Hiros: Heroes Ep 5

 This episode starts where the last one ended, with Peter Petrelli in the subway car talking to a future Hiro. One thing I noticed about this episode that I don't think I noticed before is how infantalized the Japanese men were in the present compared to how Hiro from the future is presented. Sure, you could say it is the difference between being hopeful with being battle-scarred, but none of the other characters is portrayed like this, not even Peter (who is arguably one of the most hopeful characters starting off). This is especially well observed in the interaction between Niki and Ando when he shows up to her house (super creeper move BTW). She talks to him like he's a child who doesn't understand the difference between right and wrong not some internet stalker who used her OF info to track her down. Granted, she's just had a hell of a morning and come home to find the FBI or US Marshalls in her home (I don't think who they are is ever clarified, but they're looking for her fugitive husband DL). I guess that might (emphasis on might) make her see Ando's act of creepery as somewhat innocent in comparison.

Okay, back to the subway car. Future Hiro tells Peter that he needs to find Issac so he can save the cheerleader, and by doing so save the world. Peter tries to tell all this to Mohinder once time resumes again, but Mohinder is not in a listening mood and he's all out of fucks to give. He tells Peter he sounds crazy. Peter does go back to Issac (alone) and Issac tells him that he can't even finish the painting to find out what is going to happen to the cheerleader because he's out of drugs. That's when Peter realizes that he's able to paint the future when he's around Issac. He gets the paints and gets to work. When he finishes, it's obvious that the cheerleader has become a victim of Sylar because the top of her head has been removed and she's lying in a puddle of blood. The phone rings and that's when Peter first talks to Hiro.

Before that, however, Hiro has his own journey. The thugs from the casino dump Ando and Hiro in the middle of a dessert with their suitcases. Ando blames Hiro for not stopping time to get them out of the mess, even though he's the one who was deliberately antagonizing the men and even told them that Hiro had power. Of course they were going to knock Hiro out first. Hiro sees it as karma for cheating at gambling, so he's unbothered by this turn of events. Ando and Hiro fight and Ando goes off (obviously intent on seeing Niki since he tells Hiro "that's what you think" when Hiro says he doesn't even have any friends in the US). Ando just rubs me the wrong way from the very get go. I don't think he's a good friend to Hiro and besides translating to help Hiro get by during his trip, Ando doesn't really serve a function to the story at all. (Well, Hiro also needs someone else to drive because he doesn't know how.)

After parting with Ando, Hiro witnesses Nathan Petrelli touch down outside the diner he and Ando found before Ando ran off to do his own thing. Hiro tells Nathan that he saw him and that he has been to the future. Nathan asks if he saw whether or not he won the election and Hiro remembers the newspaper headline and tells him that it was a landslide. Nathan was only flying because Claire's father tried to kidnap him. When he got a call in the midst of the attempted abduction, Nathan saw a window and ran off. He tried to climb a fence, but the two men caught up with him. Before they could grab him again, Nathan took off like a rocket into the sky. Nathan gives Hiro a ride back to Vegas where Hiro realizes he can't drive the car he's rented, and he's stuck there until Ando returns.

For her part Niki wakes up in Nathan's bed with no memory of the night before. Linderman's right hand woman tells her the debt is paid and she should go home to her son. Niki tries to argue that she left, she didn't go through with it, but the woman shows her the tape. When Niki returns home, she finds out that DL was spotted a couple blocks away and there are LE officers at her friend's house waiting to talk with her. She tells them that her husband has been following her and "doing things" although she doesn't elaborate which tells me that she still believes that she's not the one who killed those men or set up the car despite the lapses in memory one of which included her having a whole encounter with Nathan which was caught on tape. The feds see someone approaching the back door of the house so they draw their weapons and the door opens to -- Ando. Yes. That's right. A man who has only ever interacted with Niki on her OF account came to her back door and tried to come into her house without being invited and acts like he thinks all that was okay.

Niki talks to her very condescendingly, which I mentioned earlier, and tells him that the person she is online isn't real. I felt like the whole scene was very offputting. First, what he did in hunting her name down and coming to her home was stalker behavior and should have landed him in jail. For their part, the feds did offer to arrest him for trespassing, but Niki said to let him go. Second, he faces no consequences other than disappointment and eating crow which both he and Hiro must do to make up. I really hate that. Online, Ando even calls Niki a bitch for demanding that he honor the terms of their contract and pay if he wants more time. He's a grade A level creep and I don't think playing it off for laughs is a good look.

We revisit Matt's story with his wife on the phone worried sick about him. She then ends the call when she realizes he's in the house on the couch. She asks him where he's been and he says he must have drunk too much and passed out on the couch. Turns out he's been gone for a whole day. After a small argument, Matt decides to use his power to romance his wife by giving her everything her heart desires. He orders takeout from her favorite places, has her dress up and wears a suit himself, and puts on a song that has been stuck in her head all week. She then accuses him of having an affair because this is so uncharacteristic of him. He says he just wants to give her what she deserves, then she comes on to him. The two have sex and it's obviously the best it's ever been when they finish. His wife is out of breath. He reads her mind that she wants coffee flavored ice cream, so he goes out to buy it. However, he runs into a guy who plans on robbing the store. He manages to talk him down and gets him to relinquish his weapon, but the moment he touches it the whole store starts thinking that he's brandishing it with the aim of doing harm himself. He tries to tell them all that it's okay, that he's a cop, but they continue to be afraid and the cacophony of internal voices overwhelms him. He looks like he's about to pass out as the scene cuts away.

Claire tells her mother that she lost control of the car but admits to her father what happened to her on the night of the bonfire. She tells him that she crashed the car on purpose to hurt Brody who would have raped her if she had not hit her head. This results in her dad paying Brody a little visit. Brody tries to deny what he did, but the father isn't buying it. He tells Brody that he should kill him, but he's going to give him a second chance. He then instructs his partner to hollow him out and "take everything". Claire goes to visit Brody (who is still laid up) and tells him that what he did to her was wrong, but what she did to him was also wrong. Brody responds by asking who she is and why she keeps calling him Brody indicating that he truly doesn't remember anything, not even his own name.

