I compare the anticipation for Bryan Fuller's first episode back on Heroes to the anticipation for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - perhaps not in magnitude, but certainly as an example of hype gone awry. By the time Jar Jar Binks single-handedly destroyed any hope of setting a serious tone, critics and film pundits had already started to soberly deconstruct the unrealistic expectations Star Wars fans had created with their maniacal zeal for all things Lucas. The same end-result could have been projected for the "Company Man" scribe's return to Heroes - NBC's free-falling brand wasn't the object of very many fan-boy love songs, and it was pretty unlikely that anyone could turn the months long narrative-carnage of "fugitives" into anything resembling a mythic opera of augmented genetics and moral turpitude.
"Cold Snap" certainly was a lesson in nuance for the Heroes writer's room. I was giddy with Fuller's use of the act of shaving to silently dial-in the contrast between Denko and H.R.G. I still think Noah should have used a straight razor and appeared with a soul patch that would have made Tony Almeida melt with envy, but I'm sure Fuller has his reasons for thinking Denko is a smoother operator than the bespectacled one.
At the end of the day, though, Heroes needs a lot more than Nuance. It needs to rescue itself from the steady stream of incongruity that has us asking week after week "Are the writers watching the show?" Epic fail. "Cold Snap" does gloss over the fact that Denko was fired by presidential order, and Noah already approved as his replacement. Given that Nathan has outed himself as a flying man, it's no big surprise - although what is a surprise is that Noah, who seemed hell bent on reconstituting the company and coincidentally was also aware of Nathan's abilities - was the only other witness to that reveal. Incongruity.
Again there is a bizarre recalibration among the characters that is disappointingly familiar this season. H.R.G is no longer slyly loyal to Angela, he's actually behaving a bit more like a loose cannon. Nathan uncharacteristically has his head in the sand for the whole episode, while brother Peter pulls a bizarre Deus Ex Machina appearance to rescue his mommy from Denko's forces.
The nuance that works so well in coloring the characters in the opening is nowhere to be found in the action segments, save for the wonderfully hallucinogenic exit strategy for the Matt Parkman/Daphne relationship. Unfortunately, the area that we need the most character development in, Hiro and Ando, is as typically slapstick as ever as the bumblers embark on a two-boobs and a baby subplot devoid of any connective tissue.
The episode was as good as any other episode of Heroes this season, which isn't saying much, but made worse by the much hyped return of Fuller. Fuller, whose Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies both died with terminal cases of viewer apathy, wrote one of the most popular episodes of Heroes ever, "Company Man." One argument for why this should not be an indicator of what to expect is the fact that Fuller also was given the opportunity to write a character turn that was epic and unexpected. Delving into the history of H.R.G and the company for the first time. Not to say that such an episode would write itself, but certainly better odds than chiming in on a serialized plot that was widely considered D.O.A.
With the ratings continuing to betray ambivalence amongst viewers, coming in at a chilly 6 some-odd-million, it is looking increasingly like NBC's promised renewal for next year will be announced as the swan song for Heroes.
Wow. Probably the worst review ever.
Though you make a point in saying that "Cold Snap" didn't get the viewers people anticipated it would, this seems to be the only VALID point you make.
HRG seems to be trailing both sides of the fence, but for someone who seems to question rather or not the writers are following their own show, you seem to not be doing it either. Fact is, we already know where HRG's loyalty is: Angela. Everything else he's doing is because, as said before, he is the LAST one keeping the Heroes safe (well, as safe as they can be).
Since when have you seen ONE episode of a story, that very episode being the beginning of the story, and chalked it up to no connectivity? It's much too early in Hiro and Ando's story to claim that there's no connection to the main plot. I realize it's your job to try and pick things apart and make them seem bad, but at least have a little bit of credibility in the things you say. Wait until the story unfolds a little more before declaring it isn't connected to anything.
And finally, I notice you left out probably the most impressive arc of the entire episode: The Ice Queen, Miss Tracy Strauss herself. Or did that whole story with her and Rebel just slip your mind? I won't even begin to compliment the twists and turns of her story this episode because, if you watched the same episode I did, it should speak for itself.
Moral of the story? Let go of some of your Heroes negativity and start reviewing the show fairly, instead of trying to please the masses of ship-jumpers who no longer watch the show. Anyone who's anyone can tell you this was a great episode, and not nearly "as good as" the others from this season.
I disagree with you. HRG says coldly that he could give Denko Angela. And when Denko indeed goes after Angela, HRG is nowhere in sight.
