Heroes Returns – That’s 2 Hours I Won’t Ever Get Back

RIP Heroes
(photo from NBC)

Back in November, I called NBC’s Heroes “a confused, pointless mess.” My husband and I decided to watch the 2 hours of Heroes that aired yesterday anyway, hoping that the promises made in the "teases" that these 2 episode would really deliver would come to pass. After watching, we came to the conclusion that it was two hours wasted.

Heroes is suffering from adding too many new characters and not providing interesting story lines for the established characters, or even featuring established characters on a regular basis. This is compounded by bad acting (Jack Coleman, Elisabeth Rohm) and a character played by someone who now seems typecast to play the creepy character (Robert Knepper as T-Bag, oops, I mean Samuel). Characters that the fans used to love are becoming tiresome. For example, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) hasn’t really developed much, and Hiro (Masi Oka), while the most enjoyable of the characters, requires too much effort to watch with all the subtitles. I almost went a little nutty when a scene with Emma (Deanne Bray) and T-Bag, oops, I mean Samuel, required subtitles. But those were YELLOW subtitles, not white subtitles like Hiro’s, maybe that was the writer’s idea of excitement.

Claire (Hayden Panettiere) – the subject of the whole “save the cheerleader save the world” campaign early on with this series that turned out to be a massive dud and disappointment – seems to be a confused mess all of her own. She still has issues with daddy – real daddy (now dead) and adopted daddy – and she seems unsure of how to approach her life and her powers. I would have hoped that her character would have developed far more by now, but she still remains the same old Claire who seems to have issues with everybody else in her life, even though she can’t figure out her own self.

These two hours were devoid of any real action or any intensity, and did nothing to make me any more interested in the series than I was before. Considering that I had lost most interest in Heroes in November, I would say that the episode was an epic fail in trying rekindle viewer excitement as promised.

With so much more interesting television to watch, Heroes is just not worth my time and effort any more, so it’s now off my official watch list. If I am bored and can find nothing else to watch, I may catch an episode here and there. After all, Heroes is like watching a soap opera – you can miss it for several months and then tune in and find that everything is still just about the same as you last left it (which is nowhere). I suspect that Heroes will find itself on the “cancel” list at the end of this season as I don’t think NBC can waste valuable prime time on a show that isn’t delivering viewers.



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NBC’s Heroes: A Confused, Pointless Mess

Photo from NBC
Last season, NBC’s Heroes started adding many new characters and, as a result, diluted interest in the core characters. In this season, the practice has continued to the point that now Heroes is a confused, directionless mess.

Last night’s episode, ”Once Upon a Time In Texas” made matters worse by going back three years to have Hiro (Masi Oka) save Charlie (Jayma Mays) who he thinks is his one true love. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) killed her three years ago and Hiro thinks he can stop it from happening. But Samuel (Robert Knepper) a weird guy who as far as I can tell lives in some sort of imagined or cloaked carnival, has some person at the carnival who can also time travel like Hiro, and he gets this guy to also transport him where Hiro is located in the past. Oh yeah, Samuel seems to be able to inject some kind of ink into some woman and then she reads the tattoos that magically form on her body. After the watching the creepy Knepper on Fox’s “Prison Break” I am not interested in seeing him play just another creepy character.

Since we’re back three years, we also see Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) interacting with his daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) who is, at that time, still a cheerleader. The episode seems to spend too much time on pointless dialog between Claire and her father. This highlights another problem Heroes has this season – spending too much time on scenes that do nothing to advance the storyline or add interest to the episode.

Noah also is at the same diner where Hiro is trying to save Charlie, and he is meeting up with a woman that he works with, Lauren (Elisabeth Rohm). She thinks that there is something between them, based on the fact that they keep meeting at this out-of-the-way diner. Since he hasn’t made the first move, she decides to do so by getting a room at a local hotel. Rohm, who was frequently – and deservedly – panned for her lack of acting skills while she was on NBC’s Law & Order, also seems "forced" in this role. It seems that almost every line she delivered included some sort of laugh. I find that I could care less about Noah Bennet’s past as his character ceased to have any mystery, or any real purpose, long ago. Another problem with this whole scenario is that I though that at that time 3 years ago that Bennet already knew what Sylar and Hiro looked like, so how can these people walk past him or be in the same place as him and he has no knowledge of who they are? But I guess he doesn’t know Sylar because later he goes to see Isaac – the guy who painted the future – and asks him to paint Sylar.

