My first thought on Tom’s ticket is that he was going to rendezvous with his father. After visiting Yosemite and Death Valley, Mom and Dad were taking a slightly scenic route to Las Vegas when he was stricken.
I felt this was a better than usual episode, mainly because it didn’t feel like I was watching The Life of Aaron Sorkin, there was minimal Matt and Harriet making goo-goo eyes at each other, and almost no Jordan acting perky scenes.
Plus it had John Goodman, an actor who’s always worth watching. The scene were he was playing a redneck bumpkin was overdone (I sense Sorkin was kidding on the square) and who would actually say something like “I don’t like people mocking my Lord.”
I also liked the scene on the plane where Jack was talking about Jordan’s future. It makes sense that he’s defending her - he is the guy that hired her after all. It gives his character more depth to see that he argues with Jordan because he’s trying to protect her from herself (and from upper management) rather than just arguing for the sake of being a stereotyped villain.
I liked seeing Darrius again (especially the scene where he straightforwardly explains everything that happened to Danny and is disbelieved).
I liked the fact that they built a story around a secondary character like Tom for a change. They’ve got a large cast and should be using it.
I don’t like the fact that Sorkin continues to give the appearance of actually believing every stereotype the liberal media elite is accused of having.
Hopefully this episode is a sign that the show has shaken off its initial problems and has started to gel. (The irony will be if the series finally hits its stride after it’s lost its audience and right around the time it gets cancelled.)
Were there hourly protests from the religious right in front of Sorkin’s house, the West Wing sound stage, and GE?
Otherwise, my gosh. What is your deal? I don’t remember anyone caring this much about Christians and for apparently no reason. As Danny said in the very beginning - we’ve had this conversation before and “it bores me now.”
Plus, the sketch still wasn’t funny. The premise wasn’t funny, the dialogue wasn’t funny, and the delivery wasn’t funny. The only thing remotely humorous about it was the damn shepard costume. And that was only minorly amusing.
I tried. I really did. But the framing scene was bad. The internal scenes were bad. And this subject died in the first half hour of the first episode. Quit beating the damn horse. Let it go.
It started to get ok with Jack on the plane and then they brought Matt & Harriet back on the show and killed all of the momentum.
One more week. Because there were glimmers this evening. Faint glimmers, but glimmers.
I disagree. I thought it showed much more promise than the others we’ve seen, no doubt due to the deft hand of Mark McKinney.
…Not true, by the way.
I thought it was the best episode yet, and I was about to stop watching a few weeks ago. It was thoroughly implausable, granted, but at least it wasn’t filled with Harriet being diva-like and completely unfunny while everyone around her swoons about how talented and funny she is.
But Aaron, let go of the Christian thing. Every episode has either focused on (1) the former and continuing relationship between Harriet and Matt, or (2) Christianity and/or Harriet’s faith, or (3) both. Really- let it go.
I thought the table read of the Jesus sketch was the funniest thing the show-within-the-show has done thus far. And the line delivery was dull because it was a table read.
Whereas, the characters on Heroes do? What part of “fiction” don’t you understand? All of it?
In any case, this was the best episode so far. Nice story (I liked starting it in medias res – you don’t see enough of that), good lines, good characters (Goodman was nice, especially playing with the others’ preconceptions of his), multiple story lines, some mystery, and generally entertaining overall.
What I liked best about this episode is that Brad Whitford got more screen time than Matt Perry. About friggin’ time, I say.
I too liked this episode more than the others. And I could tell they had two directors. The question is, did Busfield direct the in-house scenes or the Nevada scenes? Also, couldn’t they have used a town name that didn’t sound so close to Podunk?
Add me to the group who thought this was the best ep yet. If nothing else they broke ever so slightly from their standard “Let’s put on a show” plot. The show really needs to be about the people, rather than the show.
I won’t belabor the considerable shortcomings which have been mentioned already. But I will add my voice to those who will watch (and enjoy) anything with John Goodman. My assumption was that he was just putting on the bumpkin role, yanking their chains, to get some enjoyment out of his curtailed fishing trip, and was going to eventually let them all go after “larnin them a lesson.” But when they keep piling felonies on top of each other, my expectation dims…
Tho I liked certain aspects of the studio head (the Wings guy) - the phone call, the plane scene - I disliked it when he busted into the police station waving his black credit card (do such things exist?) Did he really think he would do anything other than alienate the people he met? And the preview for next week looked downright painful - looked like he got involved in a physical altercation, perhaps with a LEO, and possibly gets arrested.
