Why Heroes is disappointing.
2008-10-14 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rodoThe 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?
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?
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Date: 2008-10-14 05:36 pm (UTC)Agreed. I love Ando, because while he's a bit of a geek, he's still more rational and down to earth than Hiro.
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 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.