What I'm Watching -- Heroes and Prison Break

Both 24 and Prison Break may have slipped in the ratings some this year, and both have had up and down seasons, they are still appointment viewing for me anyway, so after watching last night's two-hour Prison Break and catching up on Heroes this afternoon, both shows are starting to move in the right direction.

Starting with Prison Break, you had to figure Michael's escape plan wasn't going to go quite as planned. Too early in the season first off, and just as he did in the first season, these false start escapes certainly build a lot of tension. The first hour was definitely more action-packed and exciting than the second, but overall it was a good night. Getting Lechero in on the escape made sense (I wonder why Lechero wasn't interested in escaping earlier, despite his power role inside Sona) and adding the wrinkle that Whistler may not be the innocent prisoner we thought I like a lot. Who is this guy? Is he working with the Company? Is he just a pawn like Michael? And if so, why not tell Michael he's had contact with the Company? Certainly gets me to keep watching.

As for Heroes, finally we are moving in the right direction. As I've written before I've not been a huge fan of this season so far. The stories have been too disconnected, the characters not interacting nearly enough, and there was no over-arching storyline connecting all of the Heroes. A few weeks back I thought they were headed in the right direction but then they fell back again. Maybe I'm just not enjoying the whole killer-twins/Sylar storyline, so the lack of that this week made for a better episode, I don't know.

What I do know is that it was about time for Hiro to come back from Japan, and they wrapped that plotline up pretty well. Now he can get back to avenging the death of his father, who if we believe Bob (and who knows at this point) was caused by Parkman's dead at the behest of this Adam character, who was Hiro's hero-turned-nemesis Takezo Kensei. While David Anders was fine as Kensei, he does his best work (as Alias fans will attest) as a villain, and I'm sure he'll bring a lot of his Sark character from Alias to his new role on the show.

And now, preventing the spread of the Shanti-virus, and saving the world again, will bring the heroes back together. Which may mean that Peter is on the wrong side of things, teaming up with Kensi-turned-Adam. But maybe not. Bob is the one creating the virus (of which Nikki is now infected) so who says he's not the one to release it to the general population. It keeps you guessing, which is exactaly what Mohinder is going through, and that should make Heroes really interesting going forward.

As long as, you know, this current writers strike doesn't short circuit everything, which I'm fearful it might.

What I'm Watching -- Heroes

Now that's more like it. After what I thought was a slow and uneven start to Heroes sophomore season, the hit television show shook off the rust and tried to show it won't fall victim to the "sophomore slump" that has doomed other television shows. Tonight's episode tied together some hanging storylines, introduced some new, critical plot points, and gave us an interesting, exciting, and cliffhanging ending.

As I've said before, I was not a big fan of the Maya and Alejandro storyline, but tonight, with them meeting up with Sylar, and unwittingly joining forces as they try to cross the border into the United States to meet with Dr. Suresh (well, Mohinder's father is dead, thanks to Sylar, so can't see that meeting working out well for the twins) but I'm now actually interested in seeing where the story goes from here. And since Sylar seemingly can't absorb people's powers, at least for now, he probably won't kill Maya and Alejandro right away.

And the storyline with Parkman and Molly was great too. We're finally learning more about the first generation of Heroes, and it really is no surprise that Parkman's father was part of the original group (it makes perfect sense now that I think about it, but I'll be honest, I never considered it before). I did not see coming that he was Molly's "boogeyman," and whether Matt can save Molly, and find his villainous dad should make for some great episodes to come.

I can deal without the Claire/West storyline, but if it's a necessary evil to get to eventual conflict with HRG, and fulfill Isaac's final paintings, I can deal with that. And the introduction of Dana Davis' character (Monica, Micah's older cousin) I thought was well done. Monica was great on last season's underrated drama The Nine, and she had a nice debut tonight.

The cast, though, is getting exceedingly large (and will grow with the introduction of Kristen Bell's upcoming character) and as such, the shows can't fit in each characters storyline each episode. Nikki has been relatively absent all season, and both Peter and Hiro/Ando/Kensei were absent from this episode. It's very Lost-like in a way, where the cast is so large, only some storylines are paid off each week, because 42-minutes just isn't enough time to tell everyone's story. I hope the writers and producers don't forget where some of the numerous storylines they have up in the air are going. I have confidence that they won't, and after tonight, in what was a giant step forward after three mediocre weeks to begin the second season, hopefully things will only get better from here.

What I'm Watching -- Prison Break and Heroes

So it has been a few days since the shocking events on Monday's Prison Break, and at the risk of spoiling the episode for those that have not seen it yet, here are my thoughts on the death of Dr. Sara Tancredi. Kristin of E! Online and TV Guide have interviews with the cast and producers, and as it turns out, Sara's death was planned from the beginning. While the team behind Prison Break would have preferred to push Sara's death back until later in the season, they could not come to an agreement with actress Sarah Wayne Calles, and thus, her head ends up in a box during the show's third episode.

