I am in love with her power. I am also in love with whatever writer was tasked with Monica, because she is ridiculously awesome.

Definitely my favourite female character on the show right now. She has it tough, but she's not being too whiny about it, and is actually being pro-active! I love the family dynamics of her home, too.

And her power is an awesome testament to the educational values of television, Yay!

I agree. I hate to say this but Monica's resilience and kickassery kind of put some of the other characters' whining to shame. I can't wait to see more of her.

Monica is an instant favorite. She's both good-natured and sassy, and her power is fairly interesting.

Love, love LOVE this character.

The actress pulls off spunky and intelligent in a way that's much more believable than most of the stuff on this show.

I'm too used to new characters this season on this show sucking (Maya Y Alejandro and West the Stalker kid). But Monica kicks ass. Both literally and figuratively.

Actually the entire New Orleans plot is surprisingly effective so far. I mean making Micah interesting is already an accomplishment.

I was thinking about starting a thread for her (I had Cut, Copy and Paste in mind, but the current one is better), I guess I was too late, heh!

I love Monica already! She's a pretty strong character and I think we can all connect with her and feel her pain somehow. One of the best additions to this show this season most definitely.

Is it confirmed yet that she can only get her power from TV viewing?

In a way that's weird, since powers based on particular implementations of technology seem pretty damn arbitrary. I mean lets say we lived in an alternate universe where TV was never invented. Would she seem powerless?

I mean its kind of similar to Micah's situation, except it seems now like he can interact with ANY technology that is electricity based. And that's a much wider "net" than just "TV".

Definitely the best of the new batch, we'll see if she can hold on to her title next week.

I used to want Sylar's TK, but Monica's power is pretty darn nifty.

Oh yes, I instantly loved her character as well. There's just something in her story that everybody can identify with, and actually believe. Ooh, and she's not weak/whiny/helpless. And having a kick-ass power doesn't hurt. Good job with her.

Kick ass character. Not whiny. Not clingy. Wants to be more than what she is.

Yes, this is how you make characters. Monica, you rule.

I was so not looking forward to this character...but I can definitely see that I was so wrong. I love Monica! Finally, a female character I like. Thank you writers!

Actually I hadn't thought about the fact that so few female characters on this show are worth the paper their lines are written on.

Which makes it all the more likely that Monica, who is actually cool, will eventually have her brain eaten. This show can be like that.

Monica is definitely a far cry from the brattiness of Claire and whiny, wimpy Niki. LOVE her, hope they keep this up for awhile.

I was watching the show with my brother who's familiar with comic books and supposedly Monica displays the same powers as Taskmaster, which is defined as photographic reflexes (as opposed to memory). I hope it's not restricted to what she see's on TV though. Either way, she should probably invest in some Buffy, Xena, and Alias dvds.

If she's a hero worth her salt, she'll be investing in Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao flicks...

I've also heard the power referred to as "Genius". They use it in Naruto under the name "Sharigan eye". She should be able to imitate every physical thing she sees someone else do whether on TV or not.

No matter what her power, I love her character. Bright, optimistic and someone determined to make the most out of herself. TO ME, not just the best new character but a hell of a lot more interesting that most of the old characters.

As for naming this thread, I thought of "As Seen On TV" while watching tonight. Like the old commercials.

I was thinking about how much of her charm is owed to Dana Davis. That dialogue could have been really clunky, now that I think about it, with the constant references to Katrina. The entire scene with Micah could have fallen so flat if not for DD's (oh God) delivery.

I like the Wonder Twins (yeah, sue me), and I even like West, but she's my favorite new character of the new season by a long shot.

I just realized this is the girl from "The Nine" (Chi McBride's daughter).

AND re: IMDB... She's also an alumnus of "Veronica Mars", "The O.C.", "Gilmore Girls", "Malcolm in the Middle" AND "Boston Public". Those are DAMN good credits.

Her only bad credit is that she was in Marti Noxon's piece of crap "Point Pleasant". Also, she was in a movie with Hillary Duff. Apparently she was one of the few good things about that (a few mentions I saw mention she sings in the movie and wipes the floor with Duff).

I'm definitely looking forward to watching this character develop. So great there's a strong female presence on the show who's not the psycho ballbreaker type (*cough*, Jessica). Also, so great it's a woman of color, and bringing the Katrina stuff in, too. I love the NOLA accents, and want to see more of the family and find out more about what happened to them during & after the hurricane. So, are Monica's powers tied exclusively to what she sees on TV, or is she like Charlie, where she can learn from whatever she reads or hears?

