"Heroes" Finally Gets Good!

I fell completely for the show "Heroes" last season. It was, without a doubt, the best-written show of last season. It was exciting, the characters were well-conceived and thought out and it had great villains matched with great heroes. There were some very high expectations for the new season. Sadly, the new season stumbled out of the starting gate.

Even the head writer and creator of the show, Tim Kring, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, stated that he knew he and the other writers and creators had made some missteps with the new season. First off, the season started by separating all of the popular character to far-flung areas of the globe. Sure, all of last season was a gradual build-up to their all meeting and getting together, but this season started off with all of the main characters in different places and all over the world. Some of them were teamed up, but most of them were separated. This immediately created problems for viewers like myself. The dynamic created by their teaming up was lost.

There were a bunch of characters introduced that just were not nearly as promising as those from last season. This is particularly true with the two Mexican immigrant characters who run into the villain Sylar and are trying to get into the US. Their powers are ridiculous. OK, so her eyes get dark and start to cry black tears and she seems to kill the people around her. How? Does she absorb their life force? Is she eating their souls. And her brother can get her to calm down and somehow restore the eaten souls or whatever they are back into the bodies of the people she absorbed. So, she kills people with her black eyes and he brings them back to life? It's just not very interesting and seems to be meandering nowhere.

Finally, Kring has admitted that attempting to bring love interests into the character's lives seems to have been a mistake. Claire, the indestructible cheerleader and Hiro, the time-traveling Japanese character, didn't need to spend hours mooning and swooning over secondary characters. Also, the Hiro storyline in acient Japan took forever and seemed to go nowhere before FINALLY paying off.

With the episode that ran November 19, 2007, the show FINALLy seemed to return to some of its glory. There were characters in real jeopardy. The bad guys seemed really bad. There was an apparent tragedy happening to a popular and main character. Then, in true "Heroes" style there was a surpise ending. Finally, Hiro returned and seemed to stay in the modern world and seems to have gained some control over his powers.

Last season, right from the beginning, we knew what the players were going to have to get together and stop. It was a nuceler explosion that threatened to wipe out most of New York. Regardless of what each show did, we knew that it was a step towards the ultimate conflict that would be the climax of that particular storyline. Thankfully, the show, in my opinion, lived up to those expectations and finished strong.

This season, the ultimate threat wasn't revealed until just a few weeks ago. It appears to be the unleashing of some kind of virus that threatens to wipe out much of the planet. Before we got there we had to go through endless hours of the charactet Peter wandering around aimlessly in Ireland and getting involved in some kind of crime family there.

There have been some additions to the cast that show promise. I am a big fan of Kristen Bell and if they would just let her character out to do more, I think she stands to be another memorable character and she would be rather impressive teamed up with Sylar in future episodes. Her father, Bob, is also an interesting character, I think, with more potential that has yet to be tapped.

The one thing we may have to thank the Writer's Strike for is the shaping up of this show. Since no one knows if, after they run out of fresh episodes, if the show will be back for his season, they are making the last fres show into a potential season-ender. There are only two episodes left this season, therefore, and it took until this episode to get some of those butterflies in the stomach and feelings of excitement that were generated in me for this show.

I just hope it isn't too little too late. Viewership is way down for this show this season. I hope the fans will give it a chance and get to this episode. I also hope the quality manages to continue.