Heroes: It’s Time to Move On

What happened to you in season three?
Heroes

Heroes… it’s not you, it’s me. No, wait a minute… it is you.

Your first season was great, with interesting characters, the right balance of humor, drama, and action — everything you need for a good TV show. Some people might’ve accused you of cribbing a little too much from Watchmen, but hey, if you’re going to crib, it may as well be from the best. Your second season was a little rockier, what with all writers’ strike and all, but you did the best with what you had, and you still came out ahead in my book.

But what happened to you in season three? Your characters started going things that were, well, uncharacteristic at best, and completely idiotic at worst. Your attempts to interject drama and tension floundered again and again. The conspiracies and double-crosses became more preposterous, with each episode digging itself a little deeper into the hole. There were glimmers here and there of that old Heroes spark, but you seemed intent on squashing it again and again.

But I think the final straw came during the Super Bowl, and your ridiculous commercials. A Heroes-themed musical number? The Heroes characters tackling (npi) football legends on the gridiron? If you can’t even take yourself seriously, especially considering just how far you’ve fallen (if your ratings are any indication), then why should I?

Some people might argue that, because you’re a show about people with superpowers like flight, time travel, and mind-reading, I should cut you some slack, suspend my disbelief, and so on when you start getting ridiculous. But I’d argue the exact opposite. If you’re going to use superpowers and other fantastical stuff, the restrictions and expectations should be higher, not lower. There must be rules, there must be consistency. You can’t just throw everything against the wall to see what sticks, which seemed to have been the approach so far in the third season. While this is true of any fiction, it must be even truer of fantastical fiction — otherwise you’re left with nonsense.

And so here we are, the start of the new episode. I got about fifteen seconds in before realizing that I just don’t care anymore. I don’t care about Peter and Nathan’s relationship. I don’t care about Claire and her daddy issues. I don’t care about Hiro and Ando. I don’t care about the Company, or whatever other organizations are making power plays. I don’t care about Mohinder’s ethical and moral crises anymore.

In the past, I kept holding out, waiting for that original spark. But frankly, it’s too late and I want to do other things with my time… like watch that episode of Dogs 101 that I recorded earlier tonight.

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