A lot of Prison Break fans, from the message boards I've seen since Monday's episode, are not happy. Many claim they will stop watching the show. Others are equally as outraged at Sara's death, but aren't giving up on the show yet. Myself, I didn't find Sara's death so offensive. Yes, I'll miss the actress Sarah Wayne Calles, who I thought did great work, but I was never as invested in the Sara-Michael relationship as apparently a lot of other people were. People in Michael's life die, on a regular basis, because of The Company, including his father. Sara's death will lead to some great drama down the line, especially when he discovers Sara's dead and finds out Lincoln was hiding that fact from him. Plus, it really adds pressure to Michael and Lincoln's current situation, putting real life and death stakes into their actions, and puts Lincoln in an incredibly difficult yet completely understandable position. He can't tell Michael about Sara's death, because The Company still has his son LJ, but you know Michael won't see it that way when he finds out about Sara's death later in the season. It makes for even more intriguing television in what I think is a great third season so far.

As for Heroes, I'm still uneven about the first few episodes of the season. While the return of Nikki, Micah, and Sylar were good to see, I still don't understand the point of the South American twins who kill people with their tears before bringing them back to life. I have confidence this is leading somewhere, but right now, it's just wasting time I would rather be spending with other characters, like with Sylar, trying to figure out why he lost his powers. Next week looks good too, as Parkman and Nathan look into the mysterious killer haunting the first generation of Heroes. The bits with Hiro in feudal Japan have actually been pretty good too, but knowing that they made David Anders, who plays Takeo Kensei, a series regular, makes me wonder how (or if) he'll travel back to the future with Hiro, or whether once his story in Japan is over, so is Anders time on Heroes.

What I'm Watching -- Prison Break and Heroes

So after attending yet another Detroit Tigers loss last night (and another tonight as a matter of fact, not a loss (well, not for sure a loss) but a game) I finally caught up this afternoon on yesterday's second episode of Prison Break's season and the season premiere of Heroes. After watching all of the bonus features and listening to all the actor/writer/producer commentaries on the Heroes DVD s over the past month or so, I was ready for the start of the new season. And how was it? Good but underwhleming. But, since Prison Break is broadcast earlier, let's deal with that episode first.

Despite sluggish ratings its first two weeks Prison Break has gotten off to a great start in its third season. The show has consistently improved from season-to-season and this year is no different. The problem I had with the first season, despite thinking it was great, was that Michael was two steps ahead of everyone. Sure, he had a slight problem with the false break-out early in the first season, and some other problems along the way, but nothing seemed to really phase him. Season Two, with the introduction of Mahone, the FBI agent on the trial of Michael and Lincoln and the rest of the gang, upped the ante, because in many ways, Mahone was Michael's intellectual equal. It was a fair fight. This year, with the introduction of Lechero, SONA's prisoner/dictator, Michael has to think even more outside the box than he has in the past. Monday's episode, with the potential death of Whistler, the man Michael must help break out of SONA, was exciting, and only two episodes into the season we're already well underway. More people need to start watching this show, because it is continuously improving.

As for Heroes, the season premier was good, but certainly not great. Even airing with limited commercial interruption, it seemed they tried to pack too much into the little less than an hour that they had. Obviously, things have changed in the past four months (Matt Parkman survived his attack from Sylar, is living with Mohinder and caring for Molly after divorcing his wife, Nathan is a drunk and (not in Congress? Maybe in Congress?) after saving New York from his brother Peter, who showed up at the end of the episode in Ireland with no memory, Claire and her family have relocated and gone underground, and Mohinder is working with HRG to take down the Company from the inside) and they introduced a few new characters as well. It almost seemed like too much. And I hated how they handled the death of Hiro's father. The storyline of people going after the first generation of Heroes (or, maybe the "older" generation is more accurate) is fine. But how it actually came off, with a small masked figure tackling George Takei off the famed Heroes rooftop wasn't great. Maybe the masked-person seemed too small or non-threatening but it was somewhat mediocre for such a large and important death and story-point.

I did, though, like Hiro's storyline in feudal Japan. Having David Anders play Hiro's hero Takezo Kensei is an interesting but really intrigued choice and his character, as a drunk Englishman who somehow becomes a legendary Japanese hero, adds all sorts of interesting directions for them to go. And as a big Alias fan back in the day, Anders, who was great as Sark, should be good to go here. Curiously, the California born Anders, who played a British con-man on Alias, and is now playing a British con-man on Heroes, is doing so with a completely different British accent than he had on Alias. It should be fun to see Hiro try to "coach-up" his own hero and how he'll interact with Ando in the future.

Overall, a good start, but hopefully it'll get better, and less cluttered and rushed, in weeks to come (but with such a big cast and so many storylines, it may be hard to do so).

