Solstice Coil
What's up with Bob?
(Warning: May contain spoilers)
It's reasonable for a covert international organization to have a hidden agenda, but lately it feels like The Company's agenda is hidden even from The Company itself. It seems like Volume Two of Heroes is all about ambiguity. Some characters are eternally good, and some are eternally evil, but most of them just want to save the world, only they're at a disagreement as to how exactly that should be done. Some think that in order to save the world, you need to kill every living soul on the face of the planet, which… makes sense, I guess. Some think that's a big no-no. Come to think of it, this is pretty similar to Volume One of Heroes.
I think it's clear to say that with Linderman gone, The Company is no longer definitely evil. It's seems pretty obvious to me that they actually do want to do some good, but they've dangled with the business of being vague for so long, they don't really know what good is anymore. They also no longer have any grasp of basic common sense.
The Company's desperate attempts to be as vague as they can be is evident in their choice of leader. A guy called Bob. Could you be any vaguer than that? You could, if you choose an Actor who specializes in undetectable roles, whose name is even more elusive than that of the Guy who Looks like Tim Robbins but isn't Actually Tim Robbins, to play the part of Bob. Stephen Tobolowsky is a good actor, but he has had the misfortune (or fortune? You'd be the judge) of having a face completely devoid of character. He can play high school principles, corporate executives, lawyers, sexual offenders, and nothing would ever stick to him. He's basically "just some guy".
Bob runs a solid operation of absentmindedness. The Company's ethics, strategy and actions are beyond any reasonable logic. This company has proven that it has no limitations or inhabitations; they have no problem with kidnapping people, tagging them like animals or killing anyone who seems to be in the way, whether they're completely insignificant or dear family members. But when they get their hands on the REAL bad guys, what do they do? Lock them up. Adam Monroe is a maniac who'll live forever unless we take his head off? Sure, let's put him in a minimum security cell. Better yet, let's put one of the most powerful individuals on the face of the earth in a cell right next to him, so he can help him escape! Sylar's killed dozens of people and he's becoming a powerful and uncontrollable menace? Sure, let's just inject him with the virus and "see what happens". Put him somewhere in Mexico, guarded by one woman whose superpower is being able to hide her cellulite. He'll never be able to WALK OUT OF THERE without his powers!
The writers of Heroes are really trying hard to keep up with the level of the last season, and that's admirable. But they have to understand that when Plan A fails, you should have a Plan B, not Plan A recycled. Making everything bigger just won't cut it. They're trying to use a worn out tactic of keeping us in the dark about the true intentions of certain characters, but instead of creating a mysterious atmosphere, all they manage to produce is inconsistencies. Bob can't be a compassionate philanthropist and then an abusive father. He also can't be exceptionally cunning, and occasionally be a complete moron. How is it that the Company has cameras installed practically everywhere, but not where Sylar is kept, so they have no idea that he's broken loose, and they don't even notice when Doctor Suresh makes phone calls to Bennett right under their noses?
It's possible, that this will all turn out to be part of one great plan. Well let me tell you, this is a very stupid plan. Any other company that works with this sort of business model would go bankrupt within a year, and most definitely won't last for 30 odd years. Did they really need Bennett to personally assassinate Nathan Petrelli? Is he really that good? Because I distinctively remember that he lost in a gun fight with Doctor Suresh, a guy who's never fired a gun before (but managed to slip him one right in the eye, mind you). I'm sure they have other assassins, better, younger, powered. Are they doing this out of spite? Is this any way to run a company? Honestly, Bob, grow up. They could have very welled release Bennett without rehiring him and just let him go back to his family. I'm sure that would be motivation enough for him to convince Claire not to pull the whistle! Now, basically what they did was intentionally hire a disgruntled employee. Way to keep up morale!
On a different note, I would like to point out that Peter Petrelli's goodness is only overshadowed by his utter stupidity. He's so fucking gullible, that he's not even trying to think about anything in a logical manner. He's decided that Adam is the only one who can help him bring Caitlin back, so there you have it. Then he runs into Hiro, a guy who can BEND TIME AND SPACE, and the thought never crosses his mind that hey, maybe this guy can help too! Maybe I should talk to him instead of trying to kill him! It's not like there's no time for that, because he… froze time. And then this brilliant Keanu Reeves successor figures, hey, here's a very destructive mysterious and uncontainable virus, maybe I should throw some nuclear power at it and see what happens! WOAH! What was that?
