[Movie] Heroes

I, personally, was impressed with the Pilot that NBC offered up to us, and think that the show looks promising. I very much enjoyed the directing style, visually in particular. I liked the characters, and was interested in most of their stories - I liked the way that the episode tied the various characters together, often in very surprising ways, ranging from the humorous to the very serious and plot-twisting.

Spoiler:

I was taken aback when it turned out that the creepy glasses-wearing dude that was following the Geneticist around is the father of the seemingly-indestructable girl

I'll be keeping a list of characters and powers in this post - through discussion, I want to make sure I've got them all correct. I'll visibly update the list starting after tomorrow's episode, for everybody that didn't catch it tonight. For American viewers, there will be an encore tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central

CURRENT HEROES ROSTER:

Isaac Mendez - Creates paintings that depict future events
Niki Sanders - Violent Alter Ego
Hiro Nakamura - Ability to bend Space/Time
Nathan Petrelli - Flight
Claire Bennet - Cellular Regeneration
Mohinder Suresh - Geneticist [No known powers]
Peter Petrelli - Hero Power Mimicry (?)
Matt Parkman - Can hear the thoughts of others
D. L. Hawkins - Phasing
Micah Sanders - Unkown Powers [Electrical in nature?]
Theodore Sprague - Irradiation

OTHER SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS:
Simone Deveaux - [No known powers]
Eden MacKenzie - [No known powers]
Horn-Rimmed Glasses - Identity Unknown [No known powers]
Mysterious Man - Can erase memories (?) [Identity Unknown]
Syler - Identity Unknown [Powers Unknown]

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RockgamerXIII

Not to rain on yur parade, Amara, but there is already a Heroes thread here. No offense or anything (you have a great first post), but I just want to make sure I don't post in a thread that winds up getting closed, so I want to know which one will stay open before I post my thoughts and stuff.

DAMMIT. Argh, I worked so hard to make sure I wasn't breaking any rules with this thread, and I didn't see any current threads (as in "Just saw the Pilot..."), and I forgot to use the "Search" feature to check if anybody had already made a thread in anticipation.

If there's no way for this thread to co-exist with BlueMikey's original thread and still be legal, then I'd request this thread to be formally deleted, and I'll post in BlueMikey's thread to revive it for current discussion of the Pilot.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

I liked how the pilot was very broken up between all the characters. Introductions are important and all, but the frenetic scene changes gave it a very anxious mood.

Yes. I liked that very much - it also gave the show the feel of a comic book/graphic novel, which make their living off of great imagery and visuals combined with sudden twists and scenes ending abruptly right as something's about to happen. It needs to grab you and make you want to turn the page. It was very obvious what they were doing, but I think it worked.

Quote:

A couple of the powers seem pretty interesting. Hiro has a ton of potential. But a couple also seem like blatant rip-offs. The fact that one girl can regenerate is rather similar to Wolverine and I'm sure she'll be borrowing from his playbook.

Hiro's power just looks plainly awesome. That's what I'd want to have, personally! Cheerleader girl - she doesn't have claws, but the rest of her is very similar to Wolverine. Mostly because her cells are regenerating rapidly - how can you really do that much differently between two iterations of the same power? Still, she might have a character that plays out far different than Wolverine - particularly because she seems to have a death wish (or was that her just testing her powers?). She doesn't seem to be the same, gruff type, nor have the same Leadership quality. I predict that the Flying Brothers are gonna be the de facto leaders, because they're both very good with people in different ways.

Quote:

Suresh doesn't seem to possess any extraordinary abilities, so I expect that he'll wind up acting as a mentor for the others, trying to explain their pasts and how they're heading for a larger destiny.

He's a Geneticist. He'll likely be the one who explains everything for both the characters and the audience.

Quote:

It does seem that all the characters are linked somehow. (Hiro's co-worker is the one paying for Ali's webcam striptease. That's pretty funny.) But this worries me, as it would allow the writers to become lazy and substitute contrivances for truly developed plot twists. ("Oh, your long-lost sister is also the villain's lab partner! WHAT A TWIST!")

