I am pleased to report the puppies are doing well, and they are being fed a steady diet of stuffed animals. I also note that their new Steeler dog collars (all Cole dogs wear them) were in place for yesterday’s game against the Ravens:
That is all.
*** Update ***
BTW, I started watching Heroes last night. I watched the first two episodes and it was pretty solid. I think I am going to give the whole first season a shot over the next couple of weeks, but I had a couple questions. What season is currently airing on NBC? Does it go down hill, and am I setting myself up for another Lost fiasco, in which I get totally into a show and then it becomes an impenetrable and unwatchable series of disjointed nonsense and I give up in disgust?
I suppose all shows are like that to some extent- I got tired of BSG after 2.5 and quit watching, and even though I loved Buffy, after she started sleeping with every vampire in sight and morphed into Buffy the Vampire Layer, it became harder to watch. Nothing was as bad, however, as Lost, which always had a premise that was hard to swallow, but rather quickly became too absurd for even tv fiction. At any rate, I suppose I will watch Heroes simply because Tawny Cypress is absurdly good looking. That will keep my attention for at least the first season.
Let the nerd fury begin.
OriGuy
PETSA is going to be after you.
Genine
I suppose that’s good for fiber. But now I’m worried that they’re more flammable.
And what about protein?
Jeff
Second season was not as good, but I am liking this season (season 3). Last episode is tonight so, you have plenty of time to catch up.
Nick Tyler
Your "Dog Blogging" tag is appropriate for Heroes, too.
srv
Perhaps there should be a fund for donating stuffed animals to the new overlords.
And if anyone has a pair of chewed up shoes laying around, please consider mailing them to the White House.
Genine
Heroes is in its Third season. The second season was cut short by the writers’ strike.
I still very much enjoy it, but I know a lot of people are turned off by the extra characters. However, those extra characters are being killed off, so it looks like the show might be streamlining itself again.
And Buffy didn’t sleep with every vampire. She only slept with Angel (once) ans Spike. What the fuck? Are you some kind of prude?
r€nato
Even the Supreme Court is part of The Vast Liberal-Media Industrial Complex Conspiracy™!
Well I guess they’ll have to go back to pushing the Blago-Obama conspiracy theory.
Stooleo
I watched the entire 1st season on Netflix streaming video (Roku Box) and thought it was pretty good. The second season became pretty jumbled and I have yet to finish it. I’ve heard the third season is better but I don’t know if I’m willing to slog through the second season.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Loved the first season (although I wanted to jab an icepick in my brain every time Mohinder started babbling about "evolution"[1]), second season not so much, giving up after about four episodes. Haven’t been watching the third season.
1. by which I mean some ignorant TV writer’s wholly made up cartoon version of evolution, not the real thing.
Lamont Cranston
Season one was very good. Season two had one storyline that was fantastic and one that I absolutely couldn’t stand, but it was scuttled mid-season, so it’s hard to really evaluate.
Season three has been teh suck, I think. Totally unnecessary and unbelievable proliferation of super-powered characters, and I don’t like what’s happened to Peter.
Genine
Me, either. I hope they get him back on track. His empathy and caring is what makes him different than everyone else. He doesn’t have to be an angel. But no need to make him an ass either.
He needs to get back to his roots.
PaulW
Season One was Teh Awesome, up until the point where… ahh, you’ll know when. Won’t spoil it too much.
The show does go downhill Seasons Two and Three. A lot of it is due to constant introduction of new characters that were bland and uninvolving. Season Three was supposed to introduce a new set of villains, but that went nowhere. And it turns out everyone’s a Cylon. (pause) Okay, different show.
Good news is, they’re bringing back one of the guys from Pushing Daisies to help revive it. Hopefully get it back on the ‘track’ the show was supposed to have but which doesn’t seem to exist.
Oh, and just imagine Sylar as Spock. (insert fanboy giggling noises here)
Burton
Bail on Heroes while you still can. But you should probably give Lost another shot — it got really good again this past season.
Jeff
I do agree with the to many characters aspect. They should have learned that was a mistake from Lost.
clussman
I liked season 2, I feel like season 3 is jumping the shark but I’m willing to withhold judgment for the moment. Don’t sell me on a storyline of redemption, give me clues as to the mother of the child, and then kill her for no good goddamn reason. I didn’t even like her until the the story arc where the two of them paired up and that pairing was the only thing that really sold me on the redemption.
I’m obviously being deliberately vague because John isn’t there yet but if you’ve watched season 3 you should know what I’m talking about.
At least we know how future Peter gets his scar, which gives me hope that there is a consistent and planned storyline in there somewhere. Although it’s pretty obvious they’ve started and abandoned a few. Gee, how important did the brother and sister from season 2 turn out to be? Weren’t they supposed to be some sort of damned key to saving everybody? One’s dead and the other has no powers. WTF were they ever involved in the story to begin with?
