New Series: Heroes

There is a saying in TV critique “jumping the shark”: it quite simply refers to the moment a show loses its touch, becomes too far-fetched, has crazy story lines and unlikely characterisations ... we’ve all seen it before. Heroes jumped the shark midway through its second season, and its been struggling to pick things up ever since the 2007-8 Writers’ Strike. It’s not hard to see why I approached the latest season with low expectations.

We get new characters from the off, and lots of them - mostly members of a carnival for people with special abilities. Prison Break’s Robert Knepper is Samuel; he runs the show at this carnival and his opening monologue really does set the scene for the first episode. It was exciting to see Madeline Zima in the cast, but unfortunately the dynamic between her character Gretchen and longtime bore Claire just becomes overtly sexual and very irritating. It’s hard to see the point of Emma, a character introduced in the third episode who is a deaf girl who can see sound. It looks cool onscreen, but since when did synesthesia count as a special ability?!

I was really rather glad to see Hiro and Ando back in Japan - the whole thing with their Dial-A-Hero hotline is really amusing. These characters give a show that takes itself very seriously its much needed comic relief. If they don’t provide enough humour, you’ll always laugh at the moments when Heroes just becomes plain ridiculous. At one point, Noah Bennet goes digging through a dead character’s stomach (for seemingly no reason at all) and happens to find a key ... Seriously, how is that even close to plausible?

Heroes still has an air of predictability, whilst attempting to be unpredictable. There are surprising moments, but they’re few and far between. A habit the show needs to get out of is recycling story lines from old seasons - it’s never a good idea. We already know about Claire’s daddy issues, Peter’s need to save everyone and Parkman’s marriage problems. It would be appreciated if the writers actually develop these characters instead of just keeping them the same.

I know I’ve sounded pretty negative to this point, but it isn’t all rubbish. In fact, the first three episodes are really heading in the right direction. Zachary Quinto is, without doubt, the best aspect of Heroes. Sylar is a chillingly good character and perhaps one of my favourite ever TV villains. He doesn’t disappoint in this season opener, and when he appears midway through the first episode, the whole show just seems to pick up. Watching Noah Bennet attempt to be a reformed man but slowly and surely getting drawn back into his old job is also great to watch. Some of the new characters are genuinely intriguing, I was left wanting to know more about Samuel and his bizarre carnival.

Heroes has made some necessary improvements, which is really encouraging to see. It’s still far from being as decent a show as it was in its first season but then again, it did jump the shark... Heroes is in real danger of being cancelled after a terrible third season, and whilst it’s improved, I don’t know if it’s done enough.

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