Heroes - a wasted opportunity?

Last few days I was watching the re-run of season 3 of 'Heroes' on the TV and suddently pmped in my mind. Did 'Heroes' been a wasted opportunity?Could have things gone better if the WGA strike wouldn't have happened?Or the show has been doomed with Season 2?Or it's just that the writers didn't plan beyond Season 1? In this post I'll try to analyze every aspect of it.

'How to Stop an Exploding Man'

The first season was a massive success around the globe.Sure it was risky as that time it was the most expensive show of the NBC to film.The pilot had two version from which one was presented during the may of 2006 and the second one at the San Diego Comic Con same year.Seeing the big fanbase the show gained within a few months, the channel decided to pick up the show for a 23 episode season.The pilot debuted on september 25, 2006 but was avaiable one week earlier for free on iTunes.The premiere have drawn 14 million viewers becoming one of the most watched premieres in the history of NBC.
The story followed the life of ordinary people who struggle with their newly explored special abilities.Some of them considers it a gift while some think it's a curse.The main protagonists of the first season were  a house nurse, Peter Petrelli who had the ability to mimic other people's powers, his brother, the congrassman Nathan Petrelli who could fly, his ilegitimite daughter, Claire Bennet aka the indistructible cheerleader who could heal from any wound, the junkie painter Isaac Mendez who could paint the future, a geek office worker from Japan, Hiro Nakamura who had the ability to bend space and time(stop time, travel in time), a troubled mom Niki Sanders who had identity issue and was as strong as Hulk,a detective and traffic controler named Matt Parkman who could read other people's mind and hear their inner most intimate thoughts, Peter's and Nathan's mysterious mom who can dream the future and finally a sociopath serial killer who's idenity is only revealed throu halfway of the season called Sylar and kills in order to get others powers.
As in any other drama shows, the main plot of the season is revealed in the first episdoe as the heroes try to prevent a bomb that would wipe out New York City and 0.7 % of the World's population.As the story unfolds, mysteries are revealed and more questions are given, the characters storyline beautifuly comes together for one massive showdown at Kirby Plaza against Sylar.Some think that this is where the show began going downhil as we didn't get the epic finale the season deserved.We saw Peter,Niki and Hiro kicking Sylar's sorry ass in no time and eventually Peter exploded while the fate of a few characters were left in air: Matt,DL and Nathan's faith were unknown.Isaac was written out as his character died at the hands of Sylar.

'Kindred'

 The second season came along and was planned as a 24 episode long season consisting two volumes called 'Generations' and 'Exodus' althou the WGA strike cut the season to only 11 episodes.The last episode of the season was rewritten to be more of a season finale than fall finale and 'Exodus' was cancelled.'Villains' which was supposed to be volume 4 moved to volume 3 which eventually became the first part of the 3rd season. The second season's main problem was the lack of action,story and logics.It was also refered as 'the lackluster' season by IGN.com and as much as I hate to say , they're right at some point.Hiro's adventure to feudal Japan felt damn streched as he was struggling with the same nonsense for nearly 7 episodes, Peter's amnesia was also streched and his vision of the future should've occured in the first episodes instead of the 7th episode.The Shanti Virus story came pretty late and served as a 'need to wrap things up'.The characters of Maya and Alejandro weren't presented proprely and that could be one of the reasons the viewer could not connect with them.Sylar's storyline was unsure because the writer's didn't know what to do with him. Zachary Quinto who portrayed Sylar took a role in the new 'Stark Trek' movie so his character was to be writen out by the half of the second season but thanks to the strike production shut down for a couple of weeks which allowed Zach to complete his scene in the movie and return to 'Heroes' and with that writers gave Sylar back his abilities. The main mystery of the 2nd season was the mysterious killer who began killing former Company founders one by one and the mystery of the lost paints of Isaac Mendez.A series of paintings.The murderer was revealed to be Adam Monroe(portrayed by amazing actor David Anders) who was Hiro's dream knight Takezo Kensei in feudal Japan who also had the ability to heal which allowed him to live on forever, so after a long lacking season the show went on hiatus with the episode 'Powerless' and was considered the perfect ending of a 'lackluster'season and critics and fans hoped that the nine month pause would help the writers build up a more consistent and stronger season three which would help people 'forget' about the errors of season 3.Althou they had to redesign the whole 3rd season because 'Exodus' was cancelled.