Oh well, I still like the show and it’s better than most of what’s out there. Just hope they get things back on track soon and stop the soap-opera/Survivor-like alliances that change every damned week.
South of I-10
I haven’t watched any of Heroes. Still watching Lost, it got interesting again in the last season.
I also never watched Buffy, but in keeping with the vampire theme, I did get kind of hooked on True Blood on HBO this season.
boonagain
Loved the first season of Heroes, started NOT liking Season Two (never knew how much I hated Feudal Japan) and can’t even watch this season.
I held on during the low points of Lost and can’t wait till the new season starts next month. They are back in the game
boonagain
oh, and I also found the bleeding eyes illegals very, very annoying in Season 2
umichdem
I have watched all three seasons of Heroes. Yes, the plot gets messy, but it is still a fun show to watch.
I disagree that this season was as bad as everyone says it is. It will be nice to bring it back around to what it was in the first season. I think the actions in the last few episodes are indicative to this change.
Wrapping up those storylines.
Yay – first post.
Fwiffo
I’ve given up on Heros this season. First season was mostly great, the second season had problems, but this season is some of the worst TV ever.
Buckethead
Just watch Season 1, pretend it was canceled after that.
Kit Smith
I enjoyed the first and second seasons. I enjoy the fact that they’re willing to kill off most of the characters, as that would happen if you give a bunch of people super powers and let them jockey for control of secret organizations and blah blah blah. Admittedly some of the replacement characters are bland/flat as commented above, but there’s a potential for developing them.
However, I stopped watching 2 episodes into the current season (3). It got to the point where apparently the only way to keep the show interesting was to have the good guys become the bad guys and the bad guys become the good guys and then everyone does a line of blow for the hell of it and was that a dinosaur chasing Robot Overlord Nixon? Hopefully that illustrates my point that they convoluted the plot with so many twists that it makes Lost look like a fifth grader wrote it.
I’m told it got better a few episodes into the season, but I remembered the second season’s plot and then starting off the third season it’s like everyone tried to be someone they weren’t, and that was it for me. I’m curious as to whether it was the writers having too much free reign or whether it was management saying, "You’ve got a cash cow, now make it so this show has enough plot to go for 22.37 seasons."
JWeidner
First season of Heroes = awesome. It was mostly pretty strong, some weak points here and there, but overall very, very watchable.
Second Season = there was a second season? No, I’m kidding. But I stopped watching after about 3 or so episodes. It got real boring, real quick. The romance angle between cheerleader and emo kid was what really turned me off the series, but the brother/sister twin story was pretty bad too.
Third Season = it’s being recorded on my DVR, but I have yet to watch any episodes of it. I’m debating whether or not I need to just delete all of them…I need to make room for my wife’s one TV passion – 24 (don’t care for it much myself, but she’s been hooked)
Cathy W
A lot of the stuff people don’t like from Season 2 of Heroes was supposed to pay off in the episodes that never got made because of the writers’ strike. Two storylines, in particular, dragged on a lot longer than they needed to – possibly because they needed to get everyone to the same place at the same time for the grand finale.
Season 3 has suffered from some really inconsistent writing, and more than one character seems to have undergone what appeared to be a meaningful change that was then undone before it really affected anything. I’m still watching because I still see the potential, and even in the suckiest episodes there’s usually one good story out of two or three, but if the next half-season doesn’t tighten things up a bit that might do it for me.
Comrade Dread
The first season was the best.
The second season wasn’t that bad, it just was really slow during the first half. The conclusion was satisfying.
The third season, I personally, have checked out on. I may revisit it later on DVD, but I just lost interest after the first couple of episodes.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
Yup. Fonzie put on his waterskis when the Heroes writers blatantly ripped off David Cronenberg’s The Fly for the storyline about Mohinder’s "affliction".
Bas-O-Matic
… I got tired of BSG after 2.5 and quit watching…
No nerd fury, but…. Dude. You seriously just quit before the best half-season of the entire show.
Bas-O-Matic
Oh and the first season of Heroes was really promising but never paid off. The climax was anti-climactic. The rest of the show has done nothing for me at all and I quit watching it about a month or so ago out of exhaustion with the whole enterprise.
AC
I stopped watching Heroes in the middle of the first season and everyone tells me I missed out, but that the 2nd and 3rd Season were and have been garbage.
I stuck with Lost, somehow, and season 4 actually got good towards the end.
Pete Butler
Season 1 is pretty strong. I actually disliked the pilot to the point that I wrote the show off, and didn’t get back into it until so many of my friends got obsessed; so if you’re digging the first episode, you’re a step ahead of me on the fanboy scale already.
