TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 6

With the third season of Heroes gradually picking up pace, anticipation for high for episode six “Dying of the Light”. Hopefully this episode could keep the series heading in the right direction.

After weeks of speculation, the main antagonist of the series is revealed to be Arthur Petrelli, Peter and Nathan's father. Unfortunately, apart from a brief scene when he absorbs Adam Monroe's regenerating ability, he barely features, and after all the build up it's a little disappointing.

As it turns out, Ando didn't die at the end of the previous episode. Thanks to a quick move by Hiro – involving some fake blood packs and a toy sword – Ando's “death” is effectively faked, and Hiro is given his first assignment, and teleports with Ando to Africa, to find the painter from the earlier episodes. I'm still not sure what his name is, but since he lives in a hut, has a staff, can see the future and enjoys finger painting, I'm just going to assume he's Rafiki from the Lion King. The Hiro and Ando scenes are, as usual, entertaining viewing, but it's made even better with Rafiki's input.

Mohinder adds to his collection of victims by capturing Tracy and Nathan, although it's never really explained why. The show has completely brushed over Mohinder's motivation for why he's taking these people, if he even has one. A little bit of character development would be nice occasionally, but when it comes to Mohinder and the characters closely associated with him, this concept seems to be completely ignored. If they can manage it with the other characters (Sylar and Nathan spring to mind) they can manage it for Mohinder

After Meredith's capture by Eric Doyle – who has the ability to control people's physical actions – Claire and her mother, Sandra, attempt to rescue her from Doyle's eerie Marionette theatre. The scenes with Doyle are genuinely creepy, partly thanks to Doyle's sinister ability, and partly thanks to some of the great music and sound effects. Both this, and the scenes with Hiro and Ando, are a refreshing change from the romantic angle the show attempts.

The bulk of the episode focuses on Daphne, as she travels the world, recruiting for Arthur Petrelli. Her first assignment, Matt Parkman, is found at the airport, caged tortoise in hand (that he's still irritatingly referring to as a “turtle”), and he instantly starts waffling on about how he and Daphne are soul mates. And then Heroes tries the romance angle, something that it's consistently failed to do well over the course of the series. Some of the lines are genuinely awful, and Matt even pulls the “what does your heart tell you” line out of his ass. It's still not as bad as the god-awful dialogue between Claire and West in season two, but it's getting there.

It's a step backwards from episode five, but “Dying of the Light” is still decent. What it does well is irritatingly contrasted by what it does badly, but the quality is definitely there.

3/5

How come Meredith can't user her powers when she's around Eric, when her ability is controlled by her adrenaline levels, and not her physical actions? See, these loopholes happen when you try and explain things scientifically. Next time, just tell us it's magic.

Tell me that I'm racist for comparing an African man to a baboon - tomdoodle16@live.co.uk

TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 5

With Peter confronting Sylar, Hiro and Ando digging up Adam Monroe, and Mohinder’s abduction of his neighbour being multiple cliff-hangers at the end of the previous episode, this weeks “Angels and Monsters” had a lot of questions to answer.

At level five, Peter and Sylar are at each other’s necks. Refusing to accept what Sylar’s ability has turned him into, Peter violently snaps Sylar’s neck and turns on his mother, unable to control his hunger. Sylar recovers, grotesquely cracking his neck back into place, and stops Peter in a great moment of role reversal.

Claire, still hell-bent on stopping villains, tracks down Steven Canfield, a man with the ability to create small vortexes. Realising that Canfield is troubled and confused, much like herself, she instead decides to help reunite him with his family, at which point she is interrupted by Noah Bennet and Sylar. The resulting scene - in which Canfield opens up a vortex and Claire is reluctantly saved by Sylar - sparks some fantastic tension between three of the shows key characters, and seeing how their relationships develop could be interesting viewing. As well as this tension, we also see more of Sylar’s gradual rehabilitation, and the subsequent insight into his character continues to be one of the greatest aspects of this season - partly thanks to the brilliance of the character, and partly thanks to Quinto's talent as an actor.