It was a nice intro, but it did feel a bit light. I'm not upset, since I expected this; you have to plant a seed before a tree will grow. I just hope that the plots don't immediately become hackneyed or mired down in infinite layers of espionage/counterintelligence/betrayal. The endless tedium of plot reversals destroyed Alias and X-Files, and could spell a quick death for Heroes if it goes down the same path.

It was somewhat light, but there were certainly big seeds of darkness there - such as

Spoiler:

The creepy glasses guy playing "dad" to the indestructible girl; the painter that OD'd - not just for his drug-addicted character but particularly for that frightening painting of New York that I sure hope doesn't come true. It looked very comic book-y, which might just be a nod to the comic book style of the show, but who knows.

But I can see your points. If they keep it paced similarly to how it is now, with some acceleration now that we're out of the first half of the Pilot, I'd be very happy. I really hope they try to keep it just the right balance of straightforward and tricky - the little twists that tied the characters together were clever, but I hope that kind of thing doesn't extend too far into the later episodes.

Quote:

But so far, it looks like a winner.

Yes it does, and I'll certainly be back next week to watch more. This looks fresh (relative to NBC programming of late), interesting, and entertaining. It watches very similarly to the way a good, serialized comic book reads - interesting visuals, scenes play out much in the same fashion as they would in paper form, particularly the Japan/New York transition near the end. "YATTA!" indeed.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah, Jochie made a good point - the writing flowed really well throughout the episode. There was a solid, conversational style that's hard to capture in a script, that was different for each set of characters - Hiro and his friends had some really great dialogue. It was pretty obvious that the cheerleader's mom would interpret what she said that way, but it didn't detract that much from the scene. It made it obvious that the mother is somewhat oblivious - exemplified when:

Spoiler:

The TV is on in the kitchen, with the news story about the train wreck being played. Don't think that wasn't EXACLTY intentional - she was supposed to not notice that. The sound was low/off anyway, though.

Still, most of the episode was very well-written. Characters had their own voices, and the dialogue was hardly ever forced, something that writers on NBC shows have been struggling with, in my opinion. Props to the writing department for that.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I've updated the Current Heroes Roster with all known Heroes at this point. Or, more rightly, all characters that are known to have powers, as well as Suresh the Geneticist, who will almost inevitably become a Hero/Ally to the empowered Heroes.

If I've missed anybody, let me know so I can fix the post. Those are all that I can remember being in the episode after looking through the cast list on IMDb.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh my GOD.

Hiro:

So, wait a minute. Hiro was five weeks ahead of everybody else's timeline? That explains certain things, such as the clock on the bus. I thought they just didn't care about that or had some other way to explain it - I really hadn't realised that he'd traveled into the future. It makes much more sense that way though. The fact that it was the future also explains why the painter would've killed himself. So now we have a deadline for the apparent nuke going off...

Claire:

Ewwww. Her head got turned all the way around. She should've projectile vomitted right then and there. But her surrogate father... I knew he at least suspected, but I was stupid enough not to figure that he had the tape already.

Petrellis:

I knew it. I knew it was the both of them. I just didn't know the specifics. I'm not totally as into that bit of plot development with the suicidal father and such as I am the other ones.

Niki:

Dissociative Fugue? What is her superpower, being fucked up in the head? And how/why was the tape erased, and did her other personality do all of that in just four hours?

Suresh; Isaac:

In Hiro's future, Isaac had painted the symbol that appeared in Prof. Suresh's genome code. I want to know MORE.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Oh, right, I updated the list of heroes to include Matt Parkman.

Spoiler:

Point taken, Crash. They did make sure that we knew that the dude in LA had his brain removed - I wish I'd made that connection. I also somehow missed the name connection - it was dropped from my memory during the commercial break. I'm thinking Cyrus was the first to find out about his powers and, since the commercial man says that the Heroes' powers are "growing", I'm gonna assume that Cyrus is the most powerful.

On another note, I'm surprised at the level of gore allowed to be seen on this show. Those two dudes that we are lead to believe Niki killed, Cyrus' victims - possibly including Isaac - all are pretty graphic. Seeing Isaac's open head was a "holy shit" moment for me. This show seems to be full of them, but for a variety of reasons.

How ya doing, buddy?

