Why I Am Not A “Heroes” Fan
SPOILERS AHEAD
I was really excited — really excited — about “Heroes” when I knew it was coming, last fall. For a while — maybe the first four or five episodes — I was hooked and hooked well. It was fun to see all the comic-book motifs being translated, and the cliff-hanger endings were great.
Then… gradually… the comic-book motifs became the tired, worn-out derivative clichés of the genre. And when the cliff-hangers became a little too much like the cheap tricks of the old dime-movie serials (hero falls off a cliff at the end of an episode, hero falls off a cliff but grabs hold of a tree root at the beginning of the next), they lost any suspense or thrill they might have delivered.
When did “Heroes” jump the shark for me? Well, there were a few trial passes up the water ski ramp, but the actual leap was when Linderman, Mom Petrelli, and Sulu turned out to be the puppet masters… add the old black guy, and you’ve got… let’s see… four 1st generation supers who have been manipulating the world for a generation… like the Four Voyagers, from another, far superior work of meta-comics, “Planetary.” Throw in the catastrophic destruction of New York City in order to usher in an era of peace… hasn’t anyone on the “Heroes” creative team read “Watchmen?”
I know Jeph Loeb has. Way to take the easy road, Jeph… if you even had any creative input beyond getting Stan Lee to play a bus driver and arranging the product placement of your own comics.
Some really lame shit in the season finale that irritated me:
- Peter has a “dream sequence” that puts him invisibly back in time so that his hospice patient — one of the four puppet masters, surprise surprise — can dispense some critical wisdom. “How is this happening,” Peter rightly wonders… and the writers tell us, through the Oracle (whoops, wrong old black sage, wrong over-hyped franchise) “does it matter?” Cheap. Lazy.
- Molly, the little girl, reveals next season’s villain (”When I see him… he sees me!!!! It’s Sauron!!!!”) in a sequence that still has attached to it the sticky note from the producers: “Insert set-up for next Fall here.” They could have taken a lesson from the masters of the long set-up, Len Wein and Gerry Conway, and had this worse-than-Sylar villain hinted at months ago, in little dribbles that viewers wouldn’t have even noticed except in retrospect. If they had remembered they had to set something up for next season in the first place.
- The shape-shifting chick reveals a new power — creating the fake dead kid — when it’s convenient to the plot. Up until this point, we’ve been given no clue that this was part of her arsenal, and so it stinks of deux ex machina.
- Nathan Petrelli arrives in time to fly Peter into the stratosphere, where (indestructible!) Peter can blow them both up. Except it was completely unnecessary! So was the tiresome “You know what to do, Claire!” Yeah, Claire, shoot the indestructible boy. See, if Peter really thought he couldn’t handle his go-boom power, why in the hell didn’t he fly himself into outer space, or off to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, or whatever? He was close enough to intangible man to absorb his power… he could have dropped into the New York bedrock and done a little underground nuclear test. The pivotal, o-so-meaningful sacrifice was meaningless, because it didn’t have to happen.
- Parkman is shot four times, point blank, in the chest, and isn’t DOA.
- Intangible guy is shot once in the chest and is still alive and conscious at least an hour later.
You might be saying, “Dude, Matt, chill out — it’s just a TV show.”
I’m a little pissed, I admit it. Pissed because I started watching “Heroes” with high expectations — Jeph Loeb’s name alone gave me very high hopes, since I’ve read “The Long Halloween,” “Dark Victory,” “Gray,” “Blue,” and “Yellow” many, many times, with admiration. Even though this is the same guy who wrote “Teen Wolf,” I respect his talent.
I’m pissed because “Heroes” will be back next season, while a smart, character-driven, nearly-unpredictable series, “Jericho,” will not. Don’t even get me started on how “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” was replaced by “The Black Donnellys,” which had an even shorter run!
I’m pissed because I invested twenty three hours of my life — a whole day! — into something that ultimately let me down. And it didn’t need to be as bad a show as it turned out to be, if the powers than be had taken some risks, or just said “no” to formulas…
Too much to ask?
My own fault for thinking it was possible?
Maybe. But I won’t be watching next season. Too bad I can’t get back the day I lost from this one.
6 Responses to “Why I Am Not A “Heroes” Fan”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Wow, sorry you felt this way about Heroes. Even with some of the problems you describe, I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
A couple of things:
When shape-shifting chick was knocked out I thought she would change into her “true” form, since she intimated a few weeks ago that her pretty-face wasn’t her true form.
I didn’t mind the dream sequence. They foreshadowed Shaft’s ability and influence over Peter more than once during the show. I didn’t particularly like the timing of it, but there you go.
I didn’t like the Hiro hero moment as much as I thought I would. I wanted to see him pop in and out a couple of times, from one side of Sylar to the other, maybe freeze time for everyone else, etc. and then stab Sylar.
