Brotherly Love

So I wound up watching the season finale's of both Supernatural and Heroes on the same night, which made for an excellent two hours of television viewing, but was also a bit emotional for me. It struck me that both season finales were about familial bonds and specifically those between brothers. Nathan Petrelli and Dean Winchester both made huge sacrificed themselves for their brothers, and while that wasn't really an unexpected gesture from Dean, Nathan's loyalties had been in question. More than anything in the whole Heroes finale, and possibly more than anything I had seen on television all year, I rooted for Nathan to do the right thing, so while some people might have found the season ender a bit of a let down, I was thoroughly moved. There may have even been an audible cheer.

There was plenty of other stuff to cheer about on Heroes too. Claire continued to be awesome, standing up to everyone and just generally being...awesome. I probably cheered a bit when she jumped out that window to get away from Nathan and Mama Petrelli too. Niki was also amazing. All season long I had been a bit frustrated with where they were going with that character. Her arc had its ups and downs, but she came into her own in the finale. I loved seeing this woman who was so fractured become whole and own her powers was incredibly gratifying. I'm really excited to see what they do with her next season. I hope she gets to kick some ass. What I loved most though was that everyone became the hero they were meant to be in this episode. They all contributed and proved their mettle.

They also set up a villain for nest season, and Hiro traveled back in time. How cool is that? I just don't know how I feel about the potential of losing both Petrelli brothers next season. The cast will be significantly less pretty without them. I do feel fairly certain that Peter will be back. With his healing factor, he's hard to kill, but all Nathan can do is fly. How are they going to explain it if he doesn't die? But I really don't want him to be dead. Adrian Pasdar is the best. He doesn't deserve to be killed off now that he finally has a successful show. And did Sylar get away down the sewer, or did someone, or some thing, take his body? I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with the new villain. The thing is, Heroes has proved it has the balls to kill off characters, but it's also based on comic books, a medium in which death is only a temporary setback. Basically, they can do anything, which is what is so unbelievably cool. Also, did I mention Hiro going back in time?

Anyway, tons of love for the Heroes finale. Slightly less, but not by much, love for the Supernatural finale. The thing about that finale was that there was no way they could live up to last year's finale. Last year they rammed a truck into the Metallicar. That's hardcore. This season finale was obviously trying to simultaneously wrap things up in case the show wasn't renewed and set up next season in case it was. That lead to the ending being a bit anticlimactic, but the relationship between the Winchester brothers is even more powerful than the Petrellis'. Dean never fails to break my heart. Between his love for Sammy, his lack of self-worth, and the fact that he's been brought back from the dead at the cost of someone else twice now, what he did was no surprise. I just have no idea what they are going to do to get out of it. There is no way he's going to risk Sam possibly dying. Also, what's the deal with Sam? Did he come back a little bit wrong, because he seemed to take a lot more pleasure in shooting that guy than I would have expected? The one thing I did think was really strange was that didn't even have a line. That was weird, right? It was pretty clear how proud he was of his boys and how much he loved them though.

All and all, I liked how both shows focused on the familial bonds that have beeb so key to everything throughout the season, whether it was Nathan Petrelli protecting his brother and newly found daughter from having to do things that they would never be able to live with, Niki finally realizing that she was the one with the power to protect her family, or Dean refusing to let Sam go, they all touched on the emotional threads that had been building all season. It might have been nice if there was a bit more action in both finales. There was plenty of potential for that in both, but considering how much these shows actually made me feel something for the characters, which is more of a rarity than one would think, I can overlook that.

You Got Your Watchmen In My Heroes

I realize that the new episode of Heroes was on Monday, so this is kind of late, but I figure that it's still relevant since the next episode hasn't aired yet (unlike that post I was going to do about last week's Supernatural). Anyway, this past Monday was the first new episode of Heroes after far too long a break. Fortunately, it did not disappoint. I have to say though that I've been hearing people talk about the story resembling Watchmen for a long while now, but I didn't really get it until last night.

