Wednesday, December 05, 2007
And then a hero comes along
ENDING! Heroes, BBC2, 9.00pm
If there's one thing we've learned from this series, it's that no matter how powerless you feel as an individual, great things can be accomplished if we can only all learn to work together. With that in mind, RAD and I decided to pay homage to this show's ethos by collaborating on a feature-length entry for this show's concluding double-bill tonight. (You might want to have a cup of tea and a biscuit on hand before you tackle it, seriously. We got a bit carried away.) Now all we need is a pithy catchphrase to accompany our endeavours. Something like "save lowculture, save the world", but one that actually makes sense.
So: if you've been watching, however inattentively, you can't have failed to notice that everyone's quite worried about the prospect of a radioactive explosion in New York that wipes out the entire city. (Everyone except Mr Linderman, who seems to think this is acceptable collateral damage to get Nathan into the White House). The big question is, of course, who will be responsible for it? Will it be Ted? Peter? Sylar? Someone else? We know, obviously, but we're not telling [You do, I don't - RAD]. Of course, at the end of last week's episode we saw Peter's hands getting all scary and glowy, which makes him appear a likely candidate, but it would rather mess with the natural order of things if the climactic explosion happened with two episodes still to unfold, wouldn't it? Anyway, here's our rundown of what to expect from our favourite differently-abled humans tonight.
The Spectacular Flying Petrellis (Steve)
They've been busy this season, haven't they? Peter's nearly died so many times that we've lost count, he's saved the cheerleader (but not yet the world) and has gone from whiny emo-kid to badass power sponge, while Nathan's cheated on his wife with Jessica, discovered a bastard child (hi Claire!), almost been abducted by The Company, had a couple of adorable encounters with Hiro, made an impressive double-entendre involving a phallic-looking vegetable and fought valiantly to get into political office. And in the background of all of this has been Angela, arguably the most kickass character on the entire show, manipulating everything from behind the scenes. God, she's awesome.
While we're trying to keep the kibosh on all spoilers, the big question is, while Peter heads off to Kirby Plaza to stop Sylar and possibly go kablooey along with 0.07% of the world's population, will he be operating alone? It did look for a moment as though that dastardly Nathan was willing to sacrifice his own brother for the sake of his political career, although perhaps when considering the likelihood of this we should factor in how Peter and Nathan's bond is beyond close by any normal person's standards (have you seen how much they touch each other?). We're not saying when it'll happen, and we're not saying how; all we will say is that these two are directly involved in our absolute biggest "HELL YEAH!" moment of the episode, possibly even the entire series. You'll know it when you see it, trust us.
The Bennets (RAD)
Oh dear. At the start of all of this, the Bennets looked like your typical middle-class, suburbian dream family. You know, the kind of family Bree Van De Kamp dreams she has. But that image didn't last long. For starters, there is the fact that (for the 0.0001% of you that don't know) cheerleader daughter Claire (she of 'save the cheerleader, save the world' fame) can regenerate at will, coming back from any injury, including several violent 'deaths' - the best of which was recovering from heading into a full on nuclear blast, which was clearly awesome.
Then there was sinister Dad Bennet, who worked for teh evil Linderman corporation to brain!rape anyone who found out any secrets about his actual work. (He also seemed to be a bit too overly protective of Claire, but maybe that's just our Hollyoaks-addled brains working overtime). We still don't know for sure if he is 'good' or 'bad'. Although as Hollyoaks has taught us, (brain)rape can be good if you feel a bit guilty about it. So maybe he is a good'un after all.
Mum Bennet hasn't had much to do this series apart from grow increasingly crazy due to the mind-messing action. We can tell she is crazy, because she shouted at her fugly little dog. Or maybe she just has the superpower to channel Sharon Osbourne. We're not entirely sure.
Son Bennet (he probably has a name, but I missed it) [it's Lyle. Why yes, I do need to get out more. - Steve] has been incredibly insignificant thus far, which leads us to believe he may well hold some latent abilities that will come to the fore in series 2. Or maybe even in this finale.
Those of you who recall the 'five years in the future when everything went bad' episode will know bad things happen to Claire. She worked in a cafe and dyed her hair brown - which we don't think is all that bad - there's no shame to cafe work (and she never does any school work anyway so is unlikely to pass her exams), and brown hair actually really suited her. But she did get her head sliced open by Sylar while he was cunningly disguised as her biological father, which we would class under the "less good" side of things. The fact that Sylar killed Nathan in this dystopian future just makes us even more convinced that that bitch needs to pay, dammit. (What? We love Nathan.)
