Word’s out today that a couple of the characters from Heroes last season may not, in fact, actually be dead. It’s doubtful that this will be enough to bring me back to watch Season 2 – I still think the writing near the end of the first season was pretty lousy. But it is interesting that Kring has provided an ‘out’ for these characters. I’ll probably sit back and listen to reviews. If they end up being positive enough, maybe I’ll catch up.
Tags: heroes, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
Season 1 of Heroes goes on sale August 28th. Nope, I won’t be buying it.
Tags: heroes, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
As much as I don’t get this whole zombie, craze, this interview is actually quite funny.
Tags: horror, Speculative Fiction, zombies
I’m currently working my way through Sara Douglass’ The Wayfarer Redemption series. It’s a maddeningly enjoyable 6-volume fantasy series about a warrior’s magical quest to reunite the land Tencendor and defeat an evil monster bent on total destruction.
The series is maddening in two ways. The first is in the style of storytelling that Douglass employs. The series is built on a cryptic prophecy foretelling the rise of the evil Gorgrael and the powerful Starman, the latter of whom will find it his destiny to defeat the former (if he can) and reunite the three races – the Acharties, the Icarii, and the Avar – into one land once again. As a result of the prophetic foundation of the series, there are numerous mysteries to be unwrapped and pieced together. It’s almost frustrating to read through a passage and have it make almost no sense whatsoever – Douglass really likes to use foreshadowing without giving away too much of the actual story – only to have to wait while things occur to finally place that passage into context, but it’s also really fun to watch as those cryptic sections are made clear in subsequent chapters. I have to admit to being captivated by her choice of technique, even if it does drive me nuts at points. Almost every chapter has something new to add to the mysteries of the Prophecy, so the plot never seems to get bogged down.
I don’t know if The Wayfarer Redemption is Douglass’ debut novel or what, but it takes a little while to gain its momentum. In my experience, it seems that authors have the most trouble getting the backstory set in place while also keeping it interesting. The opening pages of the series are interesting enough in their own right – they certainly contain the promise of more exciting things to come – but they are a bit difficult to get through initially. I also had a little trouble getting around some of Douglass’ syntactical structures and writing techniques in the first book. A lot of the dialogue felt wooden and forced, very unlike the way anyone in real life would speak. A number of behaviors seemed rather false, as well, and more than a little too convenient for the sake of plot development. Some of these things can be attributed to Australian speech, I’m sure, but some can’t be quite so easily written off. The story itself is solid, though, and highly enjoyable, despite the rough execution.
Enchanter is the second book in the series, and where Wayfarer slips up, Enchanter more than makes up for. Where dialogue and storytelling in the first book fell short of sounding natural, they flow smoothly and elegantly in the second to make a much more enjoyable and fast-paced story. More riddles, more questions, and more mysteries surface, while many others are resolved. And all through it, Douglass still manages to leave the actual intentions and motives of the influence behind Gorgrael in question. She also further develops her characters’ believability by demonstrating their flaws and weaknesses in addition to each of their great strengths.
I’ve only just begun Starman, the third installment of the series, and again I’m actually finding it somewhat hard to get into. For starters, there are a lot of typos throughout the opening pages, and for this literature and English buff, they’re quite distracting. The focus in the third book has shifted slightly, though – in Enchanter the hero Axis must face his human half-brother before he can think about facing Gorgrael. That conflict resolves itself in the final pages of that book, and Starman must pick up from there and develop the setting and context for the battle with Gorgrael. Characters have separated ways and new ones are introduced, and as a result the overall pace has slowed down. I fully expect it to pick back up again soon, but for now Douglass must set the tone for the next segment of her series. The storytelling is still enchanting, but it is still maddening in its teasing questions.
Douglass favors a shifting viewpoint approach to her storytelling. In any given section, the viewpoint will move through an entire array of characters. This can sometimes be a little difficult to follow. I’ve surmised, though, that she seems to be following a third-person omniscient point-of-view with this. Not only do we find out what most of the characters in the scene are thinking in a given moment, but she also takes many opportunities to tease the reader with foreshadowing by telling how one action, usually small and insignificant at the time, will prove to have a certain kind of effect on other characters in the future. I’m not sure I’m overly thrilled with the technique, but as I said before I really like the story she tells so I can live with a certain level of distracting writing. Douglass does tell a good story, despite the things I’ve pointed out, and I think that just about anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction will probably also like this series.
Tags: enchanter, fantasy-fiction, sara-douglass, Speculative Fiction, starman, the-wayfarer-redemption
What’s this fascination our culture has with zombies, anyway? I mean, if you’ve read one zombie story, you’ve read them all – the undead come back to life, looking all gross and scary, with no minds of their own, their only desire to eat your brains. But everyone lately seems utterly enthralled by the topic – movies, books, short stories, artwork, discussion threads about what you would do if zombies took over your town. Personally, I’ve always found zombies to be gross and, well, kind of boring. It’s one of the goriest subject matters in horror fiction, and I’ve yet to see what’s so interesting about them. I think the closest I ever got to enjoying something zombie-related was one episode of Angel where they had to defeat a shaman who was using dead cops to create a zombie army. And even then, as much as I like Joss Whedon’s stuff, I was glad when the episode was over. I was, as stated previously, pretty bored with the topic. Zombies just aren’t that interesting to me.
So, perhaps someone who does find them interesting and fascinating could explain to me why, ‘cuz I’m really not seeing it.
Tags: angel, horror, joss-whedon, Speculative Fiction, zombies
Well, Season One of Heroes is now complete, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll even bother tuning in for Season Two. Tim Kring has me that upset with his piss-poor writing. I could have written a better show here, and I’ve been tempted to draft a couple of sample scripts for episodes myself just to prove that I can. Mind you, I don’t want an X-Men knock-off here. That’s been done already, and by much better writers than Kring. But Kring’s premise for the show was fabulous. In the X-Men series, you have mutants who effectively become larger than life. In Heroes you have regular people coming into their abilities who just want to continue being regular people. Kring tried to tackle this subject – and failed. Miserably. What he ended up with were weak, pathetic people who were never really able to get a handle on who they were now. His characters all felt watered-down and washed out.
The moral of the show came out in the final monologue – the hero’s true values are not the powers he possesses but the people he comes into contact with and loves – but I suspect that moral will have gotten lost in the absolutely terrible way the show ended. I can even see how Kring tried to demonstrate this moral in each of his characters’ development throughout the season, but I think it could have been done much better.
Kring can write drama (albeit, not well), and he can certainly handle suspense (he had me on the edge of my seat more often than not this season) – but I’m convinced that Kring has no clue how to write conflict. Every single instance of conflict in every episode was like a flashbang – loud and noisy but ultimately causing no real damage. For instance, the first fight with Peter and Sylar was over before it even began. Peter hardly put up a real fight and then somehow (conveniently) ended up with his back to Sylar. Likewise, the final battle with Sylar was sloppy and chaotic. Niki had one solid strike in, and Peter, who supposedly has all this power and great ability, opts to use his frickin’ fists on Sylar’s face? Remember? The guy with the great telekinetic ability? And of course Hiro’s little jab was cheesy and completely unbelievable. But there are others, as well. Niki’s physical attacks were always one strike, and then it was either the victim was rendered unconscious or Kring decided it was to cut to another scene. See? Even he realized he had no grasp on writing conflict. Turns out, it was just easier for him to change the subject rather than let us see that too soon. But he couldn’t avoid that in the final battle, and there we got to see what a hack he truly is.
I’m disappointed in the lack of real character development in this season. It’s my opinion that Kring set too high a goal by creating so many characters for himself. Some TV writers could have developed whole, well-rounded characters that only got richer and fuller as the season went on (see: Joss Whedon). Kring’s characters, if anything, seemed to become more shallow and faded the closer to the finale we got. I don’t feel like any of them really grew or developed all that much, mostly because they simply continued to react to events around them rather than becoming stronger and taking a more proactive stance. Sure, there were many feints and attempts at action – Hiro’s first attempt to destroy Sylar, Peter and Claire searching New York, Parkman and Bennett going after Molly – but mostly everyone seemed to be trying to run away.
Conspiracies were revealed, and only some of the answers were given. This part I’m fine with – I like a little suspense. But the pacing was all wrong. I could deal with the first half dozen episodes kind of dragging out answers for us, but they never really seemed to gather any steam from there. Kring knew he had a good thing with the cliffhanger, but then couldn’t seem to find the courage to move behind the cliffhanger and give us some real action. All these characters had such great potential to become true superheroes, to develop and become true forces for good. Sadly, I think he mostly ended up with superflops, and this is why this former fan may not be able to stomach tuning in for Season Two next fall.
I loved the principle of this show. I think it had merit. Frankly, I think it still does. But I think Kring needs to concede control of the writing to someone else, someone who can actually write for TV and do these characters justice. They have the potential to be inspiring, engaging, and interesting. Right now, they’re… not. I think I’m almost sorry now I even got hooked on this show. It certainly didn’t meet my expectations in the end.
Tags: heroes, Rants, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
I’ve little good to say about this season finale. To say it was anti-climactic would be a major understatement. It was simply terrible.