I didn't even begin to dig into the inconsistencies. Wasn't it just last episode that Denko got humbled in a one on one with Angela due to her possession of a secret file? Angola? Denko saunters off with his tail between his legs?
But that is really only the beginning. HRG was there to keep Claire safe more than anything, but at the end of last weeks episode Claire was on the run from Denko's agents sweeping in to pick her up. Her Pass was up.
Is any of this ringing bells? Because it wasn't in Fuller's episode. In Fuller's episode it was business as usual for H.R.G. Unless the whole thing was a flashback and they forgot to tell us.
The point is, I wasn't out to shred the episode as much as I was saying not to necessarily blame Bryan Fuller. If I were out to shred it, I could do it all day long. Being fair also means not being an apologist. If you want to blame someone for the upset over the episode, go to somebody like Aint It Cool News who raised the bar so high by declaring it "The Best Episode since Company Man."
LOLz.
K, so just to start things off: I"m sure you could go "all day long" in shredding Heroes. However, my point? You can't do it with consistent arguments. At least, not this volume. Many of your points are reaching, and even the ones you elaborated on just now are as well. Let me clarify…
HRG handed Danko Angela on a silver plate because, as he said, he knew she could handle him. And she did. But riddle me this: was Danko anywhere to be found when the team tried to collect Angela from her car? The correct answer? NO. Not one time. So why would HRG be there?
Speaking of collecting Angela, you call him running off "with his tail between his legs" an inconsistency? Oh, PLEASE. We haven't seen this guy give up once, not once, and you expected him to just leave Angela be because she schooled him in a restaurant? Did you REALLY think he wouldn't send someone after her, especially after finding out she'd lied about Nathan and had an ability of her own? HRG even said it himself in the episode: "she can see these things" in reference to when she escaped Danko's team. He knew she had an ability. What on God's green Earth makes you see this as inconsistent?
And, again, this brings me back to HRG being everyone's last hope. Do you really expect him to go "Danko, please don't take my daughter or I'll kill you" or "Okay, Danko. Take my daughter. *thinking to himself: In the mean time, I'll make sure she stays in good hands*"? I guess your logic (if we dare call it that) baffles me, because I haven't seen one choice of his be inconsistent. Besides…Nathan made the deal with HRG to keep Claire safe, not Danko. I'm sure he knew better than to expect the negotiations to carry over into Danko's neo-Nazi control.
But enough about HRG. Let's talk about Hiro and Ando. How do you jump to conclusions like you do and try to call yourself "fair"? You're assuming Hiro and Ando's story is going to go into them raising Parkman Jr., but I'll be damned if I didn't hear them say they were going to try to find adult Matt and give him his son. Either you're reading some spoilers I'm not, or you're making things up.
And finally…you weren't excited about Tracy? Okay, to each his own. However, for you to say her storyline served only to reveal Rebel and die shows me you're one of those Heroes fans that can never truly be pleased. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you were one of those people who shouted "WOE IS ME! Heroes has no character development anymore" last volume, seeing as you say the show is steadily sinking. And here we are, developing Tracy like it's August of 1974 (look at her Wiki and you might get that), and you chalk her entire story arc this episode up to revealing Rebel and dying? Aside from the fact that any person who saw this episode with the IQ of 57 could tell you she's not dead, this episode clearly dove into a character that had previously been 2-dimensional and fleshed her out. If that's not good characterization, I don't know what is.
Anything else? Or do you relent? Fact is, I don't care if you liked the episode or not. Like I said earlier, to each his own. But you reviewing this episode the way you did, and spitting out negativity about it when there wasn't much negative, just rubs me the wrong way. Mostly because you're reviewing a show, and I feel you owe it to your readers to do it "fairly."
I did, and you clearly disagree. I appreciate your passion for the show, god knows there are shows I would certainly defend to the end of time; however, your defense against the inconsistency is mostly speculations. I don't understand what 'development' there was for Tracy? She's been several different people from the beginning of the season, so having her sacrifice herself to save Micah – deciding in the course of an episode to go from selfish to selfless – wasn't a huge character turn to me. I was more interested in her when she killed the Greatest American Hero and began to fear what she was becoming, or could become.
And yeah, Angela clearly check-mated Denko – if she hadn't, he'd have made a move. H.R.G not going to pieces over Claire's predicament? Again, it runs counter to what we know about these people.