Fun thing to watch for: Claire the Indestructible Cheerleader is actually made of glass. It’s true that Mohinder’s Portentous Babbling About Evolution is so scientifically illiterate that even creationists perk up and go "Dude, that’s not how it works!" But it actually makes sense for Claire; this girl can trip over her own shoelace and wind up with a dislocated neck. I totally buy that her ancestors needed Mega-Healing in order to live long enough to pass on their genetic material.
Season 2 has its moments, but it was off to a painfully slow start even before the writers’ strike turned it into a steaming pile of WTF?! and dangling plot threads.
Season 3 got off to a much better start, but has settled into a theme of "Change Is Scary; We Hate Change". Character regression, because that way when the characters "grow" they can grow in safe and predictable ways. Retconning, because change is much more palatable when you can close your eyes and pretend things were ALWAYS this way.
And it also establishes that the writers have no f***ing CLUE how they’re going to deal with Peter and Hiro without simply killing the characters off (which they can’t do without a fan revolt). Both are severely overpowered (Peter in particular), to the point where problems that challenge other characters are dirt simple if either of them are around. In Hiro’s case, they’re "solving" the problem by leaving him as an idiot man-child who will never ever EVER be in full control of his time traveling ability; the bad-ass Hiro From the Future you’ll meet in Season 1 looks like he’ll never come to pass. And in Peter’s case, they’re going to spend the rest of the series coming up with reasons why his grab bag of powers aren’t working.
Don’t keep track of the powers Peter and Sylar collect. The writers don’t.
And all three seasons have plot threads that could be resolved by the characters involved NOT acting like retards.
It remains an enjoyable show, in a brain-candy sort of way. But I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it "good" these days.
Rex
BSG goes through the occasional lull but on the whole, it is damn solid. It is the only serial show I have watched religiously in my adult life.
KRK
Tunch fans demand equal time.
I watched the first season of Heroes through the wonder of Netflix streaming video and thought it was good but not amazing. I’ll eventually give the second season a shot, but it hasn’t been a high priority given all the disappointment I’ve heard from season 1 fans.
Xecky Gilchrist
Re: Heroes, I’ll agree with Genine and Lamont Cranston and others. First season = excellent, Second = not as bad as Highlander 2 but maybe should be treated like it i.e. ignore it. Writer’s strike kind of diddled it but it sounds like it would have been subpar even without that. Season 3, middling, entertaining enough to keep going.
I was ahead of the curve with "Lost" and decided it was annoying impenetrable crap in the first episode.
Mike
Heroes – I didn’t make it past the first few episodes, but from everything I’ve heard/read, the show’s quality drops off a cliff after season 1.
Lost – Season 2 and the beginning of season 3 were pretty bad. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, as the last 1.5 seasons completely rescued the series. Can’t wait for S5.
BSG – Go back and watch the New Caprica arc that kicks off season 3. It’s amazing, maybe the best of the series — and it upset quite a few Bush conservatives. However, since then, the show seems to be doing everything it can to get me to stop watching. BSG ends for good after season 4.5 airs this winter/spring.
Stacy
The first season of Heroes is great. The second season started to lag a bit, there was a plotline that was so boring that it became the butt of all the jokes when people would discuss the show. I like some of the main characters quite a bit, so I’ve stuck around through mediocre second season and what is, to be honest, a pretty bad third season (although I’ve actually enjoyed the last two episodes, but perhaps my expectations are so low at this point that I’ll take what I can get).
It’s not really the amount of characters that spoil the third season for me, I’d like more time spent on say, Meredith because she’s awesome. It’s more the complete laziness on behalf of the writers, the is absolutely no continuity. This season they couldn’t even follow through on a storyline that lasted over three episodes. And like Lost, they are trying to tackle some major plots half-assedly, the time travel aspect seems phoned in at this point, they don’t bother to try to sort any of it out for you or have it make the least bit of sense (for those that are in the third season, why didn’t current Claire cease to exist? Isn’t that how it works? And how can Issac’s drawings possibly be useful at this point?).
It actually seems to me like it’s making the same mistakes as Lost, rather then tying up some issues with continuity or forgotten storylines (The foot statue? The whispers? Libby in the insane asylum?) they will just throw in some new, uninstesting characters with new story lines (Nikki and Paolo) and hope you get distracted. Heroes is doing the same. There are still worthwhile scenes if you grow to love the characters (Nathan taking off never gets old, nor does Claire’s healing), but overall, if they don’t start stepping it up and at least trying, I’ll probably skip out on season 4.
malraux
Let me just toss in the wire as a singular example of that not happening. Its the only show I can think of where the later episodes are as good as the earlier ones, and that the ending of the show isn’t a disappointment.
The Other Steve
I barely watch television.
I like reruns of Boston Legal and that’s about it.
Jeffrey Boser
I think you missed most of this season, Pete. Neither has any problem being overpowered at the moment.
