Funny to think what a difference an episode can make – last week I was spitting feathers about Heroes, this week it is really only a sense of completion that makes me feel motivated to say anything about this episode at all. Not because I hated it, not because I thought it was great but just because I felt so “Huh. So that’s that, then” .

( meta thoughts on Heroes S4 ep 12. Spoilers for aired episodes. )

Just one quick sketch, this time of Swoosie Kurtz and her elegantly melancholic face. I don't think I quite did her justice but I did enjoy sketching her - I do hope we haven't seen the last of her but if we have, well what we got was solid gold.

( Swoosie Kurtz sketch )

Ever watch Heroes and find it that tiny, tiny bit familiar? I bet you do if you're Alan Moore,  J. Michael Straczynski or Chris Claremont. But they and you would be wrong.  Because this month's SFX magazine has an advert for HMV (biggest seller of DVDs in the UK High Street), in which Tim Kring finally reveals his actual inspiration for Heroes.


( scan of the advert  )


So there we have it - all cleared up now.

*Coughs*

For those of us who keep a wary eye on the Heroes ratings, you might find this live feed interesting to keep an eye on as the season goes on. As far as I can tell, it's generally pretty well informed and has a good track record in terms of past results of what gets canned or not. Anyway, as of the time of writing, comfortingly, Heroes is apparently doing well enough that it isn't endangered (yet anyway). So yay for that - let us hope for green and then we can all relax. Be warned - there's the odd spoiler for other shows in the headlines for the site visible on the page.

Live Feed's TV Series Survival Status Chart 2009-10

(If in the statistically unlikely event that you couldn't care less if Heroes lives or dies, it also has (I think) all the major network shows so you can follow your own pet show instead)

To add my own belated tuppence worth of thoughts concerning the Blind Item in The Ausiello Files which everyone seems in agreement is about Heroes. Hee, just when you think NBC & Heroes couldn't fuck things up more if they tried, they somehow find a way.

( Blind item gossip about Heroes casting, speculation about said gossip )

New Heroes season means a reawakening of my occasional wish to draw people. Just one screencap based sketch here, that of Angela. Just because I occasionally get the hump with Angela and all her wacky madcap schemes it doesn't mean I tire of drawing Cristine Rose's beautifully striking face. If the mechanics interest you, this was drawn with a 2H and 7B pencil. You know, every so often I try using other media like pen or paint and I just never feel that comfortable. So unless I one day take to using oils like a duck to water, I think I'm stuck pencil & me are stuck with each other.



( Angela sketch )

Wendy the Heroes makeup artist who Twitters a lot and apparently collects Heroes fanart featured the sketch I did of bearded S2 Nathan that I did for anansie_s . I have no idea how she found it or why my name had become detached from it by the time she did. My thanks to mrjimprofit for sending her the credits  She updated it. Also, thanks to by7the7sea for also letting me know about the whole thing.

I guess overall it is deeply cool and only slightly mortifying. If nothing else, it's one more reminder as if it were needed that no matter how little you actively promote your stuff, nor aim to stay in a little bubble, that once you post stuff online, there really is no way of controlling where it ends up. Still, I knew this anyway and therefore I aim to post nothing I should be ashamed of.  I don't have a Twitter account. If nothing else, too longwinded to effectively utilise the format ;) but I'll get around to grabbing an account to say thank you to Wendy for her kind words.

One extra sketch. anansie_s  asked if I'd ever drawn Nathan in beard mode, from back in early S2. Answer was no, partly because a ton of facial hair is an extra challenge. But mostly, embarrassingly, because the reference pics are a bit of a wrench - he looks SO sad. :(

( Nathan Drawing )

Hmmn, care of the good people at milo_fans , interesting and possibly illuminating interview with Milo Ventimiglia.


"I mean that's the thing, you know - we're the guys who are out at the front, so we hear it. And I always want to be honest with the fans and tell them 'hey man, I'm sorry I let you down' ..or, 'I fought really hard to make that change but at the end of the day..'

To get this bit out of the way - what kind of person DOES this? Goes up to an actor and complains about things their character has done. What on earth do they expect them to say or do? Gah! I guess it supports the actor if he or she doesn't infact agree either because as here, they can complain to the producers that 10 people harass them about shite writing every time they pop out to buy milk. Still, damn it! Just write letters to the studio. Or bitch about it fruitlessly but expansively on LiveJournal and TWoP like the rest of us.

