Getcher Heroes fix here...

[scotandrsn]

So we’re getting electrical work done, which means the power is frequently off, no TiVo, no internet. And I’m getting ready to pay for some dry goods at the grocery store (we’re trying not to open the fridge, either, of course) and I notice that the Dec 18-24 episode of TV Guide (remember that?) has Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera on the cover (we’re fans) and I figure we could use some fresh reading material.

Little do I know that the nearly-forgotten TV Guide is Command Central for Heroes updates and clarifications. There are no fewer that five, count 'em, five small articles and sidebars on the show.

Leaving aside the poll results on which Heroes power people want (the top three were Claire’s, Nathan’s, and Matt’s) and the awarding of the show’s biggest “Holy Crap” moment (Claire again, with her autopsy wake-up cliffhanger), we get, on page 12, “The Death of a Hero”:

…and now Tim Kring has a problem. “This show will survive on our ability to kill off characters and repopulate,” he says. “But everything’s going so well it’s been hard to pull the trigger on anyone.”

Still, that’s what Kring did - literally - to Nora Zehetner’s Eden in the December 4 mid-season finale. The character had the ability to control people with her voice. But when she commanded the hero-slaying Sylar (Zachary Quinto) to kill himself, he tried to absorb her powers - so she put a bullet to her own brain. Kring tells us there’ll be “other deaths before the end of the season.” …

So if you thought something happened other than Eden killed herself to prevent Sylar from getting her power, you were barking up the wrong tree, unless Kring is engaging in disinformation. Oh, and apparently, he thinks the show is The Sopranos II.

Then, on page 13, we get “Heroes Star’s Strip Tease”(Don’t get too excited; Masi “Hiro” Oka is doing an appearance on Studio 60 as a guest host for the show-within-a-show):

…Moving on to the real reason for this interview, what’s the deal with the foreshadowy painting that showed Oka’s Hiro battling a dinosaur in Heroes’ fall finale? “You will see Hiro fighting a T-Rex,” Oka confirms. “Don’t forget, I [have a part time job at] Industrial Light and Magic. You never know when I’ll whip out a CGI dinosaur.”

Not sure if that last bit is referring to Oka or Hiro. But apparently the image is not simply a poster, unless Oka is being cagey.

And lastly, we have a page 1 feature called “Watercooler: What We’re All Talking About”, with the following item I thought we could all appreciate:

Peter is Da Bomb on Heroes Stop Peter from exploding, save the world? Looks like it. Or is Sylar messing with Peter’s brain? Can Peter now see the future? Why is he coughing every time he’s around H.R.G.? And how long until the next episode? If we don’t get answers soon, we just might explode!

H.R.G.? What the hell is H.R.G.? Those asshole Heroes fans and their fucking nicknames and abbreviations. God damn them!

[Otto]

HRG is AED.

And next time you might want to spoiler box this stuff, since it’s for material that has not yet appeared on-screen in an episode.

[scotandrsn]

I suppose I hadn’t thought of them as spoilers since the information was available at every checkstand in America*, but I see your point, Otto. Mods, feel free to alter.

I was really trying to use the officially-released information to examine the style of the show.

When the camera cuts away from Eden blowing her brains out, it’s not to make her death ambiguous, it’s to not gross us out. When we see a picture of Hiro fighting a T-Rex, it’s because Hiro will fight a T-Rex, not because they’re being cute and will show us a poster.

*Of course, it could be a hide in plain site strategy, since TV Guide has fallen on low readership, by all reports. It reminds me of when MAD Magazine announced to a reader in an article intro that she was Anastasia. The secret was secure because she was the only one who ever read intros to MAD articles.

[Max_Carnage]

@scotandrsn

H.R.G.? What the hell is H.R.G.? Those asshole Heroes fans and their fucking nicknames and abbreviations. God damn them!

H.R.G. = Horn-Rimmed Glasses