You watch Prison Break too?

I was soooo ready to drop PB for Heroes this season, but I was very very disappointed with the ridiculous shenanigans of the Heroes premiere. PB has actually improved from last season, but Heroes is the opposite. I hated how everyone's personality changed, and the repeated resurrections.

I think what they're trying to tell us is that Sylar's power is has more to do with understanding how things work (it first manifested in the watches, now has progressed to brains). Which is why PP in the future was talking about understanding Nathan's intentions as well as reading his thoughts.

What remains to be seen (I think) is whether or not Sylar is required to kill people to 'figure out' their ability, or whether it's a symptom of 'the hunger'.

A lot of the problems this season seem to be over compensation for the last (half) season. There's characters on the board who haven't been used in addition to Monica and Micah (Claude Raines, Elle, PP's stranded-in-the-future-girlfriend Caitlin, Nathan's kids, etc.) As far as the No Future Travel, Death for Reals, and Logical Consistancy rules- ye gods, let someone be listening.

(Fanboy quibble- Sylar's power is different from PP's in one crucial respect- Sylar can also ENHANCE abilities and see their future development (Claire's pain), while PP seems to be stuck at whatever level he saw (Mind reading, but no domination like Parkman).

As for more Z. Quinto- you forgot to add "shirtless" to your demands.

Great points! Thank you for voicing clearly the mess that this once promising show has become. Heroes is currently a rudderless ship, going wherever it wants, plot-wise, with no regards to continuity, character arc, and storyline.
Also, did the writers et. al. forget about Peter's invisibility? eg: Claire could not shoot Peter, if Peter turned on his invisibility power.
Not ready to give up on the show just yet, but am very very close to it.

Wow, I don't agree with your premise at all. Nor with any of your "fixes." I'm sorry you can't handle mutliple timelines and characters. May I suggest some asprin? The future episode was my favorite to date. Who cares if it is never going to happen now? It was great storytelling, and in a way thats never been done before! Yes, please make some rules... and then break them! TV needs more of that, not episode dramas that fit neatly into a package. I guess we expect different things from our sci-fi.

One thing you left out: More Nathan. Nathan is my favorite character, and while we are blessedly seeing more of him this time around versus the horrific season 2, he's still underutilized.
I'd rather see him in a relationship with Tracy than having perhaps one scene per episode like last season. What I really don't like is how we haven't even heard one mention about what is happening with his marriage, or even the existence of his children, thus far this season.
The Parkman spirit walk was an utter failure, although i personally found it got interesting when we saw the Parkman/Daphne connection in the future.
Who do we need far less of? Peter and Mohinder. They are both complete and total idiots who don't learn from their mistakes, and I wouldn't miss either character.

What this show does great is families. Real families, adopted families, makeshift families. They need to bring poor abandoned Matt (Grunberg consistently brings the most detailed and textured characterization of the show to that role, despite that anything named Petrelli gets more airtime) back to his unusual living situation and tell us what the hell is going on with that, whether it's a slasher's dream or a buddy comedy or something altogether different. We were never told how that started. And work with the Claire's Two Moms angle instead of doing it for one episode and then having Claire head for the hills. Peter and Nathan work better than Peter and Peter, or even Peter and Sylar. Mohinder had meaning with Molly and when he was working to avenge his father's murder. Stick with the families and this show is great. That's where the real power is.

Bravo! I'm getting really tired of the little gimmicks that they're pulling this season. Yeah, HRG and Sylar out in the field is cool, but so... cheap. It doesn't make any sense. Going to the future. Again. ::Yawn:: Best thing with that was Sylar.

I think the only thing I disagree with is Nathan/Tracy. I really didn't like Niki. She was boring and mental. But the Tracy thread seems like it will go somewhere interesting. Well more interesting than the current quest that they seem to be building up. And I can't get enough of Nathan. The smarter of the Petrelli boys. More of him please. Less of anyone who's name begins with M!

Angel? WORD. Seriously.

And I would love to see more Sylar and HRG. The waffles thing was too cute ;)

The biggest problem I see is that everyone is related to everyone else. The fun of the show at first was strangers growing powers. Now Claire is Sylar's niece, Peters niece, Nathan's daughter, Mrs. P's granddaughter, HRG's daughter... Niki, Jessica et al are all related. Stop the madness.

I totally agree with what you've said here. And if these things don't get fixed this season (I'll be shocked if they are), I'm done.

So much proof that this show is really just a shinier, snazzier Charmed (points 1, 2, 3, 4 and oh my god, especially 5).

Thank you! You took the words out of my mouth (or keyboard). The only thing I would add is that the writers need to develop plots in the service of a single, compelling story arc that takes place over the season. Granted, the actual scene at Kirby Plaza was a bit of a letdown, but everything in Season 1 led up to the Exploding Man moment. The last two seasons have no direction (so far) because there is no central story.

Absolutely NO. MORE. SYLAR. He's tired. He's overexposed. He needs to go AWAY. In terms of the comic comparison, we're now on the third straight year of Batman fighting the Joker. Time for the fight to be with someone else.

Other than that (and minor disagreements about going to the future and different time periods meeting; but then I've always been a sucker for that sort of thing) I agree with everything you said.

OMG. At this point the only thing that will save the show for me is if they finally get catch a clue and off Sylar for good.

The other core issue is that I don't think the creators understand Heroes started gaining momentum when the characters started putting things together and getting SMARTER. So why all the characters with the collective IQ of a turnip?

I completely agree with everything you said....except for Sylar. I wish they had killed him off in season 1, and now he's just so tired.