'The Second Coming'

   Season Three premiered on 22nd of September, 2008 and had a 2-hour premiere.'Villains' also had it's major errors.There were some really intense nonsenses.First why the heck did Peter take Sylar's ability if eventually ended up not using it?How the hell did a total solar eclipse occur twice in one year?Why they needed to write Adam out,I'm sure they could've found a way to bring papa Petrelli up to it's might without killing a 400 years old man so easely.Than there was the twist of Sylar being a Petrelli boy than eventually revealed to be NOT.I personally enjoyed that twist.Love when shows take such a drastic turns.Big scary villains escaped but were useless eventualy.Hiro becoming a 10 years old kid and so on and so on.Volume three came to a conclusion with some disappointments and the writers realised that they needed to change something because they were loosing viewers like hell.They planned up volume four 'Fugitives' and told us that the show will get back to it's roots from that on.They tied up almost all loose ends from previous seasons amd decided to start fresh.

'An Invisible Thread'

    'Fugitives' started with Senator Nathan Petrelli revealing the existentce of evolved humans to the President of the USA and requesting permission to hunt them down and lock them away because that can be dangerous.This volume than gain some viewers but eventually lost as well.Danko was the main baddie for the first half of the volume as Sylar didn't cause much problem while he was looking for his dad but than after that he returned and with the ability of shapeshifting really shifted up our heroes' lifes.Killed Nathan but mama Petrelli and Matt made Sylar to belive he was Nathan(talking about twist huh?Wait for season 4).So the story got really out of control in one words.IMO I think the main problem was that while the first season was all about the characters and their dilemmas,problems etc. the other seasons focused more on the powers.Nathan and HRG shiftig sides from minute to minute was also lacking in logics and becoming used and boring after a while. Mohinder and Ando now having abilities meant that the characters lost from their charm which they possesed during the first two seasons.They were the only normal humans(thank god Mr.Muggles still remained the same over the course of the seasons :P).

'Jump,Push,Fall'

  Season four was announced as a 19(18 because the 2-hour premiere was counted as one) episode season and gain the title 'Redemption' which left many fans,previous viewers and critics skeptic about it but believe it or not the show really redeemed itself in some ways.(well no one and I mean NO ONE expected the show to regain it's 1st season glory).They introduced us some really awesome villains: Samuel Sullivan,Lydia and Edgar who were al part of a nomad carnival who try to lure our heroes in to join them.While there were some nonsense as well in this season too, they at least wrap up the loose ends from last season.Main problem I could point out are the characters who just dissappeared or appeared from to the nowhere during the run of the season.Sylar becoming the main villain than the good guy was something that was used in season 3 before but failed to deliver quality althou here looks like worked.Sylar had I think personally, the most interesting storyline this season.Not going to write every ascept down as I explained everything before in my 'Heroes Season 4 Review' post.The intentions of Samuel's evilness was still unclear as the season came to an end.Was he trying to revenge his brother whom he killed?Whas he trying to impress his girlfriend?Was he feeling betrayed?Remains unclear.Hiro recovering miraculosly from his brain tumor was the only thing that really bothered me this season.I mean REALLY bothered me.But this is Heroes where no one dies really. Nathan exploded but returned,Nathan was shot but returned, Nathan was killed by Sylar but returned as a brainwashed Sylar.Hiro had his brain tumor but returned.Charlie died but returned thanks to Hiro's selfish(?!) actions.
 Overall the show had some great moments but it became clear that the producers though the show will fail after one season so they didn't planned ahead and when season two's time came they had no idea what to do. The writer's strike blow their plans and with season three they were out of ideas.That's what I think happened and ruined Heroes.Poor show deserved so much more.Last year, on may 14th, 2010 when Heroes cancellation was announced many fans remained heartbroken.It was replaced by 'The Cape' which premiered on Heroes' time slot, Monday 9/8 C  on January 2011.The show failed even worse than Heroes because it aired only 9 episodes and the last episode aired only online.I think people would've enjoyed a 5th season of Heroes much more than 'The Cape'.