The Secret Stand Up of Alex Mac

A sensation when it premiered in 2006, Heroes has become for many, one of the most scorned pariahs on television. For many, the show is a casualty of the 2007-2008 Writer's Strike. Growing concerns about the strike lead to a rushed second season with a finale that, while passable, felt far too rushed. The magic was gone. At least that is what many detractors said, marking the second season as something of a missed opportunity but the truth is that the second season built greatly on the first's success. New, charismatic villains, a genuinely interesting storyline, and deeper character development were only marred by a sudden and necessary ending that more for a couple of annoying moments. However, all and all, the series had not really not any spark.

Many people try to compare the show to LOST, which is not really a fair comparison. After all, the only real similarity is that both shows are episodic, sci-fi programs. The comparison ends there. And the truth is that LOST is indeed the better show. It has a stronger cast, story, and themes. Many people try to see Heroes as something more than it is: a show about people with superpowers. A comic book brought to life on our televisions. In this, Heroes succeeds. In this, Heroes frustrates. Many criticisms that are leveled can be true at times: characters are too powerful, motivations seem light or forced (though this is something of an acting issue), and the story can get convoluted. However, when approached correctly, the show is entertaining and engaging. These two extremes can be seen in Season 3 (which is divided up into two plot arcs or "volumes"). Volume Three is everything that can go wrong with Heroes. Volume Four is something of a return to form, not quite on the same page as the first season nor without hiccups, but still a well produced bit of storytelling.

Now, since by now most people are either on board with the show or not, I will not edit out spoilers. Be warned: From here on, thar be spoilers!

Volume Three: Villains

On paper, the plot of Volume Three sound great. A face from our heroes past  secretly begins recruiting a group of villains to assist him while he attempts to build an army of super soldiers by giving them artificially induced super powers. All of this takes place as many of these villains escape from the high security prison that "The Company" (a clandestine agency dedicated to tracking and capturing down super powered individuals) has placed them in. What follows, however, is a tangled web of aborted character arcs, rushed story telling, and poor decisions.

Volume Three starts off where the cliffhanger of Volume Two left us. Nathan Petrelli has just been shot at a press conference by an unknown assailant before he could reveal to the world that he has the power to fly. In an interesting twist, it turns out to be a version of his brother, Peter, who had come from a future where this press conference is not interrupted and the and the revelation of  the existence of super powered individuals had lead first, to violent study and torture of these individuals and eventually,  to a genetic modification formula that allows everyone to have powers. This leads to the precarious situation where people with potentially  uncontrolled abilities are free to wander like ticking time bombs. This alteration in our timeline has another side effect. The ripples of time are affected so that an unforeseen event occurs: Sylar breaks into the Company's main facility and in the processes of trying to stop him, the resulting damage frees 13 of the most dangerous super power criminals known.

Now, the main issue here is that the prisoner escape and round up could have been the entire plot of this volume. It would be simple, straight forward, and allow for a lot of menacing new bad guys. Instead, this plot point is resolved within roughly 4-5 episodes as each bad guy is either quickly killed off or recruited as dumb muscle for the true bad guy. Who is this? Arthur Petrelli, the head of the Petrelli family and former founding member of the Company  who was thought to be long dead. The issue here is not the addition of another member to the convoluted Petrelli family tree. The issue is that the build up to his reveal is done so poorly. The other villains are immediately subjugated to show how powerful he is. Even Season 2 main villain Adam Monroe is killed off at the hands of this new threat despite being a character with an interesting back story and good actor. Instead, we are given Petrelli who is portrayed by Robert Forster. It is hard to see how this man was nominated for an Academy Award. He is able to make a genre savvy, supposedly dangerous master villain seem as threatening as a cardboard cup. I mean, this man's power is the ability to permanently steal and use the powers of anyone he comes into psychical contact with! Heck, to their credit (which is hard to give for this horrible volume), the writers actually have him use it to stop some of the most powerful heroes including the time traveling  Hiro Nakamura. But as a threat, he just doesn't work.

