Around this time last year, I and millions of other fans were excited about the Heroes season two premiere. The first season was pretty amazing, usually well-written, sported a great cast, and generally convinced everyone it was made of awesome. The season-long storyline, the inclusion of many women and people of color, and the geeky X-Men homages made the audience eager for more.
But what we got in season two was a steaming pile of crap. It took most people a little while to realize it, as each episode revealed more horrors and systematically dismantled much of what was good about the first season. The writer’s strike put an early end to the mess and creator Tim Kring seemed to recognize what was not working. So it was with cautious optimism that I began Heroes season three, which premiered on Monday. We were treated to two episodes — a whole two hours of Heroes.
Two hours I will never get back.
Season two ended on a dramatic note — Nathan Petrelli shot by an unknown assailant! Season three began with another shocker — the unknown assailant was Peter Petrelli… from the future! Oh here we go again. And the heart-wrenching scene where Nathan dies in the hospital and Future!Peter kisses him goodbye would have been more tension-y had the audience not known full well that Nathan was not going to be dead. We were mostly tipped off by his picture all over the promotional materials. But even if that had not been so, this is Heroes, the show where white male cast members never die for good.
Think about it. Who died in season one? Issac Mendez, Simone Deveaux, Eden McCain. Simone’s death was particularly egregious because it happened because she was an object of jealousy and it was quickly tossed aside. Essentially she was there to further the emotional development of Peter (a white dude) and to push Issac toward fulfilling some destiny by sacrificing himself to Sylar (another white dude). Why did Issac have to die? Eden had mostly run her course as a character, true, but so have Peter and Sylar and Noah Bennet…
Season two brought us the deaths of D.L. Hawkins, Alejandro Herrera, Candice, and Kaito Nakamura. All of these people are dead for good, never to return (except on video). The anger I felt at the way the show discarded D. L. in yet another pointless death cannot be conveyed in words. And I wonder why Maya gets to stick around when Alejandro does not?
The people of color who made it out of season two alive should hope they don’t stand near any important white people (like Claire, Peter, or Nathan), otherwise their lives are in danger. The only characters that seem immune to this are Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder. Hiro is too popular to kill, though I worry for Ando. And Mohinder is the show’s grounding character, so he can’t go anywhere. (Plus, he does all the cheesy end monologues. Who would do them once he’s gone??)
The only two major white and male characters to sleep the permanent sleep were Ted Sprauge and Linderman. And, oh look, Linderman has returned to us! In ghost/hallucination form, at least. Man, white guys never really die.
Still, if that were the only annoying thing about these episodes, it wouldn’t be so bad. I was really hoping that Heroes would get its mojo back what with the many, many months they had to think about ways to make the show better. But the problems just kept coming.
Overall, the episodes did not strike a good balance between creating mystery and a desire to learn more and confusing the hell out of the audience. For example, the last time we saw Nikki Sanders she was all blowed up in New Orleans. Given that she’s such a popular character, I did not expect her to be dead. But a woman who looks just like her has, apparently, been hanging out in New York for quite a while. She can’t be Nikki. Plus, she has a different power. Is she Jessica? Is she a third twin no one knew about? Is she just a look-alike? I really can’t bring myself to care. The way everything unfolded was too messy and did not evoke mystery, just annoyance.
Once again, we’re going to get a whole storyline focused on how “special” and “unique” Claire is with bonus stuff about how her blood is “pure” and full of “light”. My eyes roll forever, people.
The secret formula that could destroy the world? Should have been much, much harder to find. And Hiro’s naiveté, though once charming, has now become ridiculous. There’s no reason he couldn’t have taken the formula back from that girl the first time except that the writers made it so he did not. And yet again, Hiro pops into the future, sees a great cataclysm, and pops back to put an end to it. (yawn) Wake me when season one ends?
On top of the plot weaknesses, there’s the bad characterization. Matt gets teleported to the desert (in Africa… readers, I groaned aloud) and meets an enigmatic black man who knows more than he lets on and will possibly become key to the plot but will probably never get a name of his own. They’ll probably keep referring to him as “The Shaman” or something.
Mohinder injects himself with a magical serum and gains the power of super strength, super agility, and SuperFly. Seriously. I thought I was watching Spider-Man 3 what with the evil venom taking Mohinder over, causing him to be reckless, stupid, and ready to shag the first woman who walks in the room. They even made a point, early in the first episode, of showing Mohinder chastely remove his hands from Maya’s arms even though she clearly had no problem with it. The writers were obviously trying to build up some sexual tension. But you know those brown men, they are either very carefully celibate or raging horn dogs!
One thing about this show I started to understand at the end of season one and now fully grok at the beginning of season three is that it’s really about two people: Peter and Sylar. Sadly, these are the two most boring people on the planet. Peter is either emo, or angry and emo. He is forever whining or looking pouty and trying to fix his past mistakes yet refusing to learn from them.
Sylar is the most banal evil dude I’ve ever seen on my TV. And to discover that all this time he hasn’t even been eating the brains? That’s the only thing that made him vaguely interesting. Ever since we leaned his backstory he has gone downhill in the scary, menacing, and interesting departments. Now his continued presence is just gratuitous, and I don’t think there’s any way for the writers to salvage that. Yes, even the shocking! reveal that Angela Petrelli is his mother indicates nothing more than desperation.
