Heroes Season 4

So Heroes premiered on Monday and I completely missed it. What was I doing with my time? I was watching House...I know bad nerd, but begrudgingly I must admit I made the better decision with House. Now I’m not saying that Heroes was bad, it was fine, I’m just saying it wasn’t anything special. The fourth season kicked off with Claire going to college and trying to be a normal kid, Hiro desperately trying to achieve hero status again, a mysterious new character named Samuel, and of course the ever looming return of Sylar. The show introduced a handful of characters, but the only one worth mentioning is Samuel and even after the the two hour premiere all we know is that his power allows him to control ink and that he has some kind of scheme up his sleeve.

There were two things about the premiere that I had beef with.

1. It was soooo mediocre-Like I said, the show wasn’t anything to write home about. No startling revelations or a horrifying vision of the apocalypse to mull over, just a lot of loose ends for the viewer to try and interpret. I know the show got a lot of flack because of its crazy story lines and many people blamed the ridiculous plot as the cause behind the show’s lowered ratings, but the craziness is what made the show standout. As for the reason behind the dwindling ratings, I don’t think it was the schizophrenic story that turned people away, I believe it was the poor character development that left people scratching their heads. I mean seriously, they sent that Irish woman from season two into the future and then forgot about her. What happened to her, is she dead because that future doesn’t exist anymore? And lets not forget the wonder twins fiasco, didn’t everyone want them to die because they were utterly useless. If the writers had bothered to make those characters interesting fixtures instead of convenient plot devices I think the show would have done a lot better.
2. No focus-Heroes is suffering from X-Men movies-itus. Basically, the writers (or whoever makes these kind of decisions) are cramming way too many characters into the show; to compensate for the excess of people, the writers created extra mini plots that feel diluted and are ultimately inconsequential when compared to the main thrust of the series which is stop the bad guy. If the creators focused on two or three seemingly divergent plots (instead of the five that I’ve already counted) then the audience wouldn’t feel like the show was jerking them around just because it can.

What I’ve learned from watching Top Chef is that too many ingredients can ruin a dish, but if you can stick to some classic flavors you wont be in the bottom three. If Heroes really wants to stay on top it should stick to basics by adding depth to its characters and writing plots that have a meaningful impact on the story as a whole.