Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Some clarifications on last night's episode of Heroes

I was confused, so I did some research on the internet and I'm here to present my findings.

1) Sylar didn't kill Eden, Eden killed Eden. Sylar revealed his intention to take her power, so she made one last heroic move and took her own life, making little pieces of her brain. So Sylar will thankfully not have the power of persuasion.

2) Sylar could use his powers because either Haitan or HRG can deflect others' powers, and both were MIA during the Eden visit.

3) Peter was sick because Matt's powers are making Matt, and hence Peter when he's in the vicinity, sick.

Other thoughts:

- Overall a fairly decent episode.
- Still LOVE Peter + Claire, despite the fact that this has been laughed at by Milo in the press because of the age difference (12 years in real life). I think he just personally finds it incestuous, plus Hayden is quite the annoying little brat.
- Other heroes who should bite the dust soon: Matt, Nikki/Jessica and family.
- Peter is so not dying, I am not worried. Consider this: if he was really the bomb and did he exploding thing, wouldn't all the other heroes around him immediately perish and then there would be no more show!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Heroes ep 9 review (spoilers)

Save the blah blah blah...

I was a little disappointed, but still thoroughly involved in this episode.

What I liked:
- How Peter headed out to save Claire's life even though it was likely that he would die. No hesitation.
- The absence of Hiro - it made me miss him, and made us depend more on Peter.
- Peter and Claire's chemistry: let's go slightly pedophiliac love!
- Eden's power of suggestion (which never really seemed that important) getting the job done.
- Death of bitchy cheerleader, who died because she pretended to be Claire .. ha!

What I didn't:
- Sylar was decidedly less than scary, not seeming to put much effort into things
- Peter was decidedly less than scary, leading to a very blase conflict between these two snore-fests that consisted of 2 seconds of wrasling, followed by a short fall and quick thud. Oh come on, couldn't they have come up with something better than this? At least a little more of the wrasling.
- Too much Mohinder.
- Micha is starting to annoy me. I kinda like DL, but overall that family is pretty dull.
- Adam from 24 as Sylar. I prefer the rumor (that didn't pan out) of Sean Bean.

What I'm interested in:
- How they expect to hold Sylar in the paper factory which happens to also be holding the ticking time bomb without disastrous consequences!
- How Hiro will save the waitress and somehow not be back in the present when she "dies"
- Sylar's backstory
- The season finale, which I suspect might resolve this tie between Peter and Sylar. If they can gather all the little heroes together in New York and srategically place them near Peter, he basically becomes god, and an easy defeater of Sylar.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The one where Tammy sees movies by herself and gets her photo taken

- This is an interesting article from EW.com about Heroes and the comic book world. Complete with bonus references to Alan Moore, Buffy, and Babylon 5! Actually I only read the first page because that's all I thought to cache before class.

- Had my grad photos taken today, with robe, fake diploma, hat, fake flowers, and everything! One exciting technological development that has occurred since the last time I had these things taken (high school grad) is the green screen. Now instead of having to choose a background before the shoot, you can go online and play around with all the different ones to see what you like best. 2 of my 12 proofs turned out great, so I'm happy with that.

- Killing time until my 5:20 tax class. A very large boo to night classes. No more of those next term. Speaking of which I will tell you my 2nd term schedule right now:

Mon & Tues:
11:20-12:40 --- Advanced Corporate Financial Reporting
2:10-3:30 --- Value Investing
3:40-5:00 --- Business Law

Wed & Thurs:
9:40 - 11:00 --- Global Strategy

I've gotten most of my accounting courses out of the way this semester, so it should be a fairly light 4 months.

- I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest all by my little old self last night. I actually really enjoy seeing movies alone so that wasn't a big deal. It was playing at Rainbow which is exactly 1 block from my apartment (and only until Thursday), I had been meaning to see it since the summer, and on top of that it was only $3.00!! Hard to turn down.

In the end, I really enjoyed it. Sure it was ridiculously long, did not adhere to any of the laws of physics, and ended with a complete cliffhanger... but darn it, it was good! I had low expectations because nearly everyone has been disappointed with it so far, and I knew to be prepared for the unresolved conclusion. But I thought in general the villain(s) were well constructed, the action scenes were near the top of any I've seen in the last couple of years, and I was thoroughly entertained for the entire 2.5 hours.

- Speaking of Rainbow, they're going to begin showing first-run movies starting this weekend. Of course, prices are going up but they'll still be the cheapest in London: $6.50 for evenings and something weird like $4.24 for matinees and Tuesdays. So if anyone wants to see The Departed with me next Tuesday ... I'll pay!! I'll probably see Borat too. One of the advantages of being a student is that it's really easy to get errands done/see matinees during the week.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying

  • How do you know if you're doing the right thing with the rest of your life? Such big decisions are effectively made in high school, but with consequences that extend far beyond. And if you are a different person now than then, which is more than likely, how can you be sure you're still on the right path? We're talking about the rest of my life here. But opting for a change of course now is risky and potentially remarkably stupid.
  • Is it wrong to like Van Morrison's cover of 'Comfortably Numb' more than the original Pink Floyd? Cause wow is it amazing.
  • Delayed musing from last week's Lost: what a great final shot of Desmond skipping his rocks. I love it when shows aim for something more in the visual department, without going over the top.
  • New Heroes tonight! How could Claire die?

