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"The Second Coming," "The Butterfly Effect," and "One of Us, One of Them"

September 30, 2008 12:50 AM

espite the recent lack of posts on the subject, I am as devoted a Heroes fan as ever. While the end of season one was was an unmitigated failure and the whole of season two was even worse, the third season is off to a good start. So I'm going to resume my Monday night Heroes posts.

During the hiatus after season two, Mr. Vice, pH, and I made a lot of jokes about how we really hoped that the producers would come back this season and largely ignore season two. As it turns out, they did almost exactly that. None of the three of us could remember very much at all about "Generations" (Volume II) and, as it turns out, that doesn't seem to matter at all. Many of the characters and themes that made that season such an uncompelling mess--Peter's Irish girlfriend, that girl who could learn how to do things really quickly, that fucking virus, and various other things I can't even remember--are entirely irrelevant to the new episodes. And that's good. Also very, very good is the reduced number and prominence of The Mexicans, the return of Sylar's abilities, and the pseudo-death of Nikica. I mean, as Mr. Vice pointed out, it is sort of a Landfill moment (If you haven't seen Beerfest, watch it now), but Tracy Strauss is way cooler than Niki or Jessica ever were.

Still, there are some downsides. First, I miss Molly. She was cute and I want her to come back. Although, really, I guess it would have sort of bogged things down to have people babysitting her. Oh, wait. That did happen. In Season Two. And it did bog things down. Huh. I guess it's a good thing Molly was "hidden" and her absence explained by two lines of dialogue. Now let us never speak of her again, apparently. Oh yeah, and that reminds me: remember when Mohinder used to be cool? That seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? He's a fucking turbo-douche at this point. I almost think he deserves to have wacky gross shit growing out of his back. But the biggest downside so far is that Elle, played by Kristin Bell, the cutest girl this side of anything, has a greatly diminished role. Such bullshit.

As for the actual storyline, it's decent so far. Although there are still a thousand different things going on, it's all relatively coherent and none of the storylines seem as disjointed or boring as, say, The Mexicans did last season. The writers have, so far, done a very good job of putting the characters in new and interesting situations, thereby forcing them to adapt, while still making them believable. Claire's decision to seek revenge against Sylar by going after him and the other villains seems both credible in her current context and consistent with everything else we know about her, for example.

Similarly, the relationship between Noah Bennett and Sylar is interesting. Their animosity is sort of entertaining and, of course, there's the fact that they'll probably try to kill each other at the first chance they get. Or, well, maybe Sylar doesn't want to kill Noah, but you never know with Sylar.

Less interesting--or rather far too predictable--is the notion that Sylar is Peter and Nathan's brother. Parentage revelations are rarely cool and, since we do live in a post-Empire Strikes Back world, rather cliche. I also don't like things like that because they tend to make the show's world too small. Like, in the Star Wars prequels, we're supposed to believe that Anakin built C-3PO, and then, twenty years later, that very same droid somehow came into the hands of his son. And Yoda knew Chewbacca a long time ago. I mean, it all seems too coincidental and forced. Same thing here, I thought. But I'll give it a shot.

The overall story seems ok--although I am extremely annoyed that they're using the "I went to the future and saw some disaster, so no I'm going back to the past so that we can stop the disaster" device again. I mean, again again. Really? Yup.

All in all, though, I'm a happy camper. Nothing this season has approached the level of the middle of the first season, but the show has already done a lot to cleanse the bad taste it left in my mouth after the abysmal first-season finale and the terrible second season. So, here's hoping Heroes starts kicking ass again.



1 Comments


tRJ said:

"Also very, very good is the reduced number and prominence of The Mexicans."

I am going to save this quote and use it, out of context, when you try to run for public office.

September 30, 2008 8:32 AM



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