The Sanders/Hawkins Brood (Steve)
"Who cares?" may be some people's response here. And the Niki/Jessica plotline may not have been most people's favourite, but we'd just like to give props to Ali Larter for the amazing job she did sketching out the differences between the two characters. We loved how she used her physicality to denote the character shifts, especially the way that Niki walks as though she's made of porcelain, while Jessica has shoulders like a prop forward and runs like an articulated lorry.
What we really want from the season finale is for Niki to realise once and for all that her superstrength is hers to access, not just Jessica's. It'd stop her whimpering, wouldn't it? Being understandably chagrined that Linderman (with the aid of Candice) has absconded with Micah the wunderkind, Niki and DL set off to kick Linderman's ass with their combined brute strength and mad phasing skillz, running into Nathan on the way. Of course, if they happen upon some kind of impending apocalypse, they might prove themselves useful, but what are the chances of that happening?
Everyone else (RAD)
Matt the cop has developed something of a cult following on the messageboards - in fact, he seems to have more lustful admirers than the rest of the cast put together. Matt's 'journey' this series has been a rocky one, with falling out with his lady after she discovered he could read minds, being fired/not being fired all the time from police/security work, having to be body guard to a nuclear man and going 'evil' in the potential future episode. As the 'everyman' of the series, we (RAD, anyway) wouldn't bet against Matt dying some kind of heroic death in this finale (now watch that prediction being proved spectacularly wrong).
Although Hiro is the guy we are all meant to love most of all the heroes (and we do love him), he is somehow a bit too, well, happy, for us to identify with. No, our hero among heroes (well mine, anyway - R) is Mohinder Suresh. The son of a geneticist Dad (WHO IS DEAD) who specialised doing research into people's special abilities, Mohinder carried on the work his father did after his death (so really he is just a boffin version of Niki off The X Factor) and connected with several heroes before discovering Sylar was following him around and bumping them all off. Ooops. Anyway, what we like about Mohinder is that he is clearly a genius, but he is also misunderstood and a bit snarky. Much like us. Last episode he was seen talking to a little girl who could locate people wherever they were but had her abilities hindered because she suffered a similar genetic condition to Mohinder's sister. WHO IS DEAD. We suspect somehow Mohinder and this little girl will have a hand in saving the day. (Come on, he's doing it for HIS DEAD DAD after all)
And finally, we come to Sylar. The 'big bad' of the series, Sylar is a serial killer who takes on his victims' abilities and has spent the series bumping off hero-types (inluding one main character, drug-crazed painter, Isaac). He has a mother. WHO IS DEAD. But that's because he killed her last week, so we're not sure it works that well as a sob story. In the 'possible future' we saw that Sylar might have some hand in orchestrating the destruction of New York and then go on to be President. Can our heroes thwart him? We honestly have no idea, althuogh we do know the actor who plays him is playing Spock in the new Star Trek prequel so we're not sure his outlook is good.
So....
That's your cut-out-and-keep LC guide to the end of Heroes series 1. We've heard reports that the first part of series 2 has been a bit rubbish [which turned out to be true - Steve], but in an astonishing feat, the producer did a total public mea culpa and brought things back on track, and the show got amazing again [which is also true, hooray! - Steve]. (We hope the writers of Torchwood are taking note). So we're not going to write it off just yet. Goodbye Heroes. You filled that Star Trek/Buffy shaped hole in our lives (albeit a few hours later in the day) and we will definitely miss you. Please come back soon.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Flash(back)! Ahh-ahh!
PAST! Heroes, BBC2, 9.00pm
It's been a good couple of weeks since we wrote about this show, and we love a good flashback episode (note to Lost: people get excited about them if you use them sparingly, just fyi), so it's high time for us to check back in with the aspiring do-gooders of Heroes as the show flashes back six months.
So, six months prior to all the shit they're currently in, the Heroes were in...a slightly different kind of shit. Niki was an alcoholic, with serious daddy issues. There will be, however, some explanation as to who the hell the butch-looking woman who appears in her mirror actually is, so hurrah for that. Claire had just joined the cheerleading squad (including slightly odd sequence where cheertator Jackie encourages Claire to try on her new uniform in front of her - like, lesbian subtext much?) and was just beginning to discover the whole indestructability thing. Also: Nathan was kind of a nice guy. We'll give you a second to pick yourselves up off the floor.
Anyway, we get to see the first time Nathan flew and how that directly relates to wife Heidi's paralysis, and also Nathan and Peter sit around a hospital waiting room and look like they want to make out with each other. A lot. So at least some things were still the same six months ago. Also, we finally find out who Sylar is, and whoa, does he have issues. Oh, and linking the whole thing to the present time - Hiro's gone back in time to save the life of the cutesy waitress with the memory superpower. Aww. Dork love! It's so cute.
