Sat down last night to the season premiere of Heroes and Journeyman and I have to say I'm already hating this weekly structured TV format.
Heroes, to start, is already proving difficult to watch (oh, the season premiere isn't nearly as rough as the pilot episode, thankfully) mainly because I watched the first season in such a concentrated dose. I realized while watching the season one DVDs that each episode doesn't often give enough to each character's storyline, but when watching them in quick succession it's not as noticeable. This first episode of season two was basically a 40 minute teaser, and it seemed to be over before it even began.
Claire has found herself a new "hero" (what the show calls anyone with superpowers, regardless of how they use them) at school (who I suspect is an alien). Bennett is large an in charge in his situation. We're getting some background on the senior "heroes" (Mrs. Petrelli, Hiro's dad...they say there are 9 left, meaning after Mr. Petrelli, Simone's dad and Linderman, there were 12 to start) as one of their ranks (looking an awful lot like Sylar early in season one) is killing off the others, taking Mr. Nakamoura off the top of the roof. Hiro is in feudal Japan, meeting his hero and being disappointed, unaware that his dad is dead (kind of puts a damper on his lighthearted counterpoint story). The wonder twins (a South American brother and sister duo, one with murderous power she can't control) are trying to find their way out of their homeland to Suresh, who himself is working with Bennett to try and infiltrate the remains of the Organization. Matt, now divorced (his pregnant wife = dead weight apparently) has adopted the "tracking system", but the "more sinister than Sylar" guy is peering into her mind. In the most unfortunate part of the storyline, Nathan Petrelli has, somehow, survived his brother's explosion, grown a beard, and taken on very Tony Stark-esque habits (maybe Micah could build him a suit of armor?). His wife and kids have left him and he wont give Claire the time of day. There's a strange scene where he looks in the mirror and sees a hideously burn-scarred reflection, which I thought meant that Peter, having come into contact with Candice (the illusionist) last season, was pretending to be Nathan, and having some split personality disorder in the same vein as Niki/Jessica. Unfortunately Peter pops up at the end, found shackled inside a cargo container by the lads from Fight Club.
Was it good? Not really. Interesting, sure. Frustrating, definitely. It seems to be much more of a TV show this year, as opposed to the comic-book affair it was last year. There was no sign of Niki, DL and Micah, which is unfortunate, cause I think DL rocks. Of all of them, he seems the most human... fragile, uncertain, but also not without strength. Anyway...
Following immediately after was Journeyman which I was afraid by the commercials I had seen that it was going to be a chick-flick version of science fiction, where the time travelling protagonist encounters his dead ex-fiancee in the past and tussles with the decision of saving her (or having an affair with her) or protecting his marriage. Thankfully it wasn't (totally) like that, as Dan intriguingly finds himself thrust back and forth in time between the now and various pasts (where he goes missing for lengths of time in the now, causing his wife and coworkers much distress, going so far as to think he's doing drugs). Dan, and investigative journalist, seems to observe the chance encounters with the same man as a sign as to what he's supposed to be doing and settles into his whole "time travel" thing with relative ease. When a more mature version of his ex-fiancee appears, throwing him for a loop, at guiding him on his journey, it became clear to me that this is just Quantum Leap revisited. It's decent, and the acting is fine (although the lead, Scottish actor Kevin McKidd, sounds unusually like Ray Romano, which throws me off), but it's not very unique. It'll make for perfect serialized television, but beyond this pilot, I'm not really engaged to watch more.
So, that's one hour of television I can wipe off the slate (phew). I really need to learn how to bit torrent... and then I'll need a computer that can burn DVDs... so that I can have my own TV watching schedule as opposed to what the networks decide.