I like her! And her power! Although I do hope it's not restricted to TV.

Listen up, writers: YOU WILL NOT KILL HER OFF.

The Taskmaster.

In return for not killing Monica off, oh gods of Heroes, we herebye give you permission to kill Maya (AND Alejandro) off, as well as maybe even Nikki. Heck, toss in Claire--who may have outlived her usefulness, and her wacky mother too. I mean IF you guys still have such a taste for offing female characters as we concluded you did from Season 1.

Although speaking of females you should leave alone? Mama Petrelli. You are getting to her over my dead body!

Love her, love her, love her! And absolutely fucking love her power! It's my new favorite ability on this show. She's great. I just want her to rent some damned good Bruce Lee movies and go to town.

I may be revealing my inner comic geek, but I think there's a DC villain who has that same power as Marvel's Taskmaster. Not sure which of the two is more established, since I can't recall the DC villains name. I do seem to recall that the DC guy, at the very least, is limited to being able to copy fighting techniques. Monica seems to be able to copy ANY physical skill.

I adore this character. I was totally expecting her power to be something completely different, and I was not expecting it to be what it was. She's sort of like Charlie, which might also explain why I like her. I thought the show did a great job making her real and very human as well. I really hope the show treats her better than they did her cousins' father.

After a season of Niki whinging about pretty much everything, Monica is a breath of fresh air. LOVE her, love her NOLA storyline, her loving relationship with Micah, and her determination to do whatever it takes to support herself and her family.

However, given this show's track record of offing female characters I like (bye, Charlie, Eden, Dale and Candice) and people of color (R.I.P. Simone, Charles and D.L.), I don't hold out much hope of Monica surviving very long before Sylar eats her braaains...

Also enjoy her way more than Niki/Jessica and right now, Claire. I like physical talent (a fan of HK martial arts movies) and this lends itself to proactive action. I also like that her head/heart is in the right place.

The first time she was mentioning, "Who has the time to learn how to cut a tomato into a flower?" I thought her power would be to turn stuff into flowers. This is way cooler.
Seriously, my first thought was of Charlie, and then, I admit, the Sharingan from Naruto, which makes probably the most sense -- she learns stuff without understanding how she does it. I don't think television is the specific medium.
She's a good role model and a good character to interact with Micah, (not to mention Granny Uhara), she's got a really interesting power, and she has a goal that she is working towards (that is not maintain status quo and be normal.) She is not self-centered and she's brave.
I think we should start a coalition: Keep Interesting Charlie Knockoff Alive and Staying Sassy -- or, KICKASS! (If anyone has a better acronym, I'm open to suggestions.)

Wow, that's a lot of Monica love. I mean, she's okay and that scene with the hoodlum was great, but I just don't see the awesomeness most of ya'll are feeling. Maybe I missed something when I fastforwarded through the boring Katrina stuff :yawn:. She's nice but not like whoa or anything, but then I like Niki and Maya both more. Maybe she'll grow on me like Niki/Jessica whom I hated at first. Just a comment to balance all this Monica love that's going down. shrugs

So far I like Monica, I'm still a little confused about her powers but hopefully it becomes more clear soon. Although she seems quite young to have so much responsibility. She already had her plate filled with having two other people to support now she is responsible for looking after Micah, who will be a handful. There is no way he will listen to his mother and not use his power, he already has and I imagine he will continue to use it and get himself in some trouble down the line.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she remains interesting as the season progresses.

Doesn't it stink that we all already know her inevitable fate?

Let Sylar eat Niki and Claire's brains instead, using one of Maya's ribs as a toothpick. See if we care! But leave Monica alone!

Heck, they could take out Micah too for all I care. He only seems to be "working" now because he's got a more interesting cast around him now.

Speaking of obvious, isn't the writing already on the wall with Grandma Uhura too? I can almost already see the scene. I bet she's got powers too...

Seconded. I'm over Claire and Maya being boring, as well as waiting for Niki to use her kick-ass power to you know, kick ass. Monica managed to be proactive and use hers in her first episode. Out with Maya, Claire, and Niki and we keep Monica, Mama Petrelli, and Kristen Bell for the female heroes.



First time I saw her, I immediately thought of the Oracle from the Matrix movies. Maybe she can be all-knowing or see into the future.

I don't wanna sound like a nitpicky little asspunk, but can the thread starter add Dawson (her last name) to the title of this thread? It just doesn't look right without the character's full name.