Meanwhile, Hiro tries to prevent Sylar from killing Charlie, and Samuel tries to get Hiro to understand that unless he does it just right, Hiro may change the future. Well, he WILL change the future if he saves Charlie, it is as simple as that, seeing that she won’t be dead. Hiro thinks that if he gets himself back in a picture of Charlie that is posted on the diner bulletin board, he thinks all will be OK. When Hiro dangles the knowledge of the future in front of the Sylar of the past, suddenly the Sylar of the past - who we knew only wanted other people’s powers and killed at the drop of a hat - seems to want to help Hiro. Not only that, but now Sylar seems to have the power not only to remove people’s powers via cutting through their heads, but now he can fix Charlie’s brain tumor with his finger with surgical precision. When did he get that power? Sylar then appears to go right back on his quest from three years ago to get Claire’s power, and since Hiro knows the cheerleader was already saved, he doesn’t seem to care. But how does he really know that, since it is clear he changed the past, and who knows what ripple effects have occurred? Hiro also tells Ando (James Kyson Lee) to wait for him in the diner because he is future Hiro and the present Hiro will be by soon. I am so confused.

Lauren and Noah meet at the hotel room, and despite her flirty attempts to get Noah interested in her, he really doesn’t seem to want to get into a workplace thing. He says he still loves his daughter and family and hopes to one day be able to tell them the truth. Actually, he looked like he couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there, and she says, “let’s get back to work.”

Later, back at the office break room, Lauren hands Noah an envelope that she said was left on her desk by accident. He opens it and finds the hotel room key and she asks him if he is planning a stay. He looks at her with an odd face and he asks her if they're now pretending they've never been to the "Burnt Toast" diner. Now she looks at him funny, but then he reads the note with the hotel room key that says "Noah, gone Haitian, wiped my memory, better this way, more professional, love, Lauren." I find myself wishing that the Haitian would wipe my own memory of this episode as well.

Samuel’s appearance in the past was more than to just warn Hiro that his messing with the past can mess up the future. Once Hiro saves Charlie, Samuel transports Charlie to his carnival (I think by using the man he already has that can time travel). Samuel wants to use that fact to get Hiro to come back with him because Samuel’s time travel guy is dying and he needs Hiro to take his place. Hiro take Samuel there and then realizes he is trapped, and Samuel says he needs Hiro to fix a mistake he made 8 weeks ago. I find that I no longer care.

Since we probably haven’t traveled through time enough in this episode, we are taken to a place 8 weeks prior to the present (!) with a dead man lying on the floor. Samuel is saying he is sorry, and the man on the floor is Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy). I am underwhelmed.

I am convinced that the creative minds behind this episode are just making things up as they go along. They drop new characters in to the show rather than develop the core characters that they started with, and those were the people that made the show popular. Heroes seems to be dropping rapidly in the ratings each week, likely because the show seems to be jerking between aimless story lines that seem to have no cohesive theme or purpose. My guess is that this is the last season for Heroes. I don’t think there is any effort heroic enough that anyone can make at this point in time to save the show.


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Heroes “Shades of Gray” Solid Boredom

Heroes (NBC) has ceased to become a must watch show for me. Why? Because each episode is just more of the same. Characters seem to waffle from being on the good side to the bad side, and vice versa, to the point that I don’t know if I care which side they are on. One thing is consistent though, I am starting to really despise Sylar and the constant evil that follows him everywhere.

This episode was somewhat bothersome to me as far as Sylar is concerned. He has been trying to track down his father, and finally meets up with Samson Gray (John Glover) who is living in a dumpy looking home. He has cancer and he’s dying. But, Sylar shows him he has the power to heal, and daddy decides he wants to take that power from his son. Well, not before daddy dear makes his son kill a poor helpless rabbit so he can stuff and mount it. But Sylar also finds that his dad has powers too. This fact doesn’t even interest me at all, because it seems the world is now filled with people with powers. The fact that daddy wants to kill his own son to get his power - saying his son will just heal back anyway -was predictable, as was Sylar being able to overtake Samson and leave him to die with his disease.