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Lost and Heroes in the same world?

from an EW article:


ANALYSIS

Roughly 13 million-plus Americans have fallen hard for Heroes, television's newest cult-pop sensation, and I am proud to say that I am one of them. My friends and family have applauded the expansion of my geek-TV interests; they were worried that Lost had begun to take over my life. Of course, Heroes isn't much of a leap from Lost, considering how much they overlap: Both shows have a diverse, multicultural, interconnected cast; fixations with fate, coincidence and destiny; mysterious comic books; an inexplicable recurring motif (in Lost, it's the Numbers; in Heroes, it's a helix-shaped pattern); a mythology grounded in weird science and possibly sinister scientific experimentation; and even a potentially superpowered kid with estranged parents. Hmmmm...

In fact, after watching the most recent chapter in the unfolding Heroes saga, my conspiracy-theory senses began to tingle and twitch in that crazy Brad Pitt-in-12 Monkeys kinda way that makes my wife very, very nervous. Because it suddenly struck me that Heroes' fantastical premise — that human beings are breaking out with superpowers as an evolutionary response to environmental changes (overpopulation, global warming, war) threatening the survival of the species — is conspicuously similar to the sci-fi conceit of Lost's Hanso Foundation/Dharma Initiative mythology. And by ''conspicuously similar,'' I am indeed suggesting that both shows occupy the same creative universe.

THEORY

The mysterious island on Lost was a mad-scientist laboratory focused on accelerating human evolution that created the superpowered heroes on Heroes.

According to the Lost revelations disclosed this past summer through The Lost Experience (and if you haven't seen the mother of all Lost orientation films, check it out here), the purpose of the Dharma Initiative was to develop radical scientific solutions that could save the world from an impending apocalypse, as predicted by a mathematical formula called the Valenzetti Equation. The Numbers belong to that equation; it seems that each digit in the sequence — 4 8 15 16 23 42 — is a value in the equation that corresponds to a key variable in Valenzetti's recipe for disaster. Those variables include overpopulation, global warming, and war — the same environmental factors that are (allegedly) triggering Mother Nature to sire a world full of X-Men on Heroes.

Apparently, Dharma financier Alvar Hanso believed that if just one of the values in the Equation could be changed, Armageddon could be averted, or at least delayed. Dharma's activities on the island somehow had the ability to have an impact on the rest of the world, perhaps via the ''unique'' electromagnetic energy that radiates from the same section of the island where Station Three: The Swan was located. Remember the radio tower that was broadcasting the Numbers? It was basically a weather report, updating the scientists on the condition of the world; when and if they heard that the core values of the Equation had been changed, they would know that their work had succeeded. Alas, according to The Lost Experience, the Dharma Initiative failed to accomplish its mission.

But what if the Dharma scientists did have an impact on the world, one that defied calculation and measurement at the time? Remember, Dharma was active on the island during the '70s — about the time that all the superpowered characters on Heroes were conceived and born. What if Dharma spiked the world's gene pool with some superpowered hooch? According to The Lost Experience, Hanso is affiliated with a prominent confectionary marketer called the Apollo Candy Company; maybe one of those Apollo candy bars gave Nathan Petrelli on Heroes a real high-flying kick, if you know what I mean.

Okay, maybe I'm the one who's high. But I think there's enough reason to be suspicious, especially since the two shows in question share one unquestionable link: the creator of Heroes, Tim Kring, and the co-creator of Lost, Damon Lindelof, used to work together on Crossing Jordan and remain good friends. So: Are the brilliant buddies quietly engaged in some kind of clandestine creative collaboration?

RESPONSE FROM HEROES CREATOR TIM KRING

Hey! Look at this! Turns out we're onto something, at least in a wishful-thinking sort of way. Asked if Heroes and Lost are in a secret alliance, Kring says, ''Well... Damon and I did talk about a lot of stuff. And unfortunately, we're on different networks, because otherwise, a lot of those things would have been really, really fun to have done.'' By ''stuff,'' do you mean you guys actually discussed the possibility of mythologically linked shows? ''Oh, yeah,'' says Kring. ''We've talked a lot [in general] about how two shows could dovetail. But again, we are limited by the fact that we are on competing networks.'' But couldn't you guys conceivably do this idea without ever technically acknowledging it in any formal way? ''That's true. That's true,'' says Kring with a laugh.

TRANSLATION

Keep dreamin', Doc J. (BTW: Thanks to Mr. Kring for kindly indulging my obsessions.)

