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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Heroes Season 3 (US)

10:33 / 25.09.08

So I just caught the first 2 episodes of heroes season 3 and popped onto the 'lith to have a look at the usual discussion and speculation and there's no thread for the new season.
Is anyone still watching?

I myself was a little underwhelmed. It seemed like it'd had been too long since I'd been living with these characters to really be that bothered.

Main changes this year? It's kinda zippy.
I think I read somewhere that they wanted to avoid the slow burn from last year but there seems to be almost too much happening in the 2 episodes shown.

Everyone gets few seconds in (apart from Mica) although I'm not sure whether the show can survive without its previous gimmick of having everyone stumble around in the dark before all meeting up to fight evil.

There's also a (or many) new mcguffin that can destroy the world and time travel's been thrown into the mix as well to indicate something bad is gonna happen.
It's starting to get pretty repetitive.

Still I'll keep watching until BSG starts back.
Any thoughts?

11:01 / 25.09.08

I enjoyed it on a relatively basic level.

I agree it did seem almost too packed with action but the first few epiosdes of season 1 and 2 did annoy me a bit.

I don't expect a lot from Heroes but i enjoy it and this season looks like it will be entertaining.

14:58 / 25.09.08

I'd forgotten what I most hate about Heroes: the forced drama. People always yelling, always getting up in each others' faces. It gets unbearable after a while. I know conflict is drama, but it always comes off so forced.

Peter's mother is annoying. She's not believable as the "tough bitch" they want us to think she is...mostly because she was never shown to us this way in the past. (Then again, Heroes is typical for throwing characters around and changing their entire personalities...sometimes within the same episode.)

Worst news: the ever-annoying Suresh will still avoid death now that he has powers (which now backfire on him "The Fly" like).

I only watch this show because my wife likes it, but even she was yawning through the premiere. We both cried out "ANOTHER HOUR???" when it went right into the second episode.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:36 / 25.09.08

I've watched the first couple episodes of the third season and have to admit it's pretty shit -- I have to wonder if this is the hangover from the second season's writer's strike smackdown.

Which isn't to say it's as bad as the second season -- we get back to having Claire's creepy body horror power and Hiro actually using his time powers in an interesting way. His power combined with the new speed demon, Daphne, looked wonderful. The show works best for me when taking advantage of the fact that this is superheroes on television, so they can use interesting visuals and cinematography to show powers. Which is why Hiro and Claire have always been my favourites -- they're powers work best on screen.

That said, I would love if we could just ignore the Petrellis altogether. Nathan annoys me as much as Suresh does (Mohinder's only fun when he's in a faux relationship with Matt Parkman, not Mascara-of-Doom Girl), and Peter's a walking plot-device. He has! Every! Power! We get it. They keep making him the most important character but he's so dullsville.

It is nice to see Francis Capra join the cast. A street-level takeover by the regulars from Veronica Mars would be oh-so-satisfying.

20:17 / 25.09.08

Just finished the 2nd episode. Doesn´t Hiro know about selffulfilling prophesies? He is doing everything he can to make Ando shoot him.

And no one really dies in this show. How many people came back from the dead in these two episodes? And now Sylar is Claire´s uncle, too? There isn´t much difference left between him and Peter.

But the most cringeworthy was the übercliché of oaf Parkman in the desert. Have you noticed, that in many movies and TV shows, when really thirsty people get something to drink, they don´t drink it but spill it over their chins? Until I saw this episode, the worst ever was Elijah Wood at Mount Doom.

Oh, and another guy that paints the future.

Still, so far I like to watch so I can gripe about it.

08:43 / 27.09.08

Doesn´t Hiro know about selffulfilling prophesies? He is doing everything he can to make Ando shoot him.

Is it just me, or there was something "posy" about the future Ando vs futue Hiro fight? Like they were just staging it - with bad acting I might add - for the sake of present Hiro or something, and not really fighting? I guess we´ll find out later on.

Plus, it seems the world is going to be destroyed every season in this show, isn´t it?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:56 / 27.09.08

They're trying to go for that X-Men "World in Peril" feel, I think. Or, this season, the Wanted villains-winning vibe.

03:15 / 28.09.08

It was a far sight better than Season 2 in its entirety, but . . .

I'm so tired of Claire, Peter and Mohinder, the resident drama queens. Hiro learns nothing and never grows as a person. I'm still not sure what Sylar's motive is. The most interesting characters (apart from Noah), Parkman, Nikki and Micah, got the least - or in Micah's case, no - screen time. I wish they'd make Ando less of a wimpy sidekick and more of a protagonist. James Kyson Lee is a much better actor than Masi Oka.