I thought this was a good episode. Not the best one, obviously. I hated the infantilization of the Japanese characters (especially Ando who should have suffered real consequences for what he did and not been treated like a twelve-year-old who did something similar). I still think Nathan is a dickwad, but what Linderman did to him is not okay and neither is the attempted kidnapping. Anyway, 7/10 for this episode. Catch you next time. Sorry my post was a little late this week.

Veronica Mars: Episode 3 Meet John Smith

This was an interesting episode for several reasons. We'll start with the case au de jour, because it turned out to be a very interesting one. A classmate of Veronica's named Justin asks her to find his dad who he hasn't seen since he was about seven. His mother told him that his dad died, and for the first part of the show the audience is meant to think that Justin is just messing with Veronica. Justin says his dad's name was John Smith, and that he has no photos of him or anything else to go off. Veronica finds all the John Smiths within a certain radius and sends out letters claiming to be offering Justin a scholarship. Her plan is that if the dad is among those to receive the letter, he will send it back, so Justin doesn't miss out on the opportunity.

Meanwhile, the guidance counselor asks to speak with Veronica's dad, so she wants to read her file to see what the woman might be saying about her. However, it's pretty obvious from their first meeting that the counselor has a romantic interest in the dad. She tells him that she thinks Veronica needs someone to talk to and offers to be that person. Honestly, isn't that her job, though? It is such an obvious ploy. At first the dad turns down her offer, but after Veronica asks about her mom again, and her dad snaps at her for it, he decides the counselor has a point.

Anyway, this prompts Veronica to ask Wallace to get her Justin's file, which is where she learns that Justin's dad is supposedly dead. She goes to confront him about this but just as she's reaming him out for wasting her time and money, he gets a letter from John Smith. The ploy Veronica used, worked.

After checking the zip code, Veronica narrows it down to one of three people. She follows each of them and takes their pictures so she can show them to Justin. He says no to the first two because they don't have brown eyes, but the third one hasn't taken off his sunglasses, so Justin joins Veronica in staking the guy out. Justin ignores Veronica and approaches the guy who lowers his glasses just enough for Justin to realize that can't be his dad either. However, Veronica notices a handwriting match for the letter. Veronica takes Justin to the address, based on his activity Veronica thinks he's a petty criminal. She breaks into his house to see if he's driving a classic car. He catches her and tells her he's going to call the police at which point she finds out he's a bail bondsman, not a criminal as she suspected. She tells him she's here about his son, but he responds that he doesn't have a son. Just then, a car pulls up to the driveway and in it there's one of the regulars at the video store where he works, a beautiful woman with brown eyes. It turns out his dad has transitioned and is now living as a woman.

After freaking out on her and being more than a little transphobic, Justin is still upset as they drive home. Veronica tells him that his dad travelled 92 miles every week just to catch a glimpse of him and that she, Veronica, would give anything to think that her mother cared enough to do that.

Veronica finds the place where her mother was staying, but she has already left. A college friend of the mom is there instead. She says that Veronica's mom was afraid Mr. Mars would find her and that's why she left and she says that Veronica is all her mother cares about. Veronica isn't so sure. She drives home.

In the meantime of all this, there is a subplot of Veronica starting to date the new guy. They get along well throughout the date, but he goes in for a kiss at the end and she pulls back. I had initially thought this was about residual trauma from the rape, but it seems it was not wanting to move on from Duncan just yet. The next day at school she tries to correct this mistake by kissing him at the bleachers, but wouldn't you know it Duncan hurls himself off the edge and cracks open his head. It turns out he's gone off the antidepressants his parents had him on following Lilly's death. The doctor warns him he could have hallucinations, but he says it will be worth it. However, after a dream in which his dead sister stars telling him that the explanation of her death doesn't make sense, he decides to go back on them.

The episode ends for Justin with him making the decision to keep his transitioned dad in his life. He calls her to let her know the video she special ordered has come in and tells her exactly which days he works so she can be sure to catch him.

Veronica's last scene, after coming home from trying to see her mom, is her showing up outside the new guy's house. He wraps her in a hug, fade to black.

I thought this was interesting on many levels. It shows a certain disfunction in the Kane family and some callousness from the dad (which you'd expect if he was the murderer), both parents seem distant to Duncan. It deals with a family splitting up for non-conventional reasons and it has a good conclusion to the mystery.  I liked the way it handled the trans story line. I thought it was done mostly respectfully. Justin's outburst notwithstanding. It didn't portray Julia as some caricature of a trans woman, and it showed her being in a loving relationship by the way her boyfriend (or husband) hugged her as Justin and Veronica left. It ended with Justin coming to terms with her new identity (shown by his using her chosen name when calling to let her know the video was in) and deciding to keep her in his life. This is rare for a show during this time period and I applaud it. 9/10, stellar episode.

Collision: Heroes Ep 4

Wow. What an episode. Let's start with the beginning. Claire on the autopsy table. The ME gets distracted from her postmortem with a phone call which is why she is nowhere to be seen when Claire wakes up.  This is lucky for Claire, who just sneaks out clad in a doctor's jacket. The next day at school, Claire is approached by the girl who saw her leave with the jock the night before. She says "nothing" happened to her too which is when Claire decides to take matters into her own hands. My first thought at that scene on the autopsy table was that the ME must be having the strangest day ever.

After sneaking in, Claire speaks with her dad, who notices her dirty feet. He asks if she was out all night, and she claims she was just playing poker and apologizes. For some reason, this scene got to me. We know that her father is aware of her power, and he probably knows that she ended up on that autopsy table too, so when he asks her not to lie to him it especially hurts.

