Heroes is back on nbc after the holiday break.
There have been twelve episodes so far, and it's still not showing any signs of slowing down.
And they take their time developing the story, and the story takes unexpected turns, and these facts are yet more great, great facets of it all.
As others have pointed out: everything isn't necessarily explained the first five minutes. This series is made for those with a longer attention span. The first in a very long time.
Hopefully the first of many.
Some people claim it's just a matter of having patience, but I don't think so.
Niki is still crazy (crazier than ever), and thus a very valuable character.
Peter is still the troubled "hero". He seeks to end his power, but will only serve to enhance it.
Nathan is a strange contradiction. He uses his power, but still won't acknowledge it.
Hiro is about to find his sword, his destiny.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
Children of Men
This is yet another film that everybody should be forced to watch at gunpoint.
There is despair here, desperation, from the very beginning. We are presented for the stark reality of a humanity unable to reproduce. When the film begins there haven’t been any newborns in twenty years. This is a very realistic scenario for anyone that has researched the matter, and everyone should.
Hope and a minimum of decency have long since fled these streets and very few are still looking for it.
There is hope, sparely used throughout the film, but it is never ascending, never taking the center stage we see in the usual run-of-the-mill «upbeat» film. The ending is left open to interpretation. There is no emotional payback at the end. The horror of a world without children remains at the front of our mind. The solution, if it exists anywhere, isn’t found in the course of the story. No matter where Theo (Clive Owen) and Kee (Claire-Hope Ashley) turn they are betrayed and hope is, if not dead, very ill, very much dying.
It’s England twenty years from now. The rest of the world is practically in ruins, and England isn’t far behind.
Michael Caine is in this film. He’s one of those actors that can dominate a film even in a smaller role. The casting of the others is also great. There are no models here, no prettier than life characters. They are people, struggling to survive in an insane world. It’s not a pretty picture.
Director Alfonso Cuarón has made a very violent film, and it hits us like a sledgehammer. As stated, this isn’t a film hiding reality from us, but one revealing it, exposing the world as it is to us, and we can’t look away.
Very good.
There is no sense of relief when we leave the theater. Even though we have been entertained by a great story, it sticks in our minds and hearts… like a vice.
Very good!
There is despair here, desperation, from the very beginning. We are presented for the stark reality of a humanity unable to reproduce. When the film begins there haven’t been any newborns in twenty years. This is a very realistic scenario for anyone that has researched the matter, and everyone should.
Hope and a minimum of decency have long since fled these streets and very few are still looking for it.
There is hope, sparely used throughout the film, but it is never ascending, never taking the center stage we see in the usual run-of-the-mill «upbeat» film. The ending is left open to interpretation. There is no emotional payback at the end. The horror of a world without children remains at the front of our mind. The solution, if it exists anywhere, isn’t found in the course of the story. No matter where Theo (Clive Owen) and Kee (Claire-Hope Ashley) turn they are betrayed and hope is, if not dead, very ill, very much dying.
It’s England twenty years from now. The rest of the world is practically in ruins, and England isn’t far behind.
Michael Caine is in this film. He’s one of those actors that can dominate a film even in a smaller role. The casting of the others is also great. There are no models here, no prettier than life characters. They are people, struggling to survive in an insane world. It’s not a pretty picture.
Director Alfonso Cuarón has made a very violent film, and it hits us like a sledgehammer. As stated, this isn’t a film hiding reality from us, but one revealing it, exposing the world as it is to us, and we can’t look away.
Very good.
There is no sense of relief when we leave the theater. Even though we have been entertained by a great story, it sticks in our minds and hearts… like a vice.
Very good!
Friday, January 05, 2007
Bold television
It sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? Fortunately there are exceptions to the great rule of mediocre television.
I’ve watched two great «science fiction/fantasy» TV-series lately: 4400 and Heroes.
4400 has so far run three seasons, and thirty episodes. Heroes is new last fall, and NBC has so far aired eleven episodes.
They are fairly similar thematically. It’s about the Mutant, the X-Factor, the X-Man, the man apart, a part of storytelling stretching back thousands of years. But while 4400, though a good, solid story is quite traditional in execution, Heroes is clearly making new ground both visually and in the Storyteller tradition. Each frame in Heroes is like poetry, like music visualized. And it’s rough, brutal in a way hardly before shown on television. This is not your parents’ fairy tale television, but very real and down-to-Earth.
