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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

TV Watch: Heroes Season Two "Year End" Finale

In what is the industry favorite euphemism for "we wanted to cheap out on Internet royalties so our writers stopped writing and he only had half a season so the story just ends here", Heroes had the "Year End" finale last night. It's a little hard to tell with a show like Heroes just what that actually means since the plot generally goes from one cliffhanger to another anyway.

The second season of Heroes feels very much like a sequel to the first. Some of the good elements remain while several hoops are being jumped to maintain focus on characters who only peripherally really deal with the plot anymore. Nikki's entire storyline feels grafted onto the show largely as an excuse to keep her in the show and while Super Cousin might have some potential, major stumbles like the iPod Of The Future kinda makes it a groaner. The whole revelation that an injection of Claire's blood apparently makes one Wolverine also adds a slew of needless complications. Why can't anyone's powers be transferred this way? Claire has what ... mutant red and white blood cells?

At least the core story clicks pretty well. The conflict between Nate and Peter, Hiro and Adam, and ... oh, somewhere that cop guy keeps showing up too. Least he isn't moaning on about his wife. Heroes still delivers some slick looking scenes and pretty decent action numbers, not to mention being one of the better looking shows on right now. The main plot not only hangs together - but maintains a level of intrigue even if it too feels a little rehashed from last year as well (time travel to foresee a terrible event, Peter being the catalyst between good and evil, etc.)

So while we end on a high note, with the virus plot being well flushed out - now we're stuck with Sylar again. Still unclear as to why the Company left him in a shack in a Mexican outland with basically one person and an unlocked door to guard him ... Sylar is quite possibly the most lethal living being on the planet and The Company guarded him with all the care of a pet hamster. So, gee, surprise, he's back.

Which, while I'm liking the show more than I did early in the season, I'm rather dreading its return.

2 comments:

Winkyboy said...

Heroes suffers far too much from the "If you [name of any character here] just weren't STUPID there wouldn't be any problem". However when it spins its magic spell, specific scenes feel Really Good.

Spoilers or semi-spoilers:
Thank you, Hiro, for doing something unpredictable to solve the Adam problem.

Sylar? Back again. bleah. Not that he isn't one of the most evil baddies evah, but we thought we were done with him at the end of season one.

Hey, can we hope that Nikki's gone this time?

--

Okay, when the writers return, maybe they can make Heroes epic-ish again.

Josh said...

Yeah, several times last night we had that feeling. Like why did Peter pull the door off instead of phasing through? And can The Company have more Keystone Cops moments in it? I'm guessing yes, yes it can.