A Lot About Nothing

*spoiler warning*

Dammit… just as I was about to give the writers of Ugly Betty kudos for such a good season premiere, they had to ruin it with the revelation of a dream sequence!

If you remember from last season’s finale, Santos (Hilda’s fiancé) was a victim in a convenience store robbery. That show ended with Betty informing Hilda of the news at her son’s school play, and her breaking down in her arms.

Now that left us thinking is he dead?, is he just injured? Why is Justin talking about missing his grandpa who’s in Mexico when his father just supposedly died?!

The anticipation was finally over when I saw Santos waking out of Hilda’s bathroom with bandages around his supposed gunshot wound. Tonight’s episode went on with the happy couple savoring their time together, even though Hilda was very anxious about Santos being out of her sight (lest he get shot again).

Then in the last 5 minutes of the show a nice, bright bedroom with Santos saying his vows to Hilda in her wedding dress was ruined by a cut of Hilda in her darkened bedroom with tears in her eyes. She finally admit to Betty that Santos was gone.

It’s not good to tease an audience like that. I have enough dream sequences with all the soap operas I watch. I didn’t need to see it on one of my favourite prime time shows!

They could’ve kept Santos (played by Kevin Alejandro, who coincidentally had a reoccurring role on one of my favourite soap operas, The Young and the Restless) on the show. It would have been realistic if he survived the gun shot wound, dammit!

On to the other characters. Alexis woke up out of her coma… but she doesn’t realize that she became a she from a he (did you get that?).  Daniel kicked his pill habit, and Betty buried her last reminders of Henry.  Amanda and Marc search for the truth regarding her paternity (the scene with her parents is hilarious!).  And Claire and Wilhelmina clash.

There was a low shot of a man’s feet as he stepped of a bus at the end of the episode.  I thought it was Santos (hey… it could happen!  He could’ve said “F&*% NY!  I’m moving to Woodbridge“, and left the show that way after he got injured from gunshot wounds).  But it was Henry coming back to town.  I’m looking forward to seeing his relationship with Betty grow after the fact that his girlfriend may or may not be pregnant with his baby.

So aside from the little Santos trickery the show did, the season premiere was pretty decent.

Here’s a clip from Las Pasiones de Betty:

I’ve been waiting on this episode for months! And it was well worth the wait because it kept me wanting more.

Set 4 months after the time when the season finale ended, tonight’s episode of Heroes let faithful viewers piece together the happenings after the citizens of NYC eluded the Peter-the-bomb-threat.

Almost didn’t recognize Nathan with his new bush-man beard. Glad to see hottie Peter is still alive, even though he was trapped in a shipping crate in Ireland for what seems like months.

Poor Hiro… he always seems to get himself into some predicament. He needs to beware of that whole space-time-continuum thing. Kensei not being Japanese is a bit of a twist.

Looks like Claire’s made a new friend, even though he kinda has stalker tenancies with him flying up to her window and ogling her from a distance, then floating off like a feather in the wind.

Nice to see that Matt finally made detective (although he got a divorce) and Mohinder still fighting the good fight. Molly’s dreams are freaking me out though. I wonder what the writers are gonna do with that storyline.

The elders Ms. Petrelli and Mr. Nakamura have a long history behind them. It sucks that it doesn’t look like George Takei is going to be in any more episodes. Maya (Dania Ramierez) is a nice addition to the show. I like the dichotomy in her character as it pertains to her personality and her dark power.

Can’t wait until next week!

I also PVR-ed Journeyman. Looks like a decent show from the previews, but I’m too tired to watch it right now, so maybe tomorrow.

Leave it to me to sleep in the one day that I take off from work in order to see some of the cast from one of my favourites shows.

I was aiming to be down at Yonge-Dundas Square, where the Toronto Heroes World Tour was taking place, by 11am… you know, so I could line up and possibly get a shot of getting an autograph.

