[written between reloading Percy Daggs III and Tina Majorino's IMDB pages]

[mrissa]

Dear Heroes,

I hate you.

Okay, so we were given Season 1, good: we were initially interested. And markgritter and I have been watching through Season 1 slowly, sloooooowwwwly, since it was a Christmas present and our next episode is episode 7. And I am, quite frankly, not all that thrilled. People keep talking about how it was so much better in Season 1, and it makes me wonder whether they were watching the show they hoped would develop rather than the show that does develop. (Perils of watching TV in realtime. Don't do it. It'll break your heart.)

And then someone told me George Takei was in Season 2 but not thereafter. Fine. Great. I can watch Season 2 because I love George Takei. But that would be it. Just Season 2. Possibly checked out from the library if they have it, instead of purchased; we'd see. And I was reading spoilers quite happily because hey, I was just going to check out Season 2 from the library and watch George Takei and move on with my life. Not emotionally involved with this series. It is not, after all, Veronica Mars.

So on tor.com, la la la, I went to read the entry on the latest episode of Heroes, because it was there and I wasn't really awake enough to start working, and there was reference to "he'll always be Weevil to me."

Weevil.

Francis Capra is in Season 3.

Dammit, Heroes. Let's get this clear: I don't really like you. This is like when you put up with the person your friend is dating because you want to spend time with your friend, and the person they're dating is okay, not, like, abusive or actively hostile or something, it's just that you think they could do better, except you don't have any suggestions for who "better" might be. If you get rid of Francis Capra and still have another season, I will drop you in a heartbeat. We are not actually friends, Heroes. Just sort of putting up with each other for the time being.

Although if you get Enrico Colantoni for Season 4, there is very little I will not forgive you. I'm just saying.

Chilly detente,
mrissa

PS to hypatia_j: did Rachel get you watching Veronica Mars? If so, didn't you think that the woman fiddler in Frigg looked way too much like Meg? I forgot to ask when it was immediately relevant.

Comments

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with Heroes that first season - it was flawed, but you could blame the flaws on it being a new show, and it had a couple of really stellar episodes that made you think that improvement was just around the corner. And it was fun and getting to know the characters was fun, and all in all it had a headlong quality that was addictive.

Season two killed all my love. And season three, which my husband is still watching, shows no signs of anything that would suck me back in. I'm not sure if it makes a difference to you about watching season three, but I think I've heard complaints that Francis Capra has been hardly used and why would people cast a great actor like him to waste him like that? It makes me want to Netflix Veronica Mars and see why so many people love him.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do. I think it's awesome for two seasons. (Some people think it's awesome for one. Very, very few people think it's awesome for three. Not at all coincidentally, there isn't much Francis Capra in Season 3. Or much Percy Daggs III. Or much Tina Majorino. Or....)

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

We're watching season 3 because my husband is still really into it and it's something we can do together and also because I think Zachary Quinto is pretty and I can knit while it's on, Gratuitous Yeats notwithstanding. I dunno, I think so far 3 has been an improvement over 2 but it's not living up to the potential of 1.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Heroes. Why does everybody like this show? I thought it was boring and violent.

With you on Veronica Mars (the first two seasons, anyway.) Currently a fan of Supernatural, though I wouldn't actually recommend it. Season 3 was a big disappointment, and the show is extremely cheezy, I just happen to like it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The violence is actually why it's taken so long: it's a loud show. Very loud. Even when the volume is down, it's loud. Are we in the mood to watch loud? Not so often, it turns out.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

everyone i know who loves "heroes" watches it because they lust after vincent kartheiser.

[moiread]

But Vincent Katheiser is not in Heroes.

[pabba.livejournal.com]

[Spoiler alert] Pssst. You don't have to wait till Season 2 for some Takei action. [End of spoiler alert]

That said, I hate Heroes too. But only cause I used to really love it.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I have the whole of season 2 recorded, and am wondering whether to watch it (since it's free) or delete it (since it still takes a lot of time). I watched season 1 thinking, like sienamystic, that it had a lot of potential to be really good and that it was probably going to start doing that soon. I didn't dislike it but I don't have a terribly high tolerance for TV series that don't make me feel particularly enthusiastic, and what I've heard about season 2 hasn't exactly made me leap for the TV.

