I will admit it; I did not watch Heroes when it originally aired. Back when ‘Genesis’ aired in 2006, I was already being stretched by the long winded mysteries of Lost and the idea of another long serial drama did not excite me regardless of the inclusion of superpowers. I eventually did give the show a chance and fell in love with it. ‘Normal people discovering they had extraordinary powers’ wasn’t a new concept and mainstream audiences had already accepted the live action X-Men movies as a fantastic representation of the subject matter. Heroes took the idea and found a way to make it feel even more grounded in our world; bringing people from different cultures and upbringings together under a common cause. That was season One.
Things never really evolved from there, over the next few seasons the audience dwindled and NBC was forced to pull the plug on Heroes. The fourth season really tried to redeem the show in the eyes of the viewers (going as far as to title the story arc ‘Redemption’) and bring the show back to its first season prime. However a number of issues in the writing and general story direction proved that the show was beyond redemption. The issues that plagued season four were not unique to the season; storylines lost their reins quickly, new characters were rarely introduced and a self-indulgence of series in-jokes kept the show from breaking new ground. With the final season being released on DVD and Blu Ray this month, it felt like the right time to look back at a series that once garnered so much praise, only to collapse under its own weight. So without further adieu, here are my arguments as to why this final season, and the show in general, failed:
Those Pesky Fans: Heroes became a global sensation almost overnight, with a strong following from the internet-browsing, comic-con-frequenting army of geeks. When season two concluded early due to the writer’s strike, fans made their presence known. They hated the slow pace of season two, and Tim Kring acknowledged it and promised a much faster season three. What we got after that was a show that made Lost look like a simple children’s book. Fans responded yet again with even more rage. The writers never stood a chance, they could not please everyone, and the more vocal crowds were far from a true representation of the whole audience.
In an age where feedback from viewership is instantaneous, it can be hard for writers to tell their own story. There are forces from the internet, from the network executives and even from other members of the creative team. Maybe there was no way for the show to evolve without all these opinions influencing it, but one cannot help but wonder just what the show could have accomplished without so many cooks in the kitchen...
Rules Made to be Broken: The first season never really established a set lore for how people acquired their abilities. The book written by Dr. Suresh explained that the powers stemmed from somewhere in the brain, which was why Sylar needed to inspect a person’s brain in order to understand (and replicate) their power. In season three however, the rules were completely scrapped and now abilities were tied to an increase of adrenalin.
This example of not caring about the established rules is not unique. Season two introduced a deus ex machina that could bring people back from the dead. It was farfetched but after a year of laying down the foundation it was believable. Fast forward to season three and every character has forgotten such a feature exists in this world. So when a dead Nathan Petrelli needs to be replaced, they instead use a MIND READER to brainwash Sylar into shape shifting into Nathan. It was a drastic jump that barely worked in the context of the show, and served as little more than a cliff hanger to force NBC to give the show another season. Sometimes science fiction is bogged down by its chronology and lore after decades, such as Star Trek or Stargate. Heroes was already throwing out the rulebook after 3 years, which definitely shows the lack of integrity the writers had to their own lore.
Repetition Repetition: Every season Claire Bennet was hiding her true self from her family while cutting her hand to demonstrate her ability. Every season Mohinder would stick his nose into places where it didn’t belong and get into trouble. Every season Noah Bennet would try to control the lives of everyone around him despite it always failing. Every season – technically, twice in season three – Nathan Petrelli would die. The story beats felt overused by the third season, yet the writers stuck to their guns and continued to drive these once unique plot devices into the ground.
Repetition also came through in the overall plot. The exploding man in New York was a great hook to draw in the audience. Season two introduced a disaster on a much larger scale that killed over 90% of the world’s population – although this idea never fully surfaced due to the writer’s strike cutting the season short. The third season struggled to have its own goal for a while, and even went as far as reusing the exploding man idea all over again. Really there wasn’t enough to distinguish these cataclysmic events from each other, and for a group of people with superpowers there really aren’t many other possible scenarios that would work for the show.
