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This morning, the headline above my Gmail inbox was "NYT Travel - The Cultured Traveler: In Japan, a Time Capsule of Modern Design."

Am I forgiven for thinking (upon a cursory glance) that that might have had something to do with last night's episode of Heroes? Because the Japanese guy has the ability to warp space/time so he can essentially teleport (they hadn't defined clearly whether or not time passes when he jumps space or if the clocks changing were just due to him jumping out of his time zone).

Heroes got a mostly "Mmm, maybe?" reaction from me. There's the usual tropes from any super-powered human saga: the one who embraces the ability; the one who wants to keep it hidden; the government guy trying to cover it up; the conspiracy theorist; the guy with something to prove, et al. I'm gonna keep watching for next week because I have a love of Greg Grunberg (look! I learned his name! I don't have to call him Mr. LOST Pilot! any more!) that is almost baseless (he punched House in the stomach, I like him) and he wasn't in the episode last night.

But feiran and I are in complete agreement that the Japanese guy, who is a total nerd (he based his knowledge about the curved nature of time-space on an X-Men comic, which was a pretty clever way to bring up the fact that the Indian guy saying that humans are naturally evolving to have superpowers is basically a rip-off of X-Men) and a geek, is the most wonderful character thus far. He's just so silly in a laugh-with-him way when he shows up, you can't help but liking him. He's actually excited about his ability, versus tortured, contemptuous, or scared (oooh, Ali Larter has a cool thing going on with her, though).

So, yeah, same time next week, semi-true believers.

Have you seen these wizards?

The first official 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' pictures were in my Newsweek today. Time to discuss!

1) How friggin' tall are the boys playing the Weasley twins? Or, conversely, how short are the rest of the cast?

2) Did they de-age Daniel Radcliff and Rupert Grint? The change of hairstyle that made them into Beatles-wannabes in Goblet of Fire might not have been that great, but going back to pre-GoF hairstyles makes them all look so young at a pivotal point where they should be showing themselves to be more mature than many of the adult wizards and witches in the realm. There wasn't a third style they might have used to make them not look like kids any more?

3) Emma Watson not sure if she wants to be Hermione any more? You don't say? Has she finally cottoned on that she's as far from the right person to play Hermione as they might have gotten? It's easy to pick on child actors, but she's really made Hermione, who is not only good but occasionally amazing despite her bookishness in the books, almost unbearable. Emma Watson comes off as smug holier-than-thou Sorceror's Stone Hermione all the frakkin' time. This isn't to say Harry himself is fantastic--Daniel Radcliff, for the love of Bob, learn how to cry onscreen!--only that she's the worst of the trio (Rupert Grint is fairly one-note through most of the movies, I grant you, but he really stretched in Goblet of Fire, and I think he's the least stiff of the three).

Anyway, I can't support ditching Emma Watson now, unfortunately, as even getting a better Hermione would be worse than keeping the lousy one they've got (I hate recastings! It was bad enough when they got the new Dumbledore, and that was unavoidable and he was only a secondary character at that point). So, yeah, we're stuck with her for good or for ill for five of the seven cinematic Harry Potter adaptations for sure.

4) I'm not sure I like Umbridge's office with the ceramic plates and stuff, but it's Imelda Staunton. If anyone can sell "Hmmm Heemmm!!" I don't doubt it's her.