Oh Heroes, you were pretty awesome, with a few minor exceptions.
I decided to binge re-watch Heroes and last night I finished Season 3. I'm kinda scared to go back to Season 4 but we'll see how I feel next weekend. LOL
I will say this right off the top, the binge watch for this show made it a much better show than when I had to wait week to week. With all the information fresh in my head, I found Season 3 to be spectacular as far as storytelling goes, but I'm jumping ahead and I'm no Hiro, so let's go back...
In the very first episode, I totally fell in love with Hiro and Ando. They were my favorites back then. They spoke in Japanese! How awesome. After the rewatch, I still love them both, but it's Peter who stole my heart this time around.
Admittedly, I skipped over big chunks of Niki's and Micah's story, mostly because I didn't really care for her weirdo dual-personality power thing. Once they got together with DL and went after Linderman, they all became way more interesting. I think the main problem was that the majority of their story was not abilities related, rather mob and crime related which didn't fit very well in my opinion. Also, the majority of Niki's "Hero Journey" was performed by Jessica. Annoying!
Watching the show a second time knowing the backstory for some of the characters like Angela and HRG Bennett definitely made their gray choices much more significant. She got arrested for stealing socks in the first episode and we didn't find out why until late in season 3 but man, it really hits hard the second time around when you put it together because I'll be honest, I'd totally forgotten about that the first time I watched this show. The way the show connected Season 3 and the 1st Generation parents to Season 1 and the kids is utterly fantastic, especially the whole Arthur Petrelli story line. The first time I watched the show, I hated him and his story and thought it was stupid. The second time? Holy crap!
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, again. The main problem with Season 1 is the extra characters like DL and Eden and Ted and Candice and Molly and pretty much everything that went down in Vegas. There was just too much time spent on these guys in S1 which took away from the characters everyone already loved. Characters like Claude (Doctor #9!!) were perfect in that they advanced a main characters story and didn't stick around too long. I even skipped the Hiro/Ando story in Vegas during the rewatch.
The Company Man is probably one of the best episodes aside from the pilot. This was all about HRG Bennett and man what a character he is. So badass. He's the kind of guy you never see coming. Everything he does is for the love and protection of his family and the world. He's morally gray and has no problems being so.
The second big problem with the show as a whole is that nothing bad ever really happened. Everything that "may happen" was only seen in Flash Forwards when Hiro or Peter moved through time. Even 24 had to make a bomb go off eventually.
The final few episodes of S1 bring all our Heroes together, finally, to stop the big bad from happening and it was kind of a fizzle. Yes, I know they were supposed to save the world, but you had all these amazing characters with powers and no huge ass fight scene? Ugh, it's what we were waiting for!! It really would have been awesome.
Season 2 began with Hiro in the way past, Peter with no memory, Nathan is a drunk bum, and new characters (Maya) that no one really cares about and whose story I pretty much skipped over again. Claire's trying to live a normal life but then West shows up--another good use of a secondary character.
While I wasn't thrilled with the amount of time they spent in feudal Japan simply to introduce us to the Kensi aka Adam Monroe character, who they underutilized completely, I understand why they did it. This was also the time of the Writers Strike in Hollywood, so I'm pretty sure this was not the season they wanted. They began peppering in the 1st Generation parents again, and gave us even more characters not to care about, Monica, Catilin etc. The flashback episode "Four Months Ago" gives you enough information about all the crappy side characters to get through the rest of the season, So, don't be surprised that the same damn thing happens at the end of this season, nothing bad happens. It was kind of a reset button for the most part...on to Season 3!
The third season started off with a bang and almost got very, very confusing with all the face swapping and mental manipulation. I didn't skip the Tracy plot because it was probably the first time she was relevant as a character...although I really hated the twin thing. Keeping her with Nathan saved the story line from getting annoying. But the Mohinder subplot was the one I did skip this season with a few minor exceptions when other characters showed up. I get what they were doing but it felt very out of character for him overall. They also did a great job of putting characters together and in different situations like HRG and Sylar, they had some fantastic moments.
I like how some of the secondary and minor characters from S1 and S2 were pulled together for Arthur's little team in a very organic way. The Flashback episode "Villains" was one of my favorites of the season. It basically tied all the main players together in a massive plot that I didn't see coming the first time and enjoyed even more the second time. However, at this point, they totally screwed Hiro's character and made him rather pointless for the rest of the season much to my annoyance. They did this a couple times, gave characters information or abilities only to take it away a second later for "character development" or conflict.
The new group going after our powered Heroes are set on course by Nathan, of course, big jerk, but as usual Peter isn't having any of it pitting the brothers against each other, again. Of course Nathan eventually realizes what an ass he's been, but of it's too late, the government is the new "The Company" problem is they don't seem to care about the good powered people, they want to off everyone! Figures.
As we head toward the end of S3, we get some fantastic flashbacks of the 1st Generation as teenagers and learn how and why The Company formed. The extended Petrelli family, including Claire and HRG come together, heal their wounds and finally all start working together for a common cause, taking down the new group and a newly evil-fied Sylar. Despite the fact that so much has changed, it seems like we are heading toward Sylar as Nathan becoming President...anyway. I'm not sure why they went this way because they ended up killing Nathan to do it which kinda sucked, but gave us a great scene with Angela, man I felt her pain. And again, nothing majorly bad happened as we come to the close of S3.
I'm not sure I'll watch all of S4. I may just watch everything pertaining to HRG and Hiro since they are in the new show, but I can't see myself caring much about anything that happens at the carnival save the last episode, which also comes into play with Heroes Reborn.
Although we don't have Peter or Nathan in Heroes Reborn, we do have Hiro! And HRG and Angela, too, and they are a pretty creeptastic badass team. I'm looking forward to it. How about you? Did you make it past S1? Who is your favorite Hero? Do you wish Sylar was coming back too or do you think Zachary Levi's eyebrows will fill the void?