ITA. I mean, she's a cutie, she has a very interesting/cool power, and she's definitely being presented as a strong, caring, likable, type of character. But, while I didn't dislike her or anything, I'm not all that bowled over by her.

I think that was because for me, Dana Davis was obviously acting rather than inhabiting the character. I don't fault her for putting in an earnest effort, but most of the time she was onscreen, I thought I could see the wheels turning, and it kept me from connecting with Monica. And, don't even get me started on the accent. If nothing else, I really hope she'll let that lame-sounding little thing fade away and die.

However, as I said before, she's very cute and, who knows, I might just wind up really liking her as I get to see more of her. At least she's not bugging me at this point. And, while I may not be too interested in her or her storyline, it is nice have her and DR on the canvas. 'Cause this show...could always use a little diversity when it comes to female characters.

Especially since I think TPTB still have noticable blonde chick preference/fixation when it comes to casting (and in one particular case, screentime).

I think you're thinking of Prometheus -- the "Anti-Batman" who, upon seeing his criminal parents get gunned down by cops, vowed to become a crusading supervillain. He uses a lot of gimmicked equipment (and favors bright flashing lights instead of Batman's smoke grenades), and even picked up a Phantom Zone projector during his travels; his signature piece of gear, though, is the helmet that downloads CDs directly into his brain: occasionally useful for committing detailed maps to memory, but he typically opts for the one with the hand-to-hand combat skills of thirty top martial artists stored on it.

I wonder if her power allows her to do something physically impossible. Like, if she watches The Matrix, can she dodge bullets or jump over buildings?

I wonder that too...

And she needs to watch every Jet Li's movies. She could fight every baddie in this show amazingly.

Takezo and Monica are my two favorite characters of season 2. I'm guessing Monica will win out in the end, though :) I was pleasantly surprised by the NOLA storyline, which I initially thought would be as slow and detracting as the Irish or Mexican storylines.



Or can she copy things like Nathan's flying? Not West's flying, since he'll inevitably hang out in the sideyard bushes of her grandma's house.



I was instantly reminded of the Final Fantasy character Gogo. So it looks like photographic reflexes, although fresh and interesting in the Heroes world, has been done before in various media ;)

Maybe people are responding to the promise of better writing? Compare the introduction of Monica to the introduction of Maya y Alejandro. The twins have been in every episode, but their screentime has been repetitive and we still know very little about them. Whereas in one appearance we've not only met Monica, we've got a decent sketch of her family, her background, her personality and her aspirations.

Besides, her power is totally awesome.


Although I don't exactly disagree, I was actually impressed with how well she did with some pretty clunky dialogue. I don't know if anyone could have made me believe some of those lines.

I'm pretty well convinced at this point that Monica's power is wholly reliant on human abilities she sees on TV (Jackie Chan yes, Neo no). Because of the two obvious "as seen on TV" scenes, but also because I swear Micah whammied her when he hugged her.

I have no idea how Micah would have suddenly evolved in his power so that he can now tweak technological elements of other people's powers, but that could be an interesting thread too -- maybe if you come into your power young enough, it continues to improve and evolve, like children vs. adults learning languages. Micah uses his talent naturally, and why not see if you can sense something in your cousin that needs an update and just tweak it?

The lingering hand on the TV paired with the lingering hand on Monica made me very, very suspicious that Monica's inner playback just got crystal-clear reception, and now with the added clarity she can do more than just absently carve tomatoes -- she can perfectly replicate things consciously. The only problem with this is that she risks becoming a major liability in the writer's room, the Swiss Army knife of Heroes.

It seems as if she can come close to doing some very difficult things because of the wrestling move. It must have taken the wrestler a lot of practice to perfect it down to the straight body and full rotation. If Monica had no practice doing anything like this before, it probably would be considered impossible for her to do it so neatly the first time.

If her power follows suit with the comic standard for photographic reflexes then she should only be able to duplicate anything that another human can physically do. Since no human can dodge bullets she'd be unable to do that. However, what she does do she'd do exactly the same way the person she saw do it from painting a picture to copying someone she saw play piano or even watching someone enter in a complex series of numbers into a bank vault to gain access. She should be able to see it and copy it exactly even if she doesn't know the dynamics of what they're doing or see the keys they pressed. Giving her the ability to duplicate powers outside of the physical realm like flight or energy blasts would be crossing over into Peter territory.