I get that Peter and Sylar are meant to be mirrors of each other — one who passively absorbs power and is good enough not to use it for evil and one who takes power by force, making him more and more evil in the process. That was interesting for one storyline. It’s over now. Let it go.
Heroes season three is DOA. But just like a handsome white guy, it will keep coming back again, and again, and again.
1 • Willis Couvillier said:
September 24th, 2008 at 2:16 pm, permalink
As always, very interesting article, Tempest. However, I was really distracted from the righteous anger depicted by all the instances of “white”, “brown”, “black”, etc, used to describe the characters. When I saw the show all I saw was people and a regurgitated storyline that had me shaking my head at times.
Secret message in the Easy-(un)Lock safe: anyone else out there feel this refers to the illegal with the soul-zapping stare? And hey, isn’t Hiro sitting in his sister’s chair here?
Spiderman 3? Not too sure about this reference here. I had flashbacks of Goldblum’s The Fly remake more than Venom from Spiderman.
I may see how the story’s plot lacks and groan when moments like that pop up, but it is still interesting and entertaining. Heck, I’ll keep watching just to see what happened to the tech kid and the computer-education-through-absorbtion chick. They were way interesting and notable — and I think they are going to be essential in this story to find out the truth about Nikki.
2 • Lane said:
September 24th, 2008 at 2:43 pm, permalink
Oh darn, I forgot Heroes started again and missed it!
Oh wait, I don’t really care anymore. Thanks for the recap to further justify my non-wasted hours.
3 • DCMovieGirl said:
September 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm, permalink
@ Willis Couvillier
“When I saw the show all I saw was people and a regurgitated storyline that had me shaking my head at times.”
Congratulations, you are in the majority! Thank you for announcing that awesome luxury you have!
Because I don’t. I’m a black woman. When so few reflections of yourself exist, you notice the good and the bad.
And when those few reflections are repeatedly incomplete, negative, or somehow illfocused, as opposed to what “normal” people? That can be downright frustrating and condescending as hell…
Not only to me, but to you as well.
So, yeah…Thanks, for not noticing.
4 • DCMovieGirl said:
September 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm, permalink
Ms. Bradford, THANK YOU for this.
5 • Rachel said:
September 24th, 2008 at 6:20 pm, permalink
@ Willis:
I was really distracted from the righteous anger depicted by all the instances of “white”, “brown”, “black”, etc, used to describe the characters. When I saw the show all I saw was people and a regurgitated storyline that had me shaking my head at times.
Dude, being blind to the inequalities in representations of different races isn’t really anything to be proud of. And you’re really missing the point if you think that Tempest’s critique of the treatment of characters of color DISTRACTS from the “righteous anger.” Is anger about the fates of non-white characters unrighteous, then? That’s a pretty nasty statement to make.
On the other hand: I had totally forgotten about Hiro’s sister. Whatever happened to her? I can’t even remember her name.
6 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
September 24th, 2008 at 6:28 pm, permalink
Kimiko. They did something with her in the graphic novels, I believe. But I was disappointed to not have her show up with Hiro is all bored and have her say “Get off your butt and quit whining, we have things to do and a company to run!”
7 • Willis Couvillier said:
September 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am, permalink
For those who’ve commented:
I read (and have read for some time) Tempest’s columns and her other postings for the content, not the crusade. I got that message ages ago, oh, say a few humdred railings back. Heck, being raised in bayou Louisiana in the 60’s and 70’s I fully understand where she’s coming from. But when she colors a column with so much of the same, however appropriate, the bitterness comes out and takes away some from her message — Heroes, Season 3 opener, sucks.
So, yea, I get her message. I got it to the point that in an episode of Medium once when they singled out the only black doctor in the show to take the fall for rich white lawyers I had to blog my annoyance. I got pissed enough so that at home my wife got on my case — what does it matter, she asked me. I told her, it matters — but then I shut up. I shut up because, and Tempest being a writer and an editor will know this, in a story if all a reader reads is the same over and over again, the reader loses interest — no matter the seriousness of the subject.
So, without knowing me, you can interpret what I say however you wish. But I am one who doesn’t care a hoot about color, never have, never will. I don’t care if you are black, arab, asian, indian, gay, alien, whatever. Each time I see a picture of Ms. Bradford I think she’s a hottie, in fact — I see intelligence, and intelligence is incredibly sexy.
Tempest’s anger is righteous, and that is how what I said was meant. And I’m fully expecting her to hate Fringe, and find evil things to say about CSI: NY, and I fully intend to read her opinion on these shows — if she chooses to comment on them — and be just as interested there as with anything she writes about.
8 • Clint Harris said:
September 25th, 2008 at 12:12 pm, permalink
I think Tempest makes some good points, but in other ways, the show is becoming very cliche. Riddle me this: has there ever been a bad guy/gal of color on this show? The Haitian turns out to be a good guy used for bad. He’s about the closest we get. Linderman is as white as Santa. The bad half of Nicki is white. The guy running the paper warehouse now is white. Ma Petrelli is white. Speedy chick is white. Gaijin dude from feudal Japan, well, yeah I just said it, didn’t I? Mr. Flamethrower Hands, crazy white dude. Altered Perception Fat Guy. White. Sylar. White.