Claire's story this time ends with the title of this episode, a collision. Claire approaches the jock saying that her ride ditched her and flirting to convince him to give her one. She asks if she can drive. As they are driving, she tells him that she remembers what happened and he denies any wrongdoing both with her and with the other girl. She asks if he's just going to keep doing this (meaning raping girls) and he says there's nothing she can do about it, at which point she slams the car into a wall at high speed. This isn't a suicide attempt since she knows that she'll be fine. This is attempted murder. I understand Claire's actions here. By killing her would-be rapist, or at least incapacitating him, she is both getting retribution for his attempted rape and would be murder of her as well as ensuring that he never harms another.

Niki's story has her being sexually exploited by Linderman in an attempt to get blackmail fodder on Nathan Petrelli. Although we still don't see Linderman, an associate tells Niki that in order for Linderman to forgive her debt, she will need to do him a favor. When she learns what she'll need to do, she initially refuses, telling the woman that she's not a whore. Eventually, however, she agrees. She confides to the same friend as she prepares to go out for the evening, that she's been having violent dreams. She thinks that someone else is controlling her body, but her friend insists that it is a trauma response to having witnessed something unspeakable.

Before she leaves, Micah tells her that it's safer on the internet. That what she does online is not real, it's just acting. This lets Niki know that not only does Micah understand what she's about to go do, but that he's always known what she did in the garage, too. This is not a surprise since there's no way Micah wouldn't have figured it out. He's a genius and old enough to comprehend what sex is. There's no way he wouldn't have figured it out and the fact that he hasn't talked to Niki about it before was probably just out of respect for her privacy.

I am sort of pissed that they took this route for Niki (at least initially) because she is the physically strong female character so of course they exploit her body. One of Linderman's men tries to rough up Niki in the elevator as she tries to leave without fulfilling her agreement with Linderman after learning that Nathan is "happily" married with kids. She doesn't want to be a homewrecker. However, Niki's alternate persona takes over and beats the thug up instead after he threatens Micah with harm. She goes back to Nathan and the two of them sleep together. It pans up to show that there is a hidden camera installed in the room, recording everything. 

Hiro and Ando get sidetracked from their mission when Ando realizes that Hiro can use his power to cheat in the casino. He convinces Hiro (who is very childlike) that there's nothing wrong with doing it and the two of them clean up. Eventually, they get kicked out of the casino and a group of men approach them after they cheated in poker by Hiro switching their cards. Ando uses Hiro's inability to understand English as an excuse to egg them on telling them that Hiro is super powerful and that they're in trouble if they mess with him. This, of course, leads to them knocking Hiro out cold before he can stop time.

For Peter's side, after Mohinder tries to reach out to Nathan, a pissed off Nathan confronts Peter thinking that he sent Mohinder there. I found it really strange that both Nathan and Peter assumed that Mohinder was Chandra (his father) since Chandra's picture is on the back of the book and Mohinder doesn't even look like him all that much. Anyway, Peter then goes to Mohinder's apartment to talk to him about his ability. He tells Mohinder that he can't use his powers unless he's with someone else who has power. Like he can fly when Nathan is around, but not when he isn't. This leads them to try to go to Issac who is high and in a trance painting when they show up and doesn't answer the door. They are riding the subway back from their unfruitful visit and arguing about it when suddenly times stops for Peter but not for Mohinder or anyone else in the subway car. Just as Peter is starting to freak out about the fact that everyone else is frozen and he is trapped in the car, Hiro from the future shows up and tells him he has a message. That is where the show ends.

I think this episode deserves a full 10/10. The acting (especially in the emotionally powerful scenes where Claire is talking to her father and where Niki decides not to follow through with the agreement) is very good. The only thing I disliked was the fact that once again Niki finds herself exploited. By the end of the episode she's been kidnapped by the organization Claire's father seems to be a part of.

I almost forgot in all the confusion to talk about Matt. He's only shown at the very start. He's strapped to a table and Claire's dad is there. He tells Matt that he won't be able to use his power while the other man is there. It pans to the man who Matt saw at the bar right before he passed out. Still, Matt is able to glean one word (Claire's name) before Claire's father tells the other man to "clean him out". All in all, a stellar episode and pique Heroes.

Nathan Petrelli pisses me off once again.

Ando is going to want Hiro to help him cheat.

Nathan and Peter have obviously no clue how to look at the author's picture on the back of a book because both of them thought Mohinder was Chandra even though the book has a huge picture of Chandra on the back.

Hiro is very child-like.

Veronica Mars: Episode 2

 Although this episode wasn't quite as epic as the pilot, it still proved interesting. The plot moved forward in various ways. We got to know the characters a bit better. The episode centers around the leader of the motorcycle gang whose name is Eli (although he is nicknamed Weevil, I think I haven't seen it spelled but that's what it sounded like). The sheriff comes to arrest Eli's grandmother on charges of credit card fraud after the family she works for finds (whose son is the psycho character) finds out someone took a credit card offer from their trash and signed up for a credit card in their name. The sheriff doesn't think it was her, of course. He thinks it was Eli. Her lawyer brings the case to Veronica Mars who begins to investigate.

Veronica gets the school attendance records to see what class Eli would have been in during the periods when most of the online purchases were made. She finds out he was in shop which would have meant he had to leave class to make the purchases, and it was done seven times. She's sure this proves it wasn't him. She accuses the family's son after learning that the honeymoon suite bought with the card had been used by his girlfriend. However, the son demands that she prove the accusation. In order to do that, she traces the calls made on the credit card and learns that the cell phone used belongs to Eli's cousin who is also a part of his gang. It turns out that Eli has turned himself in to save his grandmother and so he is currently serving time for the crime. Veronica confronts the cousin, who says he plans on confessing after he and the girl have run away together. However, at the same time Veronica was finding out about the cousin's involvement. The psycho boyfriend was also finding out.

