There's been much online hand-wringing in the last year and a half over where Heroes went wrong. Viewers who loved the first season felt betrayed by the second, and downright insulted by the opening of the third. I came to Heroes late, watching the entire first season over the course of a week or two before the second began. As such, I didn't see the division between the first two seasons so sharply, but I did see all of the problems the show's fans attributed to the second season—glacial pacing, lack of focus—in the first. I once heard someone describe Heroes, rather accurately, as "Watchmen as written by Chris Claremont." To some people that might sound like windsurfing in Heaven on a giant ice cream cone, but I think it sums up much of what's wrong with the series: overwrought soap opera trying to fill the shoes of an epic.
Here's what's wrong with Heroes: it's grossly misnamed. The characters never do anything heroic. The title of the third season, "Villains," only serves to emphasize this fact. The bad guys in the Heroes universe are obvious: they do things like eat people's brains. Flashes to a possible future show the supposed good guys doing bad things, but this really just highlights the fact that they don't spend any time at all doing good deeds. Clare saved somebody from a fire once, but other than that the "heroes" mostly do lots of aimless running around trying to stop vast conspiracies. Vast conspiracies have their place, but would it kill them to catch a mugger from time to time? For all of its many (many, many) problems, Smallville at least knows to have Clark Kent occasionally save people from car crashes and stop bursting dams. But the characters on Heroes all feel exceptionally self-absorbed, or at least clique-absorbed: they only care about what the show's other characters do, and not about the world around them. For all the big talk about "saving the world," the show is really just about saving the cheerleader. Add to the mix new "villains" like Daphne, who's basically just doing a job, and visions of a milquetoasty future for arch-brain-eater Sylar (the show's most interesting character), and the "heroes" start to look altogether unheroic. The show tries desperately to link the characters to a bigger picture, but they always come out seeming like they only care about themselves. The moral universe Heroes set up from day one is a murky one, and that means it's hard to care about anybody turning evil—they were already halfway there to begin with.
The real problem with Heroes is tied in with its pacing. The characters spent the entire first season, and part of the second, figuring out that they had powers; by the second season much of the cast still hadn't met each other. That's over 20 hours of story time spent on the bare beginnings of an origin story. The entire show, three years in, still feels like an origin story, and it's beginning to look like it will always feel like one. The problem is that origin stories need to end so that the real story can get going. Heroes feels like the middle part of Spider-Man's origin story, when he's trying to become a TV star. There's no sense of a moral imperative driving the characters, no why behind their choices of how to use their powers, and it doesn't look like that's going to be changed by a "With great power..." moment. The characters feel half-written, waiting for a transformational moment that will never come. Until that happens—and it looks like it probably won't—Heroes can never be a good show. The characters are stuck in an ethical limbo, which is no place for so-called heroes to be.
Spot on. I quite agree.
Posted by: Mark Goodacre | October 24, 2008 at 07:33 AM
This is a great analysis. I hadn't quite thought of the utter lack of real heroism in the show. What I did think of, and perhaps you would agree, is that I really don't care about any of these characters anymore. I think a large part of that has to do with their moral ambiguity, as you pointed out. If at least ONE of these characters were worth watching, i.e. were able to be identified with, then it might be salvageable. It is one thing to blur the line between good and evil, but when that is the case for every single character, it becomes pointless and stale.
Posted by: Tony Mills | October 24, 2008 at 10:09 AM
I'm still watching -- and enjoying.
Heroes is NOT a Judeo-Christian story arc. Its creators do not share a western mindset. It has much more the flavor of an Asian plot line (if Asian film can be said to have a plot-line.)
The Asian kids I talk with "get it." This is one of the first American shows they can relate to. If we wish to redeem this show, then the writers could infuse, gently, a bit of the western mindset.
This is a consistent problem with sharing a western gospel with someone of an eastern mindset -- we know in our bones how a story is "supposed" to go. We have a lexicon of 7 basic plot lines. Our culture is so infused with Judeo-Christian symbols and (for lack of a better word) mythology that we just can't relate to a story that does not share this worldview.
THAT is the importance of Heroes to me -- to experience this other worldview, try "House of the Flying Daggers" or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for two films that a western mind can approach to get a hint.
