Monday night was the first big face-off between Heroes and 24. According to the ratings, 24 won but just barely.
Rating aside, which episode of these two TV juggernauts was better? I'll give you my thoughts on both, starting with....
Heroes: GodsendWhat a disappointing way to come back after a month hiatus and all this buzz and momentum. For those of you just jump up on the rooftops, declaring how much better
Heroes is than
Lost becuase things actually seem to move forward every single week, well this episode proves that is not always the case. This one seemed more like a recap episode than anything--let's all recall where everyone is and who they all are, more than actually doing much to push the storylines forward too much.
I think part of it was I was really looking forward to seeing Christopher Eccleston in the show and he was woefully underused. We see hints of him in Peter's dreams (which I love the retro-continuity of putting him in the dreams now....come on, seriously!), but we don't meet the character until the last five minutes of the episode. So, all the promos the last month of meeting a new hero and his powers were a big mislead on NBC's part. They've really GOT to stop letting whoever does the promos for the show stop giving away the last five minutes of the show.
But it wasn't like the rest of the episode was that much better. Can anyone tell me why the guards didn't see DL putting his arm through the glass in the prison? I mean, we get the impression they are standing watch over Niki/Jessica since she's a threat but they miss the guy putting his hand through the glass to hold hands?!? And to beat the living stew out of her for wanting to hug her kid.....yeah, Micah's going to need years of therapy from that one.
As for Hiro and the sword--wow, how much of a downer was the realization of the Hiro appears to fight a dinosaur with a sword? Of course, I'd have been annoyed if we had a CGI dinosaur rampaging down the streets of New York as well, Let's face it--there was no good way out of that hint.
I have to say it--this episode was a severe disappointment. Hopefully we can get things moving next week.
24: Day Six, 10 - 11 a.m.Meanwhile, over on FOX day six of
24 comes perilously close to jumping the shark.
I love 24 and I can generally accept a lot of the willing suspension of disbelief the show has made its trademark. That said, the whole idea that somehow Jack's brother is the one behind being taken prisoner by the Chinese....yeah, that really stretches credibility. I know the
24 writers often say they don't plot out every little twist and turn of the season and show and I can accept that. That said, I think we needed a better plan than the evil guy behind the plot last year turns out to be Jack's brother.
Also, I have a hard time believing that Jack would go from someone who was heistant to using his usual interrogation techniques a few hours ago to full-on torturing his own brother here. And that whole thing with the plastic bag over the head as the cliffhanger. Man, I can see why the Bauer family doesn't get together that often for family dinner.
One more thing before I move on past this. If it turns out that Greg's kid is really Jack's from an affair with Greg's wife (who apparently loved Jack but it didn't work out), I will go Jack Bauer on the show. That said, I have a bad feeling that is where this is all headed since the kid looked a lot more like Jack than Greg.
And did no one tell
24 that Rena Sofa is the female equivalent of having Ted McGinley on your show?
That said,
24 was still ten times more satisfying than Heroes. Seeing Jack rescue the guys from the helicopter was nice.
The reaction to the attacks was good--esp. in the Palmer camp. I had to laugh out loud at the scrolling text on the bottom of the FOX news report--that Palmer had already issued a statement and the press was running. Man, that White House press office is good. Or did they have a press release for in case the country got nuked by a suitcase bomb ready to go? I know--I make this complaint every year about how they forget that only a minute or two has passed between episodes. But you have to admit that was kind of amusing.
I did like how Wayne reacted and his wanting to appear presidential to the people. The debate over what to include in the speech and what the country needed to hear was superbly done. And as much as of a toad as the Peter McNichol character can be and was, it's at least nice to see why Wayne might have hired him to be on the staff. The scene between the two about not showing how scared he was but not being too confident or unconcerned about the attacks was great.
And it was nice to see the terrorists scrambling from the attack. I like that this wasn't planned and it's set things back a bit. Hopefully this will give Jack a chance to get back on his trail and maybe we can forget this whole Jack's brother thing ever happened.
Labels: 24, heroes, tv shows
posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/24/2007 09:28:00 AM |
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