Oh, Heroes. You gave it your best shot. Really, you did. But after last night's finale, I think it's safe to say you'll never be as good as you were in your first season.
I liked you at first. I really did. You had some good actors (most of whom were fairly easy on the eyes), several interesting characters, a cool premise, and a kick-ass villain. You were never as good as Lost, no matter how many people insisted you were (ahem), but you weren't bad, and you were certainly a fun popcorn show.
That was then.
Flash forward three years. We've been to the future (and left a character there!!) and been to the past (feudal Japan, anyone? No? Didn't think so). We've gone through, like, five different versions of Ali Larter. Sylar's had three sets of potential parents, and he's killed more characters than I can count (and yet the show still treats him as its protagonist; more on that in a minute). Characters have gained powers, lost powers, gained new powers, and gained their old powers back. Seriously. Can anyone remember who has what power anymore? Because the writers sure don't.
And that's what it boils down to. The writers are lazy, don't care, aren't paying attention, whatever. On a show like this, the writers (or someone) needs to maintain some kind of continuity. If you establish things two years ago, only to disregard them when it seems convenient to what you're doing now, nothing means anything. You can't write a show like this by the seat of your pants. You have to create a plan, and stick to the plan. Lost's storytelling is currently paying off in spades, because the writers made a plan and have been following that plan for five seasons, and now everything that they've set up is falling into place at last, and it's rewarding for the viewers. On Heroes, the writers are just like, "Wouldn't it be cool if we turned Mohinder into The Fly for a few episodes! Yeah, that's frickin' AWESOME!"
There are several major problems that Heroes has that irk me. Several easily fixable problems. Even if they bothered to fix them, I'm still not sticking around to see the result. I come here to eulogize a show which in the beginning had promise, and now is just an EPIC FAIL.
1. It's time to clean house. Aside from Claire, Peter, and their families (the Bennets and the Petrellis), everyone else on the show is dull, uninteresting, and has worn out their welcome. Hiro used to be cute and fun and lighten up every scene, but now he's just sad and dreary. Ando can't act his way out of a paper bag. Mohinder's useless. Matt ought to change his name to Mary Sue. And Sylar. This character is such a big problem he'll get his own number. And Nathan . . . WTF? You could kill off any character you wanted, and you choose the hotness of Adrian Pasdar? Ugh.
2. Kill off Sylar. It's a credit to Zachary Quinto that the character is even bearable at all, with the jarring inconsistencies being thrown at him every episode. "Oh, Elle, I love you . . . NOW DIE!!" The character has become too powerful, and has no weaknesses to speak of. And he is the only character, hero or villain, whose plans, more often than not, succeed. If a show is called Heroes, its most successful character cannot be its villain. Think about it. Every time there's a showdown, the heroes take out Sylar momentarily, but he always comes back. They never even make sure he's really, truly dead. It's just absurd. It's time to end the character.
3. Use the ridiculous amounts of money being thrown at you to show an actual battle. Seriously? Peter and Nathan team up to take down Sylar, and all we see is Claire watching through a crack in the door? Was anyone else reminded of the Season 1 finale, when everyone came together for the epic battle, and it was over in like thirty seconds? Come on, y'all, it's a show about people with super powers. Why do all the fight scenes suck? Did you waste all your budget on the Sylar-cutting-people's-heads-open scenes? 'Cuz there seems to be at least two of those every week.
4. Don't ignore established facts. This is the biggie. In Season 2, amnesiac Peter and his Irish girlfriend traveled to the future. They were separated, and she was left behind. Since then, there's never been a single mention of her. An entire character, someone Peter supposedly cared about, lost forever. Similarly, Mr. Bennet was shot in the face by Elle. He was hooked up to an IV of Claire's blood and resurrected. Now Sylar kills Nathan and it's conveniently forgotten than Claire's blood can heal, so we cook up this cockamamie scheme where Matt brainwashes Sylar into thinking he's Nathan so that he can continue to promulgate the supers' agenda. Or something. That's just stupid. Also, the entire first season was about "Save the cheerleader, save the world." Of course you remember. Well, they saved the cheerleader then, only for Sylar to come and take her power anyway in the beginning of Season 3, completely wiping out everyone's efforts to keep that from happening back in the day.
Ugh. Need I go on? No, I really don't. Goodbye, Heroes. It's been fun . . . occasionally. Even when I felt my IQ slipping away with each new episode.
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