Shaken & Stirred: (The Return of) Heroes Yammer

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September 24, 2007

(The Return of) Heroes Yammer

And this week we have:

Four Months Later. Four months after the events of the showdown between Sylar and Peter, new Heroes emerge. These include Blackie, an Irish mobster who is 1,000 years old. Hiro remains in the past, but what will come of this? Someone dies and someone isn't dead. Claire has a boyfriend. New heroes are introduced.

Yay!

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Comments

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man, i didn't catch this show on TV for the first season, but it is fantastic. can't wait for tonight.

Posted by: austin | September 24, 2007 at 14:14

Hmmm... good stuff and some ho-hum stuff. Love the stuff with the older generation, Molly and the cop, and especially Claire. And the new boyfriend was very, very Midnighters-ish.

Posted by: Gwenda | September 25, 2007 at 09:26

Mostly ho-hum, as far as I'm concerned. Didn't like the way Matt's pregnant wife conveniently vanished, and what is the point of having Claire not raise her hand in class?

Posted by: Ted | September 25, 2007 at 13:09

Well, that was fun, in that special none-of-the-pieces-are-that-good-but-the-whole-sure-is-fun way that this show specializes in.

I've been dreading the white Kensei storyline, and now that I've seen it I think I was right to. Clearly, Hiro has to create the Kensei myth, but that means a) turning (the extremely enjoyable) David Anders into a hero, which would bring us right back to a story about a white man teaching the Japanese to be Japanese, or b) becoming Kensei himself, which frankly strikes me as treading water for this character. Either way, this seems like just another way to keep Hiro sidelined so that the less-committed heroes have time to get to where he is, in the vein of his storylines during the second half of the first season, which I was hoping to get away from.

Lots of broken marriages - Matt and Janice, Nathan and Heidi, looks like Noah and Sandra. Heroes has been praised for telling stories about marriages that survive hardship, rather than the more common kind about people escaping a troubled marriage into a romantic fantasy. I assume we're gearing up towards another round of this (though again this seems like repetition), but I'm holding out hope that Matt's divorce sticks so he can finally get together with Audrey.

No Niki and D.L. My sadness is quite easily contained.

Posted by: Abigail | September 25, 2007 at 15:39

About

Appendices

Read Read

E. Lockhart: Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, The
You might think the world doesn't need any more boarding school novels, but if you haven't read this one then you're wrong, wrong, wrong. E. Lockhart has surpassed herself with this fable of a girl coming into her own and challenging the boy's club at her prep school -- while falling in love with its members at the same time. Lockhart never simplifies or skirts gender issues and power dynamics, and lets Frankie be realistic instead of a treatise disguised as a character. The sly omniscient narrator tells the story perfectly, and leaves hope that maybe one girl can change the world. More novels as funny and true and perfect as this one, please.
Kathi Appelt: The Underneath
Appelt's first novel is a beautiful, magical fantasy for younger readers that will instantly become a classic. Seriously. I can imagine this book being in classrooms right alongside Charlotte's Web in a hundred years. The writing is poetic in the good way, and there's a lamia. Children are going to absolutely fall in love with Appelt's equally kind and brutal universe, where love conquers most, and it can take millenia to come to your senses.
Jincy Willett: The Writing Class
With her second novel, Willett matches the perfect pitch and execution of her brilliant short stories. Every writer will want to read this novel--very little wincing is involved, but expect a great deal of laughter. C and I found ourselves reading pieces aloud, after howling provoked the "what's so funny?" question. As with any good writing workshop or class, the characters become more appealing as you get to know them, and ultimately what she has pulled off is a satisfying mystery, and a satisfying exploration of humanity. Amy Gallup is a character to remember.
Karen Joy Fowler: Wit's End
A new novel by Karen Fowler really is something to be excited about, unlike many of the writers for whom such praise gets bandied about. (If you're smirking because you think you know something about her work from the title--not the book--The Jane Austen Book Club, please go sit in the corner and read any of her novels. You're welcome.) This is an unmystery-like mystery, concerned not so much with dead bodies--though there are plenty--as with the mysteries of healing and the heart, politics and people. How is it that a writer gets a lens on the present that's as revealing as the one she employs in historical fiction? Now that's a mystery. Highly recommended.
Steve Erickson: Zeroville
Steve Erickson novels are often like dreams, or revelations, or discovered artifacts, or written just for you. Zeroville's no different, although it is perhaps the most readily graspable example of his work to date. The Rosetta Stone is there; the secret decoder ring is a film projector. The dizzying Hollywood confidential stylings will make your inner film geek happy, but the uncovering of a truly mythic cinematic story--since cinema has existed forever--of sacrifice and redemption is even more memorable. See also: this review.
Ursula Dubosarsky: The Red Shoe (Neal Porter Books)
Set in Sydney during WWII, this wonderful novel travels between the view from inside each of three sisters. Dubosarsky perfectly captures the differences that come from being the younger, older, or middle child. Perfectly conjuring the period, and yet creating a completely accessible story, the narrative contrasts chapters focusing on the family with interstitials from the Sydney newspapers of the time, stories of polio, the H-bomb, and a defecting Russian spy (who happens to be in hiding next door). Nothing here is heavy-handed. Everything is perfectly balanced. It's a beautiful, beautiful novel. See my full take here.