Well, if nits are to be picked…there was a time gap between the earth shattering kaboom and Claire walking out the front door. She too may have collapsed then started reconstituting, but the audience didn’t see it.
And the sig gets rolled out again…
Thankfully I can’t see signatures. I assume it’s some comment about how people shouldn’t nitpick. If so, I take offense. My original post was clearly not of the nitpicky fanboy variety. You’re the one who tried to defend against my observation. So maybe you should be the one to take a step back and get some perspective.
I pretty much refuse to take fantasy fiction seriously enough to require perspective. It sucks the fun out of it. But out of curiosity, do inconsistencies like variatons in healing capability (or my personal ‘well,that ain’t right’ , anyone flying at altitude without passing out from thin air) impede people’s enjoyment of this show? Ellis watches, likes this season as he said above, so I gather this isn’t the case for him. How far do continuity gaps like that suck viewers out of this/other fantasy shows?
For me, character inconsistencies bug far more. Matt buzzing back to Janice about a week after his girlfriend died, eh? It could be seen that after being reunited with his son he wanted to reunite with Matty’s mom and build the family he figures he was denied with Daphne, but it wasn’t explored.
Heroes is a comic book show. I imagine if Superman all of a sudden wasn’t bulletproof for a major showdown with his most powerful enemy to date people would notice.
EDIT: As Claire has repeatedly demonstrated – again during those two episodes – she can’t even feel pain. They are basically indestructible, immortal and unfazeable. Dirt blowing in his face would be the equivalent to flies buzzing around him.
And your nitpicking totally misses the point. The problem is that the confrontation between Sylar and Samuel should have been an epic battle. Instead, the writers totally nerfed it in about as unsatisfying a way as possible. The fact that their nerfing happened to change how a well-established power works is just adding insult to injury, but changing how that power works is in no way the problem. Nerfing a confrontation between the two most powerful characters in the show’s history is the problem.
You latching onto pedantic details about how maybe the power works one way or maybe it works differently is laughably off-base and totally plays into the stereotype that your signature (which I finally read in your profile) attempts to prevent. The irony is thick.
At least there she knew he was there - the peering in of West of her lying on her bed ranked a good 8.5 from this judge. Draw the curtains, Claire! On the other hand, her telling Peter that Nathan complained to her that she was dating West because he on some level reminded her of him and her saying she absolutely agreed with that gets a perfect 10 from me in terms of creepiness. Ew!
They used to drive me CRAZY! The specfic examples from way back elude me now but I remember thinking that the inconsistencies were often massive and lazy cheats to get them out of plotholes unfairly. There’s a broader annoyance in that it eventually stopped me taking the show in any way especially seriously. Because if they’re going to ust rewrite the rules constantly, there is no way to really be on the same page as any of the characters because there’s never any way of knowing what risks or opportunities they’re actually facing at any given time. And therefore I think it cuts down on the degree to which I can be invested in their fate.
To take the example from this week (which I actually am a bit ‘meh’ about specifically because I’m not that gripped by either Samuel OR Sylar but as I lack an emotional stake, it makes for a nice, neutral example). I kind of agree with Ellis Dee that I don’t think the show played especially fair. There’s something a bit off in this continual just deciding of the Healing Factor to work (or not work at all) in different ways when it suits. Not because I’m a stickler for the rules being followed per se but because it takes me out of my immersion in their little world. When a character fights someone with a healing factor, there’s certain expectations on behalf of the viewer and thus when Samuel just dropped Sylar like a sack of dirt with no resistance, I sat there thinking something along the lines of “eh? Why isn’t he regenerating and just fighting back? Oh, because obviously the arc just calls for Samuel to win at this point. Grrr.”
And that’s why they bug me a bit - like you, I watch the show because I like the characters more than the powers per se but these inconsistencies tend to make me very aware that they’re not people but just pawns being moved around an often shonky plot. such moments for me are the dramatic equivalent of being in a car admiring the views and the driver suddenly crunching the gears. Having said all this, by now I have reached the point where I get less worked up simply because it happens so often. But it has been at a corresponding cost of being as less into the show as I once was.
I think we’re just watching from different narrative perspectives. I don’t read comics, the X Men references in these threads sail past me-are you saying that the show is not following the conventions of comics, or other superhero fiction? I’ve got no input on that front.
But when I look at a scene like that fight, I’m thinking-what is the story being told in this scene? What is the purpose? How do they tell the story? So I see that scene and think [ul]
[li]it’s midway in the season, this probably isn’t the only fight between the shows two villains[/li][li]Samuel can beat Sylar under certain conditions (ie:has his posse nearby)[/li][li]Sylar can’t-reasons unknown so far-can’t splice up victims per usual.[/li][li]This makes him vulnerable and beatable, and as demonstration of this, has his face half ripped off[/li][li]Perhaps (we’ll see how the season goes) his losing half his face/self may have symbolic importance[/li][/ul]
If she knew how often she had peeping toms, she probably would.