Veronica goes to the grandmother. She knows who gave her the brooch, which was bought with the card, so she asks why let Eli take the fall. The grandmother says because the cousin is over 18 and has priors so the crime would be a greater sentence than for his cousin who is still 17 with no priors. Veronica then exposes what the cousin was doing with the card, using it to wine and dine a spoiled rich girl, so the grandmother decides to do the right thing and turn in her other grandson.

Eli shows up just in time to save his cousin from the psycho and his gang but then tells him that he's out of the gang and lets the gang members beat him up telling a member to "make sure to stop them before they go too far" and drives off on his bike.

Once again Eli is in Veronica's debt. 

Throughout this drama, other things are happening. A new kid who seems to be a friend of Duncan Kane starts hitting on Veronica. He invites her to a party, but she declines since the gang he runs with has ostracized her (probably also a little bit because she doesn't trust any of the people that go to those parties after what happened to her). Veronica ends up being assigned to take photos for a story Duncan is writing for the school paper. The psycho has messed with her car and she has a flat tire so she ends up needing to ride there with Duncan. Duncan gets pulled over for unpaid parking tickets which turn out to belong to violations that Lily (his dead sister) committed before she died. One of the tickets was on the day she died and Veronica decides to look into it. She finds picture proof that Lily was still alive hours after her estimated time of death which gave all her family members alibis. This makes Veronica even more suspicious. 

I like that they're giving us small tidbits towards the big case in every episode (so far) because it keeps the real purpose of the show in the back of our minds. We have to solve the murder of Lily Kane.

Paris Hilton played the cheating girlfriend. Not sure if she'll show up in later episodes or if it was a one off. I guess she was a pretty big deal back when this was made, but she always seems to play the spoiled rich girl from what I've seen. I'll have to see if she shows up in more episodes to be able to decide if she can act or not.

I liked getting a bit more context about Eli, even though I really don't like him very much. It makes sense that he's not one of the rich kids since the sheriff is all too willing to prosecute him and members of his gang. All the rich kids seem immune. Even though the sheriff crashed their beach party, he didn't try to round any of them up. He just took the alcohol to use at a barbecue later in the week.

I'm not sure if Jake Kane is guilty or not. My gut says it was Duncan or the mom. I guess we'll need to wait and see. I rate this episode 7/10. It wasn't riveting, but it moved the plot along and I enjoyed most of it.

One Giant Leap: Heroes Ep 3

 Now that we're a few episodes in, I'd like to take a bit of a dive into the characters. We're starting to see some of their strengths and weaknesses now. This episode did show a tiny glimpse of Sylar as he tried to finish the job by kidnapping the girl whose parents he had killed (likely she has a power as well, since Sylar only goes after people whose powers he wants to steal). 

This episode shone a spotlight on several problematic elements of each person's story. Niki finished burying the bodies but took a ring she found on one of the old corpses to (I'm not sure her purpose in doing this) her husband D.L.'s mom. It is only in this episode we find out that she's still married because they use the mother a sort of an exposition tool of their relationship. It is clear that the mom likes her grandson and greatly dislikes her daughter-in-law. D.L.'s mom suggests she would do better raising Micah, since Niki seems ill-prepared for the task, but Niki refuses and even goes as far as to say she wants the woman out of her son's life. It seems her only reason for bringing Micah there in the first place was to try and convince a man's mother of his guilt or maybe convince herself. Niki's dual personality protects her from the guilt of what she has obviously done. This is shown in the previous episode with the blackout after trying to view the tape as well as the fact she doesn't remember the attack that resulted in two mobsters being torn apart in her garage. Another thing we learn about D.L. is that he is on the run because he is a suspect in a murder/robbery. He and a gang tried to rob the big mobster (Mr. Linderman) who Niki borrowed the money from later and then his crew ended up missing (proven dead now that Niki has found the ring belonging to one of them on a corpse) to avoid a murder charge, D.L. fled and has been on the run ever since. This explains why he is not in the picture when the story opens. It is clear from the conversation between Niki and D.L.'s mother that Niki believes D.L. is the one responsible for the death of Linderman's crony's as well even though she doesn't explicitly say this since her mother-in-law doesn't know about those men's deaths. While I do enjoy a story about a woman who is strong and capable of defending herself, I'm not sure yet if I like Niki's story. She keeps making questionable decisions and it's not evident why (with a house that doesn't appear to be a rental and a vehicle at her disposal) she is not able to have a better job than online stripper. Perhaps it has something to do with her husband's involvement with Linderman since he seems to run the town (a policeman stops her while she's driving down the road and tells her that Linderman wants a word). I think they could have done a better job to showcase this if the story line is that she is being blocked out of gainful employment because of Linderman (although you'd think he'd want her working so he could get his money back).

Hiro's journey this episode is mainly just trying to convince his friend Ando to come with him to America so they can save New York from the nuclear explosion that is set to happen in five weeks' time. He starts by showing Ando the comic book which even has their exact conversation word for word (albeit in English rather than Japanese). Ando is still creeping on Niki and when he learns they'll be driving through Vegas he grins (obviously planning to do a bit of in person stalking of the woman he was paying to take her clothes off for him). I really dislike Ando and he really only serves the purpose of letting Hiro have someone to speak with without using butchered English. I guess Hiro probably brought him along as a translator since he doesn't speak much English, although he seems to be able to read the comic book just fine.

Another character I loathe showed his true colors in this episode. I have to admit Claire's story with the attempted rape (and what would have been a murder if she hadn't been impervious to harm) at the hands of the popular boy quarterback is one I was dreading. Ever since the introduction of his character, I have been dreading this episode even though I didn't know how far into the story it was. I understand that Claire's story is the darkest one, with her father being the enemy of people with powers and having a power that will not let her die no matter what, and I understand that some stories will include elements like rape or attempted rape, but something about this one is really offputting for me, personally. Claire's story this episode ends with her on an autopsy table, the branch her attempted rapist threw her onto during his attack finally removed (after her chest has been cut open for some reason) allowed the regenerative powers to kick back in (don't ask me how her heart is still pumping to get the blood to her brain or whatever the removal of the stick actually did). I understand they used this episode to showcase that it might not be possible for Claire to die but the most likely to work is to remove her head from her body, cutting off the circulation which then stops regeneration. I still think they could have done it without the attempted rape. I really hate that part. I do remember that Claire eventually gets some vindication against her attacker later in the show (perhaps in the very next episode, I don't remember).