One last thing that bugs me about this show is all the coincidences. Sure, it was cute at first, but eventually the fact that Hiro and Nathan Petrelli are surprised to see each other time and time again just doesn't add up. I mean, you do run in the same social circles. The nature of the plot just doesn't fit modern time. They try to keep up by having Suresh say the word "Jpeg" on prime time television for the very first time in television history, but if this was real life, they wouldn't be running around the world completely unaware. They would probably all be part of the same group in Facebook. They would be able to locate each other on Google Earth instead of using the analogue Molly version. But hey, this show isn't about making sense, right?
How the mighty have fallen
The last couple of years have brought us drama series with brilliant and innovative concepts that unfortunately run out of gas too soon. The best example of them being 24, a brilliant ground breaking thriller that had everyone glued to their seats, but later on succumbed to the same ancient Hollywood rule the Matrix sequels suffered from: When in doubt, do everything BIGGER and LOUDER.
The problem is that a brilliant concept is not enough. Because once people get passed the concept, they need something else to keep them watching, something much more basic. Characters you can relate to. Humanity. Or at least some god damned sense of suspension of disbelief. Since 24 has cardboard black & white characters, it had to continue to rely on the concept, and keep making the concept more and more extreme until it becomes preposterous at some point.
The same thing happened to Prison Break. The entire first season was like an extended version of a movie with a genius concept. The conviction of Michael Scofield's character was extraordinary. The amount of thought put into the details of his plan (Both by Scofield and by the writers) was exceptional. All the characters were reliable and contributed their part to the plot. But everybody knew that once they broke out of that prison, everything would change, for the worst. The second season was like a really crappy sequel. It really should be called Prison Break Reloaded. Yes, it's that kind of manure. And much like Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, I hate manure. Everything was blown out of proportion, and suddenly characters that were there to advance the plot, became liabilities. Who the hell cares what happens to that bitch C-Note, or the prison guards, or even Sucre? And how the hell is T-bag even still alive? They cut off his fucking hand, for Moses' sake. He was bleeding for hours without medical care. And How come Geary, a trained prison guard, couldn't handle a fucking handless gimp? You have TWO hands, he has ONE. The fact that he's a psycho killer doesn't change the fact that you're not a 13 year old girl.
I could go on for hours about the inconsistencies of this show, but I won't. It's frustrating when an excellent show goes bad. But what can one do? You don't cancel a series after one season because it's GOOD. If a show is popular, it's in everybody's interest to keep it running as much as it can. Or is it?
Lost is experiencing the same difficulties. The bombastic concept is no longer the center of attention. Fortunately in Lost's case, they actually created a whole stack of interesting characters you can identify with and even love, which is why you're still compelled to watch even though there's always that feeling at the back of your head telling you it's not really as good as it used to be.
After watching five episodes of Heroes, I fear it's also on its path to becoming an enormous shadow of itself. Your beloved characters are still there, but the thrill is not the same thrill. The plot thickens too much, and characters start to act unreasonably, as seen in the Bennet family's very loose definition of the concepts of "Laying low" and "No more secrets". So much for learning from your mistakes. It's still not as ridiculous as Prison Break or 24, but oh yeah, it's getting there. I mean, it is a show about super heroes. There's no way to go but to the extreme.
On a brighter note, re-makes! I recently found out that they've actually made a TV remake of FLASH-GORDON! That's right! I'm sure it sucks, but I'm not even gonna bother checking. There are only so many hours a day. On the other hand, I've been watching the remake of The Bionic Woman, and I have to say, I know that this is trash, but it's fun trash. It started off kinda obscure, with a weird choice of Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck as the "Evil Bionic Woman", but it's slowly settling down as an obvious Nikita rip off with all the unclear conspiracies and politics between made up government agencies. But on top of it all, that Michelle Ryan is hot in ways that I can't even describe. It almost makes up for not having the slow motion running effect.
Hmmm… I completely forgot what I was talking about. Oh well. Here's a picture.