Like TNG/Voyager technobabbling their way out of every problem? I agree on the effect, it turned me off Voyager.
I thought the use of healing was consistent with past use. Examples A-G: Claire takes her semiannual leap out a window. She hits, lays there a couple of seconds, then heals up. When she got radiated from Ted, she wasn’t self repairing until after it was over. Sylar being damaged (not repairing mid attack), lying there unconscious for a sec then in the next scene is recovered met my consistency expectations.
Also, I didn’t see that scene as ‘Samuel wins just for the sake of him winning’, but that Sylar loses, why couldn’t/didn’t he resist and why he lost was the story being explored.
Strong story and character development-accept no substitutes! If a story can’t manage that,involve the viewer on those levels,the other flaws become more glaring.
Although sometimes (Avatar leaps to mind) the strength of the story isn’t the primary draw. Some movies are about watching John Mclane blow shit up
I have no idea, having never read a comic book. I was referencing the end of the third X-Men movie.
I thought I was pretty clear that the healing power thing was a secondary, incidental part of the complaint, and I really don’t care about it. You should put down the Zapruder tape already.
My complaint is that they teased the Sylar/Samuel showdown for the entire last volume, and then they totally copped out. Give us something like that episode set 5 years in the future with scar-Peter and Sylar having an epic showdown off camera. Do something, anything. Instead, what we got was lame. And it’s particularly annoying because that confrontation was the only thing of interest set up by the last volume.
As for all your wondering if whether we’ll get a solid reason in the narrative for how impotent that fight was, uh, this is Heroes. When was the last time they had quality narrative? Season 1? Your wistful justifications about the story are also the equivalent of fixating on the Zapruder film.
I misunderstood your intent, apologies for that.
I thought this week’s episode was again a bit lacking. I skipped past all of Hiro’s scenes so if anything more important happened other than them rescuing Mohinder, I missed it.
I feel dumb for asking this but I was really confused by what seemed to me Angela letting herself into Emma’s flat. Eh? How do these two know each other? Peter was at Emma’s place, right? She was playing her Cello and magically summoned him like the Heroes equivalent of a dog whistle? Or were they at Peter’s place in which case what’s Emma doing there? 
I hate it when shows confuse me.
tongue in cheek - “the sylar thing was a terrible idea. we admit that.”
Peter went to Emma’s place. When he saw the symbol on the cello they went back to his place so he could show her the picture of Samuel for identification. That’s where mom walked in on them.
I’m curious where Nathan gets his access to military figher jets since I assume that’s the only way he could go from the east coast to California, spend several hours at least dicking around out there and then be back on the east coast in time for dinner.
:smack: Thank you! I totally wasn’t paying enough attention and totally missed the location switch.
On another note, I’m still not liking Lauren. Why on earth did they get rid of Ashley Crow as Sandra just to replace her with this beautiful but deeply boring woman who just reacts to everything said to her with a kind of bemused sneer?
I feel a bit sad about it but I’m regarding the show as yet again screwing up a strong beginning to the season and throwing it all away in the closing laps. What’s the deal with Emma’s cello suddenly going to be the death of us all? That seems so tacked on. As does Samuel’s sudden obsession with this Vanessa person that he’s apparently had all along except it has not once been even hinted at before last week. If we’re lucky enough to get another season, the writers have GOT to get out of the habit of apparently making up the major arcs as they’re going along.
To try and end on an upbeat note, I am really liking the character of Emma and think the actress is pretty great. She looked SO surprised and then heartbroken when Peter smashed that cello. It was also nice to see Angela back again. Like a lot of the characters this season, she’s spent most of her time on the subs bench which I think is a waste. And again sweet to see her doing the ‘caring’ version of her customary little farewell gesture to Peter where as a nod to current circumstances she omits the small smack to the face. Or maybe this is just to lull him into a false sense of security for next time.
Did anyone else suspect that was not Claire who opened the door?
Totally.
I don’t think Nathan is getting around much any more. 
I sometimes wonder why Hiro’s teleporting ability is so amazing considering how fast everyone seems to be able to travel.
Anyone else watch the most recent episode?
Hiro’s like a freakin’ yo-yo, considering how many times he loses his ability/sanity/nervous system functionality, and then gains it back through some sort of quest/redemption/maternal intervention. Yes, we get the fact that he’s overpowered, so either downgrade his power (see Peter Petrelli) or kill him off. Sheesh.
Samuel’s Dark Angst was ridiculous, especially considering the fact that he didn’t even try to make it work with that woman on anything but his exact terms. She seemed to legitimately care for him, so why not let her keep her life but still have a relationship with her? For all torn up he gets about it, he sure didn’t try hard.
“Live in my Crazy Carnival-Powered House Of Your Dreams! NO? Well screw this, RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!”
I’m just glad they didn’t have Sylar kill off Gretchen. She’s pretty much the only character worth caring about now.
I can’t believe they went with “magic” as the way to cure Hiro.
I kept wishing Col. Tigh would show up to kick butt and take names.