Why people should stop watching Heroes on NBC.

I quickly mentioned at the end of my last blog entry that Heroes is whack. I'd like to further that comment after last night's terrible episode. Now before I thrash the show, let me explain that I too, was once a heroes fan. Season 1 was great! And at the time, it was clearly a great new show. But here we are 2 seasons later, and what have we accomplished from the show?

Well, our main villain (Sylar) started out evil. Then the heroes had a chance to kill him at end of season 1, but didn't. Nonetheless, they averted the catastrophe of NYC blowing up in a nuclear explosion (more on that later). So Sylar escapes, and soon we realize...maybe he's actually good. But then, NBC tell sus he's evil again. Then this season, again, he flip flops each week between good and evil and now he's basically a side character, and no longer the antagonist of our show (despite the fact that he is easily the strongest of all the superpowered people). Then let's talk about the Heroes plot. Sounds simple enough....a bunch of superpowered heroes out to save the world. But save it from what? Season 1: Big Explosion that will cause the future to be bleak for superpowered people. Evil Corporation hunting heroes. Conclusion: Big explosion averted...world saved. Season 2: Bad virus that will give powers to regular people and cause the future to be bleak for superpowered people. Conclusion: Virus destroyed. Evil Corporation destroyed. World saved. Season 3: Heroes and Villains each responsible for future to be bleak for superpowered people (sound familiar yet)because evil corporation (government) is on the hunt for them *cough cough X-MEN cough cough*. Conclusion: Not yet determined, but will have something to do with an explosion of big city (this sounds familiar too).

On top of the fact that the plot seems to be replaying like a broken record, at least the episodes are entertaining right? Wrong. Heroes will go 2 or 3 or 5 episodes in a row in which the plotline/story does not progress at all. Instead, these episodes are filled with "filler" content...usually in the form of flashback backstories. Now in any other show such as Prison Break, Lost, etc. these types of flashbacks are great...they give us insight as to why things are happening or will soon happen. They also usually happen one scene or one episode at a time before returning us to the regular story so we can understand how it all ties together. In heroes? Well, we'll go through 50-55 minutes of flashbacks every week to learn more detailed information about stuff we already knew....without moving forward at all. Then in the last 5 minutes of every episode, there will be some kind of teaser scene that hints at some major change in plot...which means nothing to us as viewers because a) we have no idea what the plot of heroes is because it never moves forward...and when it finally does, the show scraps the idea completely and restarts and b)any major change in plot means nothing to us because it's something we've already seen.

To prove my point, let's look at major themes of heroes over the past 2 seasons.
-Heroes are villains and villains are heroes. Sylar, he's bad, then he's good, then he's bad, now he's good again. All the while, he's barely used in the show despite the fact he's easily the most powerful of all the "heroes". HRG (horn-rimmed-glasses aka Claire's father) is also evil, then good, and now evil again. We could care less though, because the plot of heroes has jumped back and forth on these "villains" so many times, everyone is just waiting to see if the story will ever move forward.
-The evil corporation. Makes sense, it's the age old comics plot. A bunch of heroes (or mutants if you know what I mean) is battling an evil corporation (Primatech - The Company, Pinehearst, and now the Government) who wants to capture "special" people. Only problem here, is that we never get any resolution on this. Season 1 builds up to a confrontation between heroes. That was good. Season 2 led to take down of evil corporation. That was ok. Season 3, a new corporation pops up...and somehow the heroes take it down quickly again. Ok, a little repetitive, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Halfway through season 3, 2 evil corps down, let's spawn a third one. Ok this is getting ridiculous, can we please stop repeating stuff and actually move forward with this show?
-Characters. Anyone else think the characters in this show suck? Peter and Sylar should be awesome...considering their abilities. We saw how awesome someone with that skill could be (Peter's father)...but what does the show do? It kills off the one cool guy who actually used his potential. Then we have this whole army of characters that we spend time developing and learning about...only to have the show drop them off completely (Nikki/Jessica/Tracy, Black Chick in New Orleans, Maya, Micah). Furthermore, there's this whole future-telling artist thing. First we have Isaac in season 1. He gets killed. No more predictions right? Wrong. Then we meet this African guy with the same powers. But he also gets killed. No more predictions now, right? Wrong. Now, Parkman (our mind-reader) somehow gets the ability to paint the future too (does that make sense to anyone) and he paints things. Make sense? No. Lame plot? Yes. And I'm not even gonna get started on Hiro Nakamura. Easily the most entertaining character in the show because of his jovial and naive personality...the writers of the show decided that in season 1, he should get lost in time. Then season 2, he should go back in time, and not have any impact on the plot whatsoever. When he finally returns with his idol, we are teased into the fact that he may be useful to the plot...only to find out that's not true because Adam Monroe (aka Takezo Kensei is killed). Season 3, they decide to just take Hiro's powers away all together.

All this being said, Heroes has lost all appeal to me. The show sucks, it's week after week of repetitive filler...with no plot development, no character development, and no exciting plot twists aside from the ones it keeps repeating. It is also responsible for Prison Break being cancelled cuz Fox was too stupid to put PB on at the same time as Heroes. PB was a much more exciting show, and even though it should've ended soon, its early cancellation is a terrible shame. I can't wait for Fox to air the 4 remaining episodes of Prison Break that have already been filmed, because even with no story resolution, I'm sure those 4 episodes will be vastly more entertaining than Heroes. I used to think Mondays were the best because of all the great television online...but now I have no desire to watch anymore. If it wasn't for How I Met Your Mother, I'd have to reason to watch any tv on Mondays anymore.

Heroes blows. Lost rules.

Revisions

It's always a coinflip when something you enjoy or love, is given a newer, upgraded look. Sometimes it's a complete failure: remaking a classic movie, or musicians trying to reinvent themselves by doing a new type of music. But every once in a while, the new mod is something fantastic.

Yesterday, I went out and bought Street Fighter IV for my PS3. Anyone who's over the age of 10 likely knows about the classic that is Street Fighter 2. It was the game that spawned a generation of arcade fighting games. I remember fondly going to arcades in shopping malls as a child (which are basically dead thanks to consoles and online gaming) and putting my quarter on the screen of my favorite arcade games to claim "I'm next to play." Street Fighter was one of those games that consistently had huddles of players every time a new version was released. Since purchasing the game yesterday, all I can say is that my thumb is very sore today.

But there are many other great remakes besides Street Fighter. Take Neil Patrick Harris for instance. For those of us who remember the 80's, he will always be remembered for his breakout role as Dr. Doogie Howser M.D. Younger generations will likely remember him for playing a male-chauvanistic version of himself in the Harold and Kumar movies. But those who are TRUE NPH fans likely appreciate him most in his role as Barney Stinson on the popular sitcom "How I Met Your Mother". This is one of my favorite sitcoms to watch on tv, and I owe all of that to NPH. He is AWESOME.

How I Met Your Mother: Mondays at 8:30 PM on CBS....right before the whack-ass Heroes.