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Friday, September 14, 2007
So it's come to this: another selection box post
Labels: BBC2, Channel 4, Gethin Jones, Heroes, high school musical 2, ITV1, Living, Rugby World Cup, Supernatural, The IT Crowd, The L Word, TV
We find ourselves in one of those unfortunate situations where it's 11:57pm on Thursday night and we still haven't really found anything in Friday's TV schedule that compels us to write about it at length. This may be related to our having gotten all giddy earlier today upon learning that Gethin Jones will be taking part in the new series of Strictly Come Dancing and will therefore probably be wearing extremely tight trousers at least once. It was hard to focus on much else after that.
So, with apologies for the lack of focus in this update, let's have a quick flick through the things that you might be tempted by. Living's got a new episode of The L Word at midnight, marking Cybill Shepherd's first appearance as secretly bisexual (whoops! Spoiler!) new character Phyllis. Those of you with a keen interest in sport may be interested in the Rugby World Cup Live coverage on ITV1 from 7.30; those with no particular interest in sport may still just want to stare at the thighs. That's perfectly acceptable.
There's The IT Crowd on Channel 4 at 10.00pm, which rather amused us last week, and new character Ava in Supernatural on ITV1 at 11.00pm is treated to a vision of the future that enables her to see the inside of Sam's guts. We regret to report that his innards are not nearly as pretty as his, um, outers. And it's not tonight, but don't forget that BBC2 is running a catch-up of Heroes from the beginning tomorrow night and Sunday, if anyone's slipped behind.
To conclude, here's a terrifying deleted scene (or part thereof) from High School Musical 2 that we just can't stop watching on YouTube. We think it might be amazing, but we might never reach a definitive conclusion on this one.
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Hero worship
SUPER! Heroes, BBC2, 9.00pm
Okay, we're five episodes in; we officially deem this sufficient time for us to be able to squee about this show again without being accused of bias or favouritism or something. (Not that we've ever been especially unbiased about things in the past, of course.) So, last week lots of interesting things happened: Claire woke up on a slab in the morgue, unsurprisingly a little bit peeved about the whole attempted-rape-and-murder thing, so she did what any of us would do if we found ourselves indestructible and back from the dead with our attempted rapist still on the loose: she took him for a drive and slammed his car into a wall. Hell yeah. Niki tried to sleep with Nathan to clear her debt to Linderman, but found herself unable to do it, so MirrorNiki took over and did the deed instead. The moral of this story is that turning down sex with Adrian Pasdar is always wrong, and should you ever make such an idiotic decision, your superego will take over and reverse it for you. Oh, and Peter figured out that maybe he could absorb other people's powers, and had a visit from Hiro of the Future, who had a message for him.
So, this week there are repercussions from all of that. Creepy Mr Bennet catches up with Nathan and attempts to abduct him for nefarious purposes unspecified, leading to Nathan making one of the most kickass exits we've ever seen on TV. Oh, and he's shirtless at the time. This was presumably the show's little gift to us and our increasingly frightening Adrian Pasdar fixation. Also, Nathan meets Hiro and has a brilliantly surreal conversation with him. It's every bit as cute as you'd expect.
Meanwhile, Claire's actions with Roadkill Rapist have unforeseen consequences, while Matt uses his power for personal gain and because he never watched Charmed, he's totally unprepared for it to backfire on him, albeit in a rather indirect way. Oh, and Hiro's message for Peter involves something to do with saving cheerleaders and/or the world, or something. It'll never catch on, whatever it was.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Holding out for Heroes
FINALLY! Heroes, BBC2, 9.00pm
It probably sounds like we've been wittering on about this quite a lot recently, especially since we made it our pick of the day when Sci Fi showed the season finale last week, but to heck with it: we're excited because our favourite new show of the 2006 US TV season has finally made it to BBC2 and we reserve the right to give it prominence on our homepage every now and then.
We're not sure how many people are left who haven't already either seen it on Sci Fi or acquired it by potentially dodgy internet-based means, but for the purposes of this preview, we'll assume that you haven't seen it yet. We'll also try not to do what several TV periodicals have already done and give away some of the twists before the first episode has even aired. Sheesh. So: the premise, for the as-yet-uninformed, is that a bunch of ordinary people across the world (but mainly in North America, let's be honest) begin to discover that they have strange, supernatural abilities. A handful of them are overjoyed and feel that their lives now have a sense of purpose; the majority, however, suspect that they may be royally fucked as a result.
