Thanks to the magic of TiVo, I caught up with what will probably be the Season Finale of Heroes, which is the latest casualty of the WGA strike. No more episodes have been produced, but as a ever-wavering fan of the show, I actually think that the strike might be a good thing for it, in terms of quality.
Here’s the thing that has always driven me nuts about Heroes: it acts as if it is a much much better show than it actually is, and Monday’s Finale was a microcosm of that.
[WARNING: there are spoilers for the Season Finale after the jump]
On one hand, we had some pretty good suspense surrounding just when dumb-ass Peter Petrelli would come to his senses. Naturally, it was a) at the very last possible second and b) thanks to the usual hoyay with his brother. Also good was the beginning of Elle’s transition into a good guy (someone get that actress her own show!) and HRG’s revealing himself to his family only to turn around and break up with them.
However, we still had to deal with lame pointless subplots like that entire New Orleans sequence; and I was taken out of the reveal of Adam Monroe’s fate by wondering exactly how Hiro accomplished it in the first place. And OMG! if I have to see that annoying black oil tears chick cry again . . . I think that Sylar was speaking for the audience when he shot her.
Worst of all was the shooting of Nathan Petrelli. You wanna know why Nathan Petrelli was shot? It wasn’t that he was going to out The Company to the world, but rather a natural reaction to that poorly, poorly written Mohinderish speech he was giving. Even worse was that cheese-filled flashback montage they showed while he was giving it. YOU KNOW WHAT? WE’VE SEEN THE SHOW! However, its scenes like that one that have caused fewer and fewer of us to watch it.
Uh, also, neither Parkman nor Peter could read the mind of the shooter? Wouldn’t they be looking out for exactly that in the first place? It’s the selective application of their powers in order to drive the plot that drives me nuts about this show.
Oh, and I think that West shot him.
So I know it’s pencils down and everything, but maybe the Heroes writers could take this time to reflect on the mistakes of this season, and — subconsciously, of course — start coming up with some more interesting stories for the third season.
Finally: Universal? When you put out the box set of this season, it better be at a discounted price. Thanks!