Heroes and Villains
Dec. 9th, 2010 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwaevalarinI finally decided to watch the 4th season of Heroes. Initially, I had dropped the show after season 3 when it became just too bad to continue. But I hate to leave shows unfinished and since it was only one more season I gave it another chance.
Maybe my expectations were low enough or maybe the show really did improve again but I actually quite enjoyed large parts of the season. It isn't brilliant but definitely watchable. At least - unlike season 3 - season 4 has a proper storyline that gives the impression that it knows where it's going. I particularly enjoyed the part about Sylar being trapped in Matt's head. I couldn't imagine that to work but it did, surprisingly well, and it was both, interesting and funny.
Hiro, on the other hand, was rather annoying.
I had to realise that, while I don't really care about the show any more, I still care a lot about certain characters, meaning Nathan and Peter. That part was really hard for me to watch. I don't know if that means that it was particularly good or particularly bad. But seeing "Nathan" like this hurt. He looked like Nathan, he talked like him, he acted like him, he even had his memories, but there was always this nagging voice in my head reminding me that this isn't really Nathan.* That Nathan is dead and that all these scenes between Peter and him - that felt so much more genuine than the ones they had in season 3 - wasn't really them either.
Mainly, I was waiting for the show to finally let Nathan go, to stop doing that to him and Peter. When Nathan let go it was sad, sure, but almost a relief. That he couldn't take Sylar with him makes his sacrifice a little pointless but I guess he really was just tired, not really dead not really alive any more either.
That scene on the roof was a still a great last scene. Pretty corny, sure, but also very sweet and full of the brotherly love I always loved between those two. But talk about subtext, the way they talked and touched and invaded each other's personal space in that scene I almost actually expected them to kiss until I realised that would probably not happen for obvious reasons.
The slow motion fall, unfortunately, was pretty ridiculous. Who came up with that?
The funeral, two episodes later, left me strangely cold. It was too big, too formal, to anonymous. It just didn't represent the Nathan I cared about. And it came a few months (or, for me, years) too late. I didn't really need that on screen but maybe that was the purpose of the whole thing. I got the impression that Peter felt similar about it all.
When Claire talked to him in the kitchen I wanted to slap her and tell her to stop talking and being such a jerk. Peter was barely holding it together as it was and she just made it worse. He was pretty suicidal when he tried to stop that guy from running amok. Maybe not consciously but he didn't really care if he survived this.
Despite still caring about the characters, I really thought I'd get through it all without crying, until Peter started talking about how thinking about it and mourning Nathan would make it real, that was the moment when I couldn't stop myself from tearing up any more. Peter without Nathan is just wrong. It was bittersweet when Peter commemorated his brother by getting his ability. In some way, Nathan did stay with Peter until the end of the show:
"My brother didn't let me down. He built me up."
Other things I find worth mentioning:
* I admit, that's probably a philosophical question and you could also argue that, essentially, it was Nathan, but even after such a long time I was still way too aware of having seen him die and Sylar turn into him.
Maybe my expectations were low enough or maybe the show really did improve again but I actually quite enjoyed large parts of the season. It isn't brilliant but definitely watchable. At least - unlike season 3 - season 4 has a proper storyline that gives the impression that it knows where it's going. I particularly enjoyed the part about Sylar being trapped in Matt's head. I couldn't imagine that to work but it did, surprisingly well, and it was both, interesting and funny.
Hiro, on the other hand, was rather annoying.
I had to realise that, while I don't really care about the show any more, I still care a lot about certain characters, meaning Nathan and Peter. That part was really hard for me to watch. I don't know if that means that it was particularly good or particularly bad. But seeing "Nathan" like this hurt. He looked like Nathan, he talked like him, he acted like him, he even had his memories, but there was always this nagging voice in my head reminding me that this isn't really Nathan.* That Nathan is dead and that all these scenes between Peter and him - that felt so much more genuine than the ones they had in season 3 - wasn't really them either.
Mainly, I was waiting for the show to finally let Nathan go, to stop doing that to him and Peter. When Nathan let go it was sad, sure, but almost a relief. That he couldn't take Sylar with him makes his sacrifice a little pointless but I guess he really was just tired, not really dead not really alive any more either.
That scene on the roof was a still a great last scene. Pretty corny, sure, but also very sweet and full of the brotherly love I always loved between those two. But talk about subtext, the way they talked and touched and invaded each other's personal space in that scene I almost actually expected them to kiss until I realised that would probably not happen for obvious reasons.
The slow motion fall, unfortunately, was pretty ridiculous. Who came up with that?
The funeral, two episodes later, left me strangely cold. It was too big, too formal, to anonymous. It just didn't represent the Nathan I cared about. And it came a few months (or, for me, years) too late. I didn't really need that on screen but maybe that was the purpose of the whole thing. I got the impression that Peter felt similar about it all.
When Claire talked to him in the kitchen I wanted to slap her and tell her to stop talking and being such a jerk. Peter was barely holding it together as it was and she just made it worse. He was pretty suicidal when he tried to stop that guy from running amok. Maybe not consciously but he didn't really care if he survived this.
Despite still caring about the characters, I really thought I'd get through it all without crying, until Peter started talking about how thinking about it and mourning Nathan would make it real, that was the moment when I couldn't stop myself from tearing up any more. Peter without Nathan is just wrong. It was bittersweet when Peter commemorated his brother by getting his ability. In some way, Nathan did stay with Peter until the end of the show:
"My brother didn't let me down. He built me up."
Other things I find worth mentioning:
- I know Sylar is the bad guy, but Peter and Matt were a little reckless. Of course, I can understand Peter to a certain extend. When he hunts down Sylar he has just learned that Sylar killed his brother. I feel it is going a little to far when I can hardly tell who's the bad guy any more.
- As annoying as I thought Hiro's storyline was, the fandom/genre mash-up in his head was fun. It had Star Wars, Don Quixote, Star Trek, Highlander, BSG, Spider Man, Batman, Arthurian Legend, Sherlock Holmes, X-Men and probably a few more that I missed.
- Seeing Adam again was a great surprise, even if he was only in Hiro's head.
- Changing Sylar by trapping him in his head with Peter for years that are only hours in the real world was cheating a little, don't you think? I want to see character development not have some half-hearted, off-screen explanation for it. Sylar was on that path before he got trapped but then it happened a litte too fast. I still enjoyed seeing Peter and Sylar work together. I also really liked the scene when Peter admits that he is holding on to his anger because he is afraid to lose Nathan forever if he lets go and then has to realise that forgiveness is the way out. I think Nathan would have liked that as well.
- "To be continued... Erm, no. Who ends a show with those mean, mean words?
* I admit, that's probably a philosophical question and you could also argue that, essentially, it was Nathan, but even after such a long time I was still way too aware of having seen him die and Sylar turn into him.