Worryingly, but sadly not too surprisingly any more, I notice that his tales of telling the writers that the scripts stink er, working constructively to "shift this to get the most out of this scene, this character" seem rooted in the present rather than safely in the past. As a bonus? Textbook shoulder grab of unease as he speaks. Also absent seems to be any enthusiasm for the new season (I'm not sure if his ideas for a new direction for Peter are what we will be seeing or merely what Milo is lobbying for.)

Has anyone seen any of the cast enthusing about the new eps rather than damning with faint praise?

A couple of sketches, more to continue to get back into the practice of things, 'finding my eye' so to speak than anything very ambitious. This is Kristen Bell which I thought was progressing okay until I was nearly done and spotted a couple of errors that couldn't be fixed without starting over. Most irritating. The other is from a photo of Adrian Pasdar on the set of Heroes from a photo of him on set and obviously in character.


( sketches )

Hooray! Simon Baker is on the shortlist for the Emmys for Best Actor for The Mentalist. Fantastic. Its been ages since I had someone to root for in those awards. Go Simon! As ever, disappointing but entirely unsurprising that Adrian Pasdar was passed over but an award for Heroes right now wouldn't be enough anyway - some kind of "bricks without straw' medal is in fact in order. Oh, I'm so conflicted about Heroes and keep having what amounts to Gollum style rows in my own head like this:

"OMG they now can't get into Comic con and are having to set up shop across the street? Bwahaha - why not just up trestle tables in the carpark, and be done with it?"
"Dude, why the hell are you laughing - this is seriously bad news sure and this IS your favourite show, so why the schadenfreude? And in any case, isn't this primarily most embarrassing for the poor cast rather than the dick in charge?"
"Well, they've delivered the shittiest ending to a season ever, driven away a good writer and treated the cast like shit. TK deserves the misfortune and these chickens coming home to roost"
"But again, this punishes a bunch of people who've sweated blood for the show as well as the colossal jerk in charge. and I repeat, what is the BEST you think can happen here ?
Oh I don't know. You happy, brain? I don't know what the hell I want here now.

I just know I'm half dreading the new season because I am guessing it is going to be beyond awful, but there's also a bit of me that is darkly curious to see just HOW bad things can get.  In the meantime, it is lovely to have a show that I can actually look forward to - I 've been looking forward to the new (to me) episode that's on this evening all day. I love that feeling of "oooooh, X show is on tonight!" and I've been missing it. In other news, swayeed by f-list recommendations and the rave reviews on Amazon, I now have season one of Veronica Mars to watch too. Life is good.

(Via Twop ) : Heroes forced to set out stall across the street from Comic Con

As well as helpful info for anyone lucky enough to be going to Comic Con this year, this is just embarrassing all around. Presumably this is as a result of changing their minds so often about how much a presence if at all Heroes would be sending but man, they are setting up camp in the hotel across the street because they can't get in??? How bad does that look?
I don't believe for a second it's actually because no-one wants them any more, like when Norma Desmond showed up at Paramount and the world had moved on from her but jeeze, presentationally this is just AWFUL. I don't know how to feel about it all. I'm sad and darkly amused at the same time. How DO they get things so spectacularly and consistently wrong?

A small sketch that I really don't seem to have the heart to fully correct (or indeed fully finish).


( Sketch of Nathan )

Jack Coleman has been updating his blog again and, as usual, is his usual witty, diasarming self. I liked the bit about questioning why it is deemed shameful to be caught wearing the same outfit more than twice as this is something that I've occasionally pondered too. Presumably the person is supposed to say something like  "Ulp! It's a fair cop - I don't really just wear outfits once and then throw them away, I'm thus secretly really poor. Oh the shame, the shame of it all" Or something. I've never subscribed to it anyway - I find an item of clothing or shoes I love and then proceed to wear the poor things to death. But back to Jack - I love the little glimpses of him raising his children to be grounded individuals "I don't want my daughter thinking it's humiliating to be seen in the same outfit twice. Clothes are expensive. And unlike Hollywood relationships, clothes are not disposable. And, and... ah, hell, I'm busted. I have to get more jackets."
Hee :) He sounds so awesome.

