Waking up and Leaving Las Vegas

Nice. The cat woke me up at 5am instead of 5:45am, which was when the alarm was set to go off. So I decided to knock off an hour and watch last night's Heroes episode, Cautionary Tales on NBC's website. Having NBC stream their shows is very nice for the one who does not have cable or basic channels. I thought the episode was so-so. In an interview, the guy who plays the horned rimmed glasses guy, Noah Bennett, said it was one of the best episodes they've ever done - which is a bit of an overstatement if you ask me. I suppose he said that because he felt like the episode had some real punch - we learn who killed Hiro's father (gasp! Adam Monroe? Who didn't know this by now?), that Adam was basically immortal (duh), that Matt Parkman can manipulate minds as well as read and communicate with them (Wow. A telepath can do that?! No way), and how Isaac's paintings would come true. The one question I had was how the paintings would both come true and Noah would stay on the show, but I figured that out once Suresh shot Noah in the eye. After learning in the last episode that Adam's blood can be used via transfusion to heal other people, I figured the blood Bob had drawn fifteen minutes earlier from Claire would probably be used that way. How? Elementary my dear Watson! The Horned Rimmed Glasses Man is super-sweet and popular. Ergo, comic book death only for him.

I tell you the one thing that really worries me about Season two are: (a) Tim Kring's public lamentation over how sorry he is that the first third of the season was "so slow," and (b) the writer's strike. Together, I figure the show's on the verge of being cancelled, despite being the #1 hit of the previous year. Apparently, for all the sophistication of the modern television viewer, the pacing of this season has been too complicated. I have not myself minded at all, but I've long since realized I'm a horrible gauge of the typical American viewer. Kring basically tore his shirt and rubbed ash on his face when a few weeks ago he apologized profusely for this season. That makes me worry that the rest of this season is going to be a deviation from his original story, which hopefully won't backfire and end up being an "overshooting" sort of thing as he tries to readjust. If you had a narrative arc mapped out, then how does this season's struggling ratings combined with the writer's strike change that? Lost has 6 episodes in the can plus 2 scripts written, meaning they'll own the spring of the strike doesn't end soon. I worry that that means Heroes will be returning to the small screen after having lost the chance to recover from its bumpy beginnings this season, which may be the one thing that even Claire Bennett cannot heal.

Did you see that? I totally rocked the metaphor just then. I just used a character's healing abilities to discuss the potential doom of the show if the writer's strike doesn't end! I am so awesome.