Crash - fixed it. You (and other applicable moderators) should feel free to edit that list as you see fit.

How ya doing, buddy?

Oh, and I've just found out that Patient Zero (as he is referred to in the comic) is named Sylar. Also, I'm not so sure on this (and I don't quite agree with it), but here's one theory, proposed by my father -

Spoiler:

Claire's surrogate father is Sylar.

Mind you, I got this from my mother, so I'm sure I missed the finer points of the theory, but that's the heart of it.

I like how my whole family watches this show now. I think we're all hooked.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Ryuu - go to NBC.com and look up Heroes. They have the entire Pilot episode as it was aired on TV with less commercials. That'll get you up to speed with the show pretty quick, and help explain a lot of the events that would be rather mystifying to you.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Jeez, they had Ep. 1 up earlier today! Or, at the very least, yesterday. I'm sorry about that, Ryuu - I thought it would still be there. You'll probably want to read through the thread to find out what you missed, and feel free to ask any questions about the Pilot.

How ya doing, buddy?

Spoiler:

Hiro's comic had a "To be continued..." in it. It clearly left off with them driving under a sign that said "Las Vegas (such and such miles)", which is why Hiro and Ando are going to Vegas.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

ARGH! NBC.com is hosting Episode 4 on their site, but their archive is apparently missing part 5 (out of 6)! According to the spoiler tag conversation, I seem to have missed an actual display of Niki's power, as well as whatever leads up to that last subway scene. Part 4 leaves off with Peter pounding on the door to Isaac's apartment, and part 6 picks up with Isaac lying on the floor with several pieces of artwork about Claire completed.

Following certain revelations of tonight's episode, I believe I must update the Heroes/Powers List, which I've expanded to accomodate for villain characters and secondary characters as well.

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Well, I'm there right now, and it is informing me "Video Not Found!" when I attempt to view part 5.

Oh, wait, it's working now. Cool. I was trying it as I was typing this, and it decided to work for me, so I'm off to watch that now!

EDIT: It's laggy as hell. I'll give it a bit of time to load/buffer, I guess.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

You know, I had a thought or two here. It's not a fully-formed conclusion, but still opens up an idea for debate.

Sylar:

Spoiler:

Why can't (one of) his ability(-ies) be shapechanging/doppleganger? For all we know, he could very well BE Eden, The Unnamed Man, and/or that sort-of Ron-Howard looking fellow that nearly killed the FBI lady then flew away after getting shot. I'm surprised I haven't seen that suggestion pop up already in here - I mean, it's a show about superheroes. Why can't Sylar be Mystique in addition to whatever other power(s) he has? We've already got Kitty Pryde and Wolverine sans claws.

FELIPE NO

Well, that's who I immediately thought of when I saw him during that scene! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who, while watching that scene, thought "holy crap, is that Ron Howard?".

How ya doing, buddy?

D'oh! I'm a dope. I was really surprised that you hadn't thought of it (you know, being you), but now it all makes sense. So I'm gonna shut up a bit.

Except for the part where he looks kinda like Ron Howard. Especially with the hat and beard and moderate build - he looks just like I remember him looking from his interviews circa Arrested Development and The DaVinci Code.

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Further on the note of Matt:

Spoiler:

When Matt was trying to reveal that he could hear peoples' thoughts, he phrased it in such a way that his wife thought he'd found out about her affair and let serious hints slip out in her thoughts. He dropped the subject, realising that she was probably the one having an affair. See, when she was accusing him based on vague, circumstantial evidence, that was the first sign that she was cheating on him - cheaters often accuse their partner out of guilt. That's enough right there to build a solid case, and when Matt's cop buddy thought about how he was "nailin' [Matt's] wife", I can't see how there could be any other conclusion.

About Theodore Sprague:

Spoiler:

Hmm. His power involves high levels of Radiation... I'll have to add him to the list. It's more than hinted that his being irradiated was tied to his wife's cancer. I really want to know more about him.

About Micah:

Spoiler:

We all knew he was getting powers. It was pretty much just a matter of time. Apparently, his is electrical in nature, what with the "out of order" phone working again. Interesting that it failed to work once his father grabbed it from him.

There's nowhere I can't reach.