Friday, October 23, 2015

Heroes Reborn 1x06 "Game Over" (You Need A Hiro) [Contributor: Meredith]


"Game Over"
Original Airdate: October 22, 2015

I’m still here. I missed last week because I can barely watch this show anymore.

... Okay, fine. It was because I had to adult and take care of a sick child. Apologies to anyone who is super into the show and was anxiously awaiting my thrilling and — I’m sure — completely surprising review of it. I actually never got a chance to watch last week's episode, and, spoiler alert, I didn’t need to. I picked up this week and literally did not feel like I had missed anything, so there’s that.

Just to cover my bases, here is my review of last week’s episode — solely based on the “previously on” segment: Nothing much happened, nothing at all made sense, and poor Zachary Levi trying to carry the weight of the entire show on his shoulders. Bonus: more Hiro teases, without actually giving us Hiro.

So this week, we find ourselves still watching a bunch of different stories that aren’t explored long enough or deeply enough for me to care. They can actually all pretty much be summed up in a line or two, so let’s take a minute and get that out of the way:

Carlos takes Hot Paul hostage because Hot Paul knows where the nephew is (he’s missing, FYI). Apparently the nephew is being held at some Evos-only manor because we are literally watching X-Men: The Television Show, so the duo takes off on a pretttttty tense and awkward drive. When they arrive, Hot Paul overtakes Carlos using his powers and things aren’t looking good for our non-powered hero at the end of the episode.

The girl whose power is apparently that she can be inside a video game is named Miko, and I’m glad it took me six episodes to figure that out. They just kept calling her Katana girl! She is searching for Hiro (who isn’t, though, really?) and basically her whole storyline brings her into contact with Noah and company.

Speaking of Noah, he’s holding a bad clone hostage and torturing him for information. He gets some!... I think? And then he and his geeky friend go off in search of Hiro. Maybe? Either way they run into Miko and her buddy and they all work together to find Hiro, but end up getting attacked by geeky dude’s sister who is shooting black smoke. Anyway, she ends up killing her brother but that doesn’t matter so much because just when it looks like Noah is a goner... guess who shows up? That’s right. HIRO. IS FINALLY. HERE. And not looking so good?

Meanwhile, Malina’s mentor also seems to have died and so she finds herself stowing away on a truck full of wood, which drops her at a pier where Zac Levi (his name is Luke, it would seem) tries to kill himself by jumping into the lake wearing a backpack full of bricks. Malina saves him by making water move? I guess? And then Zac sees she has a picture of Tommy, and agrees to help her find him because they are supposed to save the world together.

Tommy takes his lovely lady friend to Paris, but then gets into a scuffle because he’s an Evo. In the end, girlfriend finally kisses him and then he kisses her again and then she cuts his microchip out of his arm. Oh, also, he’s adopted.

Hiro agrees to take Noah back to the day all this crap began, that rally a year ago. So, we’re there now. Cool.

The thing is, even the best actor on the show (Zachary Levi, in case that wasn’t clear) seems kind of just, done? The acting is amateur, the writing is cliched and predictable, and the show is trying to fit in with the current generation of dark, gritty, groundbreaking comic book adaptations.

And it is not working at all. That’s not what Heroes was when it was on the air originally, and it’s certainly not what Heroes Reborn is. Thee show uses death as a way of trying to attain that grittiness, but the deaths are ones that don’t matter, and they aren’t handled in a meaningful way. There’s too much going on between characters and storylines, which leaves the audience feeling cold and disinterested.

Unfortunately for the Heroes franchise, the original incarnation may have been before its time, but this reboot is late to the game. The show doesn’t fit into the landscape of current television — it doesn’t offer anything new, unique, different or exciting. In a television world where Arrow, Daredevil, and even the lighter tone of The Flash exist and are thriving, Heroes Reborn has been found wanting. While the first couple seasons of the original show had devoted viewers, the later years simply didn’t have the numbers to justify this kind of revival. This isn’t The X-Files or Twin Peaks, after all.

Honestly, if you’re into the comic book genre, skip this and choose from any of the other impressive options available on your screens.

WTF Lines/Moments:
  • Girlfriend actually pulled a microchip out of Tommy’s wrist. These kids are supposed to be, like, 15 years old. Dude, no. 
  • Death on this show is so overdone. And that shouldn’t be a thing people can say.
  • Seriously... what is Miko/Katana girl’s superpower? 
  • Zac Levi actually tried to kill himself in the middle of a public marina. And Malina used her powers and nobody thought anything of it? In this world where apparently Evos are hot commodities?
  • Really, show? A manor for people with powers? And let me guess, it’s run by a kindly professor in a wheelchair?
  • Hot Paul pulled a thing out of his nose and it was super gross. Please stop using shock value as a storytelling device. 
  • Really, though, this show is just hard to watch. So many things are WTF moments, that narrowing them all down would be impossible.

1 comment:

  1. Well, the only thing I would say is Thank you Meredith for the effort. I'm sure it's feeling like a waste of time.

    FYI, I don't regret at all stop watching :)

    ReplyDelete