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So Long, Heroes. We’ll (Perhaps) Miss You
That giant sucking sound you hear in Hollywood is the last bit of oxygen being inhaled by Heroes, before it exhales in Monday night’s Aldous Huxley-fied season finale, “Brave New World.” Perhaps for the last time.
The persistent rumor is that “Brave New World” could be the show’s final episode, but for many viewers, there’s little difference: They have already stopped watching. The once-powerful speculative show has had a hard time scraping together more than a few million viewers, and even some of those have been pretty harsh about what they saw.
In fact, recently it’s often been more fun to read diatribes about Heroes‘ latest episodes than it has been to watch the show itself.
Perhaps “Brave New World” can change that, although this isn’t the first time all Heroes‘ good and bad guys and girls have banded together to defeat an outsider evil. This time they face off against carnie ringleader Samuel (played by Robert Knepper), a direct rip-off of Mr. Dark from Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Still, Samuel’s current plot to kill thousands pales in comparison to the millions of lives threatened with extinction in Heroes‘ first and second seasons. The show has threatened, and failed to execute, so many people so many times that even its die-hard viewers probably roll their eyes with apocalypse fatigue.
We have seen this before: Sylar bands together with Peter (in the clip above) to save the world. At death’s door, Claire and Noah Bennett (in the clip below) stop hating each other long enough to love each other; or is it the other way around? At this point, it doesn’t really matter. The road to Heroes‘ fifth season goes straight uphill, and it will have to muster all its roster’s superpowers to make the trip past “Brave New World” to a true redemption that looks nothing like anything we have ever seen before.
Before it perhaps goes gently into that good night, let us know where you stand on the series. If Heroes manages to survive another season, will you watch it? Can the engaging heroes of Heroes survive the significant failings of their writers and creators? Or will they end up in the dustbin of history next to superbeings that came before them, like Alf?
Share your Heroes hopes or condemnations in the comments section below.
See Also:
- Heroes‘ Lameness Lifts It to Top of 2009’s Most-Pirated List
- Heroes Stars on Season 4: Deathbed, Yes; Lesbians, Maybe
- Dropping Heroes‘ Dead Weight Could Shock Show Out of Slump
- Heroes Must Get Past Daddy Issues to Soar
- Masi Oka: Coder, Actor, Hero
- Behind the Scenes With Heroes Creator Tim Kring and Masi Oka
View full post on Wired: Underwire
I love the show and will watch it happily until it’s very last breath. Peter as always is the good guy, Sylar has repented, Hiro is healed – all is right! I am up for another season and then some! It is fantasy and it’s fun and best of all it makes for one less lame homicide show! Save the cheerleader, save the world!
I will be very sad if tonight’s episode is the last. Though I will say it’s not an entirely un-do-able option, after all they’ve come full circle back to the very first episode (which hooked me right away). Those of us that are true fans (and there are more than just a few of us) stuck it out through the horrible 2nd season with the writer’s strike and even the jumpy 3rd season that didn’t make much more sense than the 2nd. But the writers started to bring it back in the 4th season… there were a lot of elements reminiscent of the first season and I think to cancel it now would be a dis-service to not only the writers but the cast and of course, us fans. Like so many others have mentioned, there isn’t a whole lot of good TV on these days… there are maybe 3 other programs in the entire week that I want to watch besides HEROES (2 of which also being on monday night). I do agree that the writers need to concentrate on more of the main characters instead of bringing on more people with powers who’s stories can’t possibly be explored to their full potentials otherwise (again refer to season 2). Although nothing is ever as good as the first time you experience something, I think there is still plenty to be explored for this series.
I pretty much hate everything on tv nowadays. Heroes is the only thing I have actually looked forward to watching in many years. No matter how bad some people think it is they’re wrong. Heroes is awesome. I guess it just takes a little sophistication to appreciate it. It is edgy, and follows no rules. Thats what makes it exciting to watch. If you like predictability stick to reality tv.
For a series of this type to survive the characters have to change over time and the writers have to stick with those changes. The last season I watched it seemed apparent to me that there is some sort of war going on within the writers staff or with the actors contracts with the series. Characters that should have been killed off kept coming back, characters that had potential were pushed away to make room for the established leading actors.
There were also several major errors that, if corrected, could still result in a workable show or at least as guidelines for the next superpower based show:
-The main villain can not become the main character/hero. Anti-hero’s are all well and good but the show lost focus when it followed the exploits of the villain as opposed to the several heros whose viewpoint the audience should be following. It’s more interesting when we don’t know what new power the enemy has when the hero’s catch up with him/her than if that new power is already old hat by the time we see the big hero vs villain battle.