That being said she could be incredibly powerful depending on how much informatin she could store in her brain and how fast she is at linking what she's learned together but what I like about her is that she's not so powerful that she has to be shipped off to another continent and removed from the main storylines ... yes Peter I'm looking at you.

I was really worried that I wouldn't like this storyline. The whole Katrina thing seemed like it was just an attempt to be topical, and I was worried how it would be handled. But so far, it seems to be realistic. I'm really liking it, and Monica is the best thing about it. She's so sweet, and now I understand what Dana Davis meant in an interview I found - she said we would instantly connect with Monica. And she was SO right!

I wish I had that power so I could be a martial arts master. Ha.

I love this character so much already. She's sweet, determined, strong, spunky, funny, smart, not the least bit whiny, and her power kicks complete ass.

Isn't Dana Davis one of the people who have signed on to be regulars this season? I'm slightly more optimistic for her survival because she's a regular and I think the only regulars we've seen killed off so far are ones who haven't gotten good fan responses, and it looks like the fans are generally liking Monica so far. As long as her story continues to be interesting, I'm hoping they'll keep her alive.

I like her and I'm pretty sure I'll grow to love her like I grew to love Claire and Niki. (I wished she had dated Wallace instead of Jackie, on VM!) I think it's great that she's more of a 'kick-ass' character as most of the females that were strong female characters are dead. I suppose its a over-simplification of the issue as Claire's not the only person that needed to be saved from Sylar, plus she's the youngest so it doesn't necessarily make her weak, but even Maya, whom I love, is obviously the weaker of the twins and Niki was the weaker one for a long time. Its nice that Monica is supposed to be the backbone of her family. Although, maybe it's just Nichelle Nichols and the amount of presence she has, but I got more of the impression that Monica's grandmother is still in charge. Financially, Monica is the breadwinner it seems though, not her Grandmother, which puts more responsibility on Monica's shoulders.

The one thing that bugged was the southern accents, both from Monica and from her best friend. I get that they were doing a Louisiana accent, but when Monica's grandmother, little brother and the store manager weren't doing it, it sounded really out of place and affected. It sort of reminded me of someone I knew that used to enunciate words in choir like they were speaking the Queen's English, even when everyone else was pronouncing things with normal American accents. It doesn't matter which way they did it, but it should have been that either everyone sounded Southern or at least a little Southern or no one did at all, because it was very annoying. Monica did tone it down with the accent in the rest of her scenes though, which is why I think I can grow to love her as the whole 'I lost mah dreams in that storm!' thing is was making my eye twitch.

I can't wait until Monica starts testing her powers though and realizing what she can do, because I do want to know if she can mimic the physically impossible. If she watches Superman fly on TV, can she do it? Wrestling moves and tomato flowers are fine, but I want to know what she can and can't actually do.

I actually thought her acting was on a level above much of the acting on this show. It didn't feel artificial to me at all (as opposed to Nichelle Nichols, who I love as a personality, but she ain't a great actor).

Which proves that perception is really relative with acting I guess. Maybe the fact that the character was relatively better written than most is skewing me. Or maybe the inherent melodrama of any post-Katrina story is skewing you. Or both.

I actually likes Ms. Davis on "The Nine" too, where she had a role that was pretty easy to inherently hate (an "annoying broken kid" kind of role), but she pulled it off without that happening.

Monica is definitely a Uchiha. That's the first thing I thought when it showed a close up of her eye memorizing the wrestlers move over and over. I'm guessing just like the Sharingan her power only instantly memorizes and mimics normal physical acts and won't work on special genetic traits (powers) unique to ones birth.

If Jessica wasn't family and presumably gone Monica could've kicked her ass in a fight with her own stolen moves. Or at least fight her to a stalemate. Is there anyone else left who uses hand to hand fighting she could beat up? I can't imagine stolen wrestling moves working on Sylar or Matt's dad.

I'm sure Monica can copy Niki's moves but I doubt she has access to Niki's ability to hit like a truck. I'm guessing Niki also has some superhuman endurance and/or pain tolerance since it seems logical that such things come with her superhuman strength.

There's not a lot of characters that I can see that would really use hand to hand combat. Nathan and possibly Claire are the only ones that come to mind.

I see it as a stalemate. If she watched all her Hong Kong action flicks like a good mimic should, Monica would have the advantage of speed, agility and flat-out cool moves. But with her superstrength, Niki would only need to land one good, solid punch and Monica would be down for the count.