The aforementioned vortex scene is arguably the best scene in the episode. It’s incredibly well done, and the vortex itself looked genuinely excellent. After the debacle that was the green screening in the last episode, this is a nice reminder of what the Heroes special effects team is capable of, even if it is done just by using a couple of high-powered wind machines.

After abducting his neighbour, it is revealed that Mohinder has become even more spider-like, and has created a cocoon for his prey. After Maya tries to free his victim, Mohinder gives her the same treatment. Seeing the once timid professor transform into a twisted, bestial villain is a surprisingly interesting process, despite Rahamurty’s inconsistent performances, but Heroes seems to have brushed over a fairly important detail - how Mohinder makes these cocoons. Since they’re made from a translucent and sticky substance, they’re going to have to explain this one quickly, otherwise I can’t hold myself responsible for any jokes made.

In the meantime, Hiro and Ando have found and dug up Adam Monroe, and it seems reviving him was a good move. Like with Daphne, Adam’s banter with Hiro and Ando is entertaining and light hearted, and serves as much welcome comic relief in the episode. After agreeing to help Hiro and Ando find the formula, Adam quickly finds a way to escape. Unfortunately for him, his escape leads him straight into the path of Knox (now working for the rival company) promptly ending the episodes light hearted distraction. While it's a little disappointing that the light hearted side of Heroes tends to be brushed aside quickly, at least it's not being dragged out.

The series is moving along quickly, but it seems to have rediscovered what was good about Heroes. The drama, plot twists and character depth is really starting to show, and if keeps improving as consistently as it has, then it’s going to be very good viewing.

4/5

I bet Mohinder didn’t have any problems when it came to putting Maya in a cocoon…see, I can’t control myself.

Game Review: Saints Row 2

The newest addition to Volition’s ‘Saints Row’ series, ‘Saints Row 2’ arrived in the UK last week. With the promise of a more weapons, vehicles, and space to wreck all kinds of havoc in, Saints Row 2 looked to be a significant improvement on the original. But could it meet the standards set by the brilliant Grand Theft Auto IV?

Not much has changed in Saints Row 2. As the leader of a small gang, you’ll fight rival gangs, earn respect, and attempt to take over the city of Stilwater. While for the most part it’s essentially the same as the original, Saints Row 2 has made a few additions, including new guns, vehicles, and character customisation options. It’s a typical sequel, but fans of the original game will appreciate the new toys they’ve been given to play with.

Some parts of this game just ooze quality from every orifice.

The big addition made to Saints Row 2 is how much more there is to do, and how many ways there are to earn respect. As well as adding to the different types of side missions (including missions that have you dress up as a cop and terrorise citizens with flame throwers) there are extra “diversions” that can be attempted in different situations. These range from ordinary taxi jobs, to seeing how far you can jump out of a car, to base jumping. Each of these diversions is absolutely pointless, but brilliant in equal measure, and with the variety of silly crap to do, you’ll be playing Saints Row 2 for a while before boredom sets in.

Fighting with the Chainsaw has a distinct "Dead Rising" feel to it. That's no bad thing.

Unfortunately, almost everything else about Saints Row 2 is fairly mediocre. The games attempts at humour are a perfect example of this, and it’s almost embarrassing having to listen to such worn out jokes so often, and anyone with a higher mental age than twelve is going to be very tired of them very quickly. It's as if it's trying too hard to offend in an attempt to impress, and failing miserably because all it's managing to churn out is watered down racism and a few "yo momma" jokes.

The game is also marred by a huge amount of glitches. Usually it’s minor visual glitches, such as textures failing to load, but after seeing cars driving without wheels, and torsos floating around the streets as their invisible heads scream in terror, you realise just how rushed and untested Saints Row 2 is. Considering most of these problems were in the original game, it’s really disappointing that Volition didn’t fix them for the sequel.

Stillwater itself is another way Saints Row 2 feels rushed. Aside from looking fairly dated, the city feels incredibly empty. It’s all well and good making the environment bigger, but if the extra size comes from putting in large, empty spaces there isn’t really much point, since these aren’t fun or interesting to play in. There’s also a surprising lack of vehicles and people, and more often than not that streets of Stilwater will feel very empty. Maybe Stilwater is still trying to populate itself after the carnage of the first Saints Row game.

