September 2009 Archive

This article was originally posted on a previous incarnation of tveet.com, and is now being archived here so as not to disappear completely into the ether.

It was the series return that I was least excited for, and apparently everyone else felt the same. Ratings for the premiere were 46% lower than they were for the season 3 premiere last year. In comparison, House which premiered on the same night rose 14%. So, Heroes Redemption, the season title really does have a double meaning, yes this season is supposedly about the characters and their quest for redemption, but the series is in some serious need of redemption itself.

The overall feeling of the two hour premiere was very much about starting over, and I seem to recall this being mentioned at the Heroes Comic-Con panel. Its almost as if they are trying to forget the majority of the past two seasons…gee why would they want to do that. Oh I know why, because they were mostly rubbish.

But while starting over may not be a terrible idea, its only going to end badly if they make the same stupid mistakes for a 5^th time. Test number one. Show a fight sequence. Check. Holy shit, they actually showed two ‘heroes’ use their superpowers against each other. It’ll never make up for the battles they haven’t shown, but thank god they didn’t hide it behind big closed doors.

Test number two. Make Claire less annoying. Meh, not quite. We get it, we ‘got’ it three years ago, Claire just wants to be normal. Here’s the catch Claire, you can get shot, fall from a building and get crushed by a train, but you can’t die. You are not ‘normal’. As other reviews have mentioned, and its been teased in some of the promos, it looks like Claire’s ‘purpose’ in the story line is to introduce some lesbianism. The writers are clearly very desperate for people to watch, and willing to try anything.

Bring back the good ol’ Sylar. Test number three. Maybe we’ll see him, maybe we won’t. With Sylar’s body now being used as transport for a copy of Nathan’s brain, we’re only getting to really see Sylar from Parkman’s point-of-view. Sylar is inside Parkman’s head, taunting him to start using his powers again. No doubt they’re are going to drag this out for as long as possible, because while-ever Slyar is not Sylar, but Sylar is Nathan, than Nathan isn’t dead and they have another character to work with.

However, this series is all about redemption, and Hiro’s quest appears to be going back and ‘fixing’ things he stuffed up. Yes, Hiro’s getting his time travel on again, even if he’s not sure how he’s doing it. He’s already been back, and with the persuasion of newcomer Samuel, and ‘fixed’ the moment in time where his sister started hating Ando. What’s to stop him time jumping to a point and whatever change he makes results in Nathan not dying, and thus Sylar not becoming Nathan. If the writers are attached Nathan’s character, then there’s probably a decent chance of this happening.

Mrs Petrelli is focused on rebuilding the company (oh yay…) with the help of Noah Bennett. Danko is searching for Tracey, who in turn is hunting down and killing people herself with both Bennett and Danko on her list. With the help of the Haitian, Bennett stops Danko from hunting down Tracey is trade for Tracey’s trust. Although new boy Edgar makes sure that doesn’t really matter anyway when he slices and dices.

Lastly give Peter his powers back. All of them. When Peter was ‘full charged’ there was the opportunity for some decent action, then the writers go and take all of them away. WTF guys, which idiot convinced you to do that. Now Peter is back working as a paramedic, making use of the strength and agility powers he absorbed from Mohinder to save lives instead of endangering them. I like this, makes a nice change from grumpy Peter. Although as he seems overly dedicated to saving lives I can only see it ending badly.

The question is though, is Peter still a “one power at a time” kind of guy or has he returned to being jack of all trades. We’ve seen him steal another power, so he can still do that, but now that he’s got superspeed, does he still have his agility and strength. My guess is, unfortunately, no.

So, I guess that wasn’t really a ‘review’ as such, more a recap of what was going through my head as I sat through two hours of meh. Dear Heroes, please improve. Thanks.