Matt's story starts with him being recruited to help the FBI woman who originally arrested him for suspected murder. He shoots Sylar as he's trying to mind control the FBI woman into shooting herself but Sylar seems unharmed and ends up getting away. After this, he goes home where his wife is pissed that he missed their therapy session but refuses to talk with him because she thinks it will end in a fight. She tells him she feels like he blames her for his own failure since she made partner and then thinks that she wishes he'd just leave, so he does. He goes to a bar where he playfully reads minds until he finds one man whose mind is unreadable. The man wears a necklace with the same symbol that keeps showing up in the credits, so you know he's important. One other thing that I noticed was a hint at subtle homophobia in the bar scene when Matt hears another man thinking about his "shrew" of a wife who he doesn't want to go home to and Matt raises his beer (probably in solidarity since he's also having troubles at home) the man thinks "barking up the wrong tree" and glowers at him. This is the first reference to homosexuality in the show that I could tell. I don't remember what kind of representation the show has. I think most if not all the canon couples are hetero so that's a little disappointing, but it is a show that aired on TV in the mid 2000's (if I'm remembering correctly) so that much is not surprising.

Mohinder finds Sylar's apartment where there is a ton of evidence of his misdeeds. During this discovery he is accompanied by the friendly neighbor who claimed to have known his father (I still don't think the show has named her). When he returns with reinforcements, the place has been cleaned out which casts suspicion on the neighbor since it would have taken more than one person to do such a thorough job so quickly.

In Peter's story, his relationship with his brother Nathan takes a nosedive after Nathan publicly accuses him of attempting suicide (effectively telling Peter to stop trying to develop his power and to leave Nathan out of it). Nathan is the biggest scumbag in these first few episodes. I do believe his character undergoes a bit of growth before the show ends, but it is still really difficult to watch how dismissive and abusive he is towards Peter despite his younger brother worshipping him. One thing I will say about the actor who portrays Peter is that he has a way with expressive acting. He later played in another of my favorite shows "This is Us". If I can find a place to watch, I'll definitely start blogging about that one by the episode as well. 

Issac and his girlfriend break up over his heroin addiction. Hiro keeps trying to warn Issac that he is in danger (I'm not sure why he doesn't try getting Ando to call him since Ando can speak English) but Issac thinks he's being pranked since Hiro is just talking in Japanese very quickly.

Those are my thoughts on Episode 3. I rate this episode 7/10. I liked most of it and thought it was a solid episode but took off a few extra points because of the one scene I absolutely detest.

Good Omens: final season

 I finally got around to watching the final episode of Good Omens. After everything that happened concerning one of the co-authors of the original, I wasn't sure if we were going to get one and if it would be any good if we did. The episode started off a bit rocky. A lot of the humor during the first half of the show was hit and miss. I didn't really jive with the whole second coming arc, although some of the Jesus of Nazereth dropped into the modern world bits were amusing. When it really started picking up was when our dynamic duo reconnected and started playing off each other. 

I liked that Crowley would rather give up his precious car than see anything happen to Aziraphel's bookshop even though Aziraphel himself abandoned it. I think it really started picking up after Aziraphel beat the would be gangster in a game of competitive crossword solving, though.

I didn't really find the hell bits funny, not like the previous seasons. They were a bit lackluster. The heaven bits too. I did enjoy that everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion about who the culprit was independent of each other. But what I liked most about the whole thing was the ending. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who might want to watch, but I felt that it wrapped up our dynamic duo's romance in the perfect way. I couldn't have asked for a better or more complete ending and I was genuinely smiling from ear to ear for the last 15 minutes of the show. I loved that part of it.

I do think that part of what seemed off about the show might have been the necessary condensation that had to happen to get the story wrapped up within one episode instead of six. I liked the mystery element while it lasted, though. A lot of the best humor from the show probably came from Terry Prachett's writing since I think season 1 is the funniest of all and that is the only one adapted from the joint-written novel. There wasn't as much of a human element to the first half of the show either, probably because they didn't have time for side plots. 

However, since the main reason I wanted to watch was to get a satisfying ending for our dear boys, I will rate this final season a solid 7/10. The ending itself is a 10/10 but to understand it you kind of have to watch the whole show. If you don't want to watch because of all the controversy, that's perfectly understandable. I wasn't sure I wanted to watch either. However, knowing that Neil Gaiman had taken a step back from this season so that the show could get its ending without it being sullied by what he'd done did help to convince me it was worth checking it out.

(p.s. I'm watching most of my shows on Netflix, although this one was Amazon Prime, so if Netflix wants to sponsor me...)

Veronica Mars: Pilot Episode

 Very intriguing first episode with some very dark themes. It starts out with the titular character explaining how she lives in a place where everyone who goes to her high school is either a millionaire or works for millionaires. Then the story shows a young man taped to the flagpole in his underwear with the word 
"snitch" written across his chest. Veronica cuts him down, so he joins her for lunch. Veronica tells how she used to be part of the "it" crowd because she dated the son of the rich software executive named Jake Kane who was responsible for a lot of people in his company becoming millionaires who is also beloved by the whole town. Slowly Veronica spins the story of how she fell from grace through small flashbacks and offhand comments.

It turns out the boy taped to the flagpole happened to piss off the motorcycle gang by using the emergency button when two of his gang tried to shoplift alcohol from the store where he worked. The sheriff showed up and he tried to tell them he pressed the button by accident, but they didn't believe him and took the security cam footage so they could prosecute the guys. I'm not sure if the show has given his name yet but the boy taped to the flagpole showed up on a google search as Wallace Fennel so that's how I will refer to him until the show clarifies it. Veronica decides to help Wallace by clearing the motorcycle gang. See Veronica works at a private investigating firm established by her father who used to be the sheriff until he ended up accusing Jake Kane of the murder of his daughter and Veronica's best friend. Now they've been ostracized by most of the wealthy people, even though there are still some people on his side who are willing to help Veronica on the DL.

