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lathanyNext up, the writers' strike season.
Season Two - Generations
11 episodes
Season two had 17 million for its opener, then dropped to 12 million which it kept across the rest of the season. It's hard to judge season two without mentioning that it was hit by the writers' strike (and it's not clear how much impact that had, but probably a lot). I thought it was a worse season than one, but still had plus points. Its main advantages were that it changed the set-up of the characters, it advanced and mutated some powers, that it (like season one) had a couple of mini-arcs and that it swapped around many of the season one groups and pairings. It's minuses were practically all the new characters were dull or unconnected, that it was starting to have a real problem with over-powered characters, that it had bloaty storylines that weren't interesting, that it continued with themes that season one had effectively done, that it constantly wanted to split everyone up and that most of the main plotlines sucked.
In detail
Taking the good stuff point by point; the new set-up was lovely. I practically cheered when it turned out Noah and Mohinder were working together and likewise that Matt made detective. Also the new set-up for each of the Petrelli family was great.
Moving on to the powers; I liked that the powers developed - particularly that Adam/Claire's changed into limb regrowth, cure illness and staying young (although I thought resurrection from the blood was taking it too far). Similarly, I liked Matt's move into nightmares and that suggestion was a plausible advance (although it meant that he now had Eden's power as well). It's perhaps worth saying here that I also liked Monica's power and felt it had a lot of potential.
The mini-arc relating to Maury was, in my view, rather good. He's first linked to Molly, but later it becomes apparent that he's The Bad's henchman and attacked Angela. Matt taking him out is one of the best sequences in season two and it's very appropriate to the character of Matt. I also liked the arc relating to the mystery behind Peter's disappearance. Not to mention that Four Months Ago is an episode I'd rate up with season one.
Finally, season 2 swapped round the pairings among the characters. Mohinder and Noah I have already mentioned, but Matt and Nathan was also great - probably the best new match-up of the lot. Also I liked that Peter and Hiro, both previously central characters, were out on their own.
Now for the bad stuff - starting with the new characters. There were seven of them and Elle was the only one who was a hit, Bob and Monica were OK, but the other four sucked. The twins fell into a pattern they repeated episode by episode - Twins get into trouble, Maya cries, Alejandro reverses it, twins now out of trouble, but twins still not in New York. West wasn't a particularly attractive character and he didn't even have a new power. Adam, similarly, had an old power, but I think his real problem was that I didn't find him believable in his dual role. Perhaps making Takezo Kensei English was a step too far, I don't know, I just know I couldn't manage the suspension of disbelieve for Takezo despite being a fan of David Anders.
Overpowering was the next problem. Technically Peter, Hiro (and at the end, Sylar) had those powers in the first season, but they didn't have full control. Now that they did have that control it seemed that the writers were desperately scrabbling around to find other stuff to balance them. The fixes felt forced.
Third up is the bloaty storylines. None of the three romances worked. On top of that, all of them were taking up loads of air time (particularly West-Claire). However, cutesy daddies-daughter scenes with the Molly/Matt/Mohinder trio also felt slow and padded. And I think I've whinged about the twins air time already for what was effectively setting repeat on the video.
There were two main continued themes that ran from season one. The first was the introduction of Gina - which I found utterly unforgivable as the main accomplishment that Niki managed in season one was to get rid of her other personality. However, equally irritating because it lasted all season instead of an episode, was the Claire-Noah lack of trust stuff. In season one it was excellent and worked. However, it had been done in season one (with three times the air-time of Peter-Nathan which was the next most common pairing) and the writers needed to move on to new interactions and make them interesting instead of returning to the one they'd been praised for.
Splitting everyone up seemed odd and I wondered if it had to do with pairings of actors being easier to film. But the fact is that there were almost never more than two Heroes on screen and it was a real shame when they'd finally met up at the end of season one. Not least 'cos you'd think they would want to remain in contact with each other because of the shared weirdness.
Finally, the main plots. Looking back, I think the mystery over who killed Kaito was really good and it should have taken centre stage more often (and David Anders was a great Adam compared to a naff Takezo Kensei). However... what the hell were Noah and Mohinder doing? I mean how were they going to take down the Company? For the man-with-the-plan, this was a planless movement that seemed to amount to hoping Isaac had painted something useful. That was my biggest disappointment of season two, that Noah and Mohinder had no plan whatsoever to take down the company. Oh, and the plague was naff too - it just seemed like a large version of last season's New York thing.
Summary and comparisons with season one
In short, season two managed a good set-up and some decent mini-arcs, of a similar standard to one, but introduced only one decent character (Elle) despite devoting a lot of time and episode space to new characters. However, it's biggest failings in comparison to one were it sucked at grand plot and many of the less interesting threads were bloaty leading to a lack of pace.
Tim Kring comments
Tim Kring did comment on season two mid-season here (the Nov 5 episode was Out of Time in which Maury is taken down by Matt). For this interview, it sounds as though he's got the gist of the problems - too slow, the new characters too out on a limb, Hiro stuck in Japan for ages and bad romances. About the only thing I disagree with is the World-Saving stakes - I honestly think they should have gone with something else (like the Kaito murder series).
Kring also commented after the season finale, if anyone's interested in what he said between seasons. In short, he's pleased that Zackery Quinto is around for more Sylar (which, as is clear from my other comments, I was not - Sylar should have died at the end of one); he indicated that Elle may play a hero in future; he alludes to Primatech having locked up many people over the years; and says that the villains from the earlier seasons will gather together in the same way as the heroes did. He also refuses to be drawn on the fates of Nathan and Niki.
