Telly Visions: Kristen Bell

“Heroes” seems to have the knack of casting attractive female leads. It’s better at it than, say, the revamped “Doctor Who”! Ouch!! But, it’s true. The obvious names to mention, regarding the American show, are Hayden Panettiere and Ali Larter. And, I’ve already discussed Nora Zehetner and Katie Carr in previous posts. For me, I’m sorry to say, Billie Piper will always be the female forerunner of Lil’ Chris! Although, admittedly, the Swindon lass is nowhere near as cringe worthy and tedious as that pint-sized pin brain. I can imagine Russell T. Davies mistakenly casting him, in the role of companion, had the executive producer stayed on with the Brit series. And, that would’ve been a fate worse than Adric!

The latest sex kitten on the “Heroes” block is Kristen Bell, playing cunning little vixen Elle Bishop, introduced during Season Two, and I’m pleased to see she’s to continue into the next season. I was already aware of the actress from “Veronica Mars”, which I’d wanted to see but have only recently started watching. Kristen played the title role for three seasons before it was cancelled due to poor viewing figures. Joss Whedon, best known as creator and lead writer of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, praised the writing standard of “Veronica Mars” and the pilot episode is certainly a clever little construct.

Following the cancellation of “Veronica Mars”, Kristen voiced an interest in appearing in “Heroes”, because she was a fan prior to being cast. She’s also friends with future Mr. Spock Zachary Quinto (Sylar), as well as Hayden, which no doubt wasn’t going to go against her! For my money though, Kristen has a far more interesting face than her cheerleader co-star. That’s not to say I don’t like Hayden. I do. But, Kristen is just that little bit more quirky. It was Ms. Bell’s aspect that had me interested in “Veronica Mars” in the first place! Here’s hoping “Volume Three: Villains”, of “Heroes”, will be saved by the Bell!!

Telly Visions: Katie Carr

There’s a new babe on the “Heroes” block, this series, and her name is Katie Carr. Actually, there are several new “sweethearts” and, while they are all very pretty, the standout for me is the actress who plays Peter Petrelli’s Irish girlfriend, Caitlin, in six of the eleven episodes. I can forgive her the cod accent of the character’s homeland which, to be honest, I find quite endearing and only serves to make her more cute than she already looks! Katie is in her early thirties and was actually born in London so you might think she’d have a finer grasp of the sound of Ireland but it doesn’t necessarily follow. There are possibly many reasons why the producers of “Heroes” have opted to give all the Irish characters a similar brogue. Sadly, she will only be seen once more in this curtailed, because of the American writers’ strike, second series of the comic-book saga. If you’re interested in seeking out her appearances on the show then they’re in chapters two, three, five through seven, and ten; namely, “Lizards”, “Kindred”, “Fight or Flight”, “The Line”, “Out of Time” and penultimate episode “Truth & Consequences”. I’m also reliably informed she is an underwear model and was the Gossard Girl in Gossard’s advertising campaign of 2002-2003. Last season of “Heroes”, my crush was Nora Zehetner… this time around, it’s most definitely the cuddly Katie Carr!!

The Garden of Eden

Continuing on from the previous post, the next three episodes of “Heroes” can be seen this coming Wednesday (19 September 2007) beginning at 9.00pm, on BBC TWO, with episode ten’s first terrestrial screening. It’s immediately followed at 9.45pm by another “Heroes Unmasked”, entitled “Dark Angel Gabriel”, this week focusing on villain Sylar, a man desperate to be “special” by any means necessary. Episodes eleven and twelve can be seen by switching over to BBC THREE at 10.00pm. Sadly, the first of THREE’s double bill is Nora Zehetner’s swansong…

9.00pm “Six Months Ago” - “Heroes” makes a dramatic U-turn in this episode as we flash back six months to a time when the heroes didn’t know they were heroes at all. But they, and we, see the signs of their burgeoning superpowers. For instance, little Claire has yet to be made a cheerleader, but an accident with a window leads both her and her dad to marvel at her powers of self-healing, while cheery Hiro is mired in that strange diner with the apparently doomed waitress. The disparate group is linked by Mohinder Suresh’s dad and his quest to identify these potentially world-saving, yet quite ordinary, members of the public. It’s an absorbing journey, made even more piquant because of all the knowledge we’ve gathered about these people during the previous nine episodes. And perhaps most important of all, we learn the identity of the mysterious, murderous Sylar.