As the back story continues, we learn that Veronica was ruffied at a party and raped by an unknown assailant and when she tried to report it the sheriff mocked her and humiliated her instead of helping. This is what I'm talking about with dark themes. I like that the show just infers what happened to her without any graphic depictions of it (although showing a graphic scene when the victim doesn't remember what happened would be difficult anyway). 

In the present, Veronica's dad gets a case involving the Kane family again when Jake's wife comes to him for help in proving her husband has been unfaithful. Mr. Mars has to leave town to track down a bail skipper so the pair can pay their bills for another month and tells Veronica that if she follows up on the case that she needs to bring back up (which she does by bringing along her pit bull). While she's on the stake out, the motorcycle gang shows up and tries to intimidate her, but she sics her dog on one and tasers another until the leader calls his boys off. He tells Veronica she has one week to clear the members of his gang's name and Veronica decides to help. She frames the boy who she calls the school's obligatory psychopath during the school's random locker search by planting a bong in his locker. She sets off a smoke bomb in the evidence room after the police bring the bong in by using a remote control, then one of the firemen called to defuse the situation switches the tape for her. 

Veronica attends the hearing for the motorcycle gang members where they try to submit the evidence tape and find that the tape shows one of a policeman hiring a prostitute instead. The judge dismisses the case. Veronica winks to the sheriff who glares back at her before walking proudly out the door. Later, at the beach, she gives the tape to Wallace who is flying a remote-control plane. As a thank you, he starts teaching her how to fly it.

The psycho boy shows up, angry about the bong incident and starts trashing her car, but the motorcycle gang shows up to defend her and he backs off.

Veronica uses her skills to pretend to be Inga (I think she's either a receptionist or a court clerk) looking up a hit and run license plate in order to find out why her father decided to drop the Kane case as soon as he saw it. She finds out its her mother's car. She hasn't seen her mother in 8 months. Now Veronica wants to know why her mother is meeting up with Jake Kane at sleazy hotels and if this has anything to do with the Kane case which she learns her father is still investigating even after someone else (a former employee of Kane's software firm) has been accused and indicted for. 

I found this pilot episode to be extremely riveting and I will definitely be checking out more of this show. I liked that the main character is a smart, capable girl who uses her wits to solve problems and that the people who know her acknowledge this (for the most part). A funny scene near the start shows Veronica's locker being picked for the random search and Veronica opening it to show it empty with a picture of the vice principal pinned to the door. She says "this is embarrassing" while it is clear that she knew ahead of time and was two steps ahead. This small scene cements her as one of my favorite female main characters of all time. I can see why this show was popular back in the day. 9/10 first episode. (took a point for the casual racism by the latino gang leader against the black Wallace).

Don't look back: Heroes Ep 2

 I had forgotten that we don't get to actually meet Sylar in Ep 2, so I'm not sure when we see his face for the first time. I do remember Zachary Quinto's bone chilling portrayal of him so I'm really looking forward to the first time we see him. In this episode, we got a new hero: Matt, a down on his luck cop who can't seem to pass the detective exam but happens to realize he can read minds when he hears a little girl who was presumed missing where she is hiding in a secret passageway under the staircase in the house where her parents were murdered. The lead detective investigating the Sylar murders arrests Matt on suspicion that he murdered the parents to set himself up as the hero since Matt can't really explain how he heard the little girl when the house was full of policemen and detectives. We see two of Sylar's victims in this episode and we know he was in touch with Mohinder's father because Mohinder discovers an answering machine message where Sylar calls him and Mr. Suresh argues with him about what he's done. Here we learn that if he'd never met the old man, Sylar would not have begun his murder spree. We also get to see a few of Sylar's powers' residual effects because the father of the girl (obviously the target since his head was cut open and his brain removed) is frozen solid and the mother seems to have been levitated before being impaled with several sharp objects.

Niki (sorry I misspelled it earlier; in this episode, it shows her name on a car registration so now I realize how it should be spelled) keeps missing time. She tries watching the tape and before she knows it 4 hours have passed and she's in different clothes. When she goes back to try to clean up the mess, she finds that the bodies are gone and the blood splatter in the garage has been removed. There are keys to a red convertible which is registered in her name and instructions to follow the map in the trunk. The map is on top of the two bodies which have been dismembered. She drives out into the desert until she reaches the spot where there's a shovel waiting for her. When she starts digging, she finds a skull (proof that someone has used this same location to bury bodies once before). We also get a bit more info on Micah's dad. It seems the cops are after him. Niki's friend suggests that it was him who killed the mobsters, but Niki doesn't think so.

Hiro finds a comic book written by Issac Mendez (yes that Issac) which chronicles the discovery of his powers. He uses the address on the comic to find Issac's studio where he also find's Issac dead with the top of his head sawed off. Before he can even react to the discovery, cops burst in and place him under arrest. As the police question Hiro, he insists that he teleported from Japan the day before. They call his friend who answers that he hasn't seen Hiro in five weeks. Hiro thinks it's Oct 2, but the cop shows the paper (with a picture of Nathan Petrelli's landslide victory) and the date of Nov 8. As it dawns on Hiro that he has time-traveled, the explosion that Issac predicted hits and right before the shockwave gets there, Hiro manages to return to his own time back on the same subway he teleported from in the first place.

