The Problem With Heroes

Attention: Spoilers for “A Clear and Present Danger” and “Truth and Blood” (the last two episodes of this, the third season).

Okay, first of all, just typing the word spoilers almost has me laughing at myself. It’s like, is that even possible? Is it possible to spoil sour milk?

And the reader gets a hint of how I’m feeling about the latest Heroes installments.

It’s not all bad. Actually, it’s an interesting path they’re taking. It would have been a lot more interesting if they’d done it, say, a year ago. You know, before Obama came into office and went about disbanding Gitmo.

But, a decided lack of timeliness is not “the problem with Heroes”, in this bloggers opinion. It’s a decided lack of characterization.

I was underwhelmed at the return of Heroes but was pleasantly surprised by the volume four opener: A Clear and Present Danger. Suddenly these wacking over the top characters had been made human.

Peter was a paramedic. Mohinder was driving a cab. Matt was amusingly trying to get Daphne to go straight. Hiro had created a superhero headquarters and established himself as Ando’s sidekick…okay, that’s human for Hiro.

It was nice. Peter’s paramedic partner was on screen for all of five minutes and I actually got the feeling he was a living breathing human being.
Then Truth and Blood happened. Suddenly, we’re thrown back into a world where people can die and no one seem to notice or care…and that includes the audience.

I have a problem with the current TV trend that is, have a HUGE cast so the individual screen time of most characters suffers as a result and then kill off characters randomly. Oh! And when you kill them off, don’t let that actually draw the remaining characters closer and focus more attention on them. Oh, no. What fun would that be? Instead, add new shiney characters to the show that will annoy and alienate the audience because they take time away from the characters they already know and like.

Lost Our Heroes trend. That’s the official un-official name for that trend.

Heroes is even worse than Lost about this, though. Daphne dies and…nothing. A huge helping of nothing with nothing on the side and nothing pie for desert. I LIKED Daphne. I thought she was cute and fun and just loved Matt’s interactions with her. Suddenly, pop pop and she’s down and nobody seems to freaking CARE!

Nathan actually narrated over her death people!

This is the writers of Heroes not seeming to understand the fundamental truth that is characters are not plot devices. They announced proudly that the actors/characters would serve the story and “no one was safe”. Gasp! You rascals, you! You’re so out there and unpredictable.

They just don’t get that characters are what drive a story. You can have the coolest, most relevant, most exciting plot in town but if people don’t care about the characters that inhabit that plot, NO ONE WILL WATCH IT!

The development of the characters in Heroes is ranking number 81 on the writers list of things to do.

And THAT is the problem with Heroes.