Sure, Kring tied up most of his loose ends – Claire found her adoptive father again, Niki finally banished the demon of Jessica and reunited with Micah and D.L., Hiro fulfilled his fate and saved Ando at the same time, Parkman did his part to stop Sylar (albeit ending up in critical condition), Mohinder has a new cause, and Peter and Nathan saved the world – or at least, New York City. Kring also managed to open some new doors, alluding to a villain worse than Sylar who can see Molly when she thinks about him. Sylar, of course, isn’t dead, but we knew this would be the case. Questions were raised about Simone’s father, questions that I suspect will forever go unanswered; I simply don’t think we’ll ever really get to see much about this elusive and shadowy group of which Linderman, Peter’s mom, and Simone’s father were all a part, let alone what made them special to begin with.
There was so much bad writing in this episode that I hardly know where to begin. Niki and Candace’s face-off was weak and pathetic – a couple of punches thrown, and it was all over. And somehow that was Niki’s catalyst for putting Jessica behind her. Somehow.
Nathan’s inner dilemma was there, but if you weren’t paying attention, you could almost miss it completely. In fact, had it not been for his mother saying something to him (“I know what you’re thinking, Nathan – don’t do it.”), it’s likely that it would have gone completely unnoticed. Shoddy writing, to be sure.
And what was up with that “fight” with Sylar at the end? I use the word “fight” loosely here, because there really wasn’t much of a fight at all. Sylar shows up, puts Peter in a choke he can’t break (even though he was put in a very similar choke hold by the invisible man during his training which he broke free of just fine there), and then gets knocked down by Niki. Fine, I can accept that he might have gotten blindsided there. But then Peter tells Niki to go to her family and get them out of there, which she does – without argument. And then she doesn’t get her family away. What?! Niki, are you feeling alright?
Then, Sylar is able to stop Peter cold in his tracks, even stops bullets from Parkman’s gun (and throws them back at him), but he gives Hiro a 10-foot running start at him and doesn’t prevent him from running him through?! I don’t get what Kring was going for here. Any moron can see that this sequence of events just completely breaks the suspension of disbelief. I’m sorry, sir – I’m not buying anything today. You’re going to have to do much better than that to convince me that Sylar didn’t see that one coming. It would have been much more convincing if Hiro had teleported around Sylar several times, keeping him on his toes, then appearing suddenly in front him with the instant fatal jab through the chest. Instead, we got a paltry running Japanese man that anyone would have had time to sidestep to let him fall flat on his face. And Sylar wouldn’t have had to work that hard at it.
And the final coup de grac on this whole fiasco – Nathan and Peter doing the noble thing and sacrificing themselves for the world (or at least, New York City). I hate to break it to you, Mr. Kring, there was no victory in this, no triumph, no glory. Only pathetic writing that says to me that you didn’t know what the heck it was you intended to do here. Peter overcame nothing, learned nothing, mastered nothing. Nathan’s sudden appearance to save the day was cheap and flimsy, unsurprising insofar as it went – he was never more than a paper character to begin with. And instead of having the cheerleader truly save the world by being the one to help Peter control his nuclear ability, she stood by helplessly while Heroes went to hell because the most powerful hero of them all couldn’t even save himself.
Peter may not be truly dead, of course – his ability to heal will likely have saved him from that fate. But Nathan is almost certainly gone, and maybe Season 2 will be the stronger for it. When all is said and done, though, I think this was probably the single worst episode of the entire season. I was expecting some huge climactic event to happen here. The entire season was building toward one – or at least trying to, if Kring hadn’t kept getting in the way. If nothing else, the final battle with Sylar should have been huge, epic, and nearly apocalyptic. But no – like everything else about this show, it fizzled, turning Heroes into a 23-episode fart.
Thanks very much, Mr. Kring. You’ve just ensured that I will never watch anything you write or produce ever again.
Tags: heroes, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
Next to last episode of the season, and this one comes with a bit of the good and a bit of the bad. Let’s start with the bad.
Once again, Mr. Kring demonstrates a bad case of clumsy screen-writing. He’s driving at a goal, that being the impression that the future simply cannot be changed. Everything that Hiro and Ando saw in the future is coming to pass. People are dying, and the dominoes are lining up to create exactly the bleak future that we witnessed just a couple of episodes. We knew this was coming, though. The season finale has to end on this climax. What is going to matter is those final five minutes before the blast.
But Kring is taking shortcuts in the writing, cutting corners on plot points because, quite simply, he’s running out of time to tell his story. We need Hiro to be more warrior and less comic book geek. So, we have him spend a couple of hours – at most – sparring with his father, learning in that time fighting techniques that take a lifetime to master. This is all forgetting, of course, that those techniques are virtually worthless against the likes of Sylar. With a flick of his fingers, he can freeze Hiro right in place and take the top off his head. Hiro’s only true advantage over Sylar is in maintaining his focus on concentration at holding time in place while he makes the heart-thrust necessary to end the villain. But of course, even this cannot happen – Kring tells us that Sylar’s evil will continue.