For Claire, her father tries to make excuses about letting her meet her birth parents saying it's an adult decision. Then Claire goes to school and learns that the firefighters are looking for the girl who saved the man from the train wreckage. Another cheerleader takes credit for the deed and gets honored for it. The teen who recorded the tape tells Claire that it's missing, and she tells him he needs to find it right before accidentally becoming a tackling dummy and getting her neck snapped. Claire is fine, of course, so she plays it off as though the tackle did nothing to her. I found this a little unbelievable. If the force of a tackle was enough to snap a neck, there would be such injuries all the time in football. I don't buy that the size difference was great enough that a tackle would do that much damage and felt it was an unnecessary show intended to further illuminate her healing powers. 

Peter Petrelli learns that his father suffered from depression and committed suicide after Nathan tries to gaslight him that he jumped to kill himself not because he thought he could fly. Peter, at the end of his rope goads Nathan by threatening to jump again unless Nathan admits he flew. Nathan finally admits it, but tells Peter that he flew as well which Peter doesn't believe at first until he walks on the air without thinking about it only falling once he realizes what he's doing. A character I forgot to mention in the last post was Mrs. Petrelli. Mrs. Petrelli is an interesting character, because she seems a bit eccentric at first (we meet her after she has shoplifted some socks she didn't need in order to "feel alive") but right away we can see there's something off about her dynamic with Peter. So when she tells Peter that she hid Mr. Petrelli's actual cause of death to protect him in this episode the viewer is left wondering if she was really trying to protect him or trying to control him.

Mohinder meets a young woman from his father's building who was keeping him company and who says she was unaware of his death. This woman's name does not come up in the episode. After Mohinder introduces himself, she rightly guesses that he is the older man's son (probably due to his pet lizard also being named Mohinder).

I felt this episode helped us get to know the characters a bit more and learn more about their powers. Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to meet Sylar yet because he's such an amazing villain, I still thought this was a solid episode. I give it an 8/10.

Genesis: Heroes Ep 1

 I will admit this is not my first watch-through of the TV show Heroes, I have seen the whole thing before and remember most of the salient plot points. The story begins with our narrator and resident geneticist Mohinder Suresh talking about the evolution of mankind. What struck me about the voiceover this time around was the comment he made about God being a cockroach (if a creator were to make a being that in their own image because the cockroach is more evolutionarily advanced since it can survive in conditions that are unsurvivable to many other species) because later on, when Mohinder decides to move to New York and take over his father's research, his first day in the father's building has him crush a cockroach on sight. I just thought that was a funny little detail. The show follows a group of people with varying powers. Peter Petrelli feels like his career of hospice nurse is not his true calling and he keeps having dreams about flying. He tells his big brother Nathan (a douchbag politician) about the dreams and the feeling that he was destined for something greater, and Nathan gaslights him and talks down to him about it. By the end of the episode, we find out that whether Peter can fly or not, Nathan can and he obviously already knew it before Peter came to him since he uses the power to save Peter after he jumps off a building. (I already know how this is going to play out, but I'm trying to come at this from the perspective of a first watch through). Claire is a cheerleader who seems impervious to harm. She has been making attempts on her own life to test her limits and having a friend record them on his handheld camcorder. By the end of the episode, we also find out that Claire is adopted and that her adopted father is probably one of the people responsible for what happened to Mohinder's father, since he was the one trying to hide evidence of the elder Suresh's research. Nicki is a single mom (there are references to Micah's father but he's definitely not in the picture) who is trying to use online sex work to make money after borrowing a stupidly large amount from a mob boss to get her genius son into private school. She keeps seeing someone else in the mirror. She tells a friend that she thinks she's being watched before going home to find two mobsters in her house. They take her to the space where she was doing her sex work to exploit her a little since they think they hold all the cards, but when she stands up to them, she blacks out and wakes up in a space with their dead, brutalized, bodies and covered in their blood. Her reflection puts a finger to her lips as Nicki looks at the carnage in horror. Hiro Nakamura is a Japanese office worker who is a comic book nerd. He begins by slowing and then making time go back a second. His best friend (who it turns out is one of the pervs paying Nicki for her services) doesn't believe him and calls him crazy. Hiro ends the episode by teleporting to New York from the subway in Japan. Finally, Issac is a drug addicted painter who paints the future whenever he's high. He is responsible for Peter ending up jumping off that building in the first place, since he painted a picture of Peter flying. By the end of the episode, he's painted a nuclear explosion hitting New York and he's mumbling how he has to stop it.

The show uses a solar eclipse as a way to connect all the characters even though they are sort of connected through other means as well. Issac is dating the daughter of the man Peter is a hospice nurse for. She drags Peter to her boyfriend's studio to administer some morphine which she is hoping will keep him from going through withdrawals since he is trying to quit cold turkey and behaving erratically, but Issac has already overdosed by the time they arrive. Claire is the adopted daughter of the man seeking to bury the late Suresh's research. Hiro travels to New York (where Peter and Issac live). Even in just the first episode all the characters besides Nicki have some superficial connection to each other. What I disliked about the eclipse scene was how many of the people just looked at it with their naked eyes. Sure, it showed them squinting, but I was ready to shout at the screen. Nicki watches it through a device her son made (which allows you to view it without looking directly at it) so only her viewing was safe.

As far as first episodes go, it was pretty intriguing. I admit the part where they try to explain the powers scientifically always loses me a little. Like how are you going to explain through genetics the power of flight? I think I like the original Superman explanation better (originally Superman couldn't fly he just had the power to jump very high). I know there's a certain amount of suspension of disbelief in all these shows, but sometimes I wish they didn't try to make up "scientific" explanations for it. Overall, I rate the episode a 7/10. It kept my interest and was a good introduction to all the characters, but I thought some of the lines were a bit cheesy and hated the exploitation of Nicky (the gangsters could have just tried to rough her up without trying to make her strip for them and the end result would have been the same).

*edit: I said Nicki wasn't connected to the other heroes yet, but I forgot that Hiro's pervy friend was one of her only fans customers. 