Of course, every show these days needs the evil controlling power hungry bureaucrat, and we get that with Danko, played by the always creepy Zeljko Ivanek. He wants to eliminate all the people with powers, and now Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) is having second thoughts about his involvement in this plan and with Danko's methods, especially after Danko sets up Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and wires him with a bomb. Nathan went from good guy to bad guy to good guy to I have no idea what he is now – just a man on the run, seeing that Danko tricked Nathan into showing his power of flight. And now that Danko knows Nathan has a power, Danko won’t allow Nathan’s daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) to continue to be protected. Nathan manages to get her out of her house before the nasty bad men in black with guns come to get her. This also means that Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), who thought he was moving up the ladder in the organization with Nathan, finds that he may be the odd man out again. I can’t help but be exhausted at trying to figure out which side Bennet is on, and I am not sure I care anymore.

One of the other flaws of the show is that there are too many main characters, and they just don’t give them enough coverage every week. In this episode, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) didn’t get much face time, and I always find their characters very enjoyable. But, it also seems that they show them so sporadically that I frequently forget just exactly where they are in the story line, or what happened to them last time I saw them. There are a few other characters in the show like this as well, and it makes it harder and harder to follow the show, especially when they skip a week or two in airing new episodes.

Also annoying is that is seems that this series is answering no questions, only bringing in more complexity to the story. There is no “reward” for me by watching. I finish the show, and I feel like I am left with nothing. I may continue to watch through this season, but if I feel at that point there is nothing in it for me to continue, I won’t be back with the series if/when it returns for the new season.


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Heroes "Dying of the Light" Resurrects A Petrelli

This episode of Heroes, “Dying of the Light”, seemed to stay in the present long enough to really help me follow the overall story a little better.

There were a few main story arcs in this episode:

1. Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) dupes Tracy (Ali Larter) and Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) into thinking he wants to help them, when that’s not his motive.

2. Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) continue to work to track down the formula, but are also working alongside Daphne, who seems to be telling them what they have to do next.

3. Meredith (Jessalyn Gilsig) gets trapped by a man whose powers seem to be to control anyone he wishes, and Claire (Hayden Panettiere) and her mother Sandra (Ashley Crow) go off to save her and end up get trapped themselves.

4. Daphne (Brea Grant) meets up with Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and he tries to convince her they are meant for each other and he’s trying to save her. She’s not into the whole idea at this point.

5. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) continue their struggles with their powers and with each other.

6. Big Daddy Arthur Petrelli (Robert Forster) sucks the life force out of Adam (David Anders), which allows him to get off life support.


First of all, I am officially l sick and tired of Suresh. He always was the most annoying character of the show, and now that he has what seem to be evil powers, he’s even more annoying. What I don’t get is why, in a previous episode, he was able to trap Maya in his cocoon-like trap, and she somehow couldn’t use her own super deadly powers to kill him at that time. Did I miss something, or wasn’t she conscious at one point when he trapped her on his trophy wall? And, once Tracy got loose and got Nathan loose, why didn’t Nathan just grab her and fly out of the room, or can’t he make simple indoor flying moves? Can he only zoom at high speeds outdoors? I guess I don’t know why he couldn’t use his flying to get away.

As far as Hiro and Ando, the “killing” of Ando last week was an obvious red herring. I hate red herrings. But, I have to admit that I found Hiro’s attempts to catch up with the man in Africa who can see the future quite entertaining, as Hiro gets clobbered on the head not once but twice. What I don’t get is whether Hiro uses his powers or not, the guy can still see the future and predict what Hiro will do to catch him, right? So why was the guy in Africa so impressed that Hiro caught up with him by NOT using his powers? The guy still new he was coming. But I guess he felt he had to make the point that Hiro still needed to use his brains, and not always rely on his powers. Snore.

The whole story line with Meredith getting trapped by puppet master guy, and Claire and her mom coming to save her was a waste of time and contributed nothing to advancing the overall story, in my opinion. And the outcome of spin-the-gun-Russian-roulette segment was completely predictable.

The Daphne/Parkman relationship also doesn’t do much for me, probably because this show is famous for showing people the future but then not having it happen exactly that way. So Parkman’s attempt to help her will probably change the future, but maybe in more ways that Parkman may want or not want. Still, it seems irrelevant to the overall story. It also seemed such a waste for Daphne to have Parkman wait all day at the airport for her, when she just blew him off when she returned.

