Huge and Unsolicited Rant on Heroes...
Nov. 1st, 2008 01:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starvinbohemianYou know, something occurred to me as I was flailing over some awesome Lyle Bennett fic. I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with the marginalized characters of Heroes and less interested in the main cast. This is bad, because this is what happened with Harry Potter. As the books went on, I found myself liking the main characters less and less, and my focus eventually shifted entirely onto the marginal characters of that series (Pansy).
I wonder if my recent fixation on Lyle, Mr. Muggles, and Baby!Noah is due to my ever-increasing alienation from the main Heroes cast. I looooved S1. I fell in love with all of the characters, and I couldn't even bring myself to hate Claire even though I instinctively felt that I should. The writers kept talking here and there about how this was not a show about superheroes-- it was a show about people with powers. Real people.
I don't see that anymore. At all.
My alienation began in S2, probably because all of my favorite characters suddenly became unrecognizable. I especially adored Mohinder, whose Indian heritage was so much a part of who he was. His father issues, his struggle to reconcile his logical "science mind" with the fantastical elements creeping into his life, and especially his lack of powers that in no way inhibited his awesomeness or inclusion in the story. Mohinder felt real. Does he still? Unambiguously: in no way.
In S1, these characters had jobs. They had money troubles. They had lives that needed tending to. I don't think any of their S3 personas are employed, no matter what the writers tell us.
Jobs? Nathan is not a junior senator when he spends all his time running around with Tracey (who at least quit her employment on the show, though I notice her lack of income hasn't rescinded her gorgeous apartment). One of the things I liked most about Nikki was her working-class mom spiel. Life was hard for her and Micah with DL in prison, but it just made them closer. S2 rolls around, and she's wearing business suits and working for Bob (with no Micah). I hope Mohinder's getting paid by Pinehearst now, since he supposedly has to support himself, his research, his loft, and (maybe?) a little girl. What he was doing for all the time in between companies, I don't know. Parkman, who was told by his boss last season that he had 24 hours to do his thing with Nathan before he had to be back, instead took a trip to Africa. He can't still have a job waiting for him. Hell, Claire doesn't even go to school anymore. Hiro used to be an "average" Japanese man who worked in a cubicle and felt utterly "unspecial." Now, he sits (undeserving and unqualified) at the head of a multinational conglomerate. Hmn.
Remember how Nathan has a wife (maybe?) and two little boys that he hasn't bothered to visit since he freaked them out with his Grizzly Adams beard? No? Either do I. Poor Simon and Monty see less of their father than even Lyle Bennett does. I don't care what anyone says-- I liked Janice. I liked that Parkman had marital problems that he and Janice were sincerely attempting to work through. Then, S2 rolls around, and no Janice. Left in her wake is just the implication that the bitch really was a cheating whore, and Parkman is lucky to be rid of her. Thanks, show.
Speaking of Parkman and how far this show has removed itself from reality... How the hell did Parkman get back to the U.S. from Africa when Peter sent him there with no passport, wallet, or any other form of identification? He just trounces in with his new pet turtle like we haven't been going through a war on terror that has made airplane travel ridiculously difficult and inconveniencing (and that's just domestic travel).
Peter is a whole essay unto himself. I fell in love with Peter in S1, and I suppose I fell hard enough that I'll always love him, but he barely resembles that emo-banged boy in S1 now. What was once charming naivety and optimism has descended into astounding stupidity. Nobody knows what the hell Peter's smoking these days. He was a male hospice nurse. How awesome was that? He got by on his own merits, not taking anything from his corrupt family when he could have coasted. But now I suppose he doesn't have to eat or sleep or whatever anymore, judging by what we've seen. No one does. The Petrellis, in all their twisted glory, felt real. You had a family of alpha dogs sucking the life out of Peter, but he loved them anyway. They felt like a real family with real tensions. But the show has since blown these alpha dogs up into megalomaniac sociopaths.
None of these characters feel real anymore. They're all defined by their powers. I can't say that I know who they are anymore when their personalities could get switched up at the writers' whims to "shake things up."
