Media Maven Musings

Last night’s episode of Heroes was a perfect encapsulation of everything that is both wrong and right with this series in its sophomore season.  While I was pleased by many of the episode’s specific details, I was angered and exasperated by the implications these developments had for the series as a whole.  For every element that looked good up close, a set back reveals how crappy this show truly is.  Allow me to explain:

– Last night, we got our first episode that felt fully focused on an overall narrative arc.   We have a purpose, a clear bad guy, a clear objective and a clear path for the final 4 episodes of the volume (yes, this whole thing will be over in 4 episodes).  In what is clearly the show’s main narrative now, Peter and Caitlin find themselves about a year in the future, in an evacuated New York.  Angela Petrelli explains to her son that as the most powerful of all heroes, he must go back in time and prevent the outbreak of the Shanti virus.  Either Angela has some sort of mind-related power, or Peter used his Parkman ability to read Angela’s thoughts, but somehow, (I believe it is the latter situation), Peter remembers that she is his mother and knows that what she’s saying is true.  My favorite part of the episode?  When Caitlin and Peter yell to each other through the fence: “Peter, I’m so scared!”  It felt like the first genuine emotion this show has had all year.  Can you imagine the terror Caitlin must be feeling?  Brought to a horrible future and left there alone?  Truly frightening, in an uncontrived and powerful way.  Nice.

Then, obviously, we had the episode’s big plot twist– Kensei is Adam Monroe!  Huh?  What?  Well, this development has a few implications: 1. Kensei doesn’t die in the explosion.  That charred corpse belonged to someone else.  2. Someone evil has the ability to time travel and brought Kensei into modern times or Kensei was somehow able to piggyback on Hiro’s time jump without him knowing it.  3. Kensei and Adam are different people and they just wanted to keep David Anders on the show.  I have a feeling it isn’t #3, but how else can we explain the other powers Kensei has exhibited, if he is in fact Adam?  Although, it does make sense that he could push Nakamura off a rooftop and survive, if he had Kensei’s ability to heal.  But healing ability alone is not enough to strike such fear into the hearts of the other Old Timers, so there must be something more.

– Tied in with Peter’s plot is Mohinder’s.  For once, Mohinder has some real relevancy.  Last night, we saw two of Isaac’s painting’s fulfilled (Kensei and Hiro locked in battle; Peter looking through the bio-hazard window), and another was set up: Mohinder has the gun and the tape on his nose, so who is he going to point that gun at?  His blood is no longer a viable antidote for the Shanti virus, at least not the strain that The Company has.  What is Ned Rierson’s agenda?  And how does Mohinder fit in to the terrible future that lies ahead?  Very interested to see where this goes.

– Claire, HRG, South — blah blah blah.  I don’t care about these idiots.  I just want to see HRG get shot in the eye.  Is that too much to ask?  My guess– Mohinder kills HRG, and they use Claire to help stop the virus…unless Peter goes back in time and is somehow able to avert all of that.  Who knows?

– Parkman is much cooler now that he has sick mind control powers, but give me a break with that blubbering fatherly love speech.  Yeesh.  Plus, he figures out the mind control powers and is instantly more powerful than his father?  If Maury is strong enough to trap Matt and Molly in the first place, wouldn’t he be strong enough to get out of that room?  Details, details.

–Nikki is easily the worst character on the show.  Always has been.  Her travails have ZERO influence on the overall story arc– her conflicts just involve her losing control, then her putting herself in danger so she won’t hurt anyone else.  Can we please let her die?  Please!  Then Micah and Monica and live together and be a bad ass crime fighting team.

– No more feudal Japan.  Thank the lord.  Hiro did well, won back some of the respect he had lost, from me at least.  He tried to give Kensei a chance to be good, but in the end, was man enough to fight him, save Japan and leave his new love in the past.  Let’s hope he and Ando jump in on the battle against Adam now, as I’m sure they’ll want to avenge Kaito Nakamura’s death.  It would be nice to see Hiro harbor a little anger, a little resentment.  And by the way, when is he going to turn into the badass hero we saw a lot in the future in season 1?  Shouldn’t he be losing that Japanese accent soon?

All of this stuff is gold.  Unpredictable, intriguing, high stakes action.  Great.  But, think about what this means for the season as a whole.  It took SEVEN episodes for us to have a purpose.  SEVEN.  And we aren’t going to get real answers until next week’s episode, which then leaves only THREE episodes in which to resolve everything.  THREE.  Basically, the good folks at Heroes said to themselves “Let’s introduce a bunch of unimportant characters like East and Monica to waste time, and we’ll stretch out about 5 episodes worth of real narrative material over 11 episodes.  They’ll never know the difference.”  And now that we finally have a clear story path, it’s going to be resolved in a month?

The promo for next week’s episode said it all.  NBC had the audacity to do another frickin promo that told me how I was supposed to be feeling, as it promised to answer “All the questions you’ve been asking.”  Shut the hell up, NBC!  It’s so damn presumptuous of you!  Ratings are down in a big way, critics have turned their backs on the show, and yet Heroes still has the cockiness to give us 6 episodes of filler garbage and assume we’re still asking questions about the show?  Just because you have this answers-filled episode waiting for us doesn’t mean you have the right to jerk us around for 2 months, Tim Kring.  If this were a truly good show, like Friday Night Lights or Dexter, next week’s episode would’ve been episode 4 or 5, not 8.  But I guess these writers aren’t good enough to fill a full season with quality episodes, so we have Elle, Monica, the Twins, etc., to waste our time while they think of something interesting to plug in at the end of the season.

It’s this unjust cheating that makes me so angry at Heroes.  It’s like having an asshole for a boss– He’s going to give you a promotion, and you know you’ll be happy once you get it, but he can string you along and treat you like crap because he knows you’ll endure all his bullshit if it means getting that raise in the end.  I don’t like feeling like I’m being taken for granted, which is exactly what Heroes is doing with its fanbase.  You’re supposed to cater to us, Kring.  Not the other way around.

So on its own, last night’s episode was probably the best of the season (until next week), but in terms of its implications for the series as a whole, I couldn’t be more disappointed with what was once my favorite show, and probably never will be again.

Grade: B+