Four Things Wrong With Heroes

 I recently spent way too much time watching all four seasons of the show Heroes.  The show, while not the worst ever, has plenty of things wrong with it.  I could have talked about the gradual decline in quality of the show, how none of the season endings had a satisfying payoff, how they overused cliffhangers at the end of episodes, or how Claire's high school drama storylines often brought down whole episodes.  Instead, I'm going to focus on four somewhat smaller annoyances that bugged me.

 

How do they know The Haitian is Haitian?

In season 1, Matt Parkman recounts his memories of being kidnapped by the company, and says that he remembers some Haitian guy at the bar.  That Haitian guy was, of course, Rene the Haitian, but it leads to a very important and irritating question.

How the fuck did Matt know that Rene was Haitian?

Rene wasn’t speaking French or Haitian Creole, the official languages of Haiti.  He was not enjoying a dish of diri kole ak pwa with lots of peppers and herbs, as Wikipedia claims is a traditional Haitian dish.    And he wasn’t telling everyone about Wyclef Jean or Jean Baptist, two famous Haitians.  He was sitting at a table, staring, and doing magic stuff.

Community Season 4 Premiere Analysis

Oh, how long I’ve waited for the new Community episode.  No, not just waited.  I fretted, worried, predicted, and dreamed about it, wondering what the Harmon-less season would feel like.  As a general rule of thumb, I think that anytime a network or studio makes significant changes to a show or movie, it can’t be good.  And when they rip out the heart of a show and replace it with two people of their choosing, can that possibly end well?

Well, as the first episode showed, it can end somewhat well.  While watching last week’s episode, I certainly laughed and enjoyed myself.  There were several great moments.  Troy and Britta’s fountain scene was a hilarious highlight, despite being short.  Whenever Jeff feuds with Leonard during an episode, it’s going to be hilarious.  And the studio audience version sitcom worked really well as a piece of dry, alternative comedy.  But, despite all this, I can’t help feeling disappointed.

Thoughts on the Super Bowl Film Trailers

Iron Man 3

I’ll admit that I hated Iron Man, despised Iron Man 2, and cannot be rational about anything concerning Iron Man 3 because I’m sure it’ll be a piece of crap that people will still like for reasons I can’t understand.  Side note:  I loved The Avengers, proving that it isn’t Robert Downey Jr. or the actual Iron Man character, but instead it’s the awful films.

The Super Bowl spot gives me a glimmer of hope, since it shows Iron Man possibly having to make a tough decision and choosing who lives and who dies.  Maybe they’ll include some actual thought-provoking elements into the storyline or make the character Iron Man a bit more of a real person like in The Avengers rather than the blander version from the first two films.  But probably not.

Based on the extended trailer online and other trailers I’ve seen, I can’t help but think it’ll be more of the same.  Maybe they will actually have a villain with a personality this time (being a Russian who really likes his bird does not count as a personality, Mickey Rourke).  Maybe they won’t pretend the personal issues Iron Man faces and then conveniently overcomes in as unnaturall way possible make the story respectable.  Maybe people won’t see it and will instead demand the same quality film as they saw in The Avengers.  That’s all doubtful though.

And for the record, I’m not excited about Ben Kingsley being in the film.  The franchise had their shots with Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, and Jeff Bridges to create a villain I enjoyed, and they failed miserably with three great actors.