Admittedly the show gets off to a slow start, since the main characters are largely based in locations extremely distant from each other, so there's lots of chopping to and from various stories all jostling to be the A-plot. Not all of the characters are immediately engaging (if you find yourself nodding off during Mohinder's faux-profound voiceovers, you're not alone), but stick with it and it's all kinds of ace once the overall plot begins to unfold. Now's a good time to start picking your favourite characters, by the way, and preparing to enthuse about them to anyone and everyone. If anyone cares, the majority of our love goes to shadowy politician Nathan Petrelli, his emo-haired brother Peter, and badass indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet. There's a double bill to get you started tonight, and there's even a fanzine-type show to follow before Newsnight. Probably best to get on board now, then.
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Monday, July 16, 2007
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
SYLAR! Heroes, Sci Fi, 10.00pm
We are currently wetting our pants like the pathetic fanboys that we are over the BBC2 trailers for Heroes (due to start 25th July, and you'd better believe we'll be talking about it again then, and watching it all over again because that's just how insanely geeky we are), but before we get too ahead of ourselves, Sci Fi is showing the first season finale for those of you who are no doubt champing at the bit to discover what happens. If you're waiting for the BBC2 airing, you probably don't want to read any further because obviously, here be spoilers.
Actually, in all fairness, we thought this show dropped the ball slightly in the last handful of episodes: not that it was actively bad, just that it felt a bit going-through-the-motions-y with all the characters being put into position ready for the explosive (no pun intended) season finale. We feel confidently able to predict, however, that you'll be significantly more engaged with this episode - it made us yell at the screen on several occasions, and we maybe even got a little bit teary. Overinvested? Us? Surely not.
So: in the last episode, Nathan won the election, there was a little girl who could track Sylar, Hiro finally got some lessons with that damn sword that's been making his plotline so boring lately, DL took out Linderman by squeezing his brain (ew) and Sylar offed Radioactive Ted and stole his power, so he can go all kablooey on New York City's ass. This leaves the non-evil Heroes who haven't yet been dramatically killed to attempt to stop him without getting their own skulls sliced open and the tasty braaaaaiiiins removed (hence Claire's look of "woe!" in the picture above). It's probably safe to say that Peter's super-cool ability to absorb everyone else's powers will probably be involved somewhere here, but will he survive the fallout (again, pun not intended)? We're saying nothing, but you'd be wise to prepare yourselves for the gayest scene of the entire series (which is a fairly hotly-contested field, given all the eyefucking and inappropriate touching that seems to go on amongst the male cast members). You'll know it when you see it, believe us.
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Monday, February 19, 2007
They've gotta be strong and they've gotta be fast and they've gotta be fresh from the fight
EPIC! Heroes, Sci Fi, 10.00pm
It's being billed on posters at this year's Lost but don't be fooled. In this show, the plot actually moves forward. In this show, there aren't endless flashbacks which basically serve to establish that the character has a chequered past and daddy issues (although we'll admit there are daddy issues aplenty in this show: Claire, Niki, Peter, Nathan, Hiro, Mohinder...they've all got 'em). In this show, several characters are actually likeable. And more to the point, in this show we've got faith that the honchos behind it actually have a clear idea where they're going, and aren't just tossing in random cliffhangers in the final minutes to make us all tune in again next week (although, again: there are cliffhangers and some of them are awesome. Episode three's, in particular, is fucking great).
Okay, so that's enough with the gratuitous pot-shots at Lost. It has proved to be good for something, because without it there would have been a greatly reduced chance of this show being commissioned, since it does owe a debt to Lost in terms of clearing the path for shows who like to spin an epic story featuring multiple characters who didn't know each other until the show started but have some kind of interlinked destiny. Oh, and who take their sweet damn time in the process too.
Heroes, however, is totally its own beast, and we've fallen completely in love with it. We're totally hooked. We're not going to spoil everyone's abilities for you because figuring them out is half the fun, but in the opening minutes a hospice nurse attempts to fly and a cheerleader from Texas hurls herself off some kind of scaffolding into an 80ft drop, pick herself up, pop her shoulder back into place and continue otherwise unharmed. Obviously the big mystery is where did they get their powers, why them, and what are they meant to do, but don't expect that to be answered just yet. Perhaps the most important thing we can tell you for this opening two-parter is that the majority of the Heroes are absolutely smokin' hot, and regardless of your orientation, you're bound to want to have sex with at least two of them. (Hands off Nathan Petrelli, by the way; he's ours.)
Save the cheerleader, save the world! (That'll make sense in a couple of episodes' time. Oh, and if you don't have Sci Fi, you don't have to be dependent on the illicit Mistress Bittorrent, because BBC2 will be showing the series over the summer. Hooray!)
And if you really can't wait that long, why not have a look at this preview courtesy of your very own lowculture. Don't say we're not good to you! Just pick your connection speed and media format of choice.
Really fast | MP4 Real WM
Quite fast | MP4 Real WM
Not that fast at all really | MP4 Real WM
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