I'll stick around for a while, see what happens. Or doesn't.

Keith, like a scientist

20:28 / 30.09.08

Show needs more Sheridan IMHO.

08:17 / 01.10.08

Sheridan? Who is that?

And I want to know something else, too. When the power leech man was talking to a woman at the Berlin Cinema, was that woman Olga Sosnovska (Fiona Carter from Spooks)?

Keith, like a scientist

13:03 / 01.10.08

Bruce Boxleitner, who played John Sheridan on Babylon 5, was in the season 3 premiere... Heroes could benefit from some more screentime from him. Because... everybody seems so bored with all the regular characters. Herc on AICN had a pretty intense skewering of the show that makes a lot of sense by pointing out how ridiculous the show is. Some of his points are kind of overly critical, but it makes me question why I keep giving the a chance.

I will say that I enjoyed the last couple episodes of Season 2, when the plotlines started coming together and climaxing. It felt pretty epic. I don't really know what to think of this season yet. It seems so.... contrived.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

18:11 / 01.10.08

I do wonder if they will bring back Nikki's husband as so far it's only the black man that has died and stayed dead.

And there's too many obviously immortal characters walking around even when the writers are strongly resistant to killing anyone off themselves.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:28 / 01.10.08

But on the other hand, Noah Bennett gets to FIGHT CRIME side by side with his new partner, "loose cannon" Sylar. Never mind what Sylar did to Claire not two episodes before.

Also, seriously, they have so many plot threads! As much as I hate Mohinder and want him to be written out, his plotline seems moderately important and nobody even mentioned it -- it's like they stuck him and Mascara-of-Doom Girl into a dead man's plot that will slowly sink into the waters of Never.

09:47 / 08.10.08

I've only seen the first two episodes to me but as a broad brush it's apparent that the season is about role-reversal - the key 'heroes' are becoming 'villains' and vice versa.

So saying that Hiro is causing a self-fulfilling prophecy in his exclusion of Ando is a fair point. He's acting in a villain-ish way - complacency, suspicion, hubris are all mixed in there. Personally I want to find out how and when Ando gets his zap power!

Similarly Mohinder has been seduced by the dark side of the force - he wants to be one of the special ones, even though it costs him his humanity in the process.

15:34 / 28.10.08

In several of the interviews he gave regarding the Wire during seasons 4 and 5, David Simon expressed worry about the number of good roles available in mainstream TV and film for the show's large cast of immensely talented black actors.

Every time Jamie Hector says "your fear's making me strong," I think of that, and get a little sick in my mouth (the Andre Royo character was at least a one-off).

I need to find something to do besides watch TV on my lunch break.

20:50 / 28.10.08

Yeah, I stopped watching. I caught a few minutes of last night's and I couldn't believe how terrible it was. I mean, not even "I'm putting it down just to sound elitist"-bad, it was just...BAD.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:22 / 29.10.08

I'd like to stop watching, but the Petrelli Family's bizarre philosophy -- that light bondage and medically-induced comas are good clean fun -- captivates me. It's like looking into some well-coiffed abyss. It doesn't help that the Petrelli sons are susceptible to even the barest level of guile or that you can set your watch by Nathan doing the opposite of whatever it is Peter desperately begs him to do.

Actually, all the Big Bads for the series so far come down to the Petrellis being fucked up beyond belief.

It's such a train wreck, to be honest-- there is the occasional glimmer of hope but really I'm watching just to see how bad, how horrible it can get. Like, for instance, how long it is before everyone in the cast is a sexy blonde with powers -- it'll be Midwich HEROES by season 4, I swear.

09:45 / 29.10.08

I read that the producers consulted JJ Abrams for some fresh ideas and came up with a new direction for the show. Here is a kind of SPOILER photo of an upcoming episode so if you want to be surprised, avert your eyes.
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/SPOILER

Seriously, I stopped watching after the nuke episode. Please bump this thread, should Heroes become watchable again.

06:47 / 21.11.08

maybe hrg will develop meta powers and rewrite the series into something satisfying

although sylar has made me lol pretty hard on a few occasions.

11:36 / 21.11.08

I watched Wednesday's BBC Three episode last night and was overpowered by the hottness of Sylar with no shirt on. Also enjoying the Sylar / Elle sexual tension. That's about the only thing the show has going for it at the moment, however.

Whisky Priestess

22:12 / 21.11.08

I hear you. They've got to have electric sex soon, surely? With Daddy Petrelli watching in a creepy fashion, naturellement ...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:27 / 23.11.08

Bubbs!

Sorry.