[moiread]

I am not going to worry about spoiling you with my comments, because you've said that you've already read up on all the episodes. (For anyone else who is concerned about spoilers, you should skip this comment now.)

I liked most of Season 1. By three quarters of the way through, though, it was starting to wear on me. I stuck through Season 2 because it was only ten episodes and I wanted to see what happened to the handful of characters I really liked. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the answer was Not Much. Either that or they changed the characters in ways that made me not like them anymore.

Nikki, for instance, was one of those. So was Matt. So was Mohinder. Claire? Not all that awesome, to me, and I get tired of her always being the center of attention. Save the cheerleader! Save the world! Okay, so you did that. It's done. Hooray. Can we now focus less on the whiny teenager's fucked up father-daughter relationship where he's always killing people in her name? 'Cuz that got old real fast and I'd like to spend more time with other characters, if you don't mind. Same with Peter, the other central figure to plot, who was an interesting character at the beginning of S1 but has now just basically become a walking plotbunny with a lot of powers and no personality. Can we stop being All About Peter for even a single episode?

(The episodes that are All About Hiro don't count because they're also more of the same. I like Hiro just fine -- he's kind of impossible to dislike, if you ask me -- but he's the token comedic relief and there isn't much depth there. Focusing on Hiro is still focusing on somebody you can't develop all that much, and it's also still not giving the rest of the cast any story time.)

So I went through Season 2 feeling pretty frustrated with it, but the people who make the show had gone on record as saying that the fan response to S2 was not what they were hoping for and the reason for that was apparently that people wanted a return to Season 1-type stuff, so they were going to return to Season 1-type stuff. And that made me feel better. Hopeful, even. Then I actually watched the first two eps of S3 and my hopes sank. Now I have no more enthusiasm for watching the show.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear they've kept Hiro not very developed, because I think there are places you can go with Comic Relief Man that are deeper, but they're hard work. I like Hiro. I wish they'd meant Hiro's for the show name. But not if he's going to be static.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

(Perils of watching TV in realtime. Don't do it. It'll break your heart.)

Oh, so true. This may be one of the many reasons I never watch anything realtime, anymore. I got my heart broken a few too many times. It wasn't that many, really, but I'm sensitive.

It's not like watching recorded things can't get one swept up into a vision of what the show could turn into but probably won't, but somehow it's not quite as feverish as realtime. Vision of Escaflowne disappointed me gravely, but it didn't make me angry at the whole world the way Babylon 5 did for a while.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No Ivanova = No Good.

timprov and I still haven't made ourselves rewatch Season 5. We did 1-4, and I said, "I'll probably get to feeling better and we won't do Season 5," and I didn't, but we didn't.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I bombed out when Heroes dropped story in place or more boring serial killer. I was out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

See, hearing things like this makes it more likely that I will make it through to Francis Capra, not less. Not because I think, "Ooh, boring serial killer!", but because when it comes up I will not be unpleasantly surprised.

Season 3 of Veronica Mars was like that. I'd heard everybody groaning, so I had really low expectations. Some of which it managed to still not meet, but I had already made the conscious choice that it wasn't likely to be very good and I was going to choose to watch it anyway for the little bits I could like.

[crimini.livejournal.com]

I watched Season 1, but it didn't really hold my attention for long. I watched parts of Season 2, but again, lost interest. I started watching this season, and still, not all that interested.

For me, I think there are too many characters and not enough time with them to really explore their story. I didn't mind the cheerleader storyline because at least, then, there was one central focus. But they kept diverting away from that. And to me, they still haven't really done anything with it (so, eh, she's the daughter of some important people. So, eh, she's invulnerable. So what?)