1 Monica, Elle, West, Maya, Alejandro, Bob, Adam.
Season Two - Generations
11 episodes
Season two had 17 million for its opener, then dropped to 12 million which it kept across the rest of the season. It's hard to judge season two without mentioning that it was hit by the writers' strike (and it's not clear how much impact that had, but probably a lot). I thought it was a worse season than one, but still had plus points. Its main advantages were that it changed the set-up of the characters, it advanced and mutated some powers, that it (like season one) had a couple of mini-arcs and that it swapped around many of the season one groups and pairings. It's minuses were practically all the new characters were dull or unconnected, that it was starting to have a real problem with over-powered characters, that it had bloaty storylines that weren't interesting, that it continued with themes that season one had effectively done, that it constantly wanted to split everyone up and that most of the main plotlines sucked.
In detail
Taking the good stuff point by point; the new set-up was lovely. I practically cheered when it turned out Noah and Mohinder were working together and likewise that Matt made detective. Also the new set-up for each of the Petrelli family was great.
Moving on to the powers; I liked that the powers developed - particularly that Adam/Claire's changed into limb regrowth, cure illness and staying young (although I thought resurrection from the blood was taking it too far). Similarly, I liked Matt's move into nightmares and that suggestion was a plausible advance (although it meant that he now had Eden's power as well). It's perhaps worth saying here that I also liked Monica's power and felt it had a lot of potential.
The mini-arc relating to Maury was, in my view, rather good. He's first linked to Molly, but later it becomes apparent that he's The Bad's henchman and attacked Angela. Matt taking him out is one of the best sequences in season two and it's very appropriate to the character of Matt. I also liked the arc relating to the mystery behind Peter's disappearance. Not to mention that Four Months Ago is an episode I'd rate up with season one.
Finally, season 2 swapped round the pairings among the characters. Mohinder and Noah I have already mentioned, but Matt and Nathan was also great - probably the best new match-up of the lot. Also I liked that Peter and Hiro, both previously central characters, were out on their own.
Now for the bad stuff - starting with the new characters. There were seven of them and Elle was the only one who was a hit, Bob and Monica were OK, but the other four sucked. The twins fell into a pattern they repeated episode by episode - Twins get into trouble, Maya cries, Alejandro reverses it, twins now out of trouble, but twins still not in New York. West wasn't a particularly attractive character and he didn't even have a new power. Adam, similarly, had an old power, but I think his real problem was that I didn't find him believable in his dual role. Perhaps making Takezo Kensei English was a step too far, I don't know, I just know I couldn't manage the suspension of disbelieve for Takezo despite being a fan of David Anders.
Overpowering was the next problem. Technically Peter, Hiro (and at the end, Sylar) had those powers in the first season, but they didn't have full control. Now that they did have that control it seemed that the writers were desperately scrabbling around to find other stuff to balance them. The fixes felt forced.
Third up is the bloaty storylines. None of the three romances worked. On top of that, all of them were taking up loads of air time (particularly West-Claire). However, cutesy daddies-daughter scenes with the Molly/Matt/Mohinder trio also felt slow and padded. And I think I've whinged about the twins air time already for what was effectively setting repeat on the video.
There were two main continued themes that ran from season one. The first was the introduction of Gina - which I found utterly unforgivable as the main accomplishment that Niki managed in season one was to get rid of her other personality. However, equally irritating because it lasted all season instead of an episode, was the Claire-Noah lack of trust stuff. In season one it was excellent and worked. However, it had been done in season one (with three times the air-time of Peter-Nathan which was the next most common pairing) and the writers needed to move on to new interactions and make them interesting instead of returning to the one they'd been praised for.
Splitting everyone up seemed odd and I wondered if it had to do with pairings of actors being easier to film. But the fact is that there were almost never more than two Heroes on screen and it was a real shame when they'd finally met up at the end of season one. Not least 'cos you'd think they would want to remain in contact with each other because of the shared weirdness.
Finally, the main plots. Looking back, I think the mystery over who killed Kaito was really good and it should have taken centre stage more often (and David Anders was a great Adam compared to a naff Takezo Kensei). However... what the hell were Noah and Mohinder doing? I mean how were they going to take down the Company? For the man-with-the-plan, this was a planless movement that seemed to amount to hoping Isaac had painted something useful. That was my biggest disappointment of season two, that Noah and Mohinder had no plan whatsoever to take down the company. Oh, and the plague was naff too - it just seemed like a large version of last season's New York thing.
Summary and comparisons with season one
In short, season two managed a good set-up and some decent mini-arcs, of a similar standard to one, but introduced only one decent character (Elle) despite devoting a lot of time and episode space to new characters. However, it's biggest failings in comparison to one were it sucked at grand plot and many of the less interesting threads were bloaty leading to a lack of pace.
Tim Kring comments
Tim Kring did comment on season two mid-season here (the Nov 5 episode was Out of Time in which Maury is taken down by Matt). For this interview, it sounds as though he's got the gist of the problems - too slow, the new characters too out on a limb, Hiro stuck in Japan for ages and bad romances. About the only thing I disagree with is the World-Saving stakes - I honestly think they should have gone with something else (like the Kaito murder series).
Kring also commented after the season finale, if anyone's interested in what he said between seasons. In short, he's pleased that Zackery Quinto is around for more Sylar (which, as is clear from my other comments, I was not - Sylar should have died at the end of one); he indicated that Elle may play a hero in future; he alludes to Primatech having locked up many people over the years; and says that the villains from the earlier seasons will gather together in the same way as the heroes did. He also refuses to be drawn on the fates of Nathan and Niki.
1 Monica, Elle, West, Maya, Alejandro, Bob, Adam.