Someone refresh my memory - did WW pile up the unrealities and obvious plot devices in the same manner as this show?
My dog - Daisy - enjoyed the police pooch!
Pahrump, Pahrump, Pahrump. Hey, it IS a funny name.
Count me amongst those who liked the ep. Best one since the pilot, sez I. I found the whole setup endearingly goofy (why are all these people in a sheriff’s office in some little town in Nevada?) and enjoyed that for once Evil Network Suit had at least two dimensions. Matthew Perry’s line summed it up best: “the cast of a Fellini movie is on its way to Nevada”. And having John Goodman on board can’t be bad.
There’s still that cloying earnestness oozing out at various points, and Sorkin’s apparent obsession with verbal exposition (Peet’s character lecturing evereyone on Nevada Day was particularly absurd) drives me crackers, but I was hooked by the story and will definitely catch part II.
There are different types of fiction. That’s why I said the characters would work if the show were a satire. Then you can get away with stereotypes. “Heroes” is clearly a comic-book world, so I don’t mind at all that there are mind readers and people who can stop time. Whereas I think I’d be annoyed by “Medium” if they take the concept of mind-readng and predicting the future and try to wrap it around the real world as if it were actually plausible. That’s the difference.
That said, I have to agree that this was probably the best episode of the show so far, and stereotypes aside it was entertaining enough that I’m looking forward to part II.
Wow did you read that wrong. I love this show. I was angsting over the fact that I was going to have to wait a whole week to see the conclusion of this episode.
I thought the sketch material in this show seemed pretty funny. I mean, yeah, the delivery was dry - but it was a script run through, it wasn’t supposed to be delivered full on.
The one thing I noticed the second time I watched the episode was some seriously blatant product placement. The black American Express card (yes, they have them, but apparently only created the product after years of rumours about its existence) was one example. But man, watch Jack drink a bottle of Dasani in Jordan’s office. He does everything short of hold the bottle up to the camera and sing a jingle. Has this happened in previous episodes and I just missed it?
So they have to come up with an entirely new show in less than 24 hours and their solution is… have the actors write it?
What about The Room? You know, The Room full of writers, supposedly talented enough to get hired to write?
Anybody else think it was absurd that the roving gang of gay guys happened to have a copy of Harriet’s CD? I guess they saw her in the diner and ran around the corner to the all-night Abbott & Costello 78 RPM Record Store and picked up a copy.
… or, you know, reached into their car.
Not even remotely absurd. The guy was in costume, so they were in the diner next door that they all go to for dinner when they’re working late. It worked for me that this would be a known thing, like the diner next to the police station has lots of cops in it. They were stalking her, and, in the hands of a clever defense attorney, this will get their guy off (on the assault charge). Speeding and possession, however, he’s screwed.
Nate Corddry is adorable, I hope he gets a good show if this one gets the ax.
The John Goodman character fell flat with me, too: calling the two Chinese people Japs?! Would any judge do that (and not explain/apologize)? He performs it well, but the role is over-written.
Who’s the new writer Matt is relying on? And where are Lenny and Squiggy?
Yes. Well, actually, they’re no longer black plastic. Now they’re made of titanium.
Assuming that the Judge is behaving consistently and according to a plan, his thought process looks like this:
- These people have ruined my weekend. I’ll ruin theirs.
- I’ve got a captive audience and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.
- These people obviously have enough legal and monetary clout to undo anything I try to do here, so I might as well hand them grounds for dismissal, while doing steps 1 and 2.
Darius (?) is the unfunny comic that Matt and Simon kidnapped from the Comedy Club last week. Apparanetly, the man owns only one shirt, or else he hasn’t been allowed to go home yet.
As for Harriet’s “fans” - Matt said, during his first lecture to her, that she has a huge gay fan base that she alienated with that truncated quote that got printed. So I can easily believe they read the article, got pissed off, saw her in the diner (or just waited for her someplace close to the studio), grabbed the CD that they already had (remember that Harriet and Matt broke up over her going on The 700 Club to promote the CD), and then calamity ensued.
What I won’t buy is that Tom didn’t change from the read through, even after he was told it was the cops waiting for him in the lobby. And the extradition to another state without a hearing. But hey, those are plot devices that help move the action from LA to Nevada, so I’ll let it go.