I try to remain in as much of a cone of silence as possible when it comes to this show, because I love it and I don't want to ruin anything for myself. Last night though, I was all, "Oh, that's what everyone has been talking about." The similarities between Linderman and Ozymandias are pretty blatant, and considering how many of the writers on this show are bona fide comic book geeks, no one can claim that they didn't realize the similarities. I have to assume that it is not going to go down the same though, since next week's episode seems to be all about how bad everything is going to be if Linderman's plan goes through.

As for the episode itself, I loved it. I thought Isaac's death was a bit anti-climactic, but the implications of it are pretty interesting. Sylar doing the painting the future thing at the end was just creepy. Either Sylar didn't get any of Isaac's artistic talent, or the future has changed and, instead of Nathan Petrelli, Frankenstein is going to become president. I would be totally cool with that.

I guess that if someone had to die, I'm OK with it being Isaac. I honestly like all the characters now that Simone is dead. I know a lot of people don't like Mohinder, but I think he's pretty invaluable to the story. They need at least one person without super powers. Also, Sendhil Ramamurthy may not be the best actor, but he's awfully pretty to look at. Honestly, I was really afraid that Peter might get killed. I know there are all these visions of stuff that he's supposed to do in the future, and he certainly seems integral to the plot, but he's also unbelievably powerful. Not only does he gain the powers of anyone he is around, he is able to retain them. Pretty soon he will be able to do anything and they won't need any of the other characters. Presumably, the writers are aware of this potential dilemma and will do something about it. Anyway, the whole time he was dead but not really dead, I kept yelling at the television to take the big piece of glass out of his head. Thankfully Claire listened to me. Poor Claire though. It must suck to find out your big hero/crush is your uncle.

I'm actually pretty surprised that Nathan is going to go along with Linderman's plan, since I really thought his love for Peter would trump his desire for power. I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Also, what power do you think Mama Petrelli has? Considering Peter's powers, one would think they would have been exposed by now. Then there's Matt, Ted Sprague, and my favorite, Mr. Bennett and their big prison break. Things are going to be tough for them. Eric Roberts is just plain creepy. He's not even acting. It's an inherent trait.

YAY! Heroes is back! I cannot wait until next week.

But He's Bill Pardy! You Can't Cancel Him!

Apparently Drive has been canceled, which is kind of a bummer. I was enjoying it. The thing I don't get though is why Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear can't catch a break. This is at least the fourth show that Minear has executive produced to get the axe by FOX, and the second for Fillion. By all rights, both of them should still be hard at work on Firefly's fifth season, but barring that, they just deserve better. I especially don't get the lack of success for Nathan Fillion. I would have thought that, despite the relative box office disappointment of Serenity, he would have at least gotten noticed by studio executives and gotten some decent sized roles in some mainstream movies. Honestly, I expected to see him pop up in a romantic comedy or two, or maybe in some small but stand out roles in some big budget action movies, inevitably becoming the next generation's answer to Harrison Ford. Instead, it seems like he's becoming the next generation's answer to Bruce Campbell, which is fine. You know I love Bruce Campbell. I love him way more than I love Harrison Ford. I just thought that Nathan Fillion had a lot more mainstream appeal than that.

Is the problem that Nathan Fillion has actually worked on quality projects, because I am seeing that pattern? I was pretty shocked by the lack of success for Slither as well, which I considered to be one of the best horror movies that I have seen in a long time, in light of how well horror movies have been doing in the past several years. I enjoy movies like Hostel and its like well enough, but I would much rather sit through movies like Slither, Grindhouse, and even, to a lesser extent, Snakes on a Plane, all of which were disappointments at the box office, and all of which were a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the horror movies that make huge amounts of money. At least the Dawn of the Dead remake, which had an over all grimness but still with a sense of whimsy, did well.

