Damages: 6/10
The climax was pretty good - although it was obvious from the start that Ellen wouldn't have shot "Paddy" Hewes (despite attempts to convince us with a flash forward of Patty bleeding in the lift). Nice that Patty was in control of the situation all along (at home as well as work - that little priggish son needed bringing down a peg or ten), and how Wes dealt with sociopath detective Rick Messer.
However, on the whole, this felt like a bit of a holding series. Frobisher featured so fleetingly, there was hardly any point him being involved; Walter Kendrick wasn't much of a baddie; and we didn't get enough of the really sinister characters – Dave Pell (played by the brilliant Clarke Peters - Lester Freamon in The Wire, Mandela in Endgame and soon to be in Holby City!) and "The Deacon", the dead-faced killer of Purcell's wife. We must hope season 3 will centre on them. More cold sweat from William Hurt would be good too.
Heroes: 3/10
Should this be a judgement on Season 3 or Volume 4? I don't know: it's a mess.
Season 3 began by implicitly saying, "Let's pretend season 2 never happened". Characters disappeared (Monica the muscle mimic, Maya, Molly - woe betide anyone whose name began with M, barring moaning Matt Parkman). And it ended in much the same vein - poor old Daphne the speedster dies and a couple of episodes later Parkman seems to have forgotten that his whole purpose was to build a life with her and is now fighting to get his former missus back.
Volume 4 just tread water, despite having a clear villain (in The Hunter). That was what made Season 1 so good - everything built towards foliing Sylar. This term Sylar swapped sides twice an episode, heroes were unconvincing both as villains (it boiled down to Petrelli family bickering) and fugitives (they just wandered around a bit). The main heroes – Claire, Peter, Nathan, Parkman, Mohinder (oh, another surviving M), Hiro & Ando – became duller and duller. Meanwhile new characters drifted in and out: Claire Bear's daddy issues made it impossible to keep a boyfriend; and some interesting ones were killed off instantly, thus wasting ability-based storylines which could have developed nicely.
At least Sylar's shape-shifting was cool and the subsequent identity crisis was the only genuinely engaging storyline since Season 1.
In the end though, you spend too much time wondering about stuff you've missed or forgotten – or possibly the producers have. Does Mohinder have powers still? If not, why does Ando? Is Ando still going to kill Hiro? What was all that about Sylar becoming a stay-at-home married dad with a penchant for cooking in the future? Was that that in season 2 so therefore "didn't happen"? Do we even care any more?
Coming soon: Lost (I've got a few episodes to catch up) and 24
No comments:
Post a Comment