WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW.
I have to admit that I’ve been a fan of Heroes ever since I watched the first episode on DVD through Netflix. The first season stands head and shoulders above most serialized network television dramas/comedies/action-adventures/whatever. However, the second season is probably the most overwrought piece of shit I’ve ever seen. They spend 65 episodes in feudal Japan to set up a love triangle and rivalry, all while introducing 256,023 new character that add little if anything to the story. Great. After the disastrous second season, which was gracefully cut short by the writer’s strike, they started regaining a little steam with their third season, until, of course, they took a turn towards repetition, towards repetition, towards repetition, and bad acting, and unthinkable character moves, giving people powers, taking powers away, making Suresh into the fucking FLY, etc.
Anyways, none of that past stuff really matters, because, well, it’s in the past. Now, Tim Kring (Heroes creator) must have watched a few too many episodes of X-men the Animated Series, or something, because he basically stole their entire plot, minus a few details for Season 3 part 2. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it brings some much-needed darkness back to the series, provides an interesting new villain in the form of the entire US Government, places Nathan Petrelli in the center of everything as the guy pulling the strings with the help of a few badasses like that-guy-from-Iceland-or-wherever-who-is-always-a-villain-on-tv-shows-like-24-or-whatever, named Danko of all things, and of course 76,000,000 dudes with black masks on and submachine guns. Coooool.
Sylar decides to stop flip flopping, and find his father, with the help of a sarcastic teenager who can melt shit with his hands. Neat. Peter, Parkman and Suresh team up and to take down the bad guys; Parkman even flips out and turns a machine-gun-dude against his cronies. Bitchin’. Horned-Rim-Glasses-Guy has a fight with his wife, and Claire cries. Meh. Whatever. So long as HRG gets to cap mofos, the all the better. Maybe he’ll get more practice caping fools if he doesn’t have to keep lying to his wife? Meh, whatever. Nathan is in power, has unlimited funding, the 76 million dudes with ski masks, etc. Whatever. What the fuck is his real motivation here? He can fly, fucking Nikki fucking screamed it out last episode. Nobody is investigating this shit? Nobody cares that the boss of the team that is hunting the Heroes is a FUCKING HERO??? What the fuck? This makes absolutely no sense, but I’m sure they’ll investigate that shit sooner or later and they’ll be a big scandal and not-subtle references to Guantanamo bay, etc. Whatever.
All of this is good. I can even get over the cheesy dialogue, the bad acting, and the clichés. I don’t even care that they stole the storyline from X-men. It’s a cool story, and it’s cool to see it in live action, on NBC, or as I like to watch it, on Hulu.com. I can’t really complain too much, because it’s improved so much since last season it doesn’t even seem like the same show any more.
So, in conclusion, if you’ve given up on Heroes, like my roommate, then shit, give it another chance. It’s not original at all, but shit, what is these days?
At least it’s entertaining.
Grade: B
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.