NR
My two cents – Season 1 of Heroes was brilliant up until the finale, which was a collossal anticlimax after all the build-up. But overall, I really enjoyed season 1.
Season 2 was so bad that it made me stop watching the show. And nothing I’ve heard/read about season 3 has made me want to start again.
fastandsloppy
I loved season 1, tolerated season 2, gave up on season 3 about a month ago. I found I was spending more time browsing the inter-web tubes on the laptop than actually watching the show and realized I had completely lost interest in whatever the hell is going on in that show.
Wifey and I have switched to Prison Break (or as we call it "Prison Rape") which is almost as stupid as Heros but at least it is entertaining.
Lost got it’s mojo back last season. You should give it another chance
Speaking of ridiculous television shows, I am filled with trepedation about the upcoming season of 24. I hope it doesn’t suck as bad as last season.
boonagain
I’m in the middle of Season 2 of The Wire as I bought the complete series as a Xmas present to myself.
I never watched it when it was on and wanted to see if it really was as good as everyone says.
NR
I think "Oz" already claimed that title.
fastandsloppy
Thanks for sharing! That was very enlightening. Next time there is a sports thread I’ll feel free to jump in and point out that I find spectator sports boring as hell.
Delia
@Fwiffo:
Yup. this is about where I am. I watched three episodes this season and then gave up. Too incoherent for words.
zzyzx
The solution for Peter would be that old powers cycle out. Instead of him having all of the powers he has encountered, he has access to the last X powers he’s seen. It would add a bit of mystery if we’re never quite sure what he has when going into a situation, especially if people there have abilities to absorb.
Larv
Yes, you are. Just to agree with everyone else, season 1 was great, 2 was so-so, and I gave up on season 3 after about 4 episodes. Maybe it’s improved since then, but I find I no longer really care.
Lesley
Boonagain:
Don’t know what you think of The Wire thus far, but don’t give up on it. Season 3 is very good. I’m from Baltimore and it is totally fuckin’ true.
Bad Horse's Filly
@Buckethead:
This was pretty much what I was going to say. Pretend it’s British and only lasts 22 eps.
And Buffy boffing Spike, excellent tv! But all those baby slayerettes? Ugh.
Pete Butler
That’s actually my point, Jeffrey. The only way the writers have come up with to deal with his powers has been to strip them from him, which they’ve done in both seasons 2 and 3. Hopefully they’re angling for a solution where they won’t have to do it in 4 as well — I’m guessing he’s going to be partially restored somehow by season’s end, but significantly less pimped-out than he once was.
Same thing with Hiro. I believe it was Parkman who called him a "walking do-over." Why can’t he just use time travel as his all-purpose fixit power? "Because it’s very difficult to control" only works for so long. This season has resorted to the same tricks used to keep Peter in check; force him to relearn the ability from scratch, then strip it from him entirely.
By giving Peter and Hiro such massive power, the writers gave themselves a big challenge in terms of how they integrate the characters into the show. They’ve responded to the challenge by finding ways to neutralize those powers. I’m not impressed.
boonagain
I love it(The Wire) so far.
The characters are working on so many levels, good and bad, that you never know what’s gonna happen. Every episode is a surprise.
It is more like a long novel than a TV series.
tavella
I watched the first few episodes, got bored, and nothing I’ve heard about the succeeding seasons has made me think I chose wrongly. The characters I was interested in, like Claire and Hiro, end up with no agency and a helpless puppet of various male figures, or idiotic comedy figures. While the show is all about the Angst of the White Men. Which y’know, I can find anywhere on prime time.
Xecky Gilchrist
They’ve responded to the challenge by finding ways to neutralize those powers. I’m not impressed.
That is pretty lame. But hell, it worked for Star Trek all those years. Too much atmospheric interference to use the transporter, which would solve our problems in five seconds!
MNPundit
Well I don’t watch it but my GF likes it, 1st season was great, second season was too short to really form an opinion and this season is generally good but uneven in terms of quality. She said the last 2-3 episodes have been quite good though.
Pete Butler
Aw, man. Don’t get me started on Star Trek’s transporters. I swear I’ll wind up in the emergency room where they flush the lethal levels of nerdery out of my bloodstream.
kormgar
I’ve gotta agree with you on the Buffy aside. The first three seasons of that show were pretty much golden but everything after that tasted like a deep friend banana and turd sandwich.
As far as Heroes goes, each season so far has followed a major arc, so unlike Lost, shit does get resolved more or less.
So far the current season feels like the weakest of the three and some of the premises are wearing a bit thin, but it’s still watchable in the, "what’s on Hulu" sense.
Deb T
Not to be an alarmist, but my poor little 4 year old Skipperke just succumbed to intestinal blockage. The vet pulled out a plug of fibers, but the gut was too rotted to save her.
