tvthatdoesntsuck

Heroes
Season Three
Episode Ten
“The Eclipse, part one”
Written by Joe Pokaski and Aaron Eli Coleite
Directed by Greg Beeman

Pretty big improvement.  Finally, we get a use of Isaac’s painting ability that doesn’t make the writer’s look like uninspired hacks who keep reaching to the past.  Arthur sketches up a series of drawings that leads him to believe something big is going to unfold, involving the coming eclipse and Claire, who has proven to be the catalyst for the formula that has become the centerpiece for this season’s arc.

The actual eclipse… well, this isn’t a spoiler, as it says this on the show.  It makes all of the heroes powerless.  That’s regular, human.  Not only does this shake up all the characters and register interested and revealing reactions, it’s also the first exploration of the central mythology of the show we’ve gotten since… well, the beginning.

As if it is the reverse of last week, the Elle/Sylar scenes are pretty much the only problematic ones.  It seems as if their characters, which were on the path towards redemption, have regressed to “do whatever the man says” villains.  Elle goes after Claire and attempts to shoot her father without so much as addressing how they–Elle and Claire–bonded earlier in the season.  It would have been fine–hell, it would have been tragic, dark, and ironic if they had addressed that… but nope.  It would have even been better if there were a hint that the driving force behind Elle’s decision is that she hates HRG for forcing her to demonize Sylar when he first realized his powers… but nope.  There isn’t really any depth to either her or Sylar’s actions here, so I’m not at all sure where they seem to be going with the arc that was just last weeklooking so promising.

All of the other stuff frankly rocks.  Nathan, Peter, (who have some awesome, Season One level brotherly issues) and the Hatian deal with a 24: Redemption-esque baddie; Matt learns a shocking and ironic secret about Diane; Hiro and Ando meet up with Seth f***ing Green at a comic shop; Mohinder loses his buggery; and Claire faces an injury that even she can’t overcome.

Overall, strong episode that might have been a 9/10 had the writer’s paid closer attention to the reasons why their characters do things.  The Heroes team looks like they’re on the road back to not sucking, but they need to delve deeper into their character’s psyches in order to get to their old level.

But I’m no longer scared for this show.  Pushing Daisiesis officially cancelled, so Bryan Fuller will likely be joining this writing staff.  I only wish he’d take over as show-runner and demote Kring to series writer.

7/10

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