My 2 cents worth.
Posted by: rev mommy | October 24, 2008 at 10:58 PM
I'm still watching -- and enjoying.
Heroes is NOT a Judeo-Christian story arc. Its creators do not share a western mindset. It has much more the flavor of an Asian plot line (if Asian film can be said to have a plot-line.)
The Asian kids I talk with "get it." This is one of the first American shows they can relate to. If we wish to redeem this show, then the writers could infuse, gently, a bit of the western mindset.
This is a consistent problem with sharing a western gospel with someone of an eastern mindset -- we know in our bones how a story is "supposed" to go. We have a lexicon of 7 basic plot lines. Our culture is so infused with Judeo-Christian symbols and (for lack of a better word) mythology that we just can't relate to a story that does not share this worldview.
THAT is the importance of Heroes to me -- to experience this other worldview, try "House of the Flying Daggers" or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for two films that a western mind can approach to get a hint.
My 2 cents worth.
Posted by: rev mommy | October 24, 2008 at 10:59 PM
Huh. I never got into Heroes because they didn't wear costumes.
Your reason might be better.
But I still say capes should wear capes.
On another subject, I'm loving that you just got told off for not being able to appreciate an Asian storyline. Tell me you're going to address that.
Posted by: Erin | October 25, 2008 at 09:04 PM
I completely disagree the show is it's "grossly misnamed": D.L. Hawkins saved an entire family from a burning house using his power (the other firemen just kept his secret to themselves), Ando did try to save Kaito Nakamura even though there was nothing he could do, Niki died saving Monica who also saved her own boss from an assault in the restaurant where she worked, Elle Bishop saved Mohinder and Co from Sylar last season finale and Matt Parkman is still a cop. Vast conspiracies are only Angela's thing; your every day heroes are too busy trying not to get themselves killed (like Micah's entire family) or taking care of what's left of them whenever that happens like the Walker-Parkman-Suresh. The very reason why they become villains is that mistaken sense of responsibility that comes from Future!Peter trying to protect Claire, Mohinder trying to save all of them or Sylar grieving for his only son's death. In fact it's Smallville's Clark Kent the one who should be learning something from them.
Posted by: anonymous | October 26, 2008 at 07:43 PM
Rev Mommy - As Erin suggests, I think I have a reasonably good basis for understanding Asian ideas-- on top of studying Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, I watched virtually nothing but Japanese and South Korean movies for 4 years or so. Aside from Hiro and Ando, I see little that fits your description of an "Asian plot-line." In fact, I think the biggest problem with the show is that it assumes a very Western distinction between good and evil on which it doesn't follow through. I don't think the show is designed to be difficult for Western viewers to understand, though I agree that it's "not a Judeo-Christian story arc"; the religious elements they've been trying to inject into Nathan Petrelli's story seem pretty shallow to me. I suppose you could make a case that the characters' lack of heroism is an odd sort of expression of the Taoist concept of wu-wei...
Put another way: I know Asian religion scholars, and Tim Kring is no Asian religion scholar.
Erin: Yeah, I almost mentioned that. If they would put on costumes, it would be an outward symbol of leaving their old, self-centered lives behind and taking up the mantle of heroism. But you know they've never going to do it...
Anonymous: You said it exactly: "Your everyday heroes are too busy trying not to get themselves killed... or taking care of what's left of them." That's what I mean when I say they're "self-obsessed, or at least clique-obsessed." With a couple exceptions-- and D.L. working as a firefighter is admittedly a good one-- they help themselves, or their families, or their friends' families. There's very little sense that they feel compelled to use their abilities to help strangers.
Posted by: Gabriel Mckee | October 29, 2008 at 05:49 AM
i also disagree it could still be called heroes even if they only begin being real heroes in season 10. i do agree that the story just doesnt move fast enough and that might just be the biggest problem. i also would like to point out they show us these heroes origin stories like micahs mom and dad cousins even micah for weeks and then they just stop. what was the point i still dont know.the best heroes of all peter and hiro and what happens to them they loss there powers. i feel without season one peter whats the point of even watching
Posted by: sam | October 21, 2009 at 02:34 AM