Nah, I'm not going to relent because I didn't like the episode for what I saw – you can throw your interpretation and the possibilities at me all you want, a more constructive debate could be had at the end of the season though… by then, it'll either assume the speculations you put forth, or fall apart. Man, though. I miss Heroes season one – not enough to pretend its still the same show though. I'll leave that to the 30% of the audience that remains.
I would point out to, you are projecting general Heroes negativity on me – I'm actually a fan of the series. Much of what you say has nothing to do with my review of this episode. But feel free to vent your "The World Hates Heroes" frustration on me, I can take it. (And, god, I'm trying to forget that cheesy wink thing… I can't stand the taste of my own bile…)
On your other points, I think you just might be reading me out of context:
Hiro/Ando – They are doing what they have done all season – providing extremely lame comic relief. It was tonally inconsistent, and we can speculate all day that – finally – they'll be used for a good subplot again, but it seems like a bizarro resurgence of the Matt/Suresh two father's thing. In otherwords, self-cliche. (Matt/Sursesh/Molly = Genius, BTW)
Tracy – I wasn't overly excited by this. Her storyline served to reveal rebel and die. Very utilitarian.
Wow. Probably the worst review ever.
Though you make a point in saying that “Cold Snap” didn’t get the viewers people anticipated it would, this seems to be the only VALID point you make.
HRG seems to be trailing both sides of the fence, but for someone who seems to question rather or not the writers are following their own show, you seem to not be doing it either. Fact is, we already know where HRG’s loyalty is: Angela. Everything else he’s doing is because, as said before, he is the LAST one keeping the Heroes safe (well, as safe as they can be).
Since when have you seen ONE episode of a story, that very episode being the beginning of the story, and chalked it up to no connectivity? It’s much too early in Hiro and Ando’s story to claim that there’s no connection to the main plot. I realize it’s your job to try and pick things apart and make them seem bad, but at least have a little bit of credibility in the things you say. Wait until the story unfolds a little more before declaring it isn’t connected to anything.
And finally, I notice you left out probably the most impressive arc of the entire episode: The Ice Queen, Miss Tracy Strauss herself. Or did that whole story with her and Rebel just slip your mind? I won’t even begin to compliment the twists and turns of her story this episode because, if you watched the same episode I did, it should speak for itself.
Moral of the story? Let go of some of your Heroes negativity and start reviewing the show fairly, instead of trying to please the masses of ship-jumpers who no longer watch the show. Anyone who’s anyone can tell you this was a great episode, and not nearly “as good as” the others from this season.
I disagree with you. HRG says coldly that he could give Denko Angela. And when Denko indeed goes after Angela, HRG is nowhere in sight.
I didn’t even begin to dig into the inconsistencies. Wasn’t it just last episode that Denko got humbled in a one on one with Angela due to her possession of a secret file? Angola? Denko saunters off with his tail between his legs?
But that is really only the beginning. HRG was there to keep Claire safe more than anything, but at the end of last weeks episode Claire was on the run from Denko’s agents sweeping in to pick her up. Her Pass was up.
Is any of this ringing bells? Because it wasn’t in Fuller’s episode. In Fuller’s episode it was business as usual for H.R.G. Unless the whole thing was a flashback and they forgot to tell us.
The point is, I wasn’t out to shred the episode as much as I was saying not to necessarily blame Bryan Fuller. If I were out to shred it, I could do it all day long. Being fair also means not being an apologist. If you want to blame someone for the upset over the episode, go to somebody like Aint It Cool News who raised the bar so high by declaring it “The Best Episode since Company Man.”
LOLz.
K, so just to start things off: I”m sure you could go “all day long” in shredding Heroes. However, my point? You can’t do it with consistent arguments. At least, not this volume. Many of your points are reaching, and even the ones you elaborated on just now are as well. Let me clarify…
HRG handed Danko Angela on a silver plate because, as he said, he knew she could handle him. And she did. But riddle me this: was Danko anywhere to be found when the team tried to collect Angela from her car? The correct answer? NO. Not one time. So why would HRG be there?
Speaking of collecting Angela, you call him running off “with his tail between his legs” an inconsistency? Oh, PLEASE. We haven’t seen this guy give up once, not once, and you expected him to just leave Angela be because she schooled him in a restaurant? Did you REALLY think he wouldn’t send someone after her, especially after finding out she’d lied about Nathan and had an ability of her own? HRG even said it himself in the episode: “she can see these things” in reference to when she escaped Danko’s team. He knew she had an ability. What on God’s green Earth makes you see this as inconsistent?