I felt there was a difference between voluntary and involuntary action for Peter. His indestructable nature was a passive ability. Once he began losing control over nuclear-man’s ability, I bought that he could not actively control any of his possible powers. Flying, going through walls (which he never experienced before, so realizing he could do it and then acting on that knowledge wouldn’t have made much sense to me). But a bullet to the base of his skull, already established as his achilles heel, would have worked.
That being said, I realized Nathan would be flying in to save the day as soon as he talked to Clair in the parking garage.
While I agree there are holes, I was still very impressed with what they did with this show in its first season, and how it was accepted by NBC and the viewing public.
And it was a whole lot better than Spiderman 3.
(I am in COMPLETE agreement with you about Studio 60. I loved it. Now it’s gone. And this isn’t even FOX…)
Loved reading your opinions, Matthew! I hope some distance will allow you to forgive Heroes enough to give it another chance next season. :)
re: the shapeshifter: yeah, my wife and I were both like, “cool, we’ll be able to see her real form.” I guess they couldn’t find another actress, or maybe they couldn’t afford a fat suit? I bet Monica’s from “Friends” is still on the NBC lot somewhere… :-)
re: the dream sequence. After some thought, I realized it wasn’t a dream sequence. Peter’s borrowed powers manifest in times of stress. When he was knocked out in the street, he used Hiro’s space-time travel to actually go to the roof and literally talk to Shaft. Instinctual flight response, but not to someplace exactly safe.
Now, they certainly foreshadowed Shaft’s influnce on Peter — he spoke about having a “connection” to the old man to Simone — but what do you mean by ability? Apart from Linderman, we never saw what any of the 1st Gen could do.
re: Hiro: Having him stab (not kill!) Sylar without using his powers was one of the only really good story moments in the whole show — maybe the whole series. If he used his powers to cheat, that wouldn’t have been bushido. In fact, his action of simply stabbing the much more physically powerful enemy showed us that the resolve of the hero beat out the overconfidence of the villain.
re: the nature of Peter’s abilities: It was established many times in the series that his powers manifest best in times of stress. Also, he demonstrated more than once that he had very good control over some of them — invisibility, he turned on and off at will, and flight, it seemed he could do if he wanted to… recall that Claire asked “Why can’t we just fly there?” and Peter gave her a look?
As for the bullet in the back of the skull — if that’s the case, Claire shooting him never would have worked, since she was always in front of him with the gun.
I’m not surprised that the show was accepted by NBC and the viewing public. The highest-grossing blockbusters every summer are superhero or comic-book adapted movies. Hell, even “Ghostrider” was the number one movie in the freakin’ world for a while.
I’m not impressed with what they did with the show in its first season — not when there were better shows out there that didn’t depend on deux ex machina so heavily.
By the way, the last episodes of “Studio 60″ air airing on Thursday nights for the next six weeks…
Haven’t seen “Spiderman 3″ just yet — but I’ll let you know what I thought once I do.
I also thought the season finale was a let-down. Peter did tell Nathan in Kirby Plaza that he couldn’t control his powers, so I guess that’s why he couldn’t fly away or teleport himself or whatever…
For me, the jump-the-shark moment for the season was the messy handling of Hiro’s time travelling and the heavy-handed deus-ex-machina. And I completely agree with the “Sauron” reference this episode. “Insert set-up for next Fall here” indeed.
But I’ll still be tuning in next season, let’s hope they don’t continue to give logic a backseat to melodramatic theatrics.
I interpreted the multiple dreams that Peter had with Shaft in them (when he first decided to try to fly, for example) was an indication that Shaft’s ability was to appear in and influence dreams. (?)
I agree with the connection of Peter’s abilities to times of stress. I still got the impression that once he started going nuclear that any attempts at accessing other abilities were shut down.
As for claire shooting him; when he gave her the gun he told her directly to put a bullet in the base of his skull. It never got that far, but I assume she would have walked to him and did this.
I see your point about Hiro. I guess it was the pregnant pause before the thrust… it seemed like Sylar didn’t do anything on purpose. It just bothered me a bit.
Good news about studio 60 (for a few weeks at least).
Just a note on the “shape-shifting chick’s” powers: Candace was established from the beginning as being able to create illusions beyond just her own body. When she pretended to be Simone in Isaac’s loft — the first time we saw her use her powers — she also made Simone’s real dead body invisible (a reverse of the way she used the ability here). You can see it fading into view when she transforms back into her own appearance.
Later, when she was guarding Micah, there was the sequence where she created illusory hallways to funnel him back into the room.
So no, not a convenient new power or a deus-ex-machina.
Actually, Studio 60 crashed and burned this week. I’m not even upset any longer that it got canceled.