Peter and Sylar’s struggles, both with their powers and with each other, are getting a little repetitive. Sylar’s love for his mother – who is now in a coma that we know has been induced by a mind-game on the part of her own husband - seemed a little thin to me, seeing as he hasn’t really known her all that long.

Pinehearst seems to be tying everything together. Its logo has been popping up everywhere lately, and also showed up in the first season. Big Daddy Arthur Petrelli seems to be big man on campus at Pinehearst. Despite the fact that he has been on life support for what appears to be a long time, he suddenly becomes healthy after sucking everything he could get out of Adam. He also seems very happy to almost do the same to his own son Peter. At least, Peter doesn’t instantly decompose as Adam did, as Adam seemed to age his entire 400 years in a matter of seconds. Arthur’s power is to steal people’s powers through physical contact, and it made me wonder, why didn’t he find someone else to heal him sooner? I guess he knew of no one else with powers to heal or to live forever. In fact, I wonder why he didn’t just snap up Claire for her never-die powers? I guess I lost track of exactly what made Adam different from Claire and why Adam was the guy Arther needed to restore his health. Like Claire, Adam couldn’t die, but was there also some other power? Still, this storyline has the most promise and made the episode worth watching. Finally we may get to see a little bit more of the big picture behind the whole group of “heroes” and “villains”, and it may get interesting now that Daddy Petrelli seems to be getting even more powerful.

But, I think the story needs some credible successes. Claire using her ability to help save Meredith and her mother is just not enough. Hiro and Ando, while quite entertaining, need to see some positive results from their efforts. I know that having too many good things happen can rob a show of conflict and with it, drama. On the flip side, having too many things go wrong, or to have so many bad things happen, also can make for a dull show. I think that Arthur Petrelli coming into play in the Heroes storyline may be the kick in the pants this show needs.


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Heroes: Inflicting Time Travel Whiplash

Can one’s brain get whiplash? If so, I think Heroes is giving it to me. Monday night’s episode of NBC’s Heroes, “ I Am Become Death” seemed to jump around in time to the point that I wasn’t sure where I was at – the present? The future? And while it’s an interesting plot device to move into the future to show how things can be, if overused, the technique only serves to confuse the viewer.

Also somewhat overused in science fiction or fantasy type shows – soap operas too – is the use of twins, or in the case of Heroes, triplets. How nice it must be for the writers to kill off a character, in this case Niki (Ali Larter) – only to have her return as another character Tracy Strauss, who finds she is one of a set of triplets. Sure, this can initially add to the drama when the other people realize that she’s not who they think she is, as in the case of Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar). Nathan decides to save Tracy’s life when she becomes despondent over her powers, and it also seems that he’s going to pick up right where he left off with Niki. After a while, though, the novelty of her being one of a matched set can wear off, especially when we all know that another one of her is presumably still out there.

Also, the doubles issue was already a problem with Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) who is faced with tangling with his future persona. I'm getting confused about which Peter is which, despite the scar on "future" Peter.

As I mentioned in my review last week ( Heroes: Dark, Confusing Start to the Season ), the show seems to have too many things going on all at the same time. While each of the segments is interesting, it is becoming difficult to retain certain elements of the story from week to week. For example, I am still trying to remember how Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) got locked up in a room, unable to just “teleport” their way out. Worse yet, while watching Parkman (Greg Grunberg) go on his mind journey into the future, I started to lose track if I was seeing Parkman’s future, or Peter’s future, or, well, you get it. It seems like I started to loose all sense of where in time I was supposed to be, and from whose eyes I was seeing it.

And while I do like the majority of the characters on the show and find them interesting, I’m starting to wish that they could find a way to better collect them to work in groups so I don’t have to juggle so many storylines in my head. They need to FOCUS. I keep reading reports of the show seemingly slipping in its viewer numbers compared to when the show premiered, and in my opinion, that coincides with when they started adding more characters and varying timelines. While some of the characters are worried about saving the world, I’d just be satisfied if someone can save this show from becoming bloated with too many people and stories within stories. If they continue at the current rate, it will take a heroic effort for fans to keep up.