He's doesn't know where everyone is, either.

While controlling your character is fairly smooth, you’ll find yourself constantly restricted by their inability to interact with the environment. The character outright refuses to grab onto almost anything, which can lead to some incredibly frustrating moments. There were a couple of moments where I was constantly jumping into a wall in a fruitless hope that my character would have the guile or intelligence to hop over it. But apparently prancing around like a ninny is more ghetto in his book, so he proceeded to do that as he was gunned in the back by several overzealous policemen. Nice.

The soundtrack is usually one of the main appeals of Grand Theft Auto and it’s clones, and Saints Row 2 is no exception. The soundtrack is pretty big, with hundreds of songs from several different genres to choose from, but you will start to notice the relatively short loop after a while. Songs on certain radio stations will crop up almost constantly, and listening to the same 80s hit over and over gets repetitive after a while. Still, there are some absolute gems in the soundtrack, and the ability to pick and choose songs and create your own radio station is a decent feature.

Saints Row 2 is a genuinely fun game. The sheer amount of pointless stuff you can do is absolutely great, and it’ll be a while before you find that you’ve run out of things to do. But the novelty doesn’t quite cover the mediocrity. The glitches, the graphics and the humour are all incredibly dated, and for me served as a potent, constant reminder of how much better Grand Theft Auto IV was. Saints Row 2 fails to meet the high standards set by GTA in pretty much every situation, and no matter what stunts it tries to pull with the next game, I don’t think it’s ever going to truly rival the series it tries so hard to impersonate.

7/10

I did try the online multiplayer, but after hearing six small children scream various racial slurs I decided to ignore it and go have sex in the local strip club. In the game, of course. Er-hem.

TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 4

Episode four “I Am Become Death” begins with Mohinder attempting to reverse his gradual transformation into a hideous Indian Spiderman. His newfound aggression is a nice change from his inane waffling about the science behind the show but, thanks to Ramamurthy‘s wooden acting skills, it‘s no more convincing.

After learning of her creation by the infamous Company, Tracy is pushed to the edge. While her attempted suicide is foiled by Nathan, it was kind of hard to believe any of it, thanks to the god awful green screen effects. The green screen effects in Heroes are rarely any good, but this is another level of mediocrity that the show hasn’t reached since the show’s pitiful recreation of Ukraine in season two. The annoying thing is that Heroes can look brilliant, some of the effects in the show are genuinely excellent, but each time they use a green screen it just looks lazy.

The bulk of episode four takes place in the future, with Peter’s scarred future self (who apparently took a four year trip to the Matrix) revealing that extraordinary abilities have become common, and that the sheer amount of abilities will destroy the world. Then future Peter is shot, which I liked, since his unnecessarily over-dramatic hand gestures were getting on my tits.

Peter then begins his search for the future Sylar, who’s original power is the key to saving the world. After discovering his location from Mohinder (who’s fully transformed into…er…Gollum), Peter discovers that, in the future, Sylar has reformed, and is now a father. The human side of Sylar is something the series hasn’t explored until recently, and having that insight into his character is incredibly refreshing. It goes without saying that Sylar was one of the shows better characters, but giving him a little more depth, and giving us the chance to sympathise with him, was a fantastic move.

Another smart move was giving Sylar’s power to Peter, effectively turning Peter into his nemesis. It’s an interesting development, and having Peter in Sylar’s position could flip the show right on it’s head. If the writers take advantage, this could be one of the best twists in the series so far.

With “I Am Become Death”, season three continues to pick up pace. There’s still quite a lot to pick on, but it’s getting there.

3/5

Is anyone else bored of how Nathan is always the president in the future? I’m looking forward to the season where he becomes a white version of Hancock.

Going to be a slow month…

Since I’m no longer working, and since I’m still paying for review material, I’m going to be pretty limited in terms of what I can and can’t review for a month or two.

I’m still going to be writing, and regular visitors will have noticed I’m currently reviewing the third season of Heroes as an episode-by-episode thing, and I’m looking out for more cheap/free reviews that are available. It’s just unlikely I’ll be reviewing new games and films for a while. I’ll still manage to churn out one or two, but I won’t be writing as much as I’d like.