I was constantly picking up the insides of some new toy. I didn’t think she was swallowing the stuffing of the toys and pillows she eviscerated with such glee. Apparently she did.
Take care the puppies aren’t eating the insides of those toys. It’s so much fun to watch them give the death shake to some little wiener dog toy, just keep an eye on what they swallow.
Deb
Agen
Season 2 started erratically but improved, but the current 3rd season is an absolute mess and not worth the time investment. if you’re looking for a show to invest your time, check out MI-5 (title used here in the States as the UK title – Spooks – obviously wouldn’t fly here). Excellent, nervy spy show. I know, not a one-to-one fit for replacing the comic book antics of Heroes, but it’s got loads of seasons to keep you satisfied.
Dan
I liked season 1, season 2 was pretty bad, and season 3 is completely awful so far. Every week i keep saying i’m going to just stop watching, but then i give it another chance and end up kicking myself for wasting an hour of my life.
You should give BSG another chance though. End of season 2 through middle of season 3 was when it was at its best
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m with Other Steve. Sports, news, Boston Legal reruns and maybe the occasional Office episode when I can remember.
I tried DVR but I never get around to watching what I’ve recorded. It just doesn’t seem that important a week or two later.
Bobzim
Shouldn’t these be called "Pupdates"?
Billy K (D-TX)
No time to read through the thread, but two things, John:
1) S01 of Heroes seemed to me a good setup for an great story to come later. It wasn’t. S02 was better paced at times, but suffered greatly from infuriating nerfing and the writer’s strike. S03 is a mess. Just a fucking mess, which is sad, because there’s still some good stuff in there.
My take: Don’t bother. You will only be disappointed. Especially if you expect coherence from a television program.
2) You really should pick back up on BSG. It makes Heroes look like Fisher-Price Theater.
Zuzu's Petals
@malraux:
Deadwood another.
Lee from NC
@Pete Butler:
Pretty much agree with this. They really really don’t know what to do with Peter or Hiro. I hate Peter’s and Hiro’s current, er, "condition". Watching Peter run around clucking with concern is getting old.
And the motivations of some of the characters seem really off to me. I mean, how many times can Nathan be cajoled into agreeing to help end the world. Seriously, he has to be pretty stupid. I just have this feeling watching the third season that none of the characters is behaving in a way that is true to the character (except maybe Ando-who I like).
Genine
I just read an interview with Bryan Fuller on EW.com, he is coming back to write for Heroes and what’s coming up. He said things will be coming back to the core.
Article is here.
Tomk
Heroes season 1 awesome
Season 2 weak sauce. Skip it.
Season 3 Decent, becoming quite good.
Shygetz
Season 1 of Heroes is excellent overall…although I hated the Mica storyline, the rest was gold. However, you can tell from the start that the writers really hemmed themselves in with Peter, Sylar, and Hiro. I called it from the middle of Season 1…"This is going to get REALLY silly in about a year."
Season 2 probably could have been great, but was turned into mush by the writers’ strike. It’s eh.
Season 3 has had exactly two episodes thus far that haven’t made me cringe. Not to mention, they didn’t learn their lessons from overpowering Peter, Hiro, and Sylar, and added in a new overpowered character. Blech.
And the "Buffy goes all emo and screws Spike" storyline really soiled BtVS for me (although I still watch it from time to time).
Horse
Dunno if you remember, but when you started watching BSG I said "we apologise in advance for the middle of S3". But it actually picks up in S4 and you should consider persevering with it.
Billy K and Shygetz have summed up Heroes nicely. Great concept born in S1 and then the writers had no idea what to do with ridiculously OP characters. S2 was average, S3 has one interesting idea (redemption) and a whole lot of truly absurd faction-swapping by characters every half an episode.
Johnny Pez
Agree with Buckethead about Heroes — pretend they canceled it after the first season.
Oh, and two words:
Doctor. Who.
Bas-O-Matic
boonagain
I love it(The Wire) so far.
The characters are working on so many levels, good and bad, that you never know what’s gonna happen. Every episode is a surprise.
It is more like a long novel than a TV series.
It doesn’t really pick up until the middle of season one (or maybe it’s about then that you realize how important that little thing that happened three episodes was to what’s happening now, or how long it takes for the backdrop of Baltimore to be drawn well enough) but once it does it’s pretty much gold until the axe grinding of season five (which reduces the series to merely excellent as opposed to super-fan-freaking-tastic.)
Matt
Another vote for watching the first season of Heroes ONLY. The second season was rushed and the the current season (third) has been terrible. My girlfriend and I are about to give up on it.
Johnny Pez
I’d also like to point out here that Ginny is the cutest puppy in the history of the universe.
