the_other_sandy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_other_sandy) wrote2008-11-11 08:07 pm
the_other_sandy) wrote2008-11-11 08:07 pm
Entry tags:
Heroes Ep: Villains
I don't know if I hate Heroes as much as everyone else seems to these days, but I totally agree that it's currently nowhere near as good as it was in season 1. So I'm a little annoyed and disappointed at the revisionist history on offer this season that changes what we thought we knew from that first season.
In season 1, Sylar was menacing and frightening. He was presented as an unassuming guy in a job that didn't interest him who dreamed of being special. We never saw his father, but his mother was buckets of crazy. It was easy to make the deductive leap that he inherited a mental illness from her, and when presented with an opportunity to make himself special by taking someone else's ability, he did, even though it meant the other man's death. And if one power made him special, then two powers would make him even more special, and so on, and so on. Now we find out that he's not psychologically driven at all. His mother isn't even his mother. He was adopted, and his birthmother is Angela Petrelli. It's his power that drives him to kill, not his complex psychological makeup, and he was fighting the impulse, even to the point of trying to kill himself, until the Company came along and put too much temptation in his way. Turning Sylar into a helpless victim of his power killed any sense of menace he ever had and made him a much less interesting character.
When Elle first appeared in season 2, she was a sociopath. She liked to shock people with her electricity, even to the point of gleefully killing those she didn't need to. She seemed to have the emotional development of a 12-year-old, which made sense since her dad had been grooming her to be a Company agent since she was four and she was very undersocialized. And yet now we're supposed to believe that only a year before that, she was outraged and disgusted and driven to tears by what she and Noah Bennet did to Sylar (and that poor kid Elle invited to Sylar's for dinner) at the Company's behest. Show? Please connect Point A to Point B.
At least Bennet's portrayal stayed consistent. He's always been ruthless and never had much sympathy for those with abilities. He only turned his back on the Company when they wanted his daughter.
Linderman appeared to be the mastermind behind the Company in season 1. He was the one manipulating everyone towards the final goal of a New World Order. He was the one everyone was afraid of, and it seemed like Arthur Petrelli was just an attorney who'd made his fortune by making sure Linderman wasn't successfully prosecuted for anything. Now it turns out that Linderman was actually Arthur's puppet, and Arthur was the mastermind behind everything. And so another powerful villain gets neutered, but at least we get a new one in his place.
Arthur's revision makes the least sense to me in canon. Back when he was just a lawyer working for the evil Linderman, who was about to be indicted and take Arthur with him, Arthur's suicide made sense, since it supposedly occurred right before Peter and Nathan were going to testify against him. It even made sense in how protective Angela and Nathan were of Peter, since he was the emotional, sensitive one that everyone was afraid had inherited his dad's depressive tendencies, and that's why Peter was told his dad had died of a heart attack. Then Angela finally told him that Arthur had committed suicide and that it hadn't been his first attempt. We know now that Arthur's "death" was Angela's murder attempt, but all Nathan saw was his dad on the floor and the doctor (under Arthur's influence) told Nathan and Angela that Arthur had died of a heart attack. So why tell Peter it was suicide when everybody but Angela thought it really was a heart attack?
Meanwhile, season 1 Angela was grieving the loss of her husband of many years, while she hates him now. This actually does make sense. Angela thought she had a happy marriage with Arthur because Arthur "said" so. But it doesn't make sense to me that the breaking point in their marriage was Arthur's attempts to kill Nathan. Yes, for any other mother that would totally be grounds for divorce, but this is a woman who was plotting the death of her other son, Peter, when she wasn't under Arthur's influence, so I really can't buy Angela killing Arthur to protect her baby, Nathan.
It was also odd how adamant Nathan was about prosecuting the Linderman case even though it would implicate Arthur. Back in season 1, it was Nathan's conscience, Peter, pushing Nathan to indict. Nathan was even kind of mad at him about it after Arthur died.
This episode really served to remind me how much I missed season 1 Peter, though. He was kind and compassionate, yet still strong enough to stand up to his father when no one else could. Which actually makes me wonder if Arthur's influence doesn't work on Peter, or if he didn't care enough to try. It just seems like if his mind control worked on Peter, he could've nudged Peter in a more "suitable" direction, rather than disowning his son for becoming a nurse. Peter was also level-headed enough to take charge after the car accident that paralyzed Heidi, which is not something I think could be said about him now.
