DonnaK:  The formalities….

**SPOILER ALERT!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!! EVERYTHING BELOW IS A SPOILER!!!!!**

We’re back with a new season of Heroes, and I have to just be very, very honest here… I’m not looking forward to writing this show up anymore. It was one thing when I started and I was just getting my rocks off by pummeling a really, REALLY bad show in Volume Three. It was another when the show I had loved showed promise again, only to vault sickeningly back and forth between quality and mediocrity. Now? I don’t know how much I have left in me. I don’t know that I want to invest hours writing a detailed review of a show that has let me down time and time again with no real signs of understanding what their problems are. So I’m not going to invest serious time into my Heroes reviews, not unless they can prove to me - as Lost did - that they deserve it. If that day comes they’ll get the Lost treatment, but until then I’m going to give much quicker and snappier reviews.

The double episode “Orientation” and “Jump, Push, Fall” was actually quite a good one. To be really fair, I don’t have much to complain about. The plot was smooth and consistent, the acting good, the direction adequate, and the return to the heroes dealing with normal life a refreshing change. A quick list, then, of things I liked, things about which I was ambivalent, and things I disliked.

THINGS I LIKED:
—The addition of Robert Knepper to the cast. Knepper is perhaps the only reason I continued to watch Prison Break through the third season. He’s a strong, creepy, talented as hell actor who will make for a very interesting addition to the cast. I have a dream of seeing Knepper and Michael Emerson (Ben from Lost) playing against each other in a suspense-thriller who-done-it. I so need to write that movie!
—Watching our heroes try to return to normality. Watching ordinary people suddenly thrust into extraordinary positions and try to deal with these issues within the framework of the everyday was a large part of the charm of Volume One. The loss of that ideal was, in my opinion, the second biggest downfall to this series (the first being its inconsistency). Watching Parkman at work, Claire at school, Peter at his job and Hiro and Ando up to their old tricks was a refreshing step back. Let’s hope it stays that way.
—Sylar’s guest spot in Parkman’s brain. Watching Quinto play Sylar is without question my greatest joy in the show. Having Sylar show up in this manner was both appropriate, eerie, and quite powerful. Would you want that guy wandering through your mind? I wouldn’t. How long until Parkman begins to act more and more like Sylar? Could Sylar actually take over Matt? Interesting questions were posed throughout these segments, ones I really liked pondering.
—Adrian Pasdar’s acting. I never thought he had it in him, but Pasdar is really convincing as we watch his mind race between Nathan’s memories and Sylar’s. I’m loving this build up and I’m quite impressed with how it’s being played. I also like the fact that they have demonstrated distance between Peter and Nathan as we know that one touch from
Peter will expose Nathan as Sylar. Well played all around.

THINGS ABOUT WHICH I WAS AMBIVALENT:
—The break-up of HRG’s marriage. It didn’t seem reasonable to me that Sandra would abandon HRG after everything they’ve been through. It still doesn’t. I understand they most likely wanted to write Sandra out of the story, but I still don’t feel as if an adequate reason was given for it.
—The death of Danko. I know it had to be done. I really, really do. But to lose a talent such as Ivanek hurts me to the bone. I’ll miss you, Danko. :(
—Hiro’s new mission. Hey, I get that Hiro’s dying, but I don’t see that fact or that single experience at the carnival as reason enough for Hiro to break his code. I also don’t see how NOTHING save for Ando and Kimiko’s relationship was changed from the altering of that one event. Did no one in the writer’s room watch “The Butterfly Effect”? I know, I know… this is going to spice up the show, but I’m not buying it or liking it very much.

THINGS I DISLIKED:
—The quick flip of Tracy Strauss. One minute Tracy is poised to be our newest super villain, and the next she’s working with HRG? I loved watching her use her powers for evil… at least for the 4.56 seconds we got to see it. I don’t want to see her as HRG’s new partner. I want to see her as a bad-ass. I’m highly disappointed in this change as I really felt she could have been a villain to truly reckon with.
—Claire in college. While I like the fact that we’re seeing the heroes try to return to their lives, Claire’s adventures in college land were rather mundane. I was actually more than a little bored by most of it. I actively hated her roommate and I can smell the Single White Female vibe off of Gretchen a mile away as well. I realize that this is part of watching the heroes try to rebuild their lives, but this was poorly executed at best.
—Parkman and Janice. Ummm…. hello? Anyone remember Daphne? Y’know, the love of Parkman’s life who was killed not that long ago? Oh, how quickly we forget! Well, I haven’t forgotten, so every scene with Matt and Janice together seemed hollow and fake to me. Matt has no call to be jealous - he was attempting to spend the rest of his life with another woman! Wrong, wrong, wrong.

All in all, I’d give this double episode of Heroes a rather solid 4 out of 5 stars. The good far outweighed the bad and I think the direction of the show and series seemed solid. My problem? I have zero faith in the writer’s abilities to keep it on track. Let’s hope they prove me wrong.