Heroes Season Three: Still Too Much Formula

After Heroes Season One, I was pretty much convinced that we finally had the superhero genre TV show that we had all been waiting for.  I had hoped that subsequent seasons would extend the Heroes mythology even further and deliver a serialized thrill to rival LOST on ABC.

Sadly, Season Two dashed those hopes.  Tim Kring is apparently used to formulaic television, taking what worked in Season One and replicating it all over again.  He thought another "slow burn" to a world-ending crisis would work again in Season Two, but it failed, which the Heroes producers have acknowledged over and over again in various interviews.

The premiere of Season Three corrects a few of these past mistakes.  Things start off with a bang as Sylar goes after Claire and finally cracks open her skull.  This wasn't a big surprise, people were talking about it after San Diego ComicCon, and even if you didn't read those spoilers, various TV critics were talking about it, too.  As soon as I heard, I realized that Sylar's attack means nothing to Claire--she's just going to heal her head wound.  Which she does, almost instantaneously!  The only drawback is that Claire can no longer feel pain, which she hates because she no longer feels human.  Wow, is that a penalty?  Sign me up for that power, I think Superman also has it!

Unfortunately, the writers of Heroes make a huge stumble in the very first scene, where we see Scary-Scarred-Peter from 4 years in the future.  Future Peter travels back in time to stop his brother Nathan revealing the Heroes secrets to the world.  And right there, with the time travel element, the Heroes writers have just about killed my enthusiasm for Villains.  Who cares about storylines if people are zipping forwards and backwards through time to correct mistakes?  The Heroes writers don't even need time travel bullshit, they've got the Tim Sale paintings and Mama Petrelli's visions of the future.  Presumably Peter Petrelli or Sylar can whip out a future painting when needed.  That's enough doom and gloom to spur the Heroes into action.

OK, LOST has a time travel element to it as well.  The difference there is that the writers haven't overused it at this point.  Damon and Carlton know this device can produce a slippery slope and use it carefully.  Time travel is used more as a way to pass information around, but the characters on LOST aren't able to change their future.

Jeff Loeb (producer/writer on Heroes) has misused time travel elements in some of his Superman/Batman storylines as well.  The arc he did with Carlos Pacheco, where the Legion of Super-Villains traveled back through time to mess with Superman and Batman's history had my head spinning around by the time that was over.

Throwing that complaint out the window, Heroes is still pretty formulaic when you look at how many things are repeated from the past seasons.

1. Visions of world-ending crisis?  Check.
2. Hiro travels to future and sees world ending?  Check.
3. Hiro doesn't use his powers effectively?  Check.
4. Peter Petrelli is moved off the chessboard to delay saving the world?  Check.
5. Nathan Petrelli acts like an ignorant fool with his head buried in the sand?  Check.
6. Ali Larter slinks around in her underwear?  Check.

I think the writers don't know how to handle Peter Petrelli.  It seems clear that someone with the power of the Mimic (who can replicate any super-power he has come in contact with) could clear up any mess pretty easily.  In Season Two, Peter had amnesia until the last few episodes.  In Season Three, Future Peter locks Present Peter inside the body of a super-powered prisoner that resides in mysterious Level 5.  I keep waiting for the day when Peter really cuts loose with all his abilities to fight someone like Sylar.  I'm starting to realize this may never happen to the extent that I'd like, because probably the special effects budget just isn't there.

The writers also seemed to get tired of all the kids!  Nikki's kid is gone and so was Mohinder's I-Can-Find-Any-Super-Dude kid.  As a reward, Mohinder gets to have superpowers and super-sex with Maya.

Despite all this, I'm sticking with Heroes, and if you really pressed me for the reason under sodium pentathol, I'd say it was because of the cute women (Larter, Panettiere, Bell) but also, once in a while, Heroes does something cool.  The way they presented Daphne the speedster's power, with the speed lines indicating her path, was like seeing an HD Carmine Infantino drawing in three dimensions.  Creating this character as a foil for Hiro was a nice touch.  Nuff said.