The first email Matt Roush includes in today’s Ask Matt had me nodding along in still-sleepy agreement. (I’ve only been awake for about seven minutes.)
It’s what I’ve been thinking since the new TV season started. I’m going to lump Grey’s Anatomy in with Heroes, though. Seriously. What is going on there? I have been mostly uninterested since the season premiere. I’m not giving up on either of them, of course, and especially with Grey’s — there are still flashes of the old excellence. I think the writers are pandering to the internet masses. I, for one, loved last season. Sure, it was a bit somber, but come on — you can’t have spent all that time developing these oh-so-horribly-flawed characters and continue to have them be happy-go-lucky and cheery. At some point, Meredith was going in the water, whether it was figuratively or literally. Even the dream sequence episode was welcome to me because it elicited such awesome performances from the rest of the cast.
But the internet masses complained, Shonda said this season would be funnier and fluffier, and now we’re teetering on a season with no substance. I stopped watching Desperate Housewives because of its lack of substance, and Grey’s is threatening to follow in its footsteps. I compare DH and Grey’s kind of like I compare Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. To borrow Penn Badgley’s description of GG, I prefer a little trash and a lot of substance. DH and OTH are a lot of trash and very little substance, and now Grey’s is is quickly losing its substance.
I can’t stand Erica Hahn’s character. The actor (whose name I can’t even bother to remember) has a voice that’s like nails on a chalkboard, and her accusation that Richard was being discriminatory — and her inevitable bullying of him including her in the whole gentleman’s evening — had me rolling my eyes. She’s treating Cristina like she, herself, is an intern rather than the mature, gifted surgeon she supposedly is. (Also? From telling C that she reminded her of herself and was so gifted, blah, blah last season to this now-disdainful attitude? Ridiculous.)
The writers totally wasted Elizabeth Reaser’s return, and this season it seems Alex has returned to his one-dimensional days and now has stooped to Izzie’s indefensible, unsympathetic philandering ways. Whatever.
I’ll still watch, for a while, but it’s no longer appointment TV for me. (Case in point: it took me five days to watch last week’s episode.) Also? I burn episodes of shows I love onto DVD to view later. Grey’s used to qualify, but now I delete it out of the TiVo after I’m done watching the week’s offering.
On to Heroes: Like Matt’s viewer said, I really wish Kristen Bell had moved to Hawaii, because at least there, her talents would’ve been used. Also as Matt said, I’m not done with Heroes, and I’m definitely not giving up on it, but it has been so scattered and yawn-worthy so far. I guess this is how some of the flaky LOST detractors felt about it, but again, as the viewer stated, I don’t think there is any comparison between the two shows: LOST always gave the impression that D&C were painstakingly setting up the chess pieces. Heroes just seems — right now, at least — like the writers have ADD.
(Ha: and I loved the complaint about Milo Ventimiglia. I have always felt that way about him, even back during his Gilmore Girls stint.)
I used to really, really look forward to Monday and Thursday evenings, and now, the only reason I anticipate Mondays is because of Chuck. What a remarkable, funny, charming hour of television at its best.
‘ second-season mediocrity to Lost’s second-season lull. The latest was in this week’s Cheers & Jeers: “Jeers to Heroes for getting Lost with too many new characters.” I would say: “Cheers to Heroes for finally showing just how wobbly a mythology the show is based around, and how the next Lost is yet to come.”
The new characters
Lost introduced in its second season were vastly superior to the ones introduced on Heroes this season. I’d take Eko and his scripture stick over the Wonder Twins and their Exxon eyes any day. People hated Ana Lucia as a personal, but that’s a much stronger reaction than we’ve gotten to Kristen Bell’s lightning girl. And need I remind you that Ana Lucia’s story ended with one of the most shocking moments in recent TV history? I love Kristen Bell, so I really wish she had made the move to Hawaii, where her skill as an actress might have been tested (and been more appreciated) in a more compelling narrative.
Also,
Lost fans complained about the new characters because they were taking time away from characters we loved. Heroes has taken everything we loved away from its old characters: Of the returning characters, only one has any fire left for me, and that’s Nathan Petrelli. And that’s mostly because Adrian Pasdar is pound-for-pound the show’s most charismatic actor. But what happened to everybody else? Claire’s masochistic precociousness is gone. Peter Petrelli seems to only employ Milo Ventimiglia’s one facial expression: slack-jawed inquisitiveness. Hiro has lost any sense of joy or humor. And Sylar is playing the same mustache-twisting note.
The final straw in this whole ridiculous comparison is the idea of direction. People who still debate whether
Lost knows where it’s going are either not too bright or stopped watching before last season’s OMG conclusion. You can’t pull off a twist like that without very careful, intricate planning. It’s clear to me, however, that the emperor of Heroes has no clothes. Lost has a very clear idea of its own mythology, and that’s something Heroes clearly doesn’t have.— Phil R.