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Heroes: Dark, Confusing Start to the Season

I held off commenting on the 2-hour season premier of Heroes (“The Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect”) until I saw the third episode (“One of Us, One of Them”) of the new season. I was hoping that maybe the by that time, thinks would make a little more sense. But it didn’t help much. I suppose that because I didn’t see the season finale right before those new episodes aired that my memory on where the show left off wasn’t as good as I thought.

Regardless, the show seems to be suffering from too many stories going on at the same time. It’s not that all the individual stories aren’t interesting, it just that it seems that some are only given a very short amount of coverage, which makes them seem almost inconsequential. Still center to the story is Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) who can't die, Hiro (Masi Oka) who can control time, Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto). But Sylar’s “hunger” to absorb the powers of others is getting a little old, and frankly I thought his stealing of Claire’s powers was a little too disturbing. It also seems that the show is taking a cue from the now canceled USA Network show “The 4400” with Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) working on a formula to be able to give special powers to anyone. Of course, just like in The 4400, one can’t bank on what kind of powers one will get - they could be bad.

One bright spot of the series is the antics of Hiro and his friend, Ando (James Kyson Lee) who seem to be the only two people actually trying to do something to figure the whole thing out. Everyone else seems to be getting mired in their own powers and the problems they bring. Hiro, in other words, may be the only real “hero” of the bunch.

The “save the cheerleader, save the world” tagline that was so central to the series seemingly fizzled last season. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they painted themselves in a corner with it and moved the story four months forward after it happened just because they couldn't find a better way out. I think the show is still trying to recover from that, and I recall when they time shifted the series 4 months I was very disappointed, seeing that there was such a build up to that point, and viewers were rewarded with nothing to show for it.

Now, the show seems to be too “dark” and sometimes too gory. It’s hard for me to feel anything for the characters anymore, maybe with the exception of Hiro and Ando. It may not be enough to keep me going. There are parts of the story that are interesting, but I sense another build up to nothing. Maybe since the show burned viewers once, it’s easy for them to do it again. As the stories seem to be getting more complex and confusing, I’m finding it’s becoming too much work to follow. I wish the current guy who is painting images of the future on rocks in the desert would just paint them all out of this corner they seems to have gotten themselves in to again. It would save us all a lot of time.



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Heroes - The Second Volume "Generations" Finale

Some background first. I didn’t start watching Heroes right away when the series first started. I’m not quite sure why. Lucky for me, NBC decided to string a bunch of episodes together, I think over one weekend, so everyone could catch up. Afterwards, I couldn’t catch my breath – I found the show different and exciting.

Some are complaining that for this latest season of Heroes that the show has lost some momentum, but I disagree. I believe the characters only became more interesting and more three-dimensional. I admit that at first, I couldn’t understand why they spent so much time on Hiro far into the past, but in the last few weeks, it became more and more clear as to why that was necessary. I believe that this show does the best job of any television show of late in weaving complex storylines that don’t turn out to be red herrings. It’s almost as if even the most minute detail will have meaning somewhere down the road. So I’m learning to pay very very close attention.

Last night’s episode, “Powerless” was powerFUL. Claire (Hayden Panettiere) seems to have found a new resolve, but her father needed her to pull back. Hiro (Masi Oka) has become very controlled and precise in his time travel. Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) continues to unwittingly throw wrenches into everything. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) seems even MORE creepy than before, if that’s possible. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) has become even more powerful, yet at the same time, more gullible and too trusting of the wrong people. And Nathan’s (Adrian Pasdar) shooting at the end shocked me. I knew something had to happen, but frankly I didn’t quite expect THAT. And the biggest creep-out of all was Adam (David Anders), in a coffin, buried in a grave. Personally, the thought of being buried alive is horrific to me, and while I know Adam has been up to no good, I got a little wigged out for him during that scene. And is Niki (Ali Larter) really dead?

Heroes is one show that keeps you guessing, but also give you a lot of answers. As the season started I was disappointed that they didn’t seem to close the loop with the ending of the previous season, but I was satisfied how the story played out later. The show seems to be trying to teach me some patience by telling the story in a non-linear way.

If you haven’t watched Heroes, you may want to rent Season One over the holidays to catch up. Since many shows won’t be starting up again until after the beginning of the year, or even later because of the writer’s strike, this could be a perfect time to watch. I’m looking forward to Heroes return…whenever that may be.


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