How Heroes and Chuck Are Abusing My Trust

Is there anything worse on Heroes than the Hiro in the past storyline? I so hoped when they put him in the past as a cliffhanger at the end of season one that it was going to be good. I really thought it could be, but it isn't.

Kensei is an idiot. I'm fine with that, I'm even fine with his betraying Hiro. I don't mind Hiro's falling for the princess either, but there has to be more to the story than there is. Last night they even ruined the one part of that story I liked – Ando (and the audience) only seeing what was happening due to Hiro's having left the story for Ando to find. It would have been a far better tale if we remained as in the dark as Ando. The show established that conceit a couple of weeks ago, and it's worked wonderfully; Ando's reactions to Hiro's tale are all far better than the tale itself. Why kill the device at the end of the episode? Wouldn't it have been smarter to have Hiro show up in the present and then recount to Ando what happened? Why yes, it would have. Great point. I don't think they're going to be killing the character in the past, so there is no reason not to structure it that way.

Now, I am wrong about something I wrote above. There is no way that Hiro's being in the past storyline is the worst thing going on in the series. That prize has to go to Claire and her boy-toy using their superpowers to dethrone the wicked queen cheerleader. Last season this girl helped save the world. Now, she is fighting lukewarm evil back in high school. The ante has been lowered a wee bit, don't you think? Surely they could have given the head cheerleader some superpower (outside of being a super-witch) to make the story a little better.

Before I finish my complaining, let me ask how long you think Chuck is going to have trust issues with his handlers and vice versa? How many of the episodes of Chuck have been spent on this now? How many plot points have come about exclusively because Chuck didn't trust Sarah and John or the other way round? My goodness, it is as though this nation would be perfectly safe and the agents that protect it god-like genius warriors if only they would trust the Human Intersect and allow themselves to be trusted by him. Yes, trust is hard to come by, but Josh Shwartz, I must tell you, you're losing mine every time the issue comes up on the show.

I guess there are trust issues on Journeyman as well, but they don't interest me at all. I'm moderately annoyed that Dan's brother, Jack, does things like running checks on Dan's finances behind Dan's back. Surely Jack checking into his brother's financial situation by calling the credit card companies and banks is an illegal abuse of Jack's authority as a police officer, right? But, like I said, I'm only moderately annoyed by that. Frankly, I'm only moderately interested in it too. The one thing that concerns me about the show, as I've said before, is the who, why, and wherefore, of Dan's time traveling. I like the fact that last night's plot played into time travel, it was the only good thing they have done with Dan's trips to the past thus far. But, let me ask this: how small is San Francisco in the minds of the producers? I ask because every time Dan time travels he runs into his wife or his brother or himself or someone he knows. It's as though there are ten people living in the city.

Very happily, How I Met Your Mother airs on Monday nights, and that's a show I can find little to complain about. I just love everything that happens there. Or, almost everything, but definitely everything that happened last night. John Cho was hysterically funny as was Lily's credit card problem. Barney may not quite have been there enough, but Ted Mosby, porn star, was a good storyline (even if too close to a Friends plot). Is anyone out there besides me watching the show? If not, why not? You should definitely give up Chuck to watch HIMYM. Or, at the very least, watch one, TiVo the other and stay up too late catching up on your viewing.