It's just so frustrating. There's so much room to go forward on this show, so why do the writers feel compelled to go back and rewrite everything we thought we knew about season 1, when that was the only season that was a bona fide hit?
In season 1, Sylar was menacing and frightening. He was presented as an unassuming guy in a job that didn't interest him who dreamed of being special. We never saw his father, but his mother was buckets of crazy. It was easy to make the deductive leap that he inherited a mental illness from her, and when presented with an opportunity to make himself special by taking someone else's ability, he did, even though it meant the other man's death. And if one power made him special, then two powers would make him even more special, and so on, and so on. Now we find out that he's not psychologically driven at all. His mother isn't even his mother. He was adopted, and his birthmother is Angela Petrelli. It's his power that drives him to kill, not his complex psychological makeup, and he was fighting the impulse, even to the point of trying to kill himself, until the Company came along and put too much temptation in his way. Turning Sylar into a helpless victim of his power killed any sense of menace he ever had and made him a much less interesting character.
When Elle first appeared in season 2, she was a sociopath. She liked to shock people with her electricity, even to the point of gleefully killing those she didn't need to. She seemed to have the emotional development of a 12-year-old, which made sense since her dad had been grooming her to be a Company agent since she was four and she was very undersocialized. And yet now we're supposed to believe that only a year before that, she was outraged and disgusted and driven to tears by what she and Noah Bennet did to Sylar (and that poor kid Elle invited to Sylar's for dinner) at the Company's behest. Show? Please connect Point A to Point B.
At least Bennet's portrayal stayed consistent. He's always been ruthless and never had much sympathy for those with abilities. He only turned his back on the Company when they wanted his daughter.
Linderman appeared to be the mastermind behind the Company in season 1. He was the one manipulating everyone towards the final goal of a New World Order. He was the one everyone was afraid of, and it seemed like Arthur Petrelli was just an attorney who'd made his fortune by making sure Linderman wasn't successfully prosecuted for anything. Now it turns out that Linderman was actually Arthur's puppet, and Arthur was the mastermind behind everything. And so another powerful villain gets neutered, but at least we get a new one in his place.
Arthur's revision makes the least sense to me in canon. Back when he was just a lawyer working for the evil Linderman, who was about to be indicted and take Arthur with him, Arthur's suicide made sense, since it supposedly occurred right before Peter and Nathan were going to testify against him. It even made sense in how protective Angela and Nathan were of Peter, since he was the emotional, sensitive one that everyone was afraid had inherited his dad's depressive tendencies, and that's why Peter was told his dad had died of a heart attack. Then Angela finally told him that Arthur had committed suicide and that it hadn't been his first attempt. We know now that Arthur's "death" was Angela's murder attempt, but all Nathan saw was his dad on the floor and the doctor (under Arthur's influence) told Nathan and Angela that Arthur had died of a heart attack. So why tell Peter it was suicide when everybody but Angela thought it really was a heart attack?
Meanwhile, season 1 Angela was grieving the loss of her husband of many years, while she hates him now. This actually does make sense. Angela thought she had a happy marriage with Arthur because Arthur "said" so. But it doesn't make sense to me that the breaking point in their marriage was Arthur's attempts to kill Nathan. Yes, for any other mother that would totally be grounds for divorce, but this is a woman who was plotting the death of her other son, Peter, when she wasn't under Arthur's influence, so I really can't buy Angela killing Arthur to protect her baby, Nathan.
It was also odd how adamant Nathan was about prosecuting the Linderman case even though it would implicate Arthur. Back in season 1, it was Nathan's conscience, Peter, pushing Nathan to indict. Nathan was even kind of mad at him about it after Arthur died.
This episode really served to remind me how much I missed season 1 Peter, though. He was kind and compassionate, yet still strong enough to stand up to his father when no one else could. Which actually makes me wonder if Arthur's influence doesn't work on Peter, or if he didn't care enough to try. It just seems like if his mind control worked on Peter, he could've nudged Peter in a more "suitable" direction, rather than disowning his son for becoming a nurse. Peter was also level-headed enough to take charge after the car accident that paralyzed Heidi, which is not something I think could be said about him now.
It's just so frustrating. There's so much room to go forward on this show, so why do the writers feel compelled to go back and rewrite everything we thought we knew about season 1, when that was the only season that was a bona fide hit?