Why Heroes is disappointing.

[rodo]

The more I watch of the third season of Heroes the more it disappoints me. Unlike the fourth season of Supernatural, which might turn out to be its best. And that got me thinking: Why don't I like the new season? A lot of other reviews I read are largely positive. And I don't like it at all. So far, it's even worse than last season. I figured it had something to do with why I liked the first season so much.

One of the reason I liked Heroes so much more than any other superhero story was that it was about normal people with normal lives who happen to have superpowers. Claire was a normal cheerleader who just wanted to fit in and have a normal life, despite being nearly invincible. Peter loved his powers and wanted to do good, but he started out as someone who was overwhelmed by all the problems he was faced with. He used to be a slightly naive nurse, and I loved that. Now, I have no idea what to think about him. Nikki, likewise, wanted to be normal more than anything, and it wasn't even her power that kept her from living a nice and quiet life. And Nathan didn't care much for his power either; he preferred to help people by becoming a politician.

All these people had rather trivial private problems as well. Peter felt like a loser next to his successful brother, who just wanted to live a normal life a bit too much. Hiro, despite his good intentions, sometimes just couldn't save everyone. Matt's wife cheated on him, and he didn't get the job he wanted either. I just loved the normal in Heroes season one.

Another aspect of the normal were the characters who didn't have powers, and who were awesome anyway. Mohinder had his mind and his knowledge of genetics that made him a hero. It didn't scare him all that much that he was surrounded by people who could do a lot of crazy things, and I never once felt that he thought of himself any less because he was normal. Just like Noah Bennet, in a way, who makes up for his lack of powers by being very clever. Then there'a Ando, without whom Hiro would never have managed to be awesome, and who wanted to kill Sylar on his own when Hiro was too reluctant to do anything. And lets not forget all these characters like Claire's best friend and her family and Simone, who all had no powers and more screen time, or so it seems to me. In the first season, it bugged me a bit that a lot of characters close to the protagonists turned out to have power; now the lack of non-powerfull characters just annoys me. After the latest episode, we're left with what? One?

I also liked, that the characters didn't know each other and didn't meet for some time. I liked the randomness of it all. Now it wouldn't surprise me if every single one of the character would be related to the Petrellis in some way, who seem rather reluctant to die, I might add. When did the series turn out to be about the Petrellis instead of (reluctant) heroes?

I was also rather fond of the lack of villains in Heroes. Even Sylar had some motivation, and the other characters just didn't qualify as villians in any sense of the word. The new season changed that, just like I feared. Its not a number of unfortunate circumstances and misguided good intentions that might get the world in trouble, it's villians. It's black and white, or so it seems. And I always prefer grey. And characters who stay dead. You can play the saved-from-death-card only so often, and Heroes is really overdoing it.

All this seems to be missing in the latest season, and I am only watching it because I hope it might get better. I am not optimistic, though. Watching the season is not fun at all.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[lilithilien.insanejournal.com]

You raise a lot of good points here, especially about the lack of normal lives -- that was a wonderful appeal in the first series.

And I also agree that the return from the dead and other inexplicable ways characters remain *coughNikkicough* is irritating. Consequences are so important -- if nobody can be permanently hurt, there's nothing at risk, and nothing for me as a viewer to invest in.

Having said that, if Ando stays dead, I will be *very* upset. He had been winning the whole series up until then.

I wonder if a lot of the positive reviews are just in relation to last year's mess. Although I have enjoyed this season much better than last, I have two additional complaints: (1) that too much time is being spent in the future, and I don't really care enough about the present; and (2) that Mohinder has gone completely OOC -- even last season he was still a rational scientist, and I can't believe he'd jump so quickly to self-experimentation without some exigent reason ("OMG Sylar's on the way, you need power now!") to do so.

I was also rather fond of the lack of villains in Heroes. Even Sylar had some motivation, and the other characters just didn't qualify as villians in any sense of the word. The new season changed that, just like I feared. Its not a number of unfortunate circumstances and misguided good intentions that might get the world in trouble, it's villians. It's black and white, or so it seems.