Never Say Die: Reusing those once iconic moments was always easy for Tim Kring and his group of writers – after all, the main cast rarely faced death. In 2006 we saw Isaac Mendez die at the hands of Sylar despite all of Hiro’s efforts to save him. DL and Nikki met tragic ends in second season, but after that it became obvious that the shows head runners were too scared to let go of anymore cast members. Despite dying continuously, Nathan returned every season (how did he ever survive being shot at the end of season 2?) Even the introduction of Tracy in season three was a very weak cop out to keep Ali Larter on the credit roll. Once upon a time, Tim Kring envisioned Heroes with a different cast every season, but after discovering how popular the first season cast was, they became untouchable. If anything, the show became victim to its own popularity.
The worst part about this is the fact that most of the main cast could have very easily died in season four without hurting the story in anyway. Matt Parkman could have died when he was shot, and Sylar could have somehow regained his memories through some other deus ex machina act. Mohinder could have died at the hands of Samuel, with no real change to the story. Hiro could have fought for his honour in the limbo-court room and left the living world with his pride, and the people at the carnival could have just run away faster. But because someone believed this show could receive a fifth season, the characters had to stay alive just so they could repeat their same character growth points for a fifth time.
Useless characters: Most of the main Heroes cast were not envisioned to be sustainable for more than one or two seasons. The build up of HRG’s true name at the end of season one felt rewarding when we finally heard Jack Coleman say to Peter ‘call me Noah’. After that episode the character lost a lot of his mysterious appeal; his name was the final frontier the audience needed to reach. Watching his character fumble around with nothing to do in season four shows just how unsustainable he really was.
Characters like Tracy and Mohinder existed in season four only for the sake of reminded the audience that they were once important roles in earlier stories. Yet they were treated more importantly than many of the new cast, like Jeremy. Remember Jeremy? The teen that could control the flow of life and death? Of course you don’t remember him because the writing staff didn’t care about him and killed him off faster than a Red Shirt on Star Trek. At least poor Jeremy got a closing point to his story, while season two regular Monica was simply forgotten and never mentioned again (it’s okay though, she never got a chance to interact with any of the main cast).
Romantic Issues: Season Two’s love stories weren’t entirely flash hot. Peter and Caitlin proved to be unpopular to viewers. Claire and the West was a little too Clark Kent for some people. And the Hiro/Yaeko/Kensei triangle was too cute for people to swallow. Tim Kring even apologized for the romance driven stories of season two, going as far as saying ''In retrospect, I don't think romance is a natural fit for us.''
But that was not the end of the Heroes love stories. Seasons three and four continued different romance stories, with far worse results. Maya and Mohinder were weaker than anything the series had seen yet. Sylar being in a relationship with Elle took what was once a strong villain and transformed him into an idol for girls to daydream over as if he was a teen idol. And the less said about Noah and Lauren, the better. In short, Tim Kring is a hypocrite and should not be allowed to bring men and women together for the sake of romance ever again.
With so many criticisms to make of the show, it’s hard to believe over 14 million people in the US were watching the show and giving it nothing but praise. The truth is that this show was a cultural phenomenon on the levels of other character driven sci fi shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Honestly, I still love Heroes. I consider season one to be some of the most exciting television to ever be made, with an interesting mythology and some memorable set piece moments (after all, who will ever forget ‘Save the cheerleader, save the world?) If season two had been allowed to continue as it was originally envisioned, we may have seen something even more spectacular.
In the bonus content of the season two DVD, Tim Kring talks about what would have happened if the season had not been cut short at 11 episodes. Without giving away too many details, the creative team had big ideas that would have led to the slow season introduction paying off in a big way. The new characters that were introduced would have had proper time to be intertwined with the established characters and grow. There would have been a cataclysmic event bigger than anything the show ever saw in all of its seasons. If anything, the writer’s strike was a fatal blow that Heroes never recovered from. The long break gave everyone too much time to forget what made the show a hit originally.
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