Heroes (2006 - ?)

First I saw Sarah's DVR Break-Up, and I thought, "I didn't think it was that bad." Then the rotation of TV Clubbers have been (not unfairly) hating. Couch Baron even outed the show as a soap opera. Last Monday's episode was the final straw for me.

SPOILER (ish) Alert: If you haven't already watched the episode that aired on Monday, October 13, 2008, read no further, as I intend to discuss it at length.

I talked up Heroes to pretty much everyone I knew when it premièred two ago. It was the one new show you had to watch. When it went off the rails in season two, I stuck by it, sure that it could pull itself out of its funk. When Tim Kring apologized and promised that he could do better in season three, I took him at his word. As it turns out, that was a mistake.

Last week, Hiro and Ando dug up not-at-all-dead Adam Monroe's (the always welcome David Anders) grave, thereby undoing the coolest thing that Hiro has ever done on the show (other than be Future Hiro, of course). This week, Hiro spends several of my viewing minutes popping Adam in and out of the coffin during their negotiations. Why, pray tell, did Hiro and Ando have to dig up the grave in the first place then? It's time consuming and difficult, and, as Hiro just proved in the very next scene, completely unnecessary. Exactly how brain-addled are the writers that they can't establish internal logic for a single subplot?

This development also goes against the graphic novels that have never have (and probably never will) tie into the show on air. Early this summer, back when I used to read them, an entire issue was devoted to Adam's many wives over the years, and it ended with his conviction that his current wife, whoever she might be, would rescue him. Since he was still down there when Hiro went to pick him up, that didn't happen. No doubt, we will never meet this mysterious wife nor will she be mentioned again. She can live on the Beach of Dropped Plots with Micah, Monica, and Caitlin, the girlfriend Peter is content to abandon in the future. Her family's dead, too!

Adam leads Hiro and Ando to a bar and shakes them off his tail. So Daphne shows up. Alright, fine. We've had a quite of bit of Daphne in this episode, but I don't care. I don't know a damn thing about Daphne, and I don't care if that ever changes. I liked Brea Grant on Friday Night Lights last year, but there writing's not there to back her up when it comes to Daphne. She's a construct, a cardboard cut-out, and she'll probably stay that way.

Somehow, this latest confrontation between Hiro and his "nemesis"* leads to Hiro killing Ando. For real. Hiro murdering his best friend for the greater good has the emotional devastation of a paper cut. No one stays dead on this show. If they do die, the actor just comes back as another character (hey, Ali!). That's what makes this show a soap opera. It's not that I don't loves me a soap. It's that I don't love a soap that takes itself so seriously yet never pays out.

What happens every season, really? Someone goes into the future, sees something terrible, and heads back to prevent terrible thing (explosion/world ending, virus/world ending, formula/world ending) from happening in the first place. It ends with Peter going nuclear. Maybe Peter will destroy a lab full of the formula in nuclear explosion come May sweeps.

The problem with characters changing personalities and loyalties to fit the episode's needs has been around a while and well covered elsewhere (from Monday, for example - Claire wants to take bad guys down, Claire wants to help them reunite with their families, Claire hates Sylar and wants to kill him, Claire doesn't want her dad to kill Sylar. Huh?). Let's move on to the final moment: Arthur Petrelli lives.

Listen, it's not that I don't want to more about Pa Petrelli. I'm sure that it would be interesting to know more about the early days of the Company, what Pa's power(s) might be, how he was with his sons, and what they know about him. There was an arc over several graphic novels way back in the day about how the elder Petrelli and Linderman met (short answer: Nam), which was probably my favourite. It's just that . . . reviving a character that established to be dead in the pilot? What's the point? Let's bring back the elder Suresh while we are at it. I bet he could find an antidote.

I'm probably not at the breaking point just yet; I am getting very close. I have lost any confidence that the show could take a development like that and make it exciting. They've already used it poorly: paralyzing Angela. She's one of the good (read: interesting to watch) characters! Maybe Elle can come back and zap her out of it. Sigh. I miss Kristen Bell.

*Which, Hiro is supposed to be my age, if not older, right? Adults do not talk this way. The time gap between Hiro and Future Hiro is closing, but the personality gap remains vast.