Steve V
Heroes suffers not only from having too many characters, but also being a generally confused mess. I think it’s what you get when you have liberal use of time travel and also characters with virtually unlimited powers. Basically the "rules" of the world of the show have become untenable and hopelessly confused. Season 1 was a lot of fun; season 2 was okay and season 3 has pretty much been an abomination, except that the last couple of episodes are merely bad, which may mark some improvement.
Lost is skating, but still compelling imho. It’s just very well done, even though it suffers from the usual tradeoff against characterization that happens when a series goes too high-concept. I think the use of time travel marks the death knell of any TV series, so Lost may head down the drain soon.
Daveboy
Dude! You gotta give Battlestar Galatica another shot! They definitely changed things in Season 3, but it gets really good again. Although I admit it does have a couple of dumb moments — but overall, it’s solid.
Keith
You should have given "True Blood" a chance, John. First couple of eps weren’t all that great, but it picked up like gangbusters and was some damn good TV, IMO (Jason Stackhouse was HILARIOUS, and the scenes with him on V were trippy-cool)
big time patriot
I think the show "Heroes" is fine, it’s just poorly named, if it was named "Villains" you would expect episode aftere episode where the villains are better smarter and braver than the "heroes". I don’t want to watch a whole season of shows where the "villains" win, to hopefully (and I have no actual reason to believe this will EVER happen based on this years shows) have at least ONE episode where the heroes actually WIN.
Dave
Skip the Heroes, watch Dr. Horrible again and again and again and again instead.
Also, True Blood.
Bubba
I’m with Shygetz.
I just finished Heroes, Season 2, and the most interesting part of the whole series was the "what they were REALLY planning on doing" bit on the last disk. Apparently, they were going to take the show in a VERY different direction, with hundreds of thousands dead, but, due to the writer’s strike, they changed direction at the last second. I think Season 2 would have been as sweet as Season 1 if they’d done that. As it is, it’s still better than most anything else on television. I’m heartened by most of the comments above that Season 3 is an improvement.
Rainy
People are going to tell you not to watch Heroes, because they think it’s hard to follow. Whatever. This season is way better than the second second when they went back in time way too much. This season is great and we are finally starting to get who will be the main villains in the show. There are some thing I don’t like, but this season is just a lot better.
Jeff
First season of Heroes is good. Second season is… rushed, and not that good.
The third season is… confusing. Not so much in plot, but they sort of decide to make every character ambiguously ethical, basically swinging wildly between good and evil, which makes characters constantly do things that seem… out of character. The last few episodes have been a bit stronger, however, though it’s probably more because they’re sort of firming up alliances… maybe. I’m a little conflicted on the show right now, but I’ve been sticking with it.
BSG, on the other hand, is and always has been fantastic.
Cyrus
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
That would have been a completely different show.
Karl
I think Heroes is worth watching, I’m watching the 3rd Season now and I think it’s still one of the best programs on television.
Roza Hussein
Had high hopes for Heroes but did not make it past season 1, too many WTF moments. But, to each his own though as there is not much on the tube to get excited about.
Svensker
That is a very cute picture of the Puppy Overlords but it just won’t do. You have let us taste of the fruit of the Puppy Video and now the puppy stills are as dust and ashes. We demand action.
Billy K (D-TX)
@Johnny Pez:
Ha! I’ve never been a Dr. Who fan, but the Tenant era has been exceptional.
slag
Best advice of the thread.
Tim Fuller
Buffy? OMG. What kind of freak are you? Remind me again why I hang out around here?
Puppies, oh yeah.
Enjoy.
reality-based
Oh, come on – you gotta admit, Buffy/Spike was HOT! – at least for the 99.9% of women who have a thing for bad boys. Age didn’t matter every woman in my family, from 15 to 50, loved the Buffy/Spike storyline.
And Buffy, no matter how weird it got – I also despised the baby slayers – was always about 80% better than anything else on tv – better written, at least.
All-time best throw-away reference (end of season five, off to battle Glory): when Giles and Spike are tossing off lines from the Band of Brothers speech from Henry V.
Best political reference ( Joss Whedon DESPISES Bush): – at the start of the last season of Angel, when a perusal of the files at Wolfram and Hart reveals that, in the matter of buying Satanic influence to aid one’s political progeny, old Joe Kennedy tried to welsh on the deal, while Papa Bush paid up. Which explains a lot.
Joss, Come Back! The First Evil has been vanquished! (Actually, he has a new series, Dollhouse – starring Eliza Dushku (Faith) – debuting Feb 13th
bobbob
Heros:
Really got into the first season. Second season OK I guess. I gave it a lot of leeway because of the writer’s strike. I started watching this season but after 3 episodes I just want it to just go away. I have 3 episodes on my DVR and can’t bring myself to watch.
Mike
Heroes season 1 is quite good. 2 is a mess, but a mess is less noticeable if viewed on DVD rather than waiting for a new ep from week to week.
