After a bang up first season filled with mystery, humour, and a phrase that bored into the public consciousness ("Save the cheerleader, save the world!"), it's now halfway through an altogether lackluster third season, itself preceded by an interminable second. Things started out well enough, but by this point we're watching characters we don't particularily care about repeat virtually the same scene over and over, episode after episode, making baby steps toward the revelation of what's sure to be a vast and complex conspiracy thatzzzzzz.
In tonight's show, Peter and Claire have a scene where he tries to convince her to go home and protect her innocence, but then bad guys start closing in and she tells him to run - she'll fend them off. Peter abruptly drops his manhood and takes off. Insert a couple of scenes following other plotlines, then we return to Peter and Claire, still on the run from the baddies. Once again, he tries to talk her into going home. Once again, villains close in, Claire tells Peter to run and he complies. Seriously, was this a cut and paste job? Did some sort of screenplay program malfunction? And worst of all, the episode was written by series creator Tim Kring!
Sadly, I think it'll probably take two more seasons before it's run out of town like a gunslinger cheating at poker, but the show has officially worn out it's welcome for me.
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2 comments:
Dang; I was afraid of this. I've been watching Season 1 on DVD and really enjoying it, but it's been making me nervous, too. There's so much going on, so much being hinted at, that it could either be very awesome or very frustrating.
The biggest problem with a show like this is when all the stuff being hinted at never gets revealed, because that's all there is to the show. Reveal the big secrets and there's nothing left. (Worse is when the writers don't know what's behind the scenes in the first place, so the hints are more or less random.) So they keep stringing you along, feeding you bits and hints and never really saying anything. Xfiles was like this. It's the reason I won't touch Lost until it's over.
Babylon 5, on the other hand, actually revealed mysteries on a regular basis -- but they did it in such a way that either some other (usually bigger) mystery had already come along, or the answer asks three more questions, or there's just so much else going on that there's still plenty of story without the mystery.
Heroes feels very scattered, with the way they're following all the different story lines, but it also feels like they've got some kind of a plan. From what you're saying and what I've heard elsewhere, I'm no longer sure they've got much of a plan beyond the end of the first season. Too bad.
Definitely finish season 1 - it's fantastic, and pretty self-contained (which is probably where the problem started). The ending is pretty satisfying, and every episode is a distinct puzzle piece that's clearly been planned out.
Temper your expectations for season 2 - a number of episodes feel like the writers' wheels are spinning, and they just don't know where to go next - so they don't go anywhere. Also bear in mind that the writers' strike interrupted the season, and during that time the series creator issued a public apology (seriously) for the crappiness of the season, stating that they wouldn't come back until fall 2008 rather than pick up after the strike.
I don't know if I'm even going to finish 3.
It's too bad, because Lost has shown how a serial can be done right - give us a combination of compelling mystery and complicated charicters, throw in some game changers that prevent the audience from getting to comfortable, have a clear idea of the story you want to tell, and set an end date. With Lost, you rarely feel that the writers aren't sure where to go next, and that makes you want to come back for more.
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