So, we rammed through the short second season of Heroes in about a week. There’s absolutely no doubt that it was inferior to the first season. But, in all honesty, I can’t blame the show for that; it was painfully obvious that the writer’s strike was to blame. You could clearly see there was a lot more that the writers wanted to develop but never got the chance to.
It’s unfortunate, too, because I love the “children paying for the sins of the parents” idea. The idea was present in the first season, as Mohinder felt the after-effects of his father’s work, and it looked like we were going to explore it a lot more here… but as it stands it was really only Matt and Claire that dealt directly with their parental issues. There were so many questions left about the previous generation of “heroes” that I wanted answered - and I expected answers, given that this “volume” was called Generations - that left me very disappointed.
I want to know exactly what these people joined together to do back in the 1970s. What were their real goals - how did they intend to “save the world?” How did they find each other, why did they develop this mysterious virus in the first place? I want to know what Peter and Nathan’s parents powers are, and Kaito Nakamura’s as well. Too much was left unsaid.
As for the story itself, it was… OK. As with the first season, I don’t really understand the motivation of the villain here. Adam Monroe says the world needs to be cleansed. OK. But to what end? He would have released his virus, and then… What would he have done after the Shanti virus destroyed human civilization? He would go on, living forever, by himself? And he hatched this plan in 1977! He’s had 30 years to think about it and still thinks it’s the best thing to do!? He would have ruled a dead planet for all eternity! Fantastic. Wouldn’t it have made a little more sense if the “virus” had the effect of killing only “regular” humans?
I also don’t get why Matt’s father helped Adam. What could Maury possibly get out of it? Did Adam promise him he’d use his own blood to keep Maury alive when everyone else died? Certainly Adam couldn’t have threatened him; he can read Adam’s mind, influence his thoughts, even put him in his own worst nightmare. Their “partnership” made little sense and should have been expanded upon.
I was further disappointed by Peter’s characterization. Honestly… why is he such a ninny? He’s so bloody naïve it’s unbelievable. He should be the best character on the show - more than anyone, he wants to help people, to do the right thing, not because he wants to be a hero - like Hiro - but simply because it’s the right thing to do.
But from his introduction as an amnesiac - terribly original, that, and why, exactly, does the Haitian take his memories? - to his falling in love at the drop of a hat, to his wanting his power taken away, to blindly following Adam… not once, the entire season, does he do anything pro-active - he simply reacts to everyone around him. Why is he so naïve? Especially at this point; Nathan and his mother almost betrayed him at the end of season 1, the company betrayed him in season 2, why isn’t he a little bit suspicious that Adam may not be on the level?
Look, Peter is the most powerful of all the “heroes.” He’s also potentially the best character, and Milo Ventimiglia is a good actor. This should, essentially, be his show. But to show him continually following along blindly and not making his own decisions really undermines his character.
He’s also hurt by some lazy writing… after all, he can read minds but never bothers to discover if Adam is telling him the truth of his motives. He has no problem reading Victoria Pratt’s to discover where the virus is, but doesn’t probe further to get her perspective on Adam’s plan? Even after Victoria tells him Adam’s a bad guy - and then Adam shoots her in the back - Peter doesn’t think that maybe he should check and be sure?
It was also incredibly repetitive to have him travel to the future, discover it devastated, then decide he had to go back and change things. Um, didn’t we see that EXACT SAME SEQUENCE in the first season, with Hiro?
And in a terrible moment of plot-device driven writing in the finale, Peter - instead of simply walking though a vault door - decides to open it using telekinesis. What? Yeah. Why does he do this? There is no “real” reason, but it quickly becomes obvious: it’s so that once the door is open, he can fight off the other heroes outside so Adam can go in, alone, and Peter can’t see Adam’s true intentions as he releases the virus.
What’s worse is that they carry this scene on for several minutes as Peter strains and sweats and even gets a nose bleed trying to open the door with his mind. Seriously. Every single viewer is sitting there saying, “why doesn’t he just walk through?” and they’re dragging this scene on like this? It was awful, it really was. I nearly ruined the entire episode for me.
Again, Peter is the most powerful of all of them. Why give him these powers if he’s not going to use them? I’m just very disappointed in how little they’ve developed him as a character.
The second best character on the show, Hiro, meanwhile, does enjoy some serious character development here. While the “character time travels/has to fix the timeline” bit has been done to death, it did give Hiro a chance to learn some valuable lessons, particularly with regards to his own power and how easy it is to screw everything up when you time travel. However - and I again fault the writer’s strike for this - it seems he completely FORGETS this when he comes back to the present, finds out his father’s dead, and tries to travel back in time and save him! Despite everything he just learned about screwing with time, he does it again!
But, Kaito sets him straight and honestly, their final moments were some of the best of the entire series. Guess it took him a couple of tries but he seems to finally be getting the “power and responsibility” lesson.
Thankfully the writers recognized at least somewhat that Hiro and Peter are the two most important characters, as for the second season in a row, it was the two of them that ended up stopping the villain in the end. That was good to see.
And, the confrontation with Mohinder and Sylar was also pretty well done, and made for some tense moments. The final scene with Sylar getting his powers back was cool, and I look forward to him being the bad guy again next season… though hopefully, with more of a purpose than we’ve previously seen.
I think a final problem with the season was the introduction of too many new characters. Bob, Elle, Maya and Alejandro, Adam, Monica, West… I mean the show already has a large cast, did we really need another half-dozen people involved? And in such a shortened season they all felt really crammed in. Hopefully for next season they streamline the show a bit and focus on the main characters a little more.
So, overall, the season was a let-down, but it wasn’t awful, and not entirely the fault of the creators or people involved in the show - it’s the fault of Hollywood politics.
But now that that’s all been settled, and they’re no doubt aware of the problems that plagued the second season, I expect to see a much stronger third season.
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