Ando is a bit of a puzzle. At one moment he is Hiro’s faithful puppy-dog, encouraging him with his absolute devotion and trust, and the next he’s taking matters into his own hands because he’s so sure that Hiro is going to bail out on his duty to save the world. This, too, is Kring trying to drive the plot toward its fateful conclusion, but this element also reeks of clumsiness.
Niki/Jessica is still an almost pointless character. Who is she right now, aside from a driven and protective mother with super-strength? We saw in this episode the beginnings of what I believe is finally the merger of these two split personalities into a cohesive whole. But we’ve still hardly seen what this woman can really do. She’s ruthless, we know, and she is adept at the art of killing. But there is much more potential here than a pseudo-evil Wonder Woman – which makes me wonder if Kring will ever really tap into this potential. We caught a glimpse of what Niki can be in this episode. I want to see it taken further.
Those two gripes aside, the rest of what I’ve seen has been good. Really good.
The heroes are all grouping together now, using their abilities together to accomplish common goals. This is almost as thrilling now as those first three or four episodes where the characters were just beginning to realize they are special. We’re starting to see just what they can do, both individually and as teams. Some of it’s a little cheesy, even yet – like D.L.’s method of getting himself and Jessica through security in Linderman’s building – but it’s a start and most of it’s actually pretty good.
And the one thing element that I think has, for the most part, been strong all the way through the season is the character development. Each one has their own inner turmoils and dilemmas, their conflicts that continually put them between a rock and a hard place and force them to make conscious decisions. All of them, it seems, want to do what is right – none of them are sure what the right thing is to do. And so we see our heroes continually working together and then seemingly again at odds. It is a complex array of storytelling that weaves together for one larger, broader narrative, one that the city of New York may not survive.
Tags: heroes, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
“Our gods are dead. We have killed them, and now we don’t know what to do with the bodies.”
Brother Lucius, Hierarch, Order of Kalesto
Tags: fantasy, fiction, Speculative Fiction, Writing
It’s nice to see some lingering humanity in our favorite villain. He’s still a monster – but apparently he’s got a code of ethics, such as it is. Sylar kills the other Specials, takes their abilities, because he views them as being unworthy. He sees himself as the only one worthy to carry all these abilities and use them – though to what purpose and end we don’t know. But, when faced with the prospect that he may end up destroying millions of ‘innocents’ who have no special abilities, he hesitates and wrestles with the illogical nature of this seeming moral quandary.
Sylar still loves his mother, and in fact, seeks her approval. She herself seems to be the sort of self-involved woman who is utterly incapable of dealing with reality as it is. She has to create a fiction in her mind, both for herself and for her son, a sort of watered-down delusion of the way she thinks things ought to be. She wants her son Gabriel to be special, to be something more than he is – while he wants nothing more than to be normal again.
For the first time, we realize that Sylar is actually caught in a dilemma. He has suddenly found himself to be Special and is compelled to become even more special. We find in this episode, though, that this compulsion is driven with the power of an obsessive-compulsive. It seems that, all things being equal, if Sylar had the power to do so he would change things so that all people could be normal again, equal again, if only so he himself could find inner peace.
Sylar’s view of the other Specials seems to be mixed – at times he almost seems to harbor some small amount of guilt over his killings, but at others he sounds both vengeful and justified in them. And his reticence to kill millions of innocents adds another layer to his character that begs a question – were he to acquire all of the specials of all the Specials out there, what then would he do? Would he then use them to ‘protect’ those selfsame innocents through ruthless dictatorship? This is a question that we will likely never see an answer to. For now, Sylar himself may not know the answer to that question. He is simply driven to acquire more power from those too unworthy to carry them.
We continue to drive relentlessly toward the climax of the season. The heroes are gathering in New York, and we are left with Peter beginning to absorb Ted’s power. Hiro’s sword has been broken, though it seems to work every bit as well to help him focus his power. Mikah is in New York – for whatever Linderman’s purpose is for him; Niki and DL are looking for him. Parkman and Ted are with HRG now, as well as with Claire and Peter. And Nathan is being asked by his mother – who is apparently one of Linderman’s inner circle and who may herself possess some sort of ability we have to see – to allow the bomb and restore hope to the world in the aftermath. The plot thickens, as they say, and we can only speculate as to what will happen next.
Tags: heroes, science-fiction, Speculative Fiction, tv