Entertainment Weekly tends to overrate British TV series, but they recommended one called Shameless that’s quite good.
A lot of great shows run through their organic plots in one season. See Friday Night Lights, Veronica Mars, etc.
Lost has somehow managed to become underrated.
Pete Butler
Y’know, I never minded the whole Buffy/Spike thing. It never struck me as merely pandering to the fangirls (though admittedly, that was part of the dynamic, and not one I was fond of). Her dalliance with Spike was NOT healthy, and the show knew it. Buffy was an emotional train wreck that season — remember how she spent the first few episodes thinking she was literally in Hell? We saw what rock-bottom looked like for that character, and banging Spike was a part of it.
(Yeah, sure, call her emo if you want. I say when your dipsh*t friends literally drag you out of heaven for no good reason, you’ve earned the right to mope a bit.)
The Slayerettes can die. As can all of Season 7 after "Conversations With Dead People". I think Season 7’s purpose was to convince the fan base that the show’s time had come and gone and keep them from bugging the network about reviving it, and in that one respect, it was a rousing success.
Advodude
Buffy was inconsistent in the last two seasons but the finale was pretty much perfect.
You are totally missing out on BSG. You need to start watching it again, all kinds of amazing shit went down.
As for heroes, Abandon all hope Ye who enter here. It’s a fucking disaster. Tim Fuller returns for the midseason finales, but it it still is truly an awful show. Season 1 had potential, but it just degrades into a shallow cartoon joke, after that.
Arachnae
I wonder if shows have a different effect if you watch all at once via DVD versus watching one episode a week as they air?
I didn’t start watching Lost until Season 4 – caught the bug on DVD. And I loved Season 2; the hatch! The Dharma Initiative! ‘Henry’! I was less enthused about the Tailies (I loathed Ana Lucia) but they served a purpose.
Lost seems to owe something to games like Myst – people are always stumbling across mysterious places from which they need to find and remove, say, the key to unlock a treasure chest they’ll find later.
It may go without saying that I love those sorts of games.
Deborah
Heroes: Season 1 is pretty good. Season 2 has some good plot threads and some astoundingly stupid plot threads and a slow pace; your tolerance will depend on how you judge the good:stupid ratio of plots. Season 3 it is amusing to read the TWOP recaps. As others have noted, they don’t seem to have any clue what to do with these people, except give the fan favorite of the moment more screen time and keep the high-powered characters as stupid as possible.
Lost: I’m with those who suggest coming back in–start at the end of Season 3 (do NOT watch 3.09, the Story of Jack’s Tattoos). Outside of the minor detail that Jack is not spending the remaining seasons in a coma, it’s interesting again.
BSG: Season 3 was good! How often do I not let my kid watch a show because the themes it’s dealing with are too adult, and not explicit violence or sex?
Cyrus
Ohhhh. When I first read the post I didn’t recognize the name, even though I’ve watched Heroes. (First season was amazing and totally worth it, IMO, and the second and third seasons have had their moments, but the whole thing has just got weird and confusing. I’m an episode or two behind, and I’ll definitely watch them online and tonight’s episode, but after that I might just drop it.)
Now I realize which character this is. However, John’s opinion of her is… unfortunate. It reminds me of the time, a few episodes into Season 2 of BSG, that he predicted Anders would die soon as just a tragic foil for Kara. John, you really do seem like the kiss of death for opinions. :)
Jay C
Since I agree with virtually everyone else here about Heroes (S1 great, S2 baffling, S3 Teh Suck); I’ll just add my $.02 about BSG – rent ’em on disc, and watch them in order – they make a lot more sense when you follow the story arc that way (no [expletive] commercials helps, too); you might change your mind.
Bad Horse's Filly
@Pete Butler: Yeah, yeah and yeah. Just wanted to let you know I agree with everything you wrote here. :-)
Bad Horse's Filly
@Cyrus: Hee-Hee! Didn’t Whedon do that in the comic series?
Delia
@Jay C:
Yeah. I’ve really enjoyed BSG I’m sorely tempted to get the complete set. Maybe I’ll wait until they complete the series to see how it turns out. I’d kind of hate for the conclusion to be a letdown.
Delia
@Johnny Pez:
Doctor Who is Teh Greatest. The next argument has to be which series of Doctor Who? I do like the current one, but I still think my all time fave is Tom Baker.
Nylund
I thought Heroes went so shite before the end of the first season. It was always silly, but entertaining nonetheless. But, by halfway through the first season, you are only watching because you feel like you should just stick it out. By the time you watch that disaster of a season finale, you feel dirty, used, and swindled.
jTh
I’ll just repeat above, but through a different perspective. The first season IS worth watching – by all means, do! It’s interesting, easier on DVD that waiting for it, has some cool twists and effects, and some impressive characters. (Clare really deserves her screentime.)