-Heroes have powers and they get to use them.
A- Randomly deciding when Hiro’s power works and when it doesn’t is a display of lack of imagination on the part of the writers. If he has a power it should work all the time, or we should know the conditions that trigger it, (i.e full moons, at night, or only when he cries etc.). If you have to scale back a power do it, but don’t beat around the bush about it. X happens, Hero A’s power is reduced to Y and we all move on with our lives.
B- Battles happen. One of the best parts of the show was the first showdown between all the heroes and Sylar. We were able to see powers in action and see some good action sequences. Contrast that with the battle where Nathan Petrelli (kinda) died and you have a scene where we don’t really see any of the action in the battle only the aftermath. If you want a show of this type to succeed we need to see people not just discovering their powers or showing them off to other heroes, we need to see them duke it out and more than just once a season in the climax (unless that battle is ridiculously awesome then 1/season is fine).
-Heros are smart & resourceful. The biggest example of where this failed is when Nathan Petrelli died and claire was right there when it happened. The show had established earlier that her blood could heal others but when it came to her recently dead father the writers didn’t even have her try. Lame. The kid in the movie “The Road” is also a great example of main characters acting less intelligent than they should be: the kid gets one scene where he’s allowed to be semi-competent and the rest of the time he’s a useless sniveling wimp. Not interesting at all.
-Death happens. When a character/villain dies, they’re off the show (unless cheating death is their power). They don’t come back 2 episodes later. They’re dead. If you say you’re going to kill a character, do it, but if you just want to drop that character for a bit to pursue other story-lines then have the character disappear. Learn the difference and apply as needed.
-Be consistent. All the comic-book geek inspired arguments out there essentially boil down to consistency. If a character is good then they should act good most (but not all) of the time, same goes for evil. If a character (such as Mohinder) goes bad in a big way then they should stay that way. Flip-flopping & shifting morality among the characters every week is confusing and aggravating at best.
-Understand & define “Good” and what it would actually mean to have a superpower of some kind. “Good” people occasionally kill other people. It happens, someone has to kill the bad guy and the cops aren’t coming to solve this problem for us. If the writers pigeonhole their heroes (like Matt Parkman) into dime-store novel pollyanna morality they become bland, trapped in passive dead-ends and ultimately uninteresting because you know they are going to stop him from killing the bad guys that need to die before the character has the opportunity. I’d rather see a Matt Parkman that drives dictators insane or coerces your evil corporate stereotype into changing his ways than someone so stuck in a Law&Order mentality to realize he’s the only capable judge & executioner out there.
-Don’t lead by focus group. Nuff’ said.
Moral of the story: I bet you a dollar I can find better writers than the heroes staff.
I love the show. I hope they keep going. Just watched all the seasons in the last three weeks and I couldn’t stop watching.
Heroes may not be as good as it once was but at least it’s not reality tv.
I’m sick and tired of all those hating on Heroes. Clearly! this season is the best season since season one. I’m sick and tired of all the cop shows on television, and this show has been perhaps one of the most creative and intriguing stories of this decade. I think that the networks need to focus on good television, and though heroes lost its way, its back, and i feel this season coming up could be a chance to shake things up. I can’t believe they killed off Nathan, but whose to say they can’t go back in time!
Blaze, totally agree with you. Best Show ever! Love Heroes, Can’t wait to see next season.
I don’t know why everyone is complaining about Heroes. It is, at least for me, the best thing on tv right now. As a big fan of comic books this show fits that formula perfectly.
Would love to see next season. There are very few good shows on these days and heroes definately one of best. People stop bashing show just because it doesnt play out exactly the way you think it should. If you hate it that bad just shut up and play your video game or whatever. Most everyone who actually appreciates a good show after a hard day of work not playing on your computer i mean work will expect to see next season.
The show has tons of potential…. is it the best show available on a monday night… I would say yes… does it need drastic improvement… absolutely.
Here’s were I would start.
1.) Get a little edgier… but don’t go overboard. For instance… let’ actually kill some people (not that I would condone this in real life… but it would be nice to be surprised by a different twist) at the end of this season’s episode Samuel should’ve died, people in New York should have perished and a greater battle should’ve ensued between Peter and Samuel.
