Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Heroes Finale Thoughts and Series Overview

The first season of Heroes wrapped up last night - I freakin' loved this show all season long and was kinda let down with the finale. I blame Entertainment Weekly for hyping it up: "Heroes creator Tim Kring, saunter[s] onto the set just minutes after writing the final sentence of the season's final episode, in which the show's sprawling, far-flung cast...will finally come together Super Friends-style in an attempt to save New York from being torched by a human A-bomb. 'The fifth act is ridiculous,'' chuckles the 49-year-old Kring. 'It's like a $90 million movie. It's just...big.'" So...where did all that time and money go? The parking meter prop? I was looking forward to a huge climactic battle at the end but the big smackdown barely lasted five minutes.

Maybe I was expecting more out of it, but two specific things that bugged me: 1) No one checked to make sure Sylar was dead. For someone they've been chasing across the country and they know is such a huge threat, I find it ridiculous to believe no one verified his death. You would think both Mohinder and Mr. Bennett would make sure. 2) Peter can fly. So why couldn't he just fly himself up and explode in the sky? He'd crash down and be okay, thanks to Claire's regeneration powers. My guess is that Peter can only use one power at a time, but they have never established that one way or the other.


I love the concept of the show and the originality they bring to it. Comic book movies try to portray their heroes as real life, but this show portrays real life people as heroes. I really like the progression of the characters. Some characters that I hated in the beginning I ended up loving, and vice versa. Take Peter Petrelli. He started off as a whiny bitch but now he's become one of, if not the, most powerful heroes. Hiro is a great character, too - somewhat comic relief, but a serious threat. Niki/Jessica and DL started off cool, but by the end, I wanted all two (three?) of them to die.

One of the things they've really pulled off in the series is the belivability. Mostly, these people aren't experts at using their powers and they do real world things with them. If I could talk to machines, I'd clean out an ATM just like Micah did. Good job, kid. I also enjoy the aspect of (most) heroes having only one power. I think in comics, if a new character showed up and "all they can do" is fly, you'd be let down. But these are all engaging characters and a lot of the powers are balanced. DL could make himself intangible if Nathan tried to fly and ram him, or if Jessica tried to punch him. So it may seem like an average or lame power on the surface but it's cool.

I'm looking forward to next season. And even moreso, next season's catchphrase.

Sidenote: that commercial for the new Fantastic Four movie with the missles coming at Silver Surfer was totally awesome. Way better than whatever Tim Kring used his budget for.

1 comment:

Tyler said...

I agree on almost every point. The beginning was really slow and there was a weird lull right before it picked up at the end. I didn't think they were going to get the final confrontation in but they did because it was super short. I was disappointed. I'm still psyched for next season, but I'm just a little letdown by the way it ended.

I thought that Sylar escaping was lame as well. One thing, they kind of showed him dying because of all of the people who he killed appeared in his eyes right before he slumped over. Maybe he lost his powers and has to go kill more people. I doubt it, but it's a theory.