I guess all of this is mainly a rant about how lazy I feel the writing has gotten, and I think it's clear that the show has lost its way from the original vision of real people with powers. None of this is to say that I won't keep watching and enjoying. I love Heroes (still). I just miss when it felt grounded in a reality that I recognized.
I wonder if my recent fixation on Lyle, Mr. Muggles, and Baby!Noah is due to my ever-increasing alienation from the main Heroes cast. I looooved S1. I fell in love with all of the characters, and I couldn't even bring myself to hate Claire even though I instinctively felt that I should. The writers kept talking here and there about how this was not a show about superheroes-- it was a show about people with powers. Real people.
I don't see that anymore. At all.
My alienation began in S2, probably because all of my favorite characters suddenly became unrecognizable. I especially adored Mohinder, whose Indian heritage was so much a part of who he was. His father issues, his struggle to reconcile his logical "science mind" with the fantastical elements creeping into his life, and especially his lack of powers that in no way inhibited his awesomeness or inclusion in the story. Mohinder felt real. Does he still? Unambiguously: in no way.
In S1, these characters had jobs. They had money troubles. They had lives that needed tending to. I don't think any of their S3 personas are employed, no matter what the writers tell us.
Jobs? Nathan is not a junior senator when he spends all his time running around with Tracey (who at least quit her employment on the show, though I notice her lack of income hasn't rescinded her gorgeous apartment). One of the things I liked most about Nikki was her working-class mom spiel. Life was hard for her and Micah with DL in prison, but it just made them closer. S2 rolls around, and she's wearing business suits and working for Bob (with no Micah). I hope Mohinder's getting paid by Pinehearst now, since he supposedly has to support himself, his research, his loft, and (maybe?) a little girl. What he was doing for all the time in between companies, I don't know. Parkman, who was told by his boss last season that he had 24 hours to do his thing with Nathan before he had to be back, instead took a trip to Africa. He can't still have a job waiting for him. Hell, Claire doesn't even go to school anymore. Hiro used to be an "average" Japanese man who worked in a cubicle and felt utterly "unspecial." Now, he sits (undeserving and unqualified) at the head of a multinational conglomerate. Hmn.
Remember how Nathan has a wife (maybe?) and two little boys that he hasn't bothered to visit since he freaked them out with his Grizzly Adams beard? No? Either do I. Poor Simon and Monty see less of their father than even Lyle Bennett does. I don't care what anyone says-- I liked Janice. I liked that Parkman had marital problems that he and Janice were sincerely attempting to work through. Then, S2 rolls around, and no Janice. Left in her wake is just the implication that the bitch really was a cheating whore, and Parkman is lucky to be rid of her. Thanks, show.
Speaking of Parkman and how far this show has removed itself from reality... How the hell did Parkman get back to the U.S. from Africa when Peter sent him there with no passport, wallet, or any other form of identification? He just trounces in with his new pet turtle like we haven't been going through a war on terror that has made airplane travel ridiculously difficult and inconveniencing (and that's just domestic travel).
Peter is a whole essay unto himself. I fell in love with Peter in S1, and I suppose I fell hard enough that I'll always love him, but he barely resembles that emo-banged boy in S1 now. What was once charming naivety and optimism has descended into astounding stupidity. Nobody knows what the hell Peter's smoking these days. He was a male hospice nurse. How awesome was that? He got by on his own merits, not taking anything from his corrupt family when he could have coasted. But now I suppose he doesn't have to eat or sleep or whatever anymore, judging by what we've seen. No one does. The Petrellis, in all their twisted glory, felt real. You had a family of alpha dogs sucking the life out of Peter, but he loved them anyway. They felt like a real family with real tensions. But the show has since blown these alpha dogs up into megalomaniac sociopaths.
None of these characters feel real anymore. They're all defined by their powers. I can't say that I know who they are anymore when their personalities could get switched up at the writers' whims to "shake things up."
I guess all of this is mainly a rant about how lazy I feel the writing has gotten, and I think it's clear that the show has lost its way from the original vision of real people with powers. None of this is to say that I won't keep watching and enjoying. I love Heroes (still). I just miss when it felt grounded in a reality that I recognized.
