Heróis

Season One was excellent, but the writer's strike Mid-Season Two made for a clumsy unanticipated finale. Unfortunately, the series suffered as a result and never fully recovered with many writing inconsistencies that followed. My rating reflects the goodwill and potential based on the first season and took -1 per season that followed.

I'm writing this review now even though I haven't seen an episode since it got canceled almost 15 years ago. My brother and I were recently talking about this show and it drudged up some old memories I've had for this show, both good and bad. The good: the first season was brilliant. I remember early reviews and word of mouth talking how about how this show was going to be a classic. And it might have if the quality box the first season carried over to the rest. I didn't hate the other seasons, it just wasn't as good as the first. It has an original feel for a superhero show. It didn't have any costumes or anything like that, it was ordinary people reacting like real people who were getting super powers. Some good and some bad. If you're a fan of this genre then give this a try because it's worth a watch.

Heroes was a superhero show before all the Marvel and DC shows took over. While it's not as good as the shows we get now (at least most of them that is), it was still a solid series...especially the first 2 seasons. After that the quality went down drastically but was still watchable. It was about ordinary people all over the world discovering they developed super powers. There are a bunch of separate stories that all come together to prevent a catastrophic future. The show was really popular when it first came out, so much so they tried to bring it back years after it went off the air with Heroes: Reborn. Do yourself a favor and avoid the reboot at all costs because it was awful. This original Heroes though is absolutely watchable.

Well as we all know Season 1 is by far the best because of its simple yet effective premise and endearing characters. There is indeed a noticeable drop in quality in the following Seasons but that doesn't make them bad. I honestly don't understand why the show was cancelled, it still had potential.

I remember hating Season 4 when I first saw it but I watched it again and it's not that bad. It's a very mixed bag and kind of all over the place, it should have been shorter like Season 2 and more focused on Samuel (who is an interesting villain and very well played) so the writers did screw up by having too many things going on at the same time and therefore losing track of the main story. Still I feel the last episode was satisfying.

The concept of this show is about people with special powers similar to mutants in the Marvel universe. And how the characters cope with it and what they decide to do with it. The main drive of this show isn't necessarily the the superpowers, but the subconscious and the philosophical aspects that revolve around power. Unfortunately this is one of those shows that has a very captivating and entertaining first season, but goes downhill from there. It probably has to do with the fact that after the first season it was first planned to introduce new characters with brand new main characters with just Suresh (who is sort of the Beast character from the Marvel universe without the furriness). Which didn't go into effect because they wanted to keep the main cast that become dis-likable and annoying as the seasons drags on. The writer strike could have been a big factor why the show started to go downhill after season 1. I think season 2 was the most boring season of all. Season 3 it sort of picks up, but just about everything is so inconsistent with the story and the character that it takes away a lot form the experience. The 4th season revolves around a mutant carnival and they just seemed to drag that on way too much. And the constant love, hate relationship between Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) and Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) gets really really annoying...Like super annoying and irritating. As a matter of fact most of the chemistry that starts out strong in the first season goes downhill. The story gets poorly written for each season after one that even the characters decisions and motives makes no sense sometimes. Especially the villains in the shows, including Sylar. And to increase the running time of the show, it has multiple story arcs that doesn't go anywhere. One of the most disappointing part about the show is the showdown between Peter and Sylar. The constant plot-holes and tons of time paradoxes when it comes to time travel doesn't make things better. Overall this is a show that has a good start but gets worse and worse with each installment. Who knows, maybe just maybe the fifth season could have been a boost with the world knowing about super humans and might go in the direction like "True Blood" except people with super powers going out into the public. And Sylar's redemption might have been cool to watch. To sum it up it's one of those shows that soars skyward with the first season and spirals downward. I give this show a 6.4/10 because I found some of the philosophical aspects to be intriguing.

6.4/10