ESTIMATED CHANCE OF A LOST/HEROES CONNECTION

Oh, like they would ever admit it if this were true!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Overwhelmed, but not...

I have an unbelievable amount of work to complete from now until the end of the month. Here's a rundown:

Oct 13: Tax assignment due
Oct 24: CFR2 (intermediate accounting) exam ... 8am-12pm
Oct 24: ICFP interim materials due
Oct 25: Tax exam ... 8am-12pm
Oct 27: CFR1 group report due
Oct 31: Athabasca auditing exam ... 6:30-9:30pm
Oct 31: 3 auditing assignments must be submitted

So for tax I am about 1/2 way through the materials I should have read so far, thanks largely to the assignment that was due yesterday which forced me to catch up on a few topics. CFR2 I am at least 8 chapters behind on (we were suppose to read SIX chapters before the course even started, for some ungodly reason). ICFP: my group has been meeting a lot, but we've made very little concrete progress.

In other words, I am just completely swamped. And yet, this is not bothering me or hardly even stressing me out. I am in the ivey library right now, where I will be until 5pm (close) so that I can get through my Athabasca readings and hopefully one assignment. I will also be here tomorrow and probably Monday too. I have plans to go to Toronto on the 28th for a night of Halloween fun with my Deloitte friends.

I guess I just know that I'll get it all done, and it'll all be ok, and even if it's not - hey I still have a job!

In other me-world events, I've been keeping up on my TV watching (the only thing on my PVR at the moment is Six Degrees from Thursday) and, in the order of episode quality, here's what I enjoyed most: Veronica Mars, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy. The last, which I adamently opposed for a very long time, is now unabashedly one of my favorite shows. Yes it's extremely soap opera-ish but sooooo amusing. The characters are likeable, the dialogue is great, and there's never a want for dramatic moments. Oh, Heroes was great this week too. Even The Nine and Studio 60 were good. There sure is a lot of high quality TV being produced these days!

And now for some links...

Did you know that Erica Durance is married? To a bald guy nonetheless? See a picture of the strange couple.

Lost almost loses it's timeslot.

Claire is really short.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Randoms

- Rewatched the premiere of The Nine which I had dismissed as silly the first time that I read/surfed through it. Much better if you actually pay attention - who knew! Still not sure I'm sold on the premise or the quality of the writing but we shall see.

- Home for Thanksgiving. This hardly seems worth mentioning because the only people likely to read this are the people that actually saw me there, but anyways. I made a pie! And did part of a puzzle, and some homework, and watched some Lost DVD extras and other miscellaneous TV. It was a great weekend; nice to be home.

- I've decided that I dislike Sarah Paulson on Studio 60 as much as Amanda Peet. Can we please get some female lead replacements here?!

- Heroes was great again this week, IMO. Possibly the best episode yet! I'm intrigued to see where pretty much all the subplots go. If there had to be a weak link it would probably be the Ali Larter 'evil twin' character, but even so I'm interested to know what the rules are behind her activation.

- SO much going on the next couple of weeks. Oct 13: Tax Assignment due, and then the week of the 24th two exams and two assignments due. Fun fun! Not to mention the silly Athabasca course I still need to complete by Oct 31st or pay for the extension.

- May possibly take up cooking as a mild to moderate hobby. Buying lots of healthy foods and things that require cooking when I go to the grocery store these days.

- Trying to drink less milk in favor of water these days. I know it's good for your bones (and oh so delicious) but at 200 calories a glass I don't have the room for it! I'm trying to limit my calories to around 1200/day. Plus it's bad for your complexion.

- I read an article in my mom's Women's World that cited drinking water as a legitimate diet in itself. Apparently if you chug a full glass before each meal, you're metabolism automatically speeds up and less calories are turned into fat. Plus it fills you up and so you generally eat around 15% less than you would otherwise. I'm not really trying to diet here or anything, just the more I work out the more it motivates me not to spoil it by eating junk foods.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Heroes ep 2 review (spoilers)

Well another excellent episode, I think! Actually, I don't know if this will be much of a review because this seems to be one show that charms me into complete edge-of-my-seat submission every week. I cannot view it objectively; I have too much inane love for it.

Though by no means a comic-book fan (despite really enjoying Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extrordinary Gentlemen.... and possibly having travelled to one or two conventions in 'past lives'), I find the medium works really well translated onto screen. A more literal example would, of course, be Sin City. Though Heroes doesn't use the same graphic embellishment or storyboard techniques, it certainly has the feel of a comic book.

Anyways, I love all the characters and am consistently intrigued by the developments and plot twists. I totally saw the time thing coming at the end of this episode... and was rather disappointed that they won't leave the wacked-out painter dead. As intriguing as I found his story, there's nothing I enjoy more than a good old main character death (especially shocking this early in a show).

Oh and by the way, apparently the story line is eerily similar to a 1981 novel. See the details here. Creator pleads innocent.