And, again, this brings me back to HRG being everyone’s last hope. Do you really expect him to go “Danko, please don’t take my daughter or I’ll kill you” or “Okay, Danko. Take my daughter. *thinking to himself: In the mean time, I’ll make sure she stays in good hands*”? I guess your logic (if we dare call it that) baffles me, because I haven’t seen one choice of his be inconsistent. Besides…Nathan made the deal with HRG to keep Claire safe, not Danko. I’m sure he knew better than to expect the negotiations to carry over into Danko’s neo-Nazi control.
But enough about HRG. Let’s talk about Hiro and Ando. How do you jump to conclusions like you do and try to call yourself “fair”? You’re assuming Hiro and Ando’s story is going to go into them raising Parkman Jr., but I’ll be damned if I didn’t hear them say they were going to try to find adult Matt and give him his son. Either you’re reading some spoilers I’m not, or you’re making things up.
And finally…you weren’t excited about Tracy? Okay, to each his own. However, for you to say her storyline served only to reveal Rebel and die shows me you’re one of those Heroes fans that can never truly be pleased. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you were one of those people who shouted “WOE IS ME! Heroes has no character development anymore” last volume, seeing as you say the show is steadily sinking. And here we are, developing Tracy like it’s August of 1974 (look at her Wiki and you might get that), and you chalk her entire story arc this episode up to revealing Rebel and dying? Aside from the fact that any person who saw this episode with the IQ of 57 could tell you she’s not dead, this episode clearly dove into a character that had previously been 2-dimensional and fleshed her out. If that’s not good characterization, I don’t know what is.
Anything else? Or do you relent? Fact is, I don’t care if you liked the episode or not. Like I said earlier, to each his own. But you reviewing this episode the way you did, and spitting out negativity about it when there wasn’t much negative, just rubs me the wrong way. Mostly because you’re reviewing a show, and I feel you owe it to your readers to do it “fairly.”
I did, and you clearly disagree. I appreciate your passion for the show, god knows there are shows I would certainly defend to the end of time; however, your defense against the inconsistency is mostly speculations. I don’t understand what ‘development’ there was for Tracy? She’s been several different people from the beginning of the season, so having her sacrifice herself to save Micah – deciding in the course of an episode to go from selfish to selfless – wasn’t a huge character turn to me. I was more interested in her when she killed the Greatest American Hero and began to fear what she was becoming, or could become.
And yeah, Angela clearly check-mated Denko – if she hadn’t, he’d have made a move. H.R.G not going to pieces over Claire’s predicament? Again, it runs counter to what we know about these people.
Nah, I’m not going to relent because I didn’t like the episode for what I saw – you can throw your interpretation and the possibilities at me all you want, a more constructive debate could be had at the end of the season though… by then, it’ll either assume the speculations you put forth, or fall apart. Man, though. I miss Heroes season one – not enough to pretend its still the same show though. I’ll leave that to the 30% of the audience that remains.
I would point out to, you are projecting general Heroes negativity on me – I’m actually a fan of the series. Much of what you say has nothing to do with my review of this episode. But feel free to vent your “The World Hates Heroes” frustration on me, I can take it. (And, god, I’m trying to forget that cheesy wink thing… I can’t stand the taste of my own bile…)
On your other points, I think you just might be reading me out of context:
Hiro/Ando – They are doing what they have done all season – providing extremely lame comic relief. It was tonally inconsistent, and we can speculate all day that – finally – they’ll be used for a good subplot again, but it seems like a bizarro resurgence of the Matt/Suresh two father’s thing. In otherwords, self-cliche. (Matt/Sursesh/Molly = Genius, BTW)
Tracy – I wasn’t overly excited by this. Her storyline served to reveal rebel and die. Very utilitarian.
Well, I thought the episode sucked. Granted, it didn't suck as bad as some of the others, and its still better than 90%, well okay, 80% of television out there, but it still wasn't up to par for the Heroes I love. Now, I'm a fan, and a loyal one, so I'll watch this show til they cancel it, but that doesn't mean its living up to its expectations.
The only part of this episode I liked was the Daphne/Parkman part of it. The Rebel part was instantly predictable at the beginning of the episode, at least for me. I admit, I had no idea before this episode who it was, but as soon as they said REbel had been in contact with Tracey, I instantly said, "Its Micah." After that, there weren't any more tricks and turns in that story. I still enjoyed it more than the rest of the episode though (other than Daphne/Parkman). I like Micah and am glad he's back.