I do have to disagree here. I think they've done a good job at complicating the villians, as with Vortex man. And determining who is good and who is bad is still as much a mystery as ever -- for instance, I had been demonising Mamma Petrelli until the last epi.

And I absolutely LOVE what they're doing with Sylar. I could not be happier about that. But maybe that's just because I love the Sylar/Bennet interactions.

[rood.insanejournal.com]

Having said that, if Ando stays dead, I will be *very* upset. He had been winning the whole series up until then.

Agreed. I love Ando, because while he's a bit of a geek, he's still more rational and down to earth than Hiro.

(2) that Mohinder has gone completely OOC

Don't even get me started on that. He's my favourite character. Or rather was. The lack of motivation is one of the reasons why I dislike the new Sylar. I could have understood him becoming a good guy with a bit of explanation, but it bothers me to no end that it happened so fast. He seemed to enjoy being a bad guy, then Mrs Petrelli tells him its all the fault of his powers (which he didn't have last season, didn't he?) and suddenly he's nice. And I really don't like the revelation of him being a part of the Petrelli family. He's cool with Bennet, though.

I think they've done a good job at complicating the villians, as with Vortex man.

I don't count him as a villian, actually, because we didn't see him being particularly villiany. And Mrs Petrelli is meant to be an ambiguous character, if you ask me. They've tried to keep her mysterious since season one, and I don't get the feeling that they plan to change that.

[eumelkeks.insanejournal.com]

My main problems with this season is that we got another reset on character development and that nothing is really happening. Every little plot line takes ages to progress and develop and we're left with too many questions all the time. So many things just don't make sense, not because they're very clever but because the characters act out of character.

[rood.insanejournal.com]

I don't think nothing happens. In fact, I sometimes think things happen too fast, while others just don't happen at all. It's a really weird mixture. And it gives me the feeling that the writers themselves don't quite know where they want to go. For example, the villains were freed and I sort of expected them to be present for more than just two (or was it three?) episodes.

I absolutely agree with you on the OOCness, though.

[yourlibrarian.insanejournal.com]

Heh, I actually wrote a very similar post here. (http://yourlibrarian.insanejournal.com/41572.html)

However I have seen some negative critical reviews of Heroes so far this season, so I don't think these changes are going unnoticed.

[rood.insanejournal.com]

I read your post (wow, that was long!) and I agree with you (well not about Veronica Mars and Chuck, I don't watch these two).

The comment from eumelkeks also made me think about another problem of the latest Heroes season: To me, it seems sort of erratic. Sometimes they are moving far too fast, and other times I get the feeling that the story won't move forward at all. At least the last two episodes gave me some sort of idea about the main plot for this season, which up until then I couldn't quite grasp (what is that whole explosion storyline about?).

The subplots from the first season managed to be interesting despite the fact that you couldn't figure out how they fit into the bigger picture (I am thinking about Nikki's story, mainly), and that just doesn't work this season.

However I have seen some negative critical reviews of Heroes so far this season, so I don't think these changes are going unnoticed.

I think that they will only look up what the fans say because of the ratings. I hope they do so soon, because I can only retcon so much from my brain, and at the moment I am busy ignoring the entire third season of Prison Break.

[yourlibrarian.insanejournal.com]

Yes, the pacing and editing have been awful, I think. It wasn't as bad this week but last week in particular I was ready to throw in the towel. It seemed we couldn't have a scene run more than 2 minutes before switching to a different storyline. And there was a lot of running around with not that much happening, people appearing only to disappear again, the back and forth with the present and future...oy.

Yes, the subplots in S1 (like Nikki's) were a way of letting us get to know those characters. For the life of me I can't understand what the purpose of Maya and Mohinder getting together was. I almost feel there are leftover threads from S2 here -- that they meant to write her, Elle and others off but didn't get the chance because of the strike.