Don't even get me started on what passes for science fiction these days. There is little substance to any of it. Some people like to applaud geek subculture moving into the mainstream, but with few exceptions, the stuff that has any mainstream success lacks the originality and intelligence that we geeks have been enjoying for years. I think the fact that X-Men 3 was lauded by critics as a comic book movie that's actually about something for touching on, however ineptly, various social issues, says it all. X-Men comic books have been dealing with social issues since Stan Lee first came up with the idea of mutants. All X-Men 3 did was make weak analogies that ultimately never went anywhere.

The geek subculture hasn't been legitimized. It's been homogenized.

Wow! I have no idea how this turned into a rant. I started out this post simply wanting to say that I was going to miss seeing Nathan Fillion, an actor I can't get enough of, on my television every week. I suppose it's the Firefly/Serenity connection. Anytime I start thinking about Nathan Fillion, it naturally leads in that direction, and then it turns into a rant. Oh well. At least we have Heroes now. At least that show respects its roots and hasn't tried glam up for the masses. It is a show about a bunch of superheroes who do not wear costumes though, which I do think is a concession to mainstream audiences, but that's of far less concern than the fact that there's real substance there. Compare that to Smallville, which simultaneously capitalizes on it's comic book roots and is completely embarrassed by them at the same time, ultimately creating something with no more substance than your sub par teen drama with a bunch of names that will keep fanboys happy.

Anyway, here's hoping that Nathan Fillion catches on soon, so that, while I may not get the quality science fiction, horror and superhero genre adaptations that I hope for, I'll at least a funny, charismatic, talented and really attractive actor to watch in all the crappy movies and television shows I end up watching because no one cares enough to watch anything better.

How Come the Stripper Doesn't Get to Be an X-Man?

Now that we have met Nikki's husband, on last night's episode of Heroes, I'm a little upset that she's not a Colossus rip off since he's the Kitty Pryde of the show. (He should have tried phasing a baseball bat through Nikki's head. That's apparently how Kitty would deal with a betraying spouse.) My big revelation from last night was actually that Nikki seems to be a take off on The Sentry, what with the multiple personalities and all, though her powers aren't as close to those of The Sentry as the other characters are to their corresponding X-Men characters. Maybe I am missing someone and there is an X-Man with a super strong alternate personality.

The other big non-surprise of the night was that Mohinder's annoying neighbor s orkin for Claire's dad. That was so obvious.

The past couple of weeks haven't been as good as the previous episodes, but I am by no means disappointed. This show rocks. Also, November sweeps will have started by next week, so I am expecting things to really amp up, because that is what happens during sweeps.

Shows Named After Bowie Songs Rock

First of all, I have to admit that I am already a bit confused by Heroes. I felt a bit like I started watching it halfway through. However, I am more than willing to go along for the ride and try to make sense of everything that is going on. I thought the premier was fantastic. My favorite character so far is Hiro. He quotes Star Trek, references the X-Men (and Kitty Pryde no less), and you just can't beat the pure unadulterated joy he feels about being superpowered. Conversely, the cheerleader from Texas (I think) really annoyed me, but I am going to cut her some slack for now because her mom is weird and her dad is clearly evil. The character I was expecting to hate but actually kind of liked was the guy played by Milo Ventimiglia (the nurse who thinks he can fly). The press painted him as some whining, mopey youth and he really wasn't. He was just a guy trying to make sense of his place in the world, which I think makes him very identifiable. Sure he was a bit broody, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of my favorite characters brood. The storylines I am finding most intriguing write now is the internet stripper and how she did what she did (it was awfully messy), not to mention what the hell is up with her reflection, and the Indian geneticist, because he obviously has some of the answers.

Next week we get to see Greg Grunberg. YAY! I love him and I hope that this role really gives him a chance to shine. He deserves it. Also, I just found out that Tim Sale is doing the heroin addict psychic's art, so keep an eye out for that because Tim Sale is amazing.

(I posted the answers to the Buffy trivia questions in the comments, so if you're interested, go check that out.)