My Power is Laziness

Well, my solution to playing in the MATH when I knew I'd be late was easy enough. Take down a level 1 token an only pay $8.

Problem was that I got to the game later than expected, in fact, I didn't open Full Tilt until the first hour was nearly up. Seems I was doing alright though in my absence. All told, I essentially hung on until the points bubble burst and went out 23rd. A few bets, a made hand or two, and a double-up on the bubble was enough to keep me alive. I'm not exactly proud of how I pulled that off.

Just as NBC shouldn't be proud about that abortion that was the Heroes season finale. There be spoiler here. You've been warned. Highlight after the dots.

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What a waste of an hour. 55 minutes of dithering and NOTHING happening followed by 3 minutes of "we don't have the budget to do something cool", 1 minute of denoument from a climax a 12 year-old would be ashamed of, and 1 minute of "please watch next season."

I gave them the benefit of the doubt for the first 20 minutes. There was some tension built, it was all coming together. Then it took them another 35 minutes to... what? Get down to the square? The Hiro/Ando storyline was the only one that anything happened in, and it was pretty pathetic. It's great that Hiro suddenly has a 99% accuracy rate with the teleporting after learning how to use a sword.

And Parkman... my god, what a horribly done character. It's like the writers decide "he's stupid for the next 20 minutes." every episode he's in. He shows flashes of being competent, and then he suddenly thinks HE can take on Sylar? With what? A gun and the ability to read his mind? Are you going to make fun of his secret shames?

There were cool scenes, the actor who plays Noah (yet ANOTHER Biblical name - Peter, Nathan (son of David and Bathsheba), Matthew, Noah (something about an Ark), Micah, Gabriel (God's Messenger/Angel of Death), Isaac (prophet), etc.) Bennet is great. He says so much without actually saying it. Facial expressions, and the depth in his eyes. Claire jumping out the window was solid, even if the line before was weak.

But it was outweighed by the stupid. Why doesn't Peter read EVERYONE'S mind when he needs to know what's going on? Can't Peter fly himself? Why does Nathan have to be involved? One line - "It's taking all I have to hold on." would have explained it. Nobody dies??? Maybe Nathan... but Peter will have to live, especially with Sylar crawling (or was he dragged?) to the manhole. Parkman lives? 5 bullets in the chest?? DL can walk after Mohinder looks at him? He's a geneticist, not an MD. Weren't most of the heroes supposed to die and we started anew next season? How pathetic.

Oh, and Candice claimed in the last episode that she was a huge woman in reality, not a Missy Peregrym lookalike... yet when she's knocked unconscious, she reverts to the image we always see?

At the end of the day, it felt very much like NBC execs stepped in and said, "This is our ONLY real hit this season, and we're a bunch of terrified cheapskate pansies. Don't kill anyone, and we can't afford to give you a cool final scene, so make up a cheaper one." At least I hope that's what happened and not that after an incredibly cool first season, the writers couldn't come with an ending. Next time, just have a giant foot crush everyone.

As an aside - Peter should now (depending on proximity) have just about everyone's powers. Since he's invincible and we assume he can survive his explosion and fall (unless he splatters maybe) we'd now have someone who can fly, has super strength and agility (Niki/Jessica), can phase through walls (DL), control electronics/computers, find anybody in the world, turn invisible, is invincible, has telekinesis, freezing ability, can travel through time, teleport, see into the future, have prophetic dreams, go radioactive/electromagnetic, read minds, has super hearing, can melt objects, see how anything works, and probably a few others I've missed... if he lives, then he's damned near unstoppable.


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Anyway. I'll be watching next season despite my disappointment at the final episode. It was obviously stretched. I actually tried to stay positive about the finale for awhile, but writing this just made me realize how lacklustre it was. At least it will give me something to watch while waiting for Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica to start up again in 2008.