10.00pm “Fallout” - The tragic events in Texas have sad, serious repercussions for many of the heroes, their families and friends. Shocking details about the moments leading up to Isaac’s predicted New York City nuclear bombing are revealed. Later, Isaac’s newest painting has fascinating future implications for a hero in crisis. Niki is forced to make a difficult decision to protect her family. Suresh takes the first steps along his new path.

10.40pm “Godsend” - Nathan’s determination to save a comatose Peter forces him to turn to Simone for help. Isaac’s puzzling “Hiro vs. T-Rex” painting inspires Hiro and Ando to search for the pictured samurai sword. Jessica struggles against Niki’s decision to turn herself into the police. With his associate Eden dead and Matt on his heels, HRG tries to focus on his orders regarding Sylar.

Supporting Cast

Sylar/Gabriel Gray - Zachary Quinto
Chandra Suresh - Erick Avari
Jackie Wilcox - Danielle Savre
Mysterious Haitian - Jimmy Jean-Louis
Janice Parkman - Elizabeth Lackey
Angela Petrelli - Cristine Rose
Hal Sanders - Graham Beckel
Heidi Petrelli - Rena Sofer
Tom - Rick Peters
Brian Davis - David Berman
Eden McCain - Nora Zehetner
Charlie - Jayma Mays
Lynette - Sally Champlin
Texas Tina - Deirdre Quinn
Sheriff - Josh Clark
Deputy Lloyd - Michael Maury
Deputy Ryan - K Smith
Surgeon - Robert Rigamonti
Worker - Yuki Matsuzaki

Synopses by Alison Graham © radiotimes.com

I Will Be Kring!

I’ve fallen in love with Nora Zehetner, who plays Eden McCain in BBC2 series “Heroes”, only to discover her time on the show is limited! While most other guys will, no doubt, be drooling over Hayden Panettiere, as schoolgirl cheerleader Claire Bennet, or pining for Ali Larter, as single mom and internet porn star Niki Sanders, I find myself more-attracted to the supporting player, which is fairly-typical of me! Hayden looks too old for the part she’s playing, even though she’s not yet eighteen, while Niki’s back-story is the usual salacious scenario to try and hook males of a certain age group! Nora/Eden is more like the quirky Björk/Kate Bush pixie type-of-character that appeals to those prepared to look beyond the blonde hair and blue-eyed stereotype that all men are supposed to fall for. She’s the Wendy Padbury as opposed to the Billie Piper! I’ve seen Nora before in another American show called “Everwood”, not something I watched fastidiously but the few episodes I did see probably played their part in my taking notice of her in “Heroes”. The top picture shows Eden with geneticist Mohinder Suresh, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy, as they discover his father Chandra’s note book concealed in the laptop he has just flung carefully across the room, when perhaps it should’ve been thrown with a little more abandon!!

Thus far, Mohinder and Eden have forged an old-fashioned Doctor/companion relationship, while it transpires she seems to have known his father a lot better than he did. Mohinder’s the serious scientist with the searching mind. But, from what I’ve read, there’s more to Eden than presently meets the eye and she’s due for a showdown with resident villain Sylar, Zachary Quinto, presumably in episode eleven. Incidentally, Mr Quinto has just been cast to play the young Mr Spock in the next “Star Trek” feature so I’m wondering if his days in “Heroes” are numbered too. Ali Larter has put her film career on hold, as filming the NBC series takes up nine months of the year, which would suggest Zachary is leaving “Heroes” if he now has time for other things. Having much more fun with his role is Masi Oka, playing Hiro Nakamura, stealing comic books and cheating at gambling in order to fulfil his destiny. I like the way the geek is portrayed positively while ballplayer Brody Mitchum, played by Matt Lanter, whom all the chicks fawn over, is revealed to be the high school sleaze. I hope I’m not starting to sound too American, goddammit! I wonder why these guys are so revered by the ladies when, as is shown here, science fiction fans have much more imagination!!

Anyway, if you want to see why I have the hots for Nora, you can catch her in just five more of her eight episodes, beginning a week on Wednesday with episode six, “Better Halves”, and picking up again a fortnight later with episodes eight through to eleven, namely “Seven Minutes to Midnight”, “Homecoming”, “Six Months Ago” and finally “Fallout”. She didn’t feature in episode one, “Genesis”, she’s not in this week’s fifth instalment, “Hiros”, and isn’t included in “Nothing to Hide”, the seventh chapter. So, make the most of this lovely lady while you can! As you can see, I’ve got it real bad!!