As usual, I turned off my alarm clock when it beeped at 9am and went back to sleep. Next thing you know it’s 11:30. I decide to check my email just in case I get any important requests for my graphic design clients, and lo and behold I have 3 separate emails to make corrections. I managed to finish fairly quickly and got downtown a little after 1pm.

Of course by the time I got down there the autograph line-up was closed, but I did manage to see 4 of the cast members up close signing autographs for the fans who DID wake up on time this morning.  On the big screen behind the stage they were showing the unaired 73-minute premiere episode that’s currently available on the Season 1 DVD.

The good thing was that all four cast members came down to the gate and shook hands with all the fans (including myself) who were watching. Damn… Zachary Quinto (Sylar) has a really strong grip, and he has a nice sense of style. He might give Milo Ventimiglia a run for his money on my “hottest male Hero list”. Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah) is sooo adorable (don’t you just wanna pinch his cheeks in that photo?)! Dania Ramierez (Maya) is hot, and James Kyson Lee (Ando) is a cutie who seems to really care about his fans.

So, even though I didn’t get my Season 1 DVD set autographed, I did get some handshakes and got my photo taken at the Global TV-sponsored booth that will be digitally altered to look as if I’m part of the cast poster (I’ll post it when it becomes available next week. ) Click on any of the images at the top of this post to see a larger version.

That’s right… go ahead and spoil the wait for one of this season’s top prime time shows. If you want to watch 17 minutes of scenes from Prison Break for the upcoming new episode, click here.

Tune in September 17th on Fox for the start of the third season. I love me some Wentworth Miller!

I need to ease up a bit on all my DVD purchases. The hard thing is that it’s difficult for me because I get the majority of my new DVDs at a discounted rate. Heroes Season 1 DVD is no exception. Snagged a copy today and the packaging of the DVD set is really cool… a nice glossy slipcase and the digipack looks like a comic book. The on-screen menus are also comic book-like and are really eye catching. I just finished watching the Never-Before-Aired 73 Minute Premiere Episode to start with.

It’s amazing how much work actually goes into created a new show and the amount of differences that can ensue once it officially hits the tube on a regular basis. I chose to watch the audio commentary version of the pilot by creator Tim Kring. Very interesting stuff. There’s a whole storyline involving terrorists that was nixed from the final aired pilot because of the sensitive nature and the tentative airtime (Heroes had a chance at airing in the 8pm time slot instead of 9). One of the characters of this terrorist storyline (who’s story was also connected to that of police officer Matt Parkman) had a “unique” ability to radiation intense amounts of radioactivity from his hands. Sound familiar? This is how they worked in the same superhuman power into Heroes later on in the season with the character of Ted Sprague.

The commentary by Kring is filled with numerous facts about the production: How much time and effort went into each scene, the casting and location changes, the post production editing and how they effectively made the city of Los Angeles look like the streets of New York and a town in India. You’ll be surprised at how many “normal” scenes were actually shot against a green screen, only to have the background digitally added in post-production. One of the more comedic facts of the commentary on the pilot episode is Kring’s disclosure that they used the YouTube-famed “Chinese Backstreet Boys” (video at the end of this post) in one of the scenes that starred Masi Oka (Hiro) and James Kyson Lee (Ando).

I didn’t get a chance yet to go through all the Bonus Features aside from the “Mind Reader Game” (which was slightly predictable–no pun intended), but I do look forward to watching the deleted scenes of season 1 and all the episodes again. Remember, season 2 premiers on September 24th.

Here’s a complete list of bonus features and extras on the Heroes Season 1 DVD set:

• Never-Before-Aired 73-Minute Premier Episode
• 50 Deleted Scenes–DVD Exclusive
• The Making of Heroes
• The Special Effects
• The Stunts
• Profile of Artist Tim Sale
• The Score
• Mind Reader Game
• Audio Commentaries with Cast, Crew and Show Creator Tim Kring

And here are the Chinese Backstreet Boys for your enjoyment: