Heroes: the Cheerleader
Wait… this isn’t Mars Investigations, a site that’s all-Veronica, all the time? My mistake. How about we change channels for now and see what else is on?
On Monday nights, when beads of sweat roll down my furrowed brow and I bite my nails to the ticks of the clock bringing me closer and closer to Neptune, I’ve got Heroes to save my night. This new show on NBC is a little bit X-Men, a little bit Twilight Zone, a little bit Lost, and a lot awesome. There’s only been 4 episodes so far, but there’s about a floppety-jazillion characters (or a dozen, give or take), making a quick recap a bit of a difficult task. In a single sentence: there are all these people who have evolved, and are evolving, to find they have “special abilities,” leading them all toward a shared unknown destiny involving an apocalyptic vision of the somewhat near future. I guess I pretty much covered that summation in saying, “It’s a little bit X-Men,” but there you have it.
If you want to check out last night’s episode, do it here. Or you can just watch the two-minute replay. Or you can tune in for the Heroes marathon NBC’s airing on Sunday, starting at 8pm EST, showing all but the pilot episode. With so many options, how could you not watch this show?
In the meantime, everyone take a deep breath and focus, as we start b-logging our first hero profile.
Hero Profile #1
Name: Claire Bennet (played by Hayden Panettiere)
Alias: the Cheerleader
Hometown: Odessa, TX
Age: 17
Occupation: Student at Union Wells High School, where she’s a popular cheerleader
Relatives: Unnamed adoptive parents, including the “Horned-Rim Glasses Man” as her father, and Lyle, her younger brother. Her biological parents are yet unknown.
Known “special abilities”: Like X-Men’s Wolverine, she has accelerated healing abilities and partial invulnerability, in that she cannot feel much pain. We’ve seen her survive an 80-foot fall, being engulfed by flames, breaking her neck, and having a sharp stick lodged into the back of her head. She also stuck her hand in a garbage disposal (through no fault of the garbage disposal) and immediately healed her mangled digits.
Known limitations: Apparently, she cannot heal herself if a foreign object is obstructing the injured area.What to expect: Given her close father-daughter relationship with the mysterious and creepy “Horned-Rim Glasses Man” and the current ad line for the show – “Save the Cheerleader...Save the World” – we can expect that Claire will play a major role in the upcoming apocalypse.
But which side of the battle will she be on?
The conclusion of the most recent episode showed a darker side to the blonde, bright-eyed cheerleader. Her taking the asshole quarterback for what seemed like his last ride pretty much threw her deep into the humungous grey area between good and evil that this show hovers over. And if we learned anything from Stan Lee and this summer’s Who Wants to Be a Superhero, it’s that heroes don’t kill people. If you take a look at the graphic novel that complements the show though, you’ll find that she doesn’t kill him. She just wanted to scare him. Still, there’s darkness there. So, maybe the rest of the heroes will have to save her from herself, keep her from the dark side, in order to save the world.
On Monday nights, when beads of sweat roll down my furrowed brow and I bite my nails to the ticks of the clock bringing me closer and closer to Neptune, I’ve got Heroes to save my night. This new show on NBC is a little bit X-Men, a little bit Twilight Zone, a little bit Lost, and a lot awesome. There’s only been 4 episodes so far, but there’s about a floppety-jazillion characters (or a dozen, give or take), making a quick recap a bit of a difficult task. In a single sentence: there are all these people who have evolved, and are evolving, to find they have “special abilities,” leading them all toward a shared unknown destiny involving an apocalyptic vision of the somewhat near future. I guess I pretty much covered that summation in saying, “It’s a little bit X-Men,” but there you have it.
If you want to check out last night’s episode, do it here. Or you can just watch the two-minute replay. Or you can tune in for the Heroes marathon NBC’s airing on Sunday, starting at 8pm EST, showing all but the pilot episode. With so many options, how could you not watch this show?
In the meantime, everyone take a deep breath and focus, as we start b-logging our first hero profile.
Hero Profile #1
Name: Claire Bennet (played by Hayden Panettiere)
Alias: the Cheerleader
Hometown: Odessa, TX
Age: 17
Occupation: Student at Union Wells High School, where she’s a popular cheerleader
Relatives: Unnamed adoptive parents, including the “Horned-Rim Glasses Man” as her father, and Lyle, her younger brother. Her biological parents are yet unknown.
Known “special abilities”: Like X-Men’s Wolverine, she has accelerated healing abilities and partial invulnerability, in that she cannot feel much pain. We’ve seen her survive an 80-foot fall, being engulfed by flames, breaking her neck, and having a sharp stick lodged into the back of her head. She also stuck her hand in a garbage disposal (through no fault of the garbage disposal) and immediately healed her mangled digits.
Known limitations: Apparently, she cannot heal herself if a foreign object is obstructing the injured area.What to expect: Given her close father-daughter relationship with the mysterious and creepy “Horned-Rim Glasses Man” and the current ad line for the show – “Save the Cheerleader...Save the World” – we can expect that Claire will play a major role in the upcoming apocalypse.
But which side of the battle will she be on?
The conclusion of the most recent episode showed a darker side to the blonde, bright-eyed cheerleader. Her taking the asshole quarterback for what seemed like his last ride pretty much threw her deep into the humungous grey area between good and evil that this show hovers over. And if we learned anything from Stan Lee and this summer’s Who Wants to Be a Superhero, it’s that heroes don’t kill people. If you take a look at the graphic novel that complements the show though, you’ll find that she doesn’t kill him. She just wanted to scare him. Still, there’s darkness there. So, maybe the rest of the heroes will have to save her from herself, keep her from the dark side, in order to save the world.