And that is just the start of the problems. Writing it all out would take forever so I will just bullet point the a few others:

Main Problems
·Random and downright abandoned storylines for characters including Sylar's odd path towards redemption (which, as you may guess, fails) and romance with Elle, Hiro and Ando's inability to be used for anything other than comic relief when they were capable characters in past seasons, Matt Parkman's odd spirit walk plotline, and the quickly abandoned problem of the escaped inmates.

·Killing of new characters and well crafted ones in favor of introducing or retaining old ones. Particularly egregious is the death of Adam Monroe and the return of actress Ali Larter as Tracy Strauss, a clone (literally) of another character who died in Season Two. See also: the death of cool baddie Knox.

·Daphne. Just Daphne. Volume Four will fix this.

Stuff That Didn't Suck

·The scene when a mind wiped Hiro Nakamura meets his mother in the past and is healed by her power. An amazingly well acted scene by Masi Oka that shows why the writers need to treat Hiro more seriously.

·The introduction of creepy puppet master Eric Doyle to the cast of villains as a bad guy to rival Sylar. We don't see as much of him as I would like but he is awesome.

Final Verdict: D+
    

Volume Four: Fugitives

 By the end of Volume Three, Nathan has been convinced that people with powers pose a large threat to the ordinary citizen. Using his position as a US Senator, he spearheads a massive covert operation to capture super powered individuals and isolate them from the general populous. Our heroes struggle to return to normal life and find that they are immediately on the run. Simple. And it works. Each character is given asimple story arc: Sylar is on a quest to find his father, Hiro struggles to become a hero after his powers were taken away from Arthur Petrelli in the previous volume while Ando learns to use his own recently acquired ability, Peter tries to combat his brother’s program with help from Matt Parkman and Mohinder, Nathan is trying to hide his own ability while rounding everyone else up, Noah has infiltrated Nathan’s operation and is helping him in order to save Claire, and Claire is actively trying to hide other runaways. All of this occurring as they flee from the government. It is simple and works.

Hounding our heroes is a truly effective villain: Emile Danko AKA "The Hunter". Played by Emmy Award winner Željko Ivanek, Danko is a cold and ruthless government agent who will not hesitate to kill his targets right away. While eventually he is outwitted by Sylar in time for the finale, Danko is a damn good bad guy.

I'll go over the good stuff and some of the bad:

Stuff That Didn't Suck

·Characters actually die. Daphne dies. Nathan dies. And when characters don't
die, it makes sense and is not some deus ex machina. For example, Tracy is caught by Danko's men in a parking garage. The sprinklers go off and she uses her ability to freeze water to freeze herself and most of Danko's team. While frozen, Danko shoots her.Now, she is clearly dead. Right? Except we are shown that she melts right down a drainage pipe. And she is a character that essentially controls water and temperature. In this case, we know she will be back and the writers are not dicking us around. I mean, I would have liked to see her stay dead but if handled well like this, I see no reason why some characters can’t survive the extraordinary. No more magic healing blood or anything like that.

·Smart use of powers. Besides the above example, we are given plenty of times when our characters actually use their powers wisely. Parkman mind controls soldiers into shooting their comrades. Mohinder uses his strength to rip the door off a taxi and use it a shield against tranquilizer darts. It is just really cool.

·Well executed, if sometimes easy to predict plot twists. Having the young Micah turn out the the mysterious "Rebel" who is heading the underground railroad for super powered individuals was particularly nice.

Main Problems
·The buildup to meeting Sylar's father was not worth the pay off. The journey was interesting from a character standpoint but it felt incomplete. There is very little closure, though that is part of the point.

·The finale. Nathan dies and another person is, for all intents and purposes, gone for good. It is interesting and dramatic but they should have just killed them both instead of doing what they did.

·Hiro is still treated like comic relief and the writers give him back his ability to freeze time only for it to essentially be done away with again by the end of the volume. They need to find a way to use him properly (while still retaining his naive charm) without making him a clown or being too afraid to give him back his powers. He can be, if written well, one of the most interesting characters in the show. The first two seasons showed that.

Final Verdict: B

Overall Season Score: C

-The horrible first half of the season is offset by the solid second half. However, this balances out to an average experience. Good for fans and the casual audience but unlikely to win back any harsh critics. If the next season can hold onto what Volume Four was able to re-find, the show may not be doomed after all.