Heroes. The show that just can’t quite figure out what it wants to be returned for another chapter chronicaling people with extraordinary abilities and a long list of inconsistencies.
If you’re like most of the Heroes watching world, you probably fell in love with this show season one, but felt somehow disappointed by the lackluster finale. Season 2 and 3 felt like a muddle of plot lines that didn’t quite go anywhere and where riddled with conflicting story lines and concepts. For instance, Arthur Petrelli dies with a bullet to the front of his head, yet the only way to kill him definitively was a bullet to the back of his head. Matt Parkman randomly has Isaac’s power to draw the future, without taking a single art lesson in his life. And, then there’s the case of actor Ali Larter, who has played nearly a million different characters and personalities on the show.
Many have been disappointed by the Heroes’ stories stolen from the pages of X-Men. Season 3 is the quintessential story of a xenophobic Senator Kelly who commissions Sentinels to keep tabs on mutants.
Honestly, so far this second half to season 3, or Chapter 4 as their calling it, has been quite good. Peter is finally learning to not be a wimp and become a man. Also, Episode 15 shows off a less slapstick Hiro Nakamura, who, despite the occasional one-liner, feels more like the Hiro we envisioned when Hiro first met future Hiro in the Season 1 subway scene.
All Heroes aside, this entire season is held together by one man. Sylar. After the writers totally wrecked Sylar during season 2, making him lose his powers, they brought him back better than ever in season 3. Now, Sylar is trying to put closure to his father issues. Only thing is his internal clock is ticking and he’s decided to take on a protégé with a heat power. Sound like Pyro? It should. Because now that all the Heroes are banned by the government in this X-Men/Sentinel tale, Sylar is feeling lonely and is in desperate need of his own X-story to steal. Maybe he’ll be the next Magneto or better yet, Apocolypse.
Laugh out loud moments once again go to the bromance of Hiro and Ando. When Daphne asks Ando how he knows where Hiro is, Ando quickly states, “Hiro and I have GPS trakcers.” Hysterical. Later Ando realizes that Hiro must be alive when he has the epiphany, “Hiro’s alive because I kill him.” Which of course references the scene in season 3 part 1 where Hiro journeys forward in time to see his Ando kill him.
I’m optimistic about the rest of season 3, but I won’t give it the thumbs up just yet. I still have to wonder if the writers know where they’re going. Right now Heroes looks like it could be any number of a hundred shows on TV – just with powers. Heroes needs to regain its individuality. The only question though is, will it be too little too late?
What now this is Prison BReak? Terrible. Ban this show.