June 27th, 2006
Another “Heroes” Pilot Review — SPOILERS!!
The Futon Critic loved it, and now forum member GargylovesWolfy has seen the “Heroes” pilot, and she loves it, too! But be careful, because this review has SPOILERS about very specific scenes from the pilot, such as, “Whose arm is that?” laying in a pool of blood seen in the trailer, and “Just how invulnerable is Claire”? Read on only if you want to know more — and, possibly, too much!
GargylovesWolfy reviews the “Heroes” pilot:
Whoa! This show is going to rock your world. Hands down this is the best pilot I’ve ever seen of a TV Show, and we all know that pilots are nutritiously bad examples of a show’s promise and potential-if, this fact holds true? Then watch out because we are all in store for something phenomenal to blow us away.
I think everyone has it in them to be extraordinary beyond measure, it’s just the rare few of us that recognize it. Generally, we are nothing more than people who can tell a story so well that we can reach the furtherest plains of the imagination and take so much further. Others can paint such amazing beautiful pieces of artwork that enlightenment is given to those who choose to accept it. But, none of us believe (not really) we can be so much more then the “accepted” human potential. We don’t think we can fly, we don’t think can alter time and space, we don’t think we can paint the future, nor do we believe the possibility that not only is our pain tolerance so high that sustaining a significant-life threaten injury could even register within our consciousness and yet be able to have such a healing factor to seal up wounds in a matter of seconds leaving not a trace of said injuries.
Well, what if your dreams were not so much your own of flying, but dreams of you being carried by your big (larger than life) brother that can fly? Peter, our male (30) health care professional that is working with terminally-ill patients, is having dreams of flying or falling towards his brother. Believing he can fly and wanting to face up and meet his destiny/fate head on Peter challenges his dreams, to only find out it’s NOT him that can fly………..it’s his brother.
Maybe, you are a Japense suit in a cubicle obsessing with altering time and transporting to NYC? Hiro, mid-20s-original series Trekkie, actually alters this clock back a second is 14 seconds late due to altering the commuter train-that’s never late. Gets himself bounced from a club after being labeled a pervert from transporting himself into the womens’ restroom, which the idea was brought onto him by his best friend.
Perhaps, you did something really stupid about getting involved with the mob in Vegas, to get your son into a private school and you work nights as a web-cam stripper? Nikki found herself in some major hot water with the Vegas Mafia because her prodigy of a son deserved to go to a special school that would challenge him; now that’s love for your child, stupid but love nonetheless. Anyhow, Nikki (33) has been feeling crazy and paranoid, because she feels like someone that can’t be seen is watching her. She is being watched……….by herself, her mirror/alter-ego self to be precise. When the muscle shows to collect, Nikki got her son to a friend’s house (to only have him lift 300 dollars from said friend’s purse to flee to NYC to find his father, that’s another story-and has yet to be shown, probably will be in Part 2 of the pilot when I get my hands on it-in probably late August or Early September, we’ll have to deal that then.) so she can go back to collect her things and get the hell out of dodge. Anyway the muscle is there waiting in her home, in which they tossed, and proceed to have start doing her night-job for them. When she’s less than completely cooperative and smacking her unconscious they find themselves beaten and killed by her mirror-self, only her other self does not know it’s happening until it’s too late and she awakens to the bloody mess.
Now what if you were a drug addict that painted the future actually while high? Thus, we now have Issac, your typical NYC struggling artist, who tries to kick his addiction cold-turkey by handcuffing himself to a pipe in his studio loft. Apparently, his gift is too frightening when he is clean, either that or he has to be “altered” to be able to see the future that clearly, because it’s his gift that is the real addiction. After sawing off (yes, literally sawing off) his cuffed hand…….he paints a massive grisly scene of NYC in a huge catastrophe all over his loft’s floor.
How are our heroes supposed to understand their gifts and what they mean? Well, Mohinder Suresh-the son of college professor and genome specialist, whose killed in NYC-follows in his father’s footsteps but he’ll be the guiding force for all of our heroes that are now gathering together. Only one problem, there’s a man whose been following Mohinder’s father’s studies and quite possibly the person responsible to the the death of Suresh, Sr.
Whose this man and what’s his connection to one of our many heroes? He’s the adoptive father of Claire Bennett, (17) Popular and cheerleader in Odessa Texas, who is first seen in attempt #6 (jumping from a 60, 70-ft. walk-way, to break every bone in her body) and with her “friend” (she stopped talking to him when they were in the 6th grade) asking her “so then what’s that” (in response to her “I am a freak-show” speech) and we see a few of her still broken ribs jutting out from her left side (near her hip) that she just shoves non-nonchalantly back into the skin and as she replaces her sweater over it we see it heal up before our very eyes. Later, she speaks of stabbing herself with a knife into her chest and putting a lead pipe through her neck……….and this is still before she attempts #7 at a railroad fire scene, only to discover a trapped stow-a-way, to whom she rescues and is discovered as having no burns on her from where the fireman saw her left forearm and left hip-area being encased in flames. The last we see and when we are first let in on the fact that the “evil” man is her father is after she reaches into a operational disposal unit in the kitchen sink, where she dropped her class ring, and pulls her hand out to see it all bloody and fingers broken/mangled-to only witness her re-positioning them into the non-broken and completely un-scaved pre-mangling. And her mother’s prized (if, not under-rated) Pom-Pom dog licks up the dripped blood on the kitchen floor as she hid her hand behind her back, this is where we discover the fact that Claire is adopted.
Now we are left with the impression that somehow all these heroes are connected in one way or another. But, how do they connect. Well, Peter is connected to his brother, Mohinder came looking for his father’s work and took up driving a taxi (like his father) and he ends up picking up Case-Zero in his cab–or should I say Case-Zero’s brother. Peter is the nurse attending to a dying man, whose daughter is dating Issac, then you have Niki who had D. L Hawkins’ (not seen in the current pilot-but, is described as an inmate that finds himself waking up outside his cell) son………..and we are left with Claire…….to whom does she belong, outside of the bad guy’s adopted daughter? My guess, is that Niki had another child when she was sixteen and put her baby girl up for adoption.
Overall, this ain’t your over-the-top comic book show-however, it gives you the comic/graphic novel feel to it, also. I know this summer I am going to be watching my “Not for review” Pilot of Heroes DVD over-n-over again. I am impressed and highly look forward to Sept. 28th.
So there you have it? “Heroes” is now two-for-two — two reviews and two stunning praises!
September can’t come fast enough…