Re-watching the first eleven episodes and rediscovering the series is a great experience, in some ways even greater than watching it the first time, since we can enjoy it more. Once again we know nothing of what is coming (even if we do). We witness Peter’s insecurities. We don’t know what the deal is with Niki, or Isaac or Peter… or Sylar. Is Isaac nothing more than a drug addict or is he able to paint the future? Is Peter nuts, or can he truly fly? What does it take for a person to throw herself or himself off a tall building the way he did? We didn’t really know if he would fly or leave a splash on the pavement, and it is great. Sylar is just a name at first, at homicide sights and written in blood on walls. We know nothing, and we speculate and find out as we go along.
So, we are introduced to the characters, and to the story, and we grow to like them, like it. And it keeps building, keeps developing, while staying grounded in its foundation.
Amazing.
Tim Kring, the executive producer and driving creative force behind the series has evidently planned ahead. He writes crucial episodes, and make sure it’s seamless from his vision when he leaves the writing to others. He’s doing or planning to do a Babylon 5, a five-year arc. Hopefully, he will succeed and even exceed that series. Fortunately Heroes lacks the boisterous innocence of Babylon 5 and will surpass it in every way.
We watch Peter fly (sort of), and discovering his true Power. We live with Isaac as he learns to handle his talent. And we experience the emotional rollercoaster, the ups and downs of Hiro’s journey. We are with Niki as she realizes to her horror what she is. We witness the long awaited confrontation between Peter and Sylar, and we wonder what the significance of it is.
It isn’t really about heroes. It is about people, real and believable. Heroes might be described as a comic book for adults. Fortunately it has already transcended that limited label, like it has so many things.
I’ve watched two great «science fiction/fantasy» TV-series lately: 4400 and Heroes.
4400 has so far run three seasons, and thirty episodes. Heroes is new last fall, and NBC has so far aired eleven episodes.
They are fairly similar thematically. It’s about the Mutant, the X-Factor, the X-Man, the man apart, a part of storytelling stretching back thousands of years. But while 4400, though a good, solid story is quite traditional in execution, Heroes is clearly making new ground both visually and in the Storyteller tradition. Each frame in Heroes is like poetry, like music visualized. And it’s rough, brutal in a way hardly before shown on television. This is not your parents’ fairy tale television, but very real and down-to-Earth.
Re-watching the first eleven episodes and rediscovering the series is a great experience, in some ways even greater than watching it the first time, since we can enjoy it more. Once again we know nothing of what is coming (even if we do). We witness Peter’s insecurities. We don’t know what the deal is with Niki, or Isaac or Peter… or Sylar. Is Isaac nothing more than a drug addict or is he able to paint the future? Is Peter nuts, or can he truly fly? What does it take for a person to throw herself or himself off a tall building the way he did? We didn’t really know if he would fly or leave a splash on the pavement, and it is great. Sylar is just a name at first, at homicide sights and written in blood on walls. We know nothing, and we speculate and find out as we go along.
So, we are introduced to the characters, and to the story, and we grow to like them, like it. And it keeps building, keeps developing, while staying grounded in its foundation.
Amazing.
Tim Kring, the executive producer and driving creative force behind the series has evidently planned ahead. He writes crucial episodes, and make sure it’s seamless from his vision when he leaves the writing to others. He’s doing or planning to do a Babylon 5, a five-year arc. Hopefully, he will succeed and even exceed that series. Fortunately Heroes lacks the boisterous innocence of Babylon 5 and will surpass it in every way.
We watch Peter fly (sort of), and discovering his true Power. We live with Isaac as he learns to handle his talent. And we experience the emotional rollercoaster, the ups and downs of Hiro’s journey. We are with Niki as she realizes to her horror what she is. We witness the long awaited confrontation between Peter and Sylar, and we wonder what the significance of it is.
It isn’t really about heroes. It is about people, real and believable. Heroes might be described as a comic book for adults. Fortunately it has already transcended that limited label, like it has so many things.
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