By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

You know it’s sad when even the good episodes of Heroes spur a lukewarm response. Somewhat amazingly, there’s actually a campaign going to save the show from cancellation – no, really. More tellingly, even the little bits of good on the show don’t hold much water anymore, as we’ll see here …

Like I said in the review, the Hiro & Tadashi storyline was very strong when it could’ve been very badly handled by other writers *cough*TimKring*cough* … what’d you make of it?

Mahsino: It made me crack a smile a bit in spite of myself. I wish he would’ve thrown in the towel a bit sooner, but that’s just me. Unfortunatley I feel that at this point, any glimmers of good writing are just a horrible set up for a bad filler episode. Remember, for every decent story, there’s about 6=2 0episodes of filler-y crap.
Diana: Quite frankly, I wanted to go through my tv screen an push Tadashi over the edge myself. This could have been an opportunity to make Hiro’s character grow more seriously, but frankly the source of Tadashi’s “shame” was so trivial it mad me ill. Maybe it was an effort at humor, but I didn’t think it was funny. I would rather they had spent more time on Hiro confronting his sister over his illness.
Andrea: Diana, I’m with you—and Tadashi’s “shame” of getting fired over photocopying body parts plays into a persistent stereotype, namely that Japanese people are quick to commit suicide, which plays into a developing stereotype in the US of the “unhinged” Asian guy who quick to kill, himself and/or others. Hiro self-killing-under-the-guise-of-time-traveling is just a variation of that “suicidal tendency”—which is why I find this particular part of the character’s development downright disturbing.
jen*: Ditto Mahsino on the filler-y crap. And if this is what we’re accepting as “strong” storyline – my how our standards have fallen. A guy who keeps photocopying his butt at the company party? I thought that plot device went out in the 80s. I *did* like this ep better than last week’s, but I don’t even know what that says…

Anybody else wondering when Hiro’s condition was going to kick in? Methinks the countdown to Charlie’s return starts now …

Mahsino: I hate drawn out deaths. at this point I honestly wouldn’t be sad if they just killed him off mid time travel- at least that would be interesting and make them stop with this ridiculous pretense of diversity. And isn’t Charlie busy with Glee? Imjussayin maybe she might want to stay with a show that still has decent ratings and storyline.
Diana: I’m with Mahsino on this one, sad to say. They have compromised Hiro’s story so much it really doesn’t matter. Except that he and Ando seem to be the only source of melanin on the show.
Andrea: Ditto. And Ando is the sole source of swagger on the show.
jen*: Seriously – how was this trying-to-change-the-past-to-fulfill-my-destiny an illness-free pass until the end of the ep? Convenient. But maybe this is the ultimate method of killing off the last characters of color. Cuz once Hiro is gone, Ando and Kimiko can disappear a la Lyle, and Noah’s soon-to-be-ex. And the carnies can be different enough to stand-in for COC like Andrea talked about last week. You called it Andrea!

Samuel, of course, was not interesting – until we saw him cringe at the mere image of Noah on Lydia’s back. Anybody else think this makes it even more likely that Noah gets offed this season?

Mahsino: Come on, they can’t kill Noah Bennet, who else is going to drop everything to save Claire-Bear from horribly=2 0thought out actions? Peter’s too busy with his own issues, and Lyle and Sandra have been sent to their proverbial rooms never to be seen or mentioned again.
Diana: Nope. I think HRG is here to stay.
Andrea: Unfortunately.
jen*: I don’t think Bennet will actually die unless Jack wants to quit the show. Maybe Charlie can get him a walk-on on Glee?

As the time of submission, this post is just in time for Claire’s Big Kiss. Is there any way this could not go wrong?

Mahsino: Nope, it’s going to be as bad as expected, but then again I’m not really a fan of Katie Perry-esqe faux lesbianism for the sake of being edgy. I’m planning on wathing this on Hulu so I can skip that mess.
Andrea: I’m with Mahsino—this just comes off so “Girls Gone Mild” for ratings grab. So it’s so far gone on the wrong that….yes…. it’s heading to the ramp and…wait….is that a shark fin I see?
Diana: No. It would only be good if Claire still had her wig and it exploded during the Big Kiss.
jen*: Um. I’m still totally skeeved out by SWF Gretchen. And…just…no. Maybe the folks would recognize this for what it is if Claire’s old wig was actually on a shark that kissed Gretchen…with that “grr-argh” sound effect from the end of Joss Whedon shows – that’d be great!

Open Mic!

Diana: This show is on a fast track to nowhere.
Andrea: … so I tracked on over to Flash Forward to see how it’s going. I’m still at John Cho giving Gabrielle Union some glow and those two devastating the hotel bed. This I approve of.
jen*: Finally we got to see some on-screen connection! 20I was SO waiting for that. They’re a cute couple, but I need Cho to be getting more exposition – his storyline is way more interesting to me. And work everything out, cuz I think their couplehood is the new hotness. Overall, the mystery is a compelling story for me, and they’ve got me for at least this season. But wait – you were meaning about Heroes – oh. yeah.

Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive