope that doesn’t happen.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 11:57 am ¶
Tamara wrote:
@ DigitalCoyote #12,
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Profit needs to be resurrected. I concur. I was a wee youngin’ too when the show aired originally. I didn’t understand it completely, but I knew that Pasdar was pretty and that his character was twisted and what his character meant to do to the Gracen Empire was diabolical and eeevil and I just had to have more. But then it got cancelled, years went by and I bought the DVD boxset and while I’m pleased with that (and pleased to see glimpses of Profit in Sylar!Nathan) I’d absolutely love a revival. That show was ahead of its time. What they considered controversial ‘then’ is nothing in the wake of ’shows-that-push-the-edge’ on the telly today.
*hi-fives you for Profit co-sign*
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 12:36 pm ¶
Katarin wrote:
I missed the time back when I had faith in Heroes. Back before it was proven that ladies would be fridged and only white men didn’t die. As a sheer numbers game, Heroes has killed WAY more POC than white folks and way more ladies than men.
I want to love Glee because it’s everything IL. It has musicals and cheesy songs and dance numbers. But it’s so faily. Everything on that show fails. The women are horrid stereotypes, the POCs are horrid stereotypes and the other marginalized people (the gay boy and disabled boy) are HORRID STEREOTYPES. The only well drawn characters are the two white, male leads. Gross.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 12:54 pm ¶
7thangel wrote:
smh, heroes is such a disappointment. i don’t want to see the tv version of marvels summer/grey family clan, it’s annoying, boring and predictable in the x-titles and it’s the same for heroes. i can’t stand the petrelli’s, that includes the cheerleader who can’t help but be dumb and show her powers in front of people, smdh.
POC: as far as the effed treatment of hiro and ando, i wonder if they’ll ever have another asian (besides suresh) that is american and not have the music use the ethnic identifier. also, anymore latin@s? black folk? native? arab?
lest people forget the two black male metahumans that were labeled bad but weren’t and as usual, got deaded, echo and the dude from the wire. damn, i almost forgot usutu parkmen’s magic negro.
and goddamn, can the Haitian get a frickin’ name?
this is just another disappointing season, flash forward was cool, but cho should have been the lead and i hope we see more of vance then we did in law and order:ci. i’m also hoping we see union in ep. 2.
parks and rec(?) is cool, community…smh, leverage…weak and to top it off, hardison is the least developed and fleshed out character.
dexter is wicked, svu is tight, and there’s some shit i don’t even want to get into.
Posted 24 Sep 2009 at 7:47 pm ¶
Zahra wrote:
Just jumping into say I’d love to see this site cover Flash Forward; I’ve yet to figure out whether it’s worth watching or not.
Posted 25 Sep 2009 at 3:35 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
I have two reasons for seeing Flashfoward:
1. John Cho
2. Gabrielle Union
3. John Cho and Gabrielle Union portraying a couple.
I’m just so damn curious how #3 is gonna play out. XD
Posted 25 Sep 2009 at 7:20 pm ¶