As to the stuff about the show in which he makes points about answering some of the criticism of the finale? Well, I think if you were unconvinced by seeing the events unfold on screen then Jack's spirited attempts to make sense of it will not make things better. I admire him for fighting his corner and sticking up for the show but I'd love to know how much of it he believes. I do very much agree with him that Fugitives has some excellent episodes in it and thus it came in for a lot of criticism that wasn't always at all fair. BUT I think he's trying to prove too much here. His point about why they didn't try and use Claire's blood is just silly - if this worked like a regular transfusion, he'd have a better point but a) we saw Adam working this trick by using just a couple of DROPS of blood and b) from what we saw with Bennet's own recovery, there seems no indication that time is a complicating factor - Noah looks like he was brought back from death. all that sais, this? "Trauma triage: why Nathan died and HRG lived. And, of course, HRG is so badass, no puny Moe Green retinal scratch was gonna keep him down!" was really funny!

And in any case, as with his points about not killing Sylar, NONE of what he suggests was even hinted at onscreen. and if anything really goes against what we know of Noah as a character. I mean this?

"Which does he want more: Sylar dead or Nathan alive? If Sylar dies, so does Nathan. As a parent, HRG knows he would do anything to keep Claire alive and so his compassion for Angela and Nathan, Claire's biological father, wins out."

Awwww Jack, I don't know where to start! Firstly, Noah's altruistic concern for Angela and Nathan is stronger than the chance to keep his family safe from a vicious serial killer? Since when? But even allowing that this is the case, would anyone who wasn't crazed by shock and grief think this plan was in anyway delivering that for Angela? ( Small spoiler about Season Four opening episode )

Ahhh, I can't do it. I got through the first 10 minutes or so of this week episode but had to switch it off, it's all way too nerve wracking. I'm sitting out the rest of this week's episode of Heroes AND next week's until someone can tell me one way or another whether Nathan gets to live to madly careen through another season, screwing things up and then looking all sad (and beautiful) about  it. Oh, and should they keep Adrian Pasdar on the payroll to play Sylar? then OMG I don't know what I'll do.

Okay, at the risk of bestowing the kiss of death, I really recommend those of you who quit watching Heroes to start watching again from the start of the new story arc (ep 14 onwards).  It's taken a little while to really find its feet again, there are still dopey bits but then there always were! Even back in season one. Maybe it is just me and I've lost all critical judgement - I acknowledge that as a possible explanation. Or I'm just seeing improvements because I want to see them. Maybe it's a triumph oh having low expectations. I don't know - whatever it is, I now adore this silly and implausibly plotted melodramatic show as much as I ever, EVER did. Probably a large measure of the renewed interest for me lies in the fact that Adrian Pasdar as Nathan once again gets to spend a lot of his days yearning tragically for Peter with an almost Wagnerian intensity. So if that sounds appealing to you, jump back aboard, folks.

Review of this week's episode later - I'm still too giddy from this week's ep for stuff like cogent discourse or anything.

Gah, my ability to sketch and have the subject actually look anything LIKE them seems to have disappeared. This was the best of a bad bunch. Also included as a caution against sketching whilst eating chicken wings. Sorry about that, Claire - maybe that's why you look so grumpy.( Claire drawing )

t“You are witnesses at the new birth of Spinal Tap Mark II; hope you enjoy our new direction...” – David St. Hubbins, “This Is Spinal Tap”

The following is a review/ analysis of why I haven't been enjoying Season three of Heroes. As such, it is pretty negative, even flippant in tone and those who are looking to put a positive spin on their experience of watching the show may well wish to skip it in its entirety. And yeah, there’s still one more ep to go but I’ve written this now. I’ll add a coda if what happens next week makes me eat any of these hasty words.

There’s a peculiar sinking feeling that I think anyone who has ever paid to see a movie will recognise. When it dawns on you that the movie you’ve sat down to watch having just shelled out for is never going to get good. So you’ve got the choice of either sitting there till the bitter end or leaving and going to the pub instead (ETA: or you can do what I do and bitch about it pointlessly, I guess. Bitching is fun!) After the season’s opening two episodes, I got that sinking feeling but opted to stay. Partly out of optimism that it might surprise me and turn things around, partly loyalty for the genuine love I once had for the show and in the end, horrified fascination at how low a show could sink in so short a space in time. (Also, I stayed in part because the cast is really, really gorgeous) Many of you took the “get up and leave” option and it made me sad to see you, devoted fans you all once were, take your leave one by one but I could so understand why you all left.

( Heroes Season 3: thoughts and review of the season to date (spoilers for aired eps and also one spoiler for The Godfather) )

Or...you could just read 47_trek_47 's fantastic post which distilled a lot of my frustrations into one devastating post here: So, that scene at the end? A microcosm of the whole season (Spoilers in post for 3.12)</lj>