I will sadly admit that Micah was not obvious to me even though he should have been. but even there, they got his power wrong for a second. When he turned on the sprinklers he did it with some gadget. His power is to interface with his mind, he's not James Bond.
He always uses gadgets, it was a phone baack in the first seasons…
Well, I thought the episode sucked. Granted, it didn’t suck as bad as some of the others, and its still better than 90%, well okay, 80% of television out there, but it still wasn’t up to par for the Heroes I love. Now, I’m a fan, and a loyal one, so I’ll watch this show til they cancel it, but that doesn’t mean its living up to its expectations.
The only part of this episode I liked was the Daphne/Parkman part of it. The Rebel part was instantly predictable at the beginning of the episode, at least for me. I admit, I had no idea before this episode who it was, but as soon as they said REbel had been in contact with Tracey, I instantly said, “Its Micah.” After that, there weren’t any more tricks and turns in that story. I still enjoyed it more than the rest of the episode though (other than Daphne/Parkman). I like Micah and am glad he’s back.
I will sadly admit that Micah was not obvious to me even though he should have been. but even there, they got his power wrong for a second. When he turned on the sprinklers he did it with some gadget. His power is to interface with his mind, he’s not James Bond.
He always uses gadgets, it was a phone baack in the first seasons…
I really liked the episode. I think it was one of the best of the series. Whoever wrote this article doesn't know what he's talking about.
Oh, I didn't hate the episode. I especially loved how Peter happened to be hanging out in that elevator shaft. Pure. Genius.
I really liked the episode. I think it was one of the best of the series. Whoever wrote this article doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Oh, I didn’t hate the episode. I especially loved how Peter happened to be hanging out in that elevator shaft. Pure. Genius.
I should note that I fully anticipate a herd of zealots to apologize for this episode; so let me get this out of the way: I respect your right to love this episode. This season of Heroes works just fine for some of you, and that's cool (about, what, 30% of the original audience.) However, don't let your love for Heroes lead you to believe that defending it will be easy. If this were a 'review' more than a statement of how over-hyped the episode was, I'd surely have drawn and quartered it. If you want to defend the episode, you'd be much better off commenting in the thread at Aint It Cool News, where Hercules kissed NBC's tush by declaring it the best episode since "Company Man" and subsequently got attacked by a ravenous horde of haters. He needs your support. You'll accomplish nothing by flaming me. Put your energy to good use by defending the very Hype machine that is to blame for everybody's disappointment with Heroes – the chuckle-head media zealots who would rather swallow their bile and give a positive review in fear of losing their precious media contacts. Herpes set visit for Hercules? You can count on it.
I should note that I fully anticipate a herd of zealots to apologize for this episode; so let me get this out of the way: I respect your right to love this episode. This season of Heroes works just fine for some of you, and that’s cool (about, what, 30% of the original audience.) However, don’t let your love for Heroes lead you to believe that defending it will be easy. If this were a ‘review’ more than a statement of how over-hyped the episode was, I’d surely have drawn and quartered it. If you want to defend the episode, you’d be much better off commenting in the thread at Aint It Cool News, where Hercules kissed NBC’s tush by declaring it the best episode since “Company Man” and subsequently got attacked by a ravenous horde of haters. He needs your support. You’ll accomplish nothing by flaming me. Put your energy to good use by defending the very Hype machine that is to blame for everybody’s disappointment with Heroes – the chuckle-head media zealots who would rather swallow their bile and give a positive review in fear of losing their precious media contacts. Herpes set visit for Hercules? You can count on it.
The episode really didn't fill me with delight or concern. I had no idea going into it that it was Bryan Fuller's return episode, so I had no anticipation that it would be anything better (or worse) that the other episodes of the season. So although I don't think it sucked, by any means, I really am more perplexed that some of you loved it so much. Did you watch season 1? Have you seen this show at its best? Because while I could swallow not so great, and I could swallow good, hell I could even swallow pretty darned good for this season, I have a really hard time with "one of the best of the series" and even "Great episode" is hard to swallow for me. But, to each his own…
The episode really didn’t fill me with delight or concern. I had no idea going into it that it was Bryan Fuller’s return episode, so I had no anticipation that it would be anything better (or worse) that the other episodes of the season. So although I don’t think it sucked, by any means, I really am more perplexed that some of you loved it so much. Did you watch season 1? Have you seen this show at its best? Because while I could swallow not so great, and I could swallow good, hell I could even swallow pretty darned good for this season, I have a really hard time with “one of the best of the series” and even “Great episode” is hard to swallow for me. But, to each his own…