Lamenting Heroes...

The first season of Heroes is one of the best seasons of television ever produced...FACT.

After that, the show went on a heavily decline. I'm actually proud to say that I bowed out before it was CANCELLED...but that's only an indication of how bad the show got.

So what went wrong?

I could write a long diatribe (practically a novel) as to what I feel were the weaknesses of the show and where and how the writer's took the series in a totally wrong and needless direction.

But I won't. I'll try and keep it short and sour? Because I can't say it will be sweet.

Obviously, the video above is not pulled directly from the show...but it's a lot of fun.

I've been re-watching the show on DVD and it's the only season of Heroes I will ever own. And that's the tragic, miserable part for me. I only love this show more and more...but nothing more will ever come from it. All the possibilities and chances are gone. What could have been!? ARGH.

For the uninitiated, the show centered on a variety of different people from all over the planet (mostly the States). Most of these people had special abilities. I.E. Time travel, teleportation, flight, healing, etc. The vague notion of how these characters had these powers was basically evolution. It was kind of an X-Men riff, where this was the next generation of humanity, born with certain gifts that would eventually become a staple within our own species.

AT THE END OF THE DAY it didn't really matter how or why everyone had their powers. What mattered was that we had a great cast with interesting characters. As the season progressed it was shown that all of these people were very intricately connected in ways that even the viewer couldn't possibly imagine. By the time we realize just how everything is going to tie in together the writer's have already made us love these folks and their various drama's and stories. 

If that's not enough, I'll tell you that the basic arc of the first season had all of the characters coming to terms with their own various powers and having to combat a looming threat (that's actually shown in the FIRST episode - the destruction of Manhattan) of world annihilation along with a massively powerful serial killer named Sylar who could collect super powers by killing those he came into contact with (yes, I know there's more to that, but it was expanded upon in the subsequent seasons, which are dead to me).

And obviously the show had a huge following with the catchphrase: Save the Cheerleader, save the world. That whole plot point captured the attention of the media. It was brilliant. So simple, but yet so powerful.

So again, what went wrong?

Well without going into too many details, I'll just say that the failure of Heroes came from three main points.

1. The second season started a trend of introducing WAY too many new characters. Certain characters hadn't even had proper finishing details done for them after season one, so whoever thought it would be a good idea to bring in new people before everyone that we already liked had been fleshed out should've just been fired (yes, I know that was a run-on sentence). Not to mention, MOST of the new characters were annoying if only for the simple fact that they took attention AWAY from the characters we were already interested in.

That, and, well...they were ANNOYING. That's the first and last time I will reference the brother and sister from Central America.

Yet even then, the few characters that were introduced in later seasons that the audience actually liked were then thrown away...I'm looking at you Caitlin (Peter's romantic interest from season 2).


2. The killing of Isaac Mendez. Here was a dude that embraced his power. He WANTED to be hero. He was tragic, interesting, and inspiring. He was killed off to show that the series wasn't afraid to kill off people (wait for my next point)...yet, this was not a character that should have been killed off. He had too much potential. Sure he was a heroin addict, but he used the drug to paint the future so that he could save the world...if that doesn't make for conflicted TV, I don't know what will. His death wasn't even all that powerful. It was actually shown early on...we all just hoped that it could be changed (thanks to Hiro, the time traveling geek who ultimately failed).


3. The unwillingness to kill off Sylar. Don't get me wrong, Sylar was a GREAT villain. So is the Joker...but if you used the Joker ALL THE TIME, he would get old and stale. A great foil can only be used sparingly because the Heroes should be good enough that we don't always need the ultimate villain. The X-Men movie series suffers from this same problem with their overuse of Magneto. Magneto is an amazing bad guy, but he can't be amazing all the time.

Sylar at his best...in the shadows, ominous, unseen.

Sylar should have died at the end of the first season (and he sort of does). But in the following seasons he's overused to the point that you can tell that the writers didn't know what to do with him. He was bad, then he was good, then he was bad again, and so on and so forth. The idea that this character could ever be good after watching the first season (where he has a kind of Seven serial killer arc) is ludicrous. This happens a lot in TV. You see it all the time if you look closely. The writers and actors grow a fondness for one another and while the writer SHOULD kill the character off, the personal relationship that's happened on set has enabled the story to continue when it really should end.

Here he is killing one of the most adorable characters on the show...such a tragic case.

I mean this guy killed multiple people...INNOCENTS. Not just main characters on the show (which he did), but MANY characters with and without powers who were guilty of nothing...yet if you read up on the series finale, he ends up a hero...with Peter Petrelli  himself (kind of the yin to his yang...in the non-gay way) forgiving him for killing his brother!

Here he is killing Nathan, one of the main characters!

Torturing Claire!

For me, this is it. The fact that Sylar continued after season one is when the show Jumped the Shark. Everything else is just gravy.

All of that withstanding, I LOVE the first season of Heroes. I'm about a quarter of the way through it for the second time and it brings back all kinds of memories.

I almost didn't watch it.

It took my good friend, Tom to get me to check it out. I remember the first season was ending as I was gearing up for a backpacking trip through Europe. I met and got to know the woman of my dreams as I was finishing this series. I can fondly relate to the save the cheerleader thing because some of my best friends were once cheerleaders. I LOVE the relationship between Peter and Nathan Petrelli because it's a good look at the ups and downs of two brother's and their differences with bonds and unlikely connections...so while I loved it the first time around, the sense of nostalgia has only grown stronger as the years have gone on. 

If you've never watched Heroes, I suggest you give it a shot. I did, a few years ago...and while I'm sad it ultimately failed, I'm here watching that first season once again...that says a lot.