Sylar: Villain Makes NBC's Heroes Watchable

While Claire (Hayden Panettiere) rehashes her rebellion against her adoptive father, HRG (Jack Coleman), by way of hair-flipping and over-acting, and Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) tries for just once to not work for the bad guys (Hey, fourth time is the charm), and Hiro (Masi Oka) and his brother-but-for-blood Ando (James Kyson Lee) go through remedial hero training... again... there is one shining light, rather a seething pit of darkness, that still draws me back to Heroes: Sylar (Zachary Quinto).

With the twitch of an eyebrow or an inclination of his head, the perennial villain of the show conveys a thoughtful menace. Certainly Sylar is monstrous, what with with all the skull-tapping and the impaling; but, behind this monstrosity is a curious ethic, an occasional sensitivity that colors his choices. Sylar rarely acts from homicidal malice, as there have been several occasions he could have slaughtered the entire cast, had that been his goal. (I personally only want him to go after whoever it is that decided to give Peter and Sylar eleventy-billion powers and then forget about everything except telekinesis and unkillability)

During the third part of the Heroes saga (Villains) the writers actually flipped Sylar into being a hero, going so far as to team him up with HRG. I was fascinated with the shifting of role. Here was this cannibal who now seems only to want to please Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), the woman he believes to be his real mother, like some contemporary Grendel. So easily is he convinced of his parentage, so quickly he dons the suit and works in the name of 'The Company' that he comes across as a neglected boy, a child in need of everyone's approval. His neediness leaves the door open, if even just a crack, for redemption.

There is a complex inner life to Sylar, certainly more so than any other character on the show, but even compared to other villains on TV. And with very little dialog and a commitment to presence, Zachary Quinto leaves us guessing not so much what is going to happen next, or even how, but his thoughtful stare always makes me wonder why he makes the choices he does, and that is total success for any actor. Getting me to care about a mama's boy that killed his girlfriend and ate her brain so that he could shoot lightning bolts is a high hurdle to clear.

Don't get me wrong, the show is still written at a junior high level, with scenes telegraphing their scenes like mayday calls from the Titanic (i.e. I'm shocked that Peter would embrace his bro and indeed be 'tased'). But it is the way that Zachary Quinto relishes the wickedness and the willfulness of Sylar, the thorough craft and commitment he invests that make the trite and obvious compelling.

I roll my eyes every time someone tries to protect the girl who can't be hurt, but I cheer each time the villain comes on to season the stale Heroes.