In the meantime, I’ve finally put a hit counter up. The plan was to use this a temporary site, checking to see what the traffic is like, and if it’s any good I’ll move to a paid host and see if I can get any money back from my reviews. There hasn’t really been a way for me to check what this site’s traffic was like, apart from vague estimations from the amount of feedback I had, and the hit counter should help me out with that.

You’ll also notice some adverts at the top of the site. It’s more experimental than anything else, I’m interested to see what kind of adverts I get, and whether or not I could generate any money from here. I’ll probably take them down after a while, but I’ll leave them up there for now, and see I anything interesting crops up. Who knows, maybe the pocket change I’ll make from them will help pay for a couple of extra reviews.

So yeah, there’s an update for you guys, hope it helps explain why I haven’t been writing many game reviews this month. I am actively looking for work, and I’ve signed on for Job Seeker’s allowance, so I should be able to get back to reviewing new material very soon. Until then, I’ll be writing a review of the latest Heroes episode every week, and I’m considering suggestions or requests people have made for reviews.

Cheers,

Tom

Yes, that means I'm finally pulling my finger out of my arse and answering some review requests.

TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 3

“One of Us, One of Them” starts where episode two left off: weakly elaborating on the plot twist revealing that the series main antagonist, Sylar, is actually the son of Angela Petrelli, and subsequently the brother of protagonists Nathan and Peter. This “revelation” is so meekly explained and thrown together that, what could have been one of the greatest plots twists of the series, is reduced to a couple of throwaway lines that are completely brushed over.

Most of the episodes focuses on a cliché bank robbery by the villains, with Peter amongst them. Until he’s caught out by Knox, a villain who gains strength from the fear of others, and is taken hostage with the civilians. It’s a bit disappointing, because watching a hero like Peter, being pushed into constant moral dilemmas and being forced to chose between staying alive and being a hero, is something the show hasn’t really explored. But instead they’ve binned that idea, in favour of the “Future apocalypse” story. Again.

Realising that the villains from level 5 are the bank robbers, the company sends out it’s newest partnership, Noah Bennet (the infamous man in horn-rimmed glasses) and Sylar. Despite the long running conflict between the two characters, there’s a grudging mutual respect that begins to develop, and it’s going to be interesting to see how this partnership works out. Putting them together was a fantastic move by the writers, and it’s something that’s guaranteed to please fans.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Hiro and Ando are chasing after Hiro’s “nemesis” Daphne, a woman with super speed. The lovable comic duo are really complimented by Daphne’s sassy confident character, and there’s a great tension between the characters that results in some genuinely funny moments.

After researching the connection between herself and Nikki Sanders, Tracy Strauss (a political advisor with freezing powers) delves into her past, and we discover that she was created. The idea of science giving birth to abilities is a new spin on the series, and it will be interesting to see how it’s worked into Heroes.

Heroes has always been well known for impressive stop-time effects, and episode three has one of the best so far. It’s genuinely gorgeous and incredibly well done, and is easily one of the better visual moments of the episode.

With episode three, the season is starting to pick up speed. It’s still cliché, it’s still pretentious, and it’s still over rated. But it’s getting better, and if it keeps going in this fashion it could end up being the show everyone expects it to be.

3/5

Oh, and Claire gets all hot and sweaty, which is always nice. I’m still not sure how it’s teaching her to fight, but I’ll roll with it. I wonder if I’ll ever write one of these without mentioning women…

TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 2

Episode two of Villains, titled “The Butterfly Effect”, begins with a vision of a horrific future, this time courtesy of Angela Petrelli, mother of the series’ main protagonist Peter. As well as stopping the apocalypse, the heroes will have to fight a selection of villains as well. Go figure.

In the present day Mohinder, the Indian scientist and source of most of the shows inane waffling, is adapting to his newfound powers, thanks to a syringe taken from Maya (a South American woman who is essentially a walking plague). And, after a short conversation detailing how he injected himself against Maya’s wishes, he ends up in bed with her.