I don’t see what would be wrong with giving a person of color a character that was E.V.I.L. In real life, people of all colors, creeds, ethnicities, etc. can be good, bad, or more than likely a mixture of both. But right now, the balance shows purity of character (good and bad) as white guys are evil, people of color are bad only by association, but turn their lives around once they come into contact with Claire or Peter.
Maybe the point of the story is most people want to be good, but something always derails these intentions. Give me a character like Papa Doc or Idi Amin, the Khmer Rouge, Pablo Escobar, etc. Let somebody with a gift for playing bat-sh*t insane bad-guys roll with it. And for god’s sake, don’t give us the sultry Asian dragon-lady. She is completely cliched.
So yes, I can see that many are sucked into the vortex of Peter, Claire, and Sylar, with many women and people of color being the main sacrifices, so I agree with Tempest on a lot of this. But hell the forces of evil on this show are exclusively white people! That’s pretty lame.
For a show that started off with edgy details, a drug-addled psychic painter, an enabling hospice nurse, a philandering politician, a family man who kidnaps people and murders people all around the world, it’s slipping hard. It’s boiled down to convoluted plots and hackneyed characters.
9 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
September 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm, permalink
This may surprise you, Clint, but I completely agree. I think it would be wonderful to have some non-cliche evil characters also be people of color. I would also love it even more if they were evil in ways that aren’t connected to racial stereotypes, like the sultry Asian dragon-lady you mentioned. That would actually make for some interesting TV.
In season 3 they have 5 really horrendous bad-ass dudes break out of the Company vault. And at leats two of them are men of color. This doesn’t bode well, considering the trend, and one of them is already actually PresentDayPeter trapped in someone’s body, but they might be able to turn it into something interesting. Otherwise it’s just “the worst of the worst of us are some colored people — surprise!”
10 • Clint Harris said:
September 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm, permalink
Tempest, I think it’s great that we agree on this. I hope my comments didn’t look like trolling. I think the show is definitely lacking in a whole lot of ways this year. My wife commented about ten minutes in the first episode, “I think they fired all their writers from season one.” The big remote control button that opens the safe was the beginning of the end. And Malcolm MacDowell’s name in the opening credits.
11 • Christy said:
September 25th, 2008 at 9:28 pm, permalink
Well, no need for me to write a review on it. You just captured all of my feelings about the show in your post. The only thing you missed was that the only black characters on the show (other than that one cameo by extra-evil dude) were robbing Mohinder. Sure, black people do rob other people, but we do other stuff, too. Where have all of the black heroes gone?
Beyond that, the show was tedious, cliche’, confusing and far too long. I don’t care about Syler. He’s annoying. I’m sick of the whiny cheerleader. I’m tired of the forced “intrigue” that’s not at all intriguing. I am kind of hoping the world does end and we’re all put out of our heroic misery.
My last complaint, I promise. Who thinks it’s a good idea to bounce subtitles around on the screen? Reading subtitles in my fluff tv is bad enough. Make it easy, for heaven’s sake!
12 • lynx said:
September 26th, 2008 at 7:41 am, permalink
you’re dead on with this tempest. on Hero’s – like most corporate television/movies – people of color pretty much always end up being expendable minor or supporting characters who live and die to move along the plot for the white hero/anti-hero. it’s racist and it makes for shitty television because as a viewer you know from the moment you see a character whether they’re expendable or not.
more reasons why i don’t watch TV any more. I made an exception for the first season of hero’s because everyone was talking about it and watched them all online. this time I won’t bother.
13 • DCMovieGirl said:
September 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm, permalink
@ Willis
- The fact that you see what she says as bitterness. The fact that see it as a crusade… Finding other faults in the show haven’t been construed in this matter, so what makes this different?
- The fact that you INSIST you understand because seeing those shoes is just as good as walking in them
…Just proves your complete and utter cluelessness in this matter.
14 • Heroes - I Don’t Even Watch You And I’m Sick Of You « Words From The Center, Words From The Edge said:
October 8th, 2008 at 1:10 pm, permalink
[...] opener with my housemates and as K. Tempest Bradford says in her awesome column on the premiere Unbreakable Habits: Heroes Returns (which y’all should check out) it was “Two hours I will never get [...]
15 • Luke Jackson said:
October 9th, 2008 at 2:31 pm, permalink
I find Heroes to be a semi-entertaining yarn, but what strikes me about TV shows is the lowered expectations. HBO aside, so many of these acclaimed TV shows seem to benefit from these lowered expectations when compared to any other medium. Let’s face it, Heroes is fun but it has been completely derivative from the beginning. If this were a movie, it’d get bad reviews. If it was in the written form, it’d never get published.
An example of these lowered standards is how I read the show LOST called “cerebral” somewhere. Yes, cerebral when compared to other TV shows, but not when compared to anything in text form.
What I want to know is: why does TV benefit from these lowered expectations?