Since the recent utter implosion of 24 over the past month or two, the matchup of these two shows hasn’t even been a contest. But to its credit, last night’s episode of 24 was the least annoying one in weeks. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. There’s still way too much soap opera romance nonsense going on: Jack and Audrey, Chloe and Miles, the acting president and his chief aid and the Russian spy. I mean, come on. Can we please just get back to Jack going Rambo on bad guys?
So enough about 24, let’s talk Heroes. This week we moved five years into the future to witness a charred, hero-hating Earth and it was awesome. I’m gonna say best episode yet. I’d argue that’s because—with only one episode spent in the future—they had tons of material they could pack into the hour. And the enjoyability of this show has long been way more dependant on plot than on pesky things like quality dialogue or decent acting. So this episode offered us story points galore: People with super powers are being rounded up and persecuted X-Men-style, with our favorite mind reading cop doing the dirty work. H.R.G. is secretly working to hide future heroes—until he’s double-crossed. Claire is laying low as a waitress—until she’s discovered. Peter is shacking up with Niki—who must be pretending not to notice the fact that now he’s got a massive freakin’ face scar. (Although as a stripper maybe she’s used to romancing deformed dudes.) Oh and Nathan is the president. Except, of course, it’s not Nathan. It’s Sylar. Damn!
A couple thoughts and questions to put out there:
- Did the scene where Peter and future Hiro stormed the government building lobby remind anyone else of the lobby shootout from The Matrix? That had to be intentional. They were even wearing Matrix-esque clothing. Look at that coat on Peter. It’s so Keanu. The scenes were cool and a nice homage, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by them. When your setup is the same as the one that spawned one of the greatest action scenes ever filmed, you set the bar pretty high for yourself. I thought I was going to get an epic throwdown, but the budgets of TV clearly made that impossible.
- In five years time, why hadn’t Matt ever read Sylar’s mind and figure out he wasn’t really Nathan?
- If Peter has Claire’s power to heal himself why does he have a scar? Shouldn’t that have healed? Or is he just keeping it because it looks bad-assed?
- How did Niki fit all of her long blond hair underneath that wig she wore when stripping? Can someone out there familiar with wig-technology explain this to me?
