Spoilers. Volume III splutters to its climax, courtesy of recently-fired writer Jeph Loeb. It finds closure at the expense of logic, and orchestrates a few moments of excitement, but is otherwise a drab, anticlimactic affair. The fact we're accustomed to disappointment helps take the sting out of the slap, but it still leaves a mark...Sylar, Claire, Mr. Bennet, Meredith & Angela: This week, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) has decided he's…. evil. So he terrorizes Claire (Hayden Panettiere), Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman), Meredith (Jessalyn Gilsig) and Angela (Cristine Rose) in the bowels of a locked-down Primatech. He's also started to take his cues from the Saw films, by trying to coerce his prey into killing themselves: promising Claire he'll spare her family, if she shoots Angela; and locking Mr. Bennet in a cell with an adrenaline-charged Meredith, who can't control her fire.
This was a mix of tedium and a few diverting situations -- particularly the tense dilemma inside a cell with the uncontrollable Meredith. Mr. Bennet's plan to kill Sylar by releasing the Level 5 criminals he spent the first third of season 3 re-capturing was a bit silly, but a last-ditch effort I could just about accept. What didn't make much sense was why puppetmaster Eic (David H. Lawrence XVII) didn't quickly manipulate Mr. Bennet into holding Meredith at gunpoint. Bennet had no leverage with Eric, really.
The deception over Sylar's parentage is now utterly boring (even with news that Volume IV will feature John Glover as Sylar Snr), but the eventual resolution was fairly good -- with Meredith dying (we'll excuse the cheesy "running away from a fireball" shot of Claire and Bennet), and Sylar incapacitated by a shard of glass through the neck.
Matt, Ando & Daphne: Hiro (Masi Oka) is stuck 16 years in the past according to Isaac Mendez's sketches, but how can a mind-reader and a speedster possibly rescue him? Ando (James Kyson Lee) believes he must use Kaito's formula to gain super-powers and… well, hope for the best. So, Daphne (Brea Grant) retrieves a vial from Pinehearst and injects Ando with it. The random power he's bestowed with is rather inane (he can boost other peoples' powers), but Matt (Greg Grunberg) realizes that a super-speedster can travel faster than light... and, thus, travel back through time. He knows about Einstein's Theory Of Relativity, that man! Voila!
Hiro & Kaito: In the past, Hiro manages to get back onto the Deveaux building's rooftop from his precarious flagpole, and tries to destroy his father's formula. It turns out he was the one who had originally ripped it in half, but before he can destroy it entirely… Daphne and Ando whisk him back to the present. What, they don't even stop to see what the situation is? The idiots. Technically, the whole of Volume III could be annulled if they destroyed the formula in the past -- as it would never have existed for Daphne to steal in episode 1. Cuh.
Peter, Nathan, Mohinder & Tracy: With Arthur dead, Nathan's (Adrian Pasdar) resolve to give ordinary folk super-powers just gets stronger. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is all that stands in his way… because, weirdly, The Haitian has decided to sod off. Peter smashes up Mohinder's (Sendhil Ramamurthy) laboratory, helped by Arthur's henchmen Flint (Blake Shields) and Knox (Jamie Hector) -- who have left it this late to reveal they follow The Incredibles' mantra: "if everyone is special… no-one is." Were they too scared to speak up when Arthur was around?
With Mohinder's skin condition bizarrely healed through exposure to the formula in liquid form (seriously, can anyone explain this? And I guess we'll never know what he was turning into), Nathan's life is threatened when a fire breaks out -- forcing Peter to inject himself with the last vial and fortuitously gain the power of flight, to snatch his brother from the flames and whisk him to safety out a window. Oh yeah, and spin-obsessed Tracy (Ali Larter) had a few scenes that didn't bring anything to the table, or progress her story. As I suspected, after her re-introduction as a clone, her story quickly went nowhere. And what happened to Bruce Boxleitner on this show?
Seeing Ventimiglia act against Pasdar is often like seeing a trembling child in a school play try to keep up with Brando. Not that Pasdar's that good an actor, but he's far better than most of his castmates. Indeed, the writers appear to have grown frustrated by weak villainous actors since Malcolm McDowell (Robert Forster promised so much, but delivered so little), so Nathan's now been passed the crown. I don't believe Nathan's change into Senator Evil after a three-episode U-turn that culminated in him beating his kid brother with a steel pole, but never mind.
The obligatory sneak peak at the next Volume ("Fugitives") closed the show: set three weeks in the future, Nathan sat in a limo with a mysterious stranger, showing him files on some of the "supers" and suggesting they all be captured and detained. And it turns out the stranger is actually the President of the USA (Star Trek alumni Michael Dorn -- a kind of bench-pressed Obama?) One question: wasn't The Company doing what Nathan's pushing for, with Level 5? I know they only locked up those who used their powers for evil and weren't a federal agency, but still…
And why does Nathan want his fellow supers detained anyway? A few weeks ago he wanted everyone to be given super-powers! There was a time when I'd be confident that questions like that would be answered nicely, but not these days. As demonstrated since season 2, Heroes' characters just do what benefits the advancement of the story, at the expense of common sense, loyalty, and motivation. Since season 1, the characters have also spent too much time dealing with problems of their own creation, or atoning for the sins of their predecessors (the Shanti virus, the Kaito formula).
Heroes worked better when the characters were all abnormal people in a normal world, struggling to adjust to their newfound abilities and reacting naturally to the surprises, mysteries and secrets. Infighting superheroes is a boring and insular way to develop this series. We need to go back to basics, and reacquire the Unbreakable vibe season 1 once had -- where the joy of watching super-heroes on television came from the contrast with everyday life, human interactions, and their desire to actually make a difference.
To end on a positive: finally, finally… near-omnipotent Peter is given only one power, and Hiro is rendered totally powerless. Both wise moves, long overdue. Hopefully, it won't be explained that Peter actually soaked-up Nathan's ability and is genuinely mono-powered. And Hiro's inevitable reacquirement of his abilities should come in a less potent form -- like having a consequence to teleporting (it's exhausting, or he can only teleport to places he's been before?), and his time-travel has limitations (he's dragged back to the present after a few minutes? He can only go forward?)
Season 3 will resume in February with Volume IV, which will hopefully be an improvement without Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander's creative involvement, and benefit from the return of Bryan Fuller in the summer. But as it stands, after 47 episodes, half the series has served up disappointment, and season 1 seems like a long, long time ago...
17 December 2008
BBC Three, 10pm
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Director: Greg Beeman
Cast: Greg Grunberg (Matt), Masi Oka (Hiro), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Cristine Rose (Angela), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Ali Larter (Tracy), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Ntare Mwine (Usutu), George Takei (Kaito), Brea Grant (Daphne), Jessalyn Gilsig (Meredith), Jamie Hector (Knox), Blake Shields (Flint), Franc Ross (Danny Pine), David H. Lawrence XVII (Eric Doyle), Chad Faust (Scott), Kiko Ellsworth (Echo DeMille) & Michael Dorn (President)