What I'm Watching - Heroes and 24 Season Finales

Now I'm officially exhausted. Immediately after the Detroit Pistons defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers (holding on for dear life) I watched the season finale of Heroes, and the two-hour season finale of 24. It's now close to 2:00 AM, I'll be waking up for work in about five hours, and it was all worth it, because, the Pistons won, and both the Heroes and 24 season finales were satisfying and shocking. Well, maybe more so for Heroes than 24 (but that's been the case all season). More on the season finales after the jump below for those that aren't crazy like me and haven't watched them yet.

Okay, so I watched the Heroes season finale first, and like the entire season, it was awesome. The entire season built to this point, and the finale delivered, giving us potential deaths, and satisfying conclusions, and plenty of questions to leave us scratching our heads until the fall (did Greg Grunberg's Matt Parkman survive? What happened to the Petrelli Brothers? Is Slyar really dead or did he somehow sneak down that manhole? And how did Hiro transport himself back in time four hundred years?)

What was great was, while all of those new questions will keep fans interested and talking until the fall, the main storyline from this season, the exploding Sylar (or Peter) was resolved, and all of the major characters got involved. Each got to take the stage and show off in the last few minutes, every character relevant, and it all led to an ending which made sense. Hiro stabbing Sylar; Nathan, at the last moment, saving his brother, and saving New York, perhaps at the cost of his death; Micah using his power to save Molly and his parents; Nikki finally harnessing the power of Jessica without becoming Jessica. I can't wait until next fall for "Chapter Two: Generations." Not only to find out what happened to some of my favorite TV characters, but, as the title of the chapter perhaps foreshadows, maybe where these heroes come from, and where their offspring are going in the future.

As for 24, well, it was a decent end to a very uneven season. It was nice to see Bill Buchanan back and helping Jack. He should have been doing that all along. I'm hoping next season, when hopefully we see Jack fighting terror in the private sector, Bill will be with him. The show really missed him when he wasn't in the middle of things.

Overall, I just think the whole Bauer family story just didn't work this year. While we may have seen terrorist storylines again and again on 24, I'm just not sure we cared enough about Josh Bauer and how his grandfather wanted him and wanted to take him out of the country, to really care that Jack and Bill were trying to save him. And maybe it was also that, because Jack's dad was absent for the whole middle of the season, we never quite understood his motivations. Last season, despite killing President Palmer and doing all the evil things Jack's brother did, it seemed like it was, at least in the mind of Jack's brother, in the best interest of the country.

With Jack's dad, though, working with the terrorists (or, not really working with them, or whatever it was), then with the Chinese (which would have led to a war between the Russians and the US) it was just confusing, and non-nonsensical, and there was no reason for the viewer to care. I guess Jack's dad wanted to move to China, but, because I didn't really care about Jack's dad, I didn't really care about him wanting to move to China and lead the US to war in the process.

Which was the same problem we had with the Russians. The Russians threatening an attack was just, I don't know. It should have been tense, and I didn't find it to be. Neither did the proposed strike on the oil rig containing Josh Bauer. Maybe because it was 1:00 AM by that point and I had already watched the Pistons and Heroes. But, more likely, it was because the storyline was just not that well developed, and didn't give me a reason to care.

As for the action scenes themselves, they were pretty good, but predictable. Of course Jack's dad double-crossed CTU as expected. And of course he was able to quickly disable Josh's tracker. It's too bad they injured Ricky Schroder's character. He was the best CTU field agent since Tony Almeida (in terms of acting the part), and had 24 really wanted to shake things up, and kill Jack, he would have done really well in the lead role I think. And of course Jack saved Josh just in time before the F-18's bombed where Jack's dad was hiding out. And while at least Chloe got to do something (becoming pregnant I guess is something) and it brought her and Miles back together, which was nice, one of this season's biggest failures (which is saying a lot since it had A LOT of failures) was not using Chloe more. Most unintentionally hilarious way to tell somebody you are pregnant too. Completely Chloe-esque.

As a big fan of William DeVane, I loved the show ending with him and Jack. Two powerhouse actors, and Jack fighting for Audrey, showing us a side of him we haven't really seen before. And finally showing anger over not being rescued in China, that made a lot of sense. What Audrey's dad was saying was completely understandable too. He's right. Jack can try to walk away, but he always gets pulled back in, and the people he loves always die. And him realizing that, and letting Audrey go, it was the best 10 minutes of the entire season. And had the rest of the 23 hours and 50 minutes been like that, we would have been fine.

And as for the rumors (unfounded as it turns out) of Tony coming back at the end? I'm happy he didn't. Tony's dead, and should be, and to somehow bring him back would both strain credibility and the whole history of the show. Yes, having Tony back would be great, but, the way the season ended was just fine. It's just too bad the rest of the season wasn't the same.