But with all this thread above in mind, you’ll see the dreaded second season coming into focus even by the end of the first one, and find it very natural to let it go after that first run.
(In particular, the show has suffered from the Marvel Comics syndrome where all the character backstories become increasingly intermingled and incestuous, which might be some kind of fanboy nirvana but makes utterly terrible writing. You’ll see it gathering steam well in advance by the end of the first Heroes season.)
So, John! Come clean with us! Do you know about The Wire?
Now there is some teevee that you don’t want to miss.
Sasha
You really should rethink that. Tis awesome.
Sid
Hardcore TV nerd here:
If you have the time, watch ANY of the following shows over the dreck that is Heroes.
The Wire
The Shield
The above two stand in a category of their own.
30 Rock
Arrested Development
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
BSG (gets slowly worse from an excellent start)
Burn Notice
Chuck
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dexter
How I Met Your Mother
Hustle [BBC]
Friday Night Lights
Mad Men
Sons of Anarchy
South Park
The Middleman (a recently cancelled gem)
The Office
Veronica Mars (another cancelled gem)
AnneLaurie
TORCHWOOD. It’s *excellent*, and there’s only so much of it.
After 30-odd years of making fun of the Whovians among our nerd friends, Netflixing Torchwood even convinced me & the Spousal Unit to start watching the "new" (2005) Dr. Who. (Which suffers, IMO, from Retcom Syndrome: 40 years of back-story and too many geeks who cherish every underbudgeted second of it.) But Torchwood is fast & sexy & even vaguely progressive.
Laura W
@Sid:
Weeds
Top Chef
jeremy
Just my two cents… I generally don’t bother with TV unless I hear from friends (often in the biz) that I really need to check a show out.
Heroes was like that. We watched the first season and were blown away. Superlative work.
Then we watched the second season. We were going to stop after the second or third episode, but thought, "well, maybe they’ll get their act together." They never did.
After hearing the popular verdict on the third season (let’s just say: if Heroes were in the gladiatorial arena, there wouldn’t be a skyward thumb in the place) we have stayed away completely. Pity, but there you are.
Chadwick
Just wanted to ditto Pete Butler, and add an aside-
In addition to not keeping track of Peter and Sylers powers, you can also safely ignore any love interest of a main character and any new non-white characters. Those too shall pass.
(Just finished the Finale 20 minutes ago- They resolved a lot of threads, and set-up a future X-men-style Oppression storyline. Verdict- Cautious optimism.)
Dan Lewis
Here’s the real problem with Heroes. To understand, we need to rewind to my one consistent problem with Angel, the Buffy spinoff. In Buffy, plot tends to happen because it’s the mirror of high school, college, and real life, and because its seeds were laid in seasons past and have finally come to organic (even orgasmic) fruition.
When plot needs to happen in Angel, on the other hand, it’s because the characters consult with or receive messages from The Powers That Be. And it gets pretty transparent pretty quickly that you can substitute in "The Writers" whenever you hear TPsTB.
The Matrix sequel had the same problem with the Oracle (The Writers say go find the Keymaster).
So back to Heroes. The first season with Isaac Mendez and Ninth Wonders controlled the action. It was ok, I think, because the writers essentially committed to the story before it actually happened, in an artistic way that played with the boundary between reality and comics. Then they proceeded to keep the promises they had made, though perhaps not in the ways their viewers might expect, constantly playing with the theme of whether the future is determined or free. And it was good.
In the later seasons though, after the writers failed to provide a new conflict that could allow their characters to grow and act, Isaac Mendez and Ninth Wonders reappeared at random intervals to manipulate the story in the hamhanded way that the Oracle and TPsTB did. In short, they got lazy, and they’re flailing.
My advice is to wait till the end of Season 3, and buy the DVDs if and only if the critics say the second half is night-and-day better than the first half. It has gotten unbearably strained for me.
bvac
Heroes season 1 is great, season 2 is alright, lags a little, introduces some annoying characters, then gets a little better. Can’t really say how season 3 is yet, because I like to give them a chance to tell their story the way they want, then reflect on it after it’s over – but the general dialog and pacing has taken a hit, imo.
Overall the show suffers from the same problems comics do. Writers/fans getting attached to characters to the point where they change over time only to revert back to their ‘classic’ form. Characters dying and coming back to life (sometimes it’s done well, though). Characters becoming too powerful and having no counterweight, yet not using their powers to full advantage.
The series began with an intriguing premise, a gang of people with abilities + a mysterious company + a bunch of people with emerging abilities. Lately though the story seems pointless. Either it will all come into focus as the season ends, or it’ll just evolve into mush.
I suggest watching every episode back to back, so you can at least say it only wasted a few days of your life rather than it ate away at you for weeks.