Heartfelt Apologies

 I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for going MIA from this site. I've had a lot going on in my life recently and this has taken the back burner for a while. I fully intend to review more movies, TV shows, and books in the near future. I just need to get some semblance of normalcy in my life again to do it. I noticed that my blog has gotten some attention despite the fact that I haven't written anything on it in a while, so that's good. Maybe Adsense will see fit to restore my account and let me earn money off this thing (paltry as it might be). If not, these reviews might help to showcase my writing style to potential clients who wish to hire me, so I'd still like to continue. 

Adsense aside, if you know any sponsors who might wish to fund this endeavor, feel free to have them reach out to me. I can see all the comments on this blog even though I moderate them before posting (those of you who were following me from way back know why) so that is the best way to reach me about a possible sponsorship. I might start an accompanying tiktok account (still not sure what I would post there, because I'm a bit camera shy) or another type of social media account to help promote this. I would love for this blog to be a stepping-stone to reaching my ultimate goal of having a writing career, but so far, it's just a way for me to exercise my skills.

Also wanted to say I fully intend to review the most recent addition to the Interview with a Vampire series aka The Vampire Lestat because I have some thoughts after finishing it, but I need time to go over everything in my head, and I might need to rewatch it as well.

Stay tuned for more and thank you for reading. 

Review of the Thai BL Top Form

Let me start by acknowledging that the manga (at to a lesser extent) the anime based on that manga which was the source material for this BL was extremely problematic. Despite this, I found myself growing attached to the relationship between the two male leads and this show was essentially my introduction to the great world of BL. When I began watching the show I did not even know it was going to be BL, as the Japanese refer to everyone by their last name and I don’t believe there were any pronouns in the anime description on Crunchyroll. Fast-forward about six years and I’ve become practically a BL fanatic. I discovered that I really enjoy queer media in general and have consumed a lot of other gay and lesbian stories as well, but BL unlocked something inside me that I didn’t really understand at the time.

What I really loved about the Thai BL Top Form is that this adaptation removed the most problematic elements of the story (the only reason I considered this one to be a guilty pleasure) and kept everything sweet and wholesome about it. It even told the story in the order I wish it had been told originally, by starting with their first meeting instead of showing that as a flashback later. One thing I’ve always hated about Yaoi manga and (sometimes anime) is the non-con elements that often permeate the media. This is in no way a condemnation of those who enjoy stories that include this (as it can be a safe way for people with such fantasies to explore them without getting hurt) but I’ve never been a fan. Color me shocked when I found myself thoroughly enjoying the anime Daikaichi in which the top essentially blackmails the bottom into sleeping with him the first time (it’s worse in the manga since he rapes him). Over the course of the show, the two become the cutest couple, but that part always bothered me. Another issue that I had with the show was with the character of Ayagi (who tries to rape Takato after he gets drunk but changes his mind only because Takato drunkenly calls for Chunta which is his nickname for Junta) and how Junta handled the situation after Takato tells him he doesn’t remember what the two of them did because he was drunk.

When I say Top Form fixed all this, it is the understatement of the year. First, let’s examine why telling it in chronological order instead of beginning with their first night together works much better for a healthy story. In the anime and manga, the first time we meet Takato he has just been surpassed by Junta as the sexiest man alive and also begun a new working relationship with his old rival. Starting it here gets us to the sex faster, but the story-telling suffers because without seeing the depth of connection they shared after working on that first project together and the way it impacted Junta in particular, it’s impossible to see their relationship as being anything more than a fanboy living out his fantasy by finally sleeping with his idol. Once I saw the episode with their backstory I wondered why the story had not started there and thought it would have been much better if it had. I was right. Top Form starts with the original drama (the nature of the drama is changed for the Thai adaptation, but the heart of it remains the same) where Jin (Junta) and Akin (Takato) meet for the first time. It is also told beginning with Jin’s perspective which I appreciated since Akin is a bit of a Tsundere type which makes it harder to gauge his feelings right away.

Second, Top Form eliminated all the non-con from the main couple leaving only the attempted rape after Akin gets drunk and Johnny (Ayagi) leaves a hickey on his neck but stops short of rape after Akin drunkenly calls for “Jun” which is his nickname for Jin. This helped me to more fully support the pairing (since the main issue I had with the original was the non-con and dub-con element) and made the story all the better for it. I still felt the rage over the scene with Johnny. In the original anime adaptation, I actually shouted at my screen during the ensuing scene with Junta where he blames Takato for the molestation because he got drunk and can’t remember what happened. In Top Form, they keep the essence of devastation that Jin feels without the blame by having Akin try to hide what happened and refuse to tell Jin that he can’t remember because he was too drunk. This makes it seem to Jin as if Akin has cheated on him so his ensuing anger can be seen as justified rather than inappropriate.

In Top Form, the only one to blame for the incident is Johnny (who I will never forgive for the sexual assault, he can get bent). Another change to the story is the addition of the stalker which makes it a bit more modern since there are fewer paparazzi types than there are fans with phones taking pictures inappropriately. In the original story, it was a fame seeking paparazzi who took the photos in the first place, but in this story, he just capitalized on what the stalker had already done.

If I have one complaint about the series it might be that I did not feel like the roles were evenly cast. I got a lot out of Akin’s character with Boom’s (Thai actors all have nicknames that they use in place of their actual first name for promotion purposes) portrayal whereas I felt Smart did not give a similarly captivating performance as Jin. I still like it, I just feel like it could have been better.

In the original Takato’s nickname for Junta is “horny angel” because he appears sweet and loving on the surface but he’s always dragging Takato off to the bedroom. The angel wing effect that accompanied Takato’s exclamations of “horny angel” were kept for this adaptation even though Akin’s nickname for Jin is “wooden boy” (a reference to his less than stellar acting when they first met not his constant horniness). I liked the inclusion of the effect since this version of the character does not always act on his desires but mostly lets Akin lead the sexual relationship.

All in all, I would give this adaption a 9/10 since I liked more of the changes than I disliked and Akin was portrayed brilliantly even if Jin’s character was a bit flat in comparison. It might just be that Smart is younger and less experienced than Boom (which is also true of their characters).