So let’s get this straight: despite Mohinder completely going against what Maya wished (injecting himself instead of destroying the syringe), she’s willing to let that pass, and have a quickie because he’s now able to climb up walls? What was good about Heroes was that, despite the ridiculous premise, the relationships between the characters still could have been real. This completely ignores that idea, and instead just goes for a few seconds of shirtless face eating. It takes away part of what made the show interesting, and is a total dick move in that respect.

Episode two also introduces the season’s namesake, the villains, who have been ripped out of X-men with all the subtlety of being kicked in the crotch. There’s genuinely a villain that controls metal, who is nicknamed “The German”. It’s a miracle Stan Lee hasn’t sued for copyright. But, in a fairly interesting turn of events, Peter is inside one of the villains, and it could be interesting to see how his situation turns out over the course of the series.

Another plot development is that, since his near death experience in the first episode, politician Nathan has gone a little mad, and is now seeing Linderman in his mind. This kind of madness is something the show has explored before and been surprisingly good at, and it could be interesting to see how the situation is tackled this season. Hopefully it won’t be cast aside for some pretty special effects.

Hiro, the shows comic relief, is one of the main focuses of the episode, which is bound to please fans. The childish banter between him and his friend Ando is a refreshing change from the rest of the show, and one of the few reasons why Heroes is still watchable.

“The Butterfly Effect” is no better than “The Second Coming”. While the pretentious blathering has been toned down (with only the cheerleader Claire getting in the on the act this time round), the storyline doesn’t really develop. Villains continues to be a disappointment, and at times is painfully slow moving. The series needs to do more than incessantly offer questions to keep it moving. Maybe a cattle prod will do the trick.

2/5

Yes, Dania Ramírez gets her top off at the start of the episode. No, you don’t see any boob. Anyone else feel cheated?

TV Review: Heroes Season 3, Episode 1

Almost a year after the disappointing second season, hit NBC show ‘Heroes’ returned, with a new subtitle: ‘Villains’. With Sylar’s return at the end of season two, ‘Villains’ had a lot of promise. All fans could really hope for was that season three wasn’t another flop, and that Heroes would hit the heights that the first season achieved.

As usual, a messenger from the future warns the current crop of heroes of an impending apocalypse, and it’s down to various ordinary people with extraordinary powers to stop everything going wrong. It’s been done before, twice by Heroes alone, but it works. It would be nice to see the writers try something new, but you can hardly blame them for clinging desperately to a proven, successful formula.

Episode one launches itself straight into the action, answering just about every question from the end of season two, while simultaneously providing one of the greatest cop-outs television has ever seen. All of the characters that should be dead miraculously aren’t, a plot development which just screams “prolong the series at all costs”, and while the lack of consistency isn’t surprising in a drama about superheroes, it’s now verging on sheer retardation. On the subject of retardation, Peter Petrelli is not the real Peter Petrelli, but is a different Peter Petrelli, who is still Peter Petrelli. I could continue in this fashion for a good couple of paragraphs, but you get the idea. While the plot does show the occasional flicker of promise, for the most part it’s either cliché or just plain stupid. It took them a year to come up with this? Seriously?

The slight potential of the plot is greatly overshadowed by the incredibly pretentious demeanour of the episode. Mohinder’s lengthy voiceovers have always been pretentious, but now that Nathan and Sylar are getting in on the act, it’s borderline nauseating. Admittedly some fans might find something deep and meaningful in the semi-poetic ramblings, but most are going to see it for what it is: inane, stuck up gibberish. It detracts from what makes the show entertaining - seeing people with superpowers in real life situations - and it’s high time Heroes got out of it’s own ass.

The plot of Heroes: Villains has potential, and that potential is enough for me to recommend watching it if you enjoyed the previous seasons. If you didn’t watch seasons one or two, then avoid Villains. It’s not as good as it thinks it is, and it’s likely that the series is going to suffer as a result. Still, at least there’s some lovely effects on show. And Dania Ramírez. Phwoar.

2/5

It’s my first TV review, so it’s not going to be my best. But I’m looking forward to tackling the learning curve.