I'm a comic book reader, and once read a lot of superhero stories, so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief in this realm. But I think the writers spend a lot of time aiming for nuance and cliffhangers that they intentionally don't tell us anything. Which increasingly turns me off.

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Meh... I got into it because I gave Jeph Loeb some credit. (And they brought in Tim Sale to do the paintings!) I have no desire to investigate "Lost" after this though, nor "Smallville".

Also: shut up, Dr. Suresh!

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

Meh, I don't hate it, but I'm not terribly excited about it any more either. I don't feel strongly enough to stop watching it, though. Maybe it's just the love for HRG or something. I also do this "Hero-vivor" game where you give them points or take away points for good/stupid behavior, so that does make it more entertaining for me.

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

I would like to hear more about this Hero-vivor game...

[genarti]

I watched s1 of Heroes, and a few bits of s2; I keep meaning to catch up on the rest, in a vague kind of way, but for now I'm just reading other people's spoilers.

I think all of my friends who are still watching it -- which is several of them -- are now watching because it's gotten so bad it's hilarious. "It's like they let the entire internet write this!" several of them have been cackling. "If I took it seriously I'd be mad at this and this and this, but the whole thing is hilariously absurd now! Oh, show!"

I suspect that when and if I do get around to s3, I'll take the same tack.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"It's like they let the entire internet write this," is such specific damnation. Oh my.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

For me this sounds a lot like when Stargate SG-1 got Ben Browder.

[pameladean]

Raphael and I are really wavering about whether to watch any more of Season 3. It's dull. "Didn't this show use to be funny?" we ask one another. "Didn't it use to have characters interacting? Didn't we use to care what happened? Weren't there some breaks between the bloody bits?" We are very tired of the serial killer. If one must have him, it's better to dole him out in small doses. Very small.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

A finger here, an ear there?

Sorry. Sorry.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I got sucked into Heroes for reasons that don't actually make any sense to me. We borrowed Season 1 on DVD, and I had to force myself through the first ~ six episodes on the basis that it was a very pretty show. Somewhere in there I got hooked. But that was during the real-life Season 2, so we didn't watch that until that came out on DVD. We watched that on Netflix, and it was kind of disappointing. I'm watching Season 3 in real-time, but skeptically. I'm tired of the cheerleader and the power copier guy. Find me more interesting people.

Or, if you can't find more interesting people: ACTUALLY KILL THE BORING ONES. Don't soap-opera kill them, only to find out they're not actually dead! You can only fool me about killing people so many times, and they are at the threshold right now.

What I like about Heroes is the same thing I liked about The X-Files: your (meaning "my") crackpot conspiracy theories about the show might actually be true.

I was also loaned the entire run of Veronica Mars, but haven't started it. I would have sworn it was angsty-teenager drama, when it was actually on.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There is teen angst in Veronica Mars. But it's also funny, and there's a murder plot, and like that.

I didn't want to watch it initially because I thought it was like a teen live-action Jimmy Neutron. Uh, no.

I think that the "not actually dead" plot gets a maximum of once per decade. Not once per show per decade or once per series per decade. Once. Per piece of fiction I experience in any form. Per decade. Any more than that is too much.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Re: PS

She's tried, we've had their copy of Veronica Mars Season 1 on a table in the TV room for um.... over a year. Haven't watched any yet.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Add my recommendation to hers.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was still hoping that the Petrellis would turn out to have ethnicity and be Italian-American rather than generi-white. Should I give up hope on that front?

We have just watched the episode where we find out that Nikki set DL up to be blamed for the crime she committed. We don't know why yet, but I have to say that I'm kind of glad that the dynamic is not "black man married to white woman, black man is a horrible criminal who makes innocent white woman sad sad sad and forces her into haaaaaard life choices." They still don't have what I would call a healthy marriage, but some unhealthy dynamics annoy me more than others.

I seem to be more willing to think of the sweet-looking blonde girl as one of the reasonable suspects in any crime show than the writers of crime shows expect me to be. I am not myself a criminal, but it turns out it's not the combination of fair skin and big brown eyes that makes that the case.