Heroes 4×18 “Brave New World” review
February 9th, 2010
The following contains spoilers through the episode “Brave New World,” originally broadcast 2/8/10.
Last week ‘Smallville’ aired the two hour episode “Absolute Justice,” which featured Clark Kent and his budding superhero friends meeting the previous generation Justice Society of America, a team that had systematically been hounded, imprisoned, and institutionalized into retirement, so that no one even knew who or what they were. The comic book and film ‘Watchmen’ likewise featured heroes who’d been forced out of the spotlight for no other reason than the world deciding they didn’t need them anymore. For four years, ‘Heroes’ has featured a set a characters who have been denied a semblance of this existence, partly because that’s the way creator Tim Kring wanted it, and partly because, the way he designed it, those characters could never imagine it being any different. Time after time, it seemed that hiding was the best and only way to maintain an idea of a normal life.
HYGOTS No. 69
February 5th, 2010
Here’s another subject I haven’t gotten around to yet (if you’ll indulge me, this isn’t the first time I’ve done a column, but it is the first time I’ve apparently found it exceedingly easy to come up with new topics on a regular, weekly basis), and that’s been my interest in the Arthurian legend. From ‘Excalibur’ (which hasn’t really been my cup of tea, but I still hope to revisit it with more enthusiasm) to ‘Merlin’ (the mini-series) to ‘Merlin’ (the TV series) to ‘The Last Legion’ (involving a prehistory of both Merlin and Excalibur) to ‘First Knight‘ to ‘King Arthur,’ I seem to have stumbled into quite a number of filmed projects over the years covering the fabled ruler of Camelot (oh! didn’t mention ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ in that line-up!), which I’ve read about my whole life, whether on my own or experienced Sir Gawain and his experience with the Green Knight in school (either in the classroom or as part of a one-act play competition). It’s hard to be part of the Western and/or English tradition and escape it, really.
Fringe 2×15 “Jacksonville” review
February 5th, 2010
The following contains spoilers through the episode “Jacksonville,” originally broadcast 2/4/10.
It appears that we’re headed back into strictly arc-driven territory, something this season has been reluctant to do, even though last year ended on so many notes that would have suggested its inevitability. This was the “winter finale,” the last episode until April, at which point there will be eight episodes, leading to 5/20/10, which happens to be numbers Walter mentions this episode as important for reasons he can’t remember…
Heroes 4×17 “The Wall” review
February 2nd, 2010
The following contains spoilers through the episode “The Wall,” originally broadcast 2/1/10.
Okay, so NBC made a few things clear last night: this season is going to be eighteen episodes long (one less than originally suggested), and that, for all intents and purposes, ‘Heroes’ isn’t quite done yet. The fans, meanwhile, have still been having their say as well: whatever this season has done, it hasn’t exactly accomplished its goal of redeeming the series. If anything, it seems to have only cemented the fact that ‘Heroes’ has quite thoroughly lost the zeitgeist. At this point, a lot of the original fans have decided more of what they want than what they’re willing to accept from the creators, which is something that has killed genre shows in the past (ironically, for instance, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise,’ which attempted a similar fan-appeasing fourth season, also managed to fail quite spectacularly, though NBC is still apparently willing to suggest ‘Heroes’ isn’t quite done yet). “The Wall,” for better or worse, demonstrates an unerring confidence on the part of the creators in their own storytelling instincts.
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