Heroes Oh No!

Usually, you can find a blog raving about "Heroes" on this very site, but not today.  "Cold Wars" was probably the worst episode of Heroes ever.  It's really a shame, because I can tell the actors have stepped it up a notch and are really pushing themselves.  And when I say, "stepped it up a notch" and "pushing themselves" I don't mean they're over acting; they are completely believable.  They are also playing people in extreme circumstances and manage to make their body react as if they were in extreme circumstances.  These are GOOD actors.

I think I'll base my critique on what they've done right in the past.  Heroes does a couple of things really well.  They focus on who the characters are, not the sci-fi abilities the characters possess.  Because of this, they broaden their fan base and create a deeper, more meaningful story-line.  In the past, "Heroes" has only given us tidbits of information.  The best part of the show was gathering around the next day and discussing the conspiracy theories or what would happen next week.  "Who's Linderman?  What's his ability?  Is Sylar going to kill Peter?  How does saving the cheerleader save the world?  Who's Claire's dad?"  This started going away the second season and is pretty much gone now.  Now the water-cooler talk is about what happened that episode, not what we think might happen in the next.  It's a big difference.

Now, none of this bothered me too bad, because I was still entertained, not last night.  "Heroes" always treated their audience as intelligent people able to figure things out without spelling it out.  Last night, they spelled it out for us nice and slow.  Matt Parkman might not have known what HRG had been up to, but we knew.  We knew because we know HRG's character.  We knew because the hints have been dropped for us for the last three weeks.  We didn't need the writers to hold our hands.  

There was so much potential for this episode.  They could have established a more involved back story to tell with more details and drama.  Alternatively, they could have made it about the struggle of will between HRG and Matt.  HRG may not have powers, but he's a highly trained individual.  They could've even done a little of both.  It was a fantastic idea poorly executed.  

Some people are upset that there's going to be another bomb, this time in DC.  I don't really have a problem with this.  I think the big picture of Heroes is FINE.  It's the individual episodes that Kring needs to go over.  Spread out the action.  For three weeks we hurried through major plot points.  Now this week, we drag our feet only to find out three things.  Mohinder is caught and given an ultimatim, Daphne is alive, Matt might blow up DC.  Compare this with "Building 26" where we learn Nathan's in trouble with the President and the problem is solved in the same episode, Claire gets a text message and saves a guy from her dad, the hunter is willing to go to extremes to continue rounding up 'specials', Sylar and Luke had some character building and bonding, and HRG and Sandra's relationship is strained when Sandra finds out he's still working.  All of that was new stuff!  It was as if this freight train hit a wall this week.

I'm sure next week will be excellent.  Too late for Heroes producers to do anything more this volume if they've made this a habit, I really hope they haven't!!