2.) Eliminate the following characters… Claire, (don’t ever bring back Samuel under any circumstance… I think I would literally punch the actor in real life if I ever saw him… no not really, but maybe) Hiro, Matt… have them go off into he sunset have a big orgy.. I don’t care but seriously they need to go. The character Claire is infinitely annoying and often unreasonable. Her character is not a hero.. she’s just an ordinary person who can’t die… not fun…. we are then left with having to explore her inner feelings and thoughts… again not fun. Hiro is ok but with all the romantic bull shit and the kid like innocence his character can get slow and bogged down. Unless he grows a pair of balls, the character Hiro becomes slow and dim witted… ok for a while but in the long term doesn’t offer much character development. Finally Matt Parkman… his power is actually very well thought out (get it thought out) but his constant unwillingness drives the viewer to want to see another hero willingly wanting to use his/her power.
3.) Noah is boring so long as Claire is in the picture.. it was smart to divorce him from his lame and overbearing wife however with Claire out of the picture you can really develop his bad boy side and let him lose.
4.) Give everyone the ability to use their powers more creatively and with more style…. my two favorite characters are Sylar and Peter….. give them worthy opponents.. spend time effort and money into making the audience hungry for super power confrontations.
this should get the writes started for now….
Heroes, like any serial takes too much investment to keep up with the bits and pieces. Loved the first season – too bad they didn’t end it then.
But noooo… as any other series formula develop the characters of the ensemble cast (of 5 plus or minus 2)… story lines are incidental – keep the production money flowing.
I’ve noticed Warehouse 13 is Heroes “prime”: smaller ensemble and limitless artifacts with special powers instead of cast and guest stars.
i still watch it and i lover heroes its one of my favorite shows.. can you bring renew a season 5 please. dont end it. can you put sylar and claire together even tho he killed her father but in the future. sylar had a son isnt it her son and sylars??
Ok, just let me say this, and it probably has something to do with the fact I’m a product of the 80’s: One of my favourite things about MacGuyver and the A-Team was their ability to create a kick-ass weapon for the climax at the end of the show. For Heroes, it is the apocalypse aspect. Yes, when it happens a lot -or every freakin’ episode- it gets tiresome, but for a lot of my favs from the past I still loved it.
For you Duke’s of Hazzard fans out there: Even though after a few episodes you did not expect Bo and Luke to collide in mid-air with another car, didn’t you still brave the commercial break just to make sure?
I think I stand alone…I love Heroes, and even if it is less of a spectacle than it was in the 1st season and 2nd season, it can do no wrong in my eyes. I enjoy so few shows on primetime TV that it pains me to hear that this might be the last episode tonight. To me, it’s fun and I don’t try to read to much into it. The storyline has been entertaining me regardless of it’s diminished stature (compared to the beginning). I will/would definitely watch another season without question!
Well, I’m on board for another season of Heroes, mainly for the reason that having Heroes in that time-slot saves the world from yet another drama set in/around a hospital.
Sure this season’s plot has been a bit derivative and loopy, but I think another season would be the best option to give the series proper closure. I would be more disappointed to have this season be the final for Heroes, than I was disappointed by this less-than stellar past season.
Heroes is still a good show with a great cast. But with that said the writers need to scrap the formula they’ve used for the last 4 seasons and hit us with something new. Something that makes people excited to see Heroes. Regardless I think it is better than any sitcom, and far better than any show of its kind. I would LOVE to see Heroes for another season and would be very sad to see it go.
Heroes may not be able to live up to it’s first season standard but it’s still a good show and certainly better than the overwhelming majority of garbage on network TV. Yet for whatever reason it is popular for geeks to complain and criticize the show to the point that we’re looking at it getting cancelled. Seriously, is the show really that bad? No, but it seems to be ‘cool’ to say how much you hate the show or how it’s not as good as it used to be. See, this is why geeks can’t have nice things. So Heroes will get cancelled and we’ll have a new idiotic reality show in its place.
not much will ever come close to being as good as the first season of heroes, thats including all other shows as well, and this season had more downs than ups, especially with some of the episode endings,.. but for me, any heroes is good heroes! it is still the number one show i have to watch as it airs. and i’m a huge 24 fan but i still have to watch heroes and just wait till the next day to go online for the latest 24 episode. good news is, i still believe heroes has a chance to be good again, no matter how small the chance.
I became a big fan of Heroes partway into the first season, but the show quickly lost its way. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the show for the last year. It seems like they turned the plot over to a random permutation generator at some point.