Heroes: Episode Four Stretches Credulity
By stephanie - Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
One of the weakest episodes since the pilot in many respects, episode four promises to connect the dots between our various heroes. The problem with this, of course, is that such connections are inevitably contrived and stretch believability. (Should believability be an issue in a series about people with superpowers? Yes, even more so.)
For example, our webcam woman hooks up with the politican in Las Vegas. Turns out her debtor happens to be a main contributor to the politician’s campaign. She is asked by the bad guy to set up our dear politician by having sex with him (presumably, this will be filmed and used to blackmail him).
This whole plotline is the worst of the bunch. It’s been bad from the get-go and it’s only getting worse. Am I to believe that the 10 people with superpowers on the planet would even be remotely tied to something so bizarre as some sort of underground Vegas mafia man? Furthermore, with how completely paranoid about his image he normally is, it is completely out of character for Mr. Politician to do something so blatantly stupid as sleep with someone else when he is married a few weeks before the election.
I mean, c’mon.
It’s stuff like this that turns Heroes from what could be a great show into just a mediocre show, which is too bad, because the rest of the stuff going on is fairly interesting. For example, the show starts off with cheerleader girl rising from the dead: This is gruesome, but in a good way.
As for our Japanese Hiro, he has also landed in Las Vegas (yet another mind-stretching coincidence), but we are entertained as he uses his powers to win at gambling.
Meanwhile, we find out that the politician’s younger brother can’t actually fly on his own; he simply takes on whatever power the superhero closest to him has.
As the show ends, we see a future version of Hiro appearing to give a message. He’s lost his glasses, his dorkiness, and his accent: He now speaks perfect English with exceptional confidence. So far, he’s definitely turning out to be the most fascinating and interesting character on the show.
I give this episode a B-.
October 22nd, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I can’t believe I forgot to put in the math and have to type all this again.
No, never mind. It was too long a rant, and I hate typing it again. DRAT.
Mir