Heroes Makes Progress and CBS Does America Right

Last night the 2007 Fall TV season got two shots of adrenalin thanks to signs of life from the second season of Heroes and an announcement from CBS regarding the return of multi-Emmy winning The Amazing Race. Let’s break down both items…

Heroes
As you may have gleamed from previous columns I’m not so crazy about the second season of Heroes. I’m bored by the new immigrant characters, I’m tired of the lack of interaction between last year’s stars, and everything seems to be moving so slow I think Hiro has frozen time. Last night’s ep showed signs of life however. The pairing of Parkman and Nathan is much more entertaining then the My Two Dads show Parkman has been putting on with Suresh and their investigation of the nightmare man made for one of the more exciting scenes of the year. Suresh and Jessica meeting at “The Company” provided a bit of a fan thrill as well. Also, instead of dragging out Monica’s discovery of her powers and slowly revealing them to Micah we got that all in one ep (although I could have done without the 5 minutes of jump roping). Then there was an introduction of a new character that had charm, intrigue, beauty, mystery and a bad side that immediately made an impact. Of course I’m referring to Kristen Bell joining the cast as Elle. Clearly she has had contact with Peter before since he mimics her power and hopefully this will lead to resolving the mystery of where our heroes where for 4 months. However, even though I’m a huge fan of Bell and her work on Veronica Mars, it’s unfair to think she can save this season but I think her presence will certainly help things. Of course the biggest news last night was that things finally seemed to be moving forward; Hiro looks to be wrapping up his spin-off series in feudal Japan, Suresh appears to be coming to a crossroads with “The Company”, Peter’s finally coming back to North America (anyone else think he painted the French Quarter and not Montreal), and we got some more background on the old school heroes. Still there were and are problems. The special effects last night were bad yet again. One week after watching Claire and her fly boy travel across a background that looked like an effect from The Greatest American Hero, HRG and the Haitian were walking around Moscow using an effect that looked like it was from The Daily Show. Plus we still have to deal with the black eyed death twins, Claire’s snore of a life, and no real idea of where the season is going. In the end last night was a start and that’s all it will be unless the creators work to follow it up.


The Amazing Race
Thank you CBS! As predicted Viva Laughlin, Hugh Jackman’s ill conceived musical, bit the dust yesterday after 2 episodes and while I usually decry networks making such quick moves this time I’ll applaud because it opens a slot on Sunday’s for…The Amazing Race. Starting Sunday November 4th, Phil will be back leading a group of teams around the world and I could not be happier. The Race is the rare reality show that doesn’t need to muck with its format to stay captivating and entertaining. Unlike Survivor who seems to have a new “twist’ every year (rather effectively I might add), The Race usually sticks with the same format; a yield here, a fast forward there, and the occasional team team-up. The only minor twist is that this year there are no non-elimination legs due to the fact the show was condensed a bit as a mid-season replacement. The teams should be announced last this week and I’ll probably break them all down prior to the premiere but for now lets just bask in the return of The Amazing Race.