Heroes: The Fall

There’s a reason I don’t discuss worlds I dislike; what good would come from reading me rag on some show, movie or book that I personally dislike? My criticisms may be valid, but I may be purposely overlooking merits or ignoring the same flaws in media that I do enjoy. Sure, it may be a guilty pleasure (emphasis on “may” and “guilty”) but it is ultimately an empty endeavor. But what if I have to tear apart something I like? I think that I waited so long to do a series on Heroes because I didn’t want to do a post in which I complain for a significant amount of time (and I didn’t want to think about Season 2). You may notice that I didn’t add Bryan Fuller’s name as a tag for this post, which is because he had nothing to do with Season 2; he was over at ABC working on Pushing Daisies. I will try to mitigate my criticism with praise and keep this post constructive and entertaining, so here I go.

Season 2, titled “Generations” (originally, only the first half was going to be “Generations”, while the second half was going to be titled “Exodus”, but the writers strike changed all that), started out pretty well. In spite of the addition of two characters with pretty crappy powers (note: I am usually willing to give new characters the benefit of the doubt, because I believe that the writers have reasons for withholding information that may allow us to like the characters more, and that they have a plan for the new characters that needs setting up; hell, I even was willing to give LOST’s Ana-Lucia a chance), the season premiere set up some interesting plotlines. Nathan wasn’t coping with his survivor’s guilt very well, which caused him to either resign from or forcibly removed from Congress. Parkman and Surresh were living together in New York City with Molly Walker, and were working to bring down The Company. Parkman joined the NYPD and tried to get cases relating to The Company’s founders, while Surresh became an inside man and received guidance from Bennett, who had moved to a California town with his family to keep Claire safe. Hiro’s adventure in feudal Japan, where he met his idol (who turns out to be a drunken Englishman played by American David Anders, best known for playing British Sark on Alias), had the potential to be very entertaining. And then we learned that Peter had amnesia, and things went downhill from there.

I think I’ve said before that amnesia is a tough plotline to deal with; often it is done out of convenience for the writers. In this case, it was done to force Peter rediscover who he is, what his powers are, and once again deal with all of his insecurities. And this was one of the season’s biggest problems: repetition of plotlines.

Once again, Bennett and Claire went through a period of mistrust, and there were times when Bennett’s true loyalty was in question. Niki once again deals with her alterna-persona (ok, here’s my big problem with her: her second personality was a real person, her dead sister Jessica, but the one introduced in Season 2 was made up; are these related to her powers, or is she just crazy?). A character was introduced who could fly (just like Nathan, but is entirely unrelated to him… I think) and Kensei, Hiro’s idol, was a healer, like Claire. And Sylar returns to try and steal powers again. I think that the writers changed their plans for Sylar after he became such a popular character. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him and found him to be a compelling and challenging villain, but his story should have ended with the conclusion of “Genesis” (does his survival negate another one of Isaac’s paintings?). There was some difference in his story since he was unable to use his powers this year, but this took away a lot of his appeal. Fortunately, his manipulative personality remained in tact, which made him interesting enough to watch. And I don’t know where they can take the character; I don’t see him ever becoming a hero (then again, Spike eventually became a good guy in the Buffyverse). He looks to be a principle villain in Season 3, but that’s been done before.

Most of the new characters were pretty boring and didn’t get a lot of screentime to make them interesting, but the screentime they were given took away time from the established characters we had grown to love. Nathan was underused this year (BOO!) and Ando, who became a regular this year, did little more than read about Hiro’s adventures training Kensei to be a hero.

This year, the characters also apparently learned how to cure death. The blood of a healing character, like Claire or Kensei, was able to return life to the dead, which eliminates a lot of tension, since characters can be brought back at will (and this trick was used more than once). Furthermore, despite the fact that Niki was in a building that blew up, she is in the trailers for the upcoming season.

But worst of all, the overall plot was slow to build (which could have been offset by great character development) and was very similar to the previous year. The threat wasn’t revealed until midway through the year, and it was discovered when Peter accidentally traveled into the future to discover a disease-ravaged New York (sound familiar?).

Still, things picked up towards the end of the year, and we did get a few new good characters. Kensei proved interesting (and I really hope he returns), but the biggest draw of Season 2 was Elle, played by Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell. Elle is a Company employee who has electric powers that are not always in control. She is gleefully sadistic, but somewhat stunted, since she was denied a normal childhood due to her uncontrollable powers (and the fact that her father, a Company man, kept her under surveillance to test her abilities). Kristen Bell is always a pleasure to watch, and it was fun watching her indulge in her bad side.

And while the episode-to-episode cliffhanger endings weren’t as good as the first season, the writers sure know how to write a finale. Despite all of the things that I have just complained about, I will be tuning in to watch the Season 3 premiere. The advertising has been good, and the concept of certain heroes going over to the dark side is too much to pass up. Check it out:

However, if my heart is broken again, I may have to call it quits for Heroes.

Up next: Figuring it out…