#5 is the biggest issue for me, really. It's not so much that I feel the show lacks rules, but that half the time the rule gets stated after it's been disproved. Biggest case in point in my mind: Now they say that Sylar's power creates hunger for him. He was powerless for Season 2, so what's up with him as a remorseless killing machine during that time? Or my biggest gripe from season 1: the only difference between the future timeline Hero and Ando observed and the timeline that actually happened should be their presence in it, yet half the people who turned out to be in Kirby Plaza for the explosion still lived in the future timeline. The writers need to start doing some long range planning in their stories.

As for #4, the whole notion that a future self and past self can't occupy the same space and time is nonsense from a Jean Claude Van Damme movie; not a quality rule of science fiction. Strictly speaking, two of anything can't occupy the same space and time; that's why FP and PP are, you know, a few feet (or more) apart most of the time, just like they're a few feet apart from any other character.

Totally agree. Maya's character should never have been introduced, and I am *this* close to saying Mohinder should be killed off along with her. I am so frustrated with his character - not only is he useless, but also how did he suddenly become so reckless, injecting himself with powers in the first place?

I need more Elle and HRG. I can't believe Jesse was killed off so quicky - love Francis Capra and I was hoping for some interesting Jesse (NOT Peter-in-Jesse)-Elle interactions - "Veronica Mars" fan here, just in case that wasn't obvious.

Also wish Claire would stop being so emo (not that I don't feel for her, but I'm sorry: BORING) and that Hiro would grow up (just a little would be nice), among other things.

By the way, can/has Peter absorb(ed) the Haitian's power? Or is the Haitian's power the only one so far (that Peter has come into contact with) that Peter hasn't been able to absorb because it is power-negating?

I just would like to say that while some are dissapointed at how things went in Heroes.. there are also some who are liking what's happening.. Gotta say.. fair enough. :-)

I agree with the complaints about dropped threads and characters and too many confusing and/or boring plot twists. However, the plot with past/future Peter hanging out doesn't violate any time-traveling laws; in fact, there's a classic book by David Gerrold called "The Man Who Folded Himself" which featured many multiple versions of the main character hanging out together.

Totally agreed with Angel Cohn. Heroes sucked last year and it seems to be worst this season. The writers actually abuse time travelling. Too many time travels just make the storyline inconsistent, nonsensical and always confusing. Too many new (and furtive) characters are a waste of time and don't let the show exploit awesome characters like in season one. Just one thing I disagree with Angel: it's good to have again Ali Larter, she's hot and awesome. The mistake is to kill her off last season. That's why Tracy character is kind of useless character. But Ali is so hot and I want her on the show.

I agree with your gripes about continuity - there are so many holes in the plot it's laughable.

And I am perturbed as to why the show keeps so many dead weight characters (Maya, Niki/Jessica/Tracey/whatever, Parkman) around, yet gives characters who a) have a purpose, and b) are almost universally popular, like Adam, next to no screen time, and who they'll probably kill off anyway. It's kind of ridiculous. I must admit that the only thing keeping me around for the third season is the promise of more Adam - if they've brought him back just to get rid of him again, I'll definitely give up on this show for good.

The problem right now is that the show is trying to save itself from a bad second season. They did a good thing by killing off the Nikki/Jessica and giving Larter the new gimmick. The previous character was too difficult to weave into the "global" plot (it also got rid of Micah... huge plus!). They also made a good move by evolving Sylar into a more complete character, as he's easily the best actor on the show.

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to fix a show once its broken. Evolving Sylar means you have to create new villains for balance, and this had led to the lame Mohinder storyline and the future-Claire junk. I like the introduction of the new characters as small-time players like Knox, but they took it too far with Daphne. She's too involved too quckly.

I think the biggest mistake has been not evolving your two biggest heros, Peter and Hiro, from the characters they were in Season One. Peter still seems like he has no idea what he's doing, and Hiro is way too goofy. These guys have been portrayed as total bad-asses in what's supposed to be the not-so-distant future. Shouldn't they be starting to move into those roles now?

I gave up watching after seeing the first few episodes of season 2. I thought I'd give it another try this season, but have been equally disappointed. All the points made above are absolutely the reason, especially the time travel thing (too much of it) and the dropped storylines. There seems to be a lack of commitment on the part of the writers to actually flesh out the stories. It's like ADD writing, in my opinion. Jumping from one thing to the next, back and forth between time, and its so convoluted and complicated. I don't mind complex storytelling, but I want to see real human stories along with the action. Not action stories with some humanity thrown in there. I guess its a matter of taste, but for me what was so cool about season 1 was the way that ordinary people dealt with having extraordinary abilities -the way they incorporated the abilities in their normal lives, while hiding them from their "normal" peers and families. Now it seems every one has an ability and their stories are just so far from reality that I can't relate anymore, nor do I care. Nobody uses their ability in a smart way, and most of the abilities are pretty stupid: freezing things, that fear one, the sound one. I am still in love with the IDEA of the show and might continue watching a little bit longer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Completely agree. What a Waste of Weevil!

After watching the premier I couldn't believe it. I totally agree with everything you said and then some. To me, everything that was established in season one has been forgotten or thrown away. Now, Maya skips off into the sunset and Adam and Maury are dead? WTF?? This show started losing me just before the writers strike and now each episode seems like a joke. Besides, I can read my own fan fiction since it seems to be following a lot of the current plot lines - but unlike the show, it actually makes sense

I have a controversial point, but I think Heroes started sucking since they killed Ted. When Sylar said "Boom" at the end of Landslide, it was almost like saying "Boom! Bye bye good points of the show!"

Heroes is, and always will be, a rip off of the 1986 Marvel comic called "D.P.7"