Heroes season 2 - review

[lathany]

Having heard that season two was really poor, I was pleasantly surprised to see it. It isn't as good as one (although, in part, because one sets the bar extremely high), but it's far more than passable - particularly once you get past the mid-point.

Things that weren't so good

• Too many Heroes - Niki and Nathan in particular; both had little air time. Similarly Micah and Ando.
  
• Most of the new Heroes - The twins were very dull; they spent something like ten of the eleven episodes trying to complete just one aim - to get to New York (and had too much air-time early in the season). West was also dull - even his ability wasn't new. Monica was OK, but could have done with more air time. Elle I have mixed feelings about (at least she had background) and Adam I like primarily because he's Sark (from Alias) and I was less convinced with this role; particularly in the earlier section.
  
• Too much splitting up - Primarily because it meant that the whole season moved really slowly.
  
• The tendency to send characters off for solo romantic plots/sub-plots - Hiro, Peter and Claire all ended up here.
  
• The End of the World... again - OK, this time it's a bigger chunk of the world's population but still been there, done that.
  
• Niki's new personality - I felt they'd undone a plot which they'd previously concluded.
  
• The history bit - it took up too large a chunk of a short season.
  
• Various bits of stupidity - This included Maya's complete faith in Sylar over her twin, Peter thinking that stopping the virus would bring Caitlin back (after being stuck in a virus-infected future)¹, Mohinder from about half-way through the season, Claire declaring her plan to uncover the company to Elle.
  
• Caitlin - Some poor lines (was it "a girl's got to have her secrets"?) and no personality (or development). Here's hoping they don't bring the character back without much better scripts.
  
• Somewhat implausible romances - Really just too quick as they happen before the pairings know much about each other: Peter/Caitlin is the best example, but Claire/West and Hiro/Swordsmith's daughter also arguably qualify (although the last could have taken a considerable amount of time). I'll excuse Peter/Elle from this particular complaint as it isn't clear from the episode how genuine it is from his side (probably not!) and is more understandable from hers.
  
• Claire's plot - Apart from going out on dates, I don't remember her really doing anything. Watching TV with Mr Muggles was probably her best scene.
  
• Isaac's series of eight - I liked the idea of the series of eight paintings, but it seemed a stretch that this was yet more work from Isaac and also it didn't seem to amount to a significant plot arc in the end (in fact, was instead bits of more than one plot arc).
  
• Cockroaches - And I was never that taken with this theme in the first place.

Things I liked

• Nathan's role - Whilst short, he had some lovely scenes. In particular I liked the team-ups he did with Matt Parkman. Also I liked that Nathan-in-the-mirror and hope they do something more with it.
  
• Niki's plot post-"cure" - More interesting than some of her season one stuff.
  
• Separating Peter and Hiro - In season one, these two had more connections with other Heroes than anyone else, so I thought that isolating them both for as long as they did was a nice move.
  
• Not marching Peter in front of everyone else whilst he had amnesia - I was sure they would do that, but instead they restrained themselves to just Angela and Adam (and, arguably, neither are main characters).
  
• The development of some abilities - Self-heal -> regenerating limbs -> memory heal -> immortality and also Matt's stuff.
  
• Angela Petrelli - Some good scenes there. And her line to Matt about making an honest woman of her was wonderful.
  
• The Haitian - I'd like to hear a whole lot more about him and his links to Angela (and her husband?).
  
• Matt taking on his father - Here's hoping that they don't undo that.
  
• Hiro avenging his father - And very Alias.
  
• The final episode - I was sure it was heading towards a huge angst fest (and, apparently, it was but saved by the writers' strike) and therefore it was pleasantly surprising to watch (aka Nathan saves the world again - not bad for someone I regarded as something of a villain for most of season one).
  
• Sylar without powers - Pity they came back.
  
• The photo of the twelve - Lovely touch, wonder if we'll see more of this.
  
• Four months ago... - OK, it did look slightly reverse-engineered, but speaking as someone who saw the Babylon Squared / War Without End travesty of a tie-up, this episode was pure genius. It worked and solved all sorts of issues that I really hadn't understood such as why Peter hadn't previously told Nathan he was alive (from the point that it was clear that he'd spent some time without a memory loss thanks to Adam's note to him), why Niki went to the Company (aside from the point I raise above), how Maya's ability first materialised (maybe I was over-enthused by a scene which wasn't her on the run). OK, why Peter and Adam were put in two rooms that could non-super communicate with each other is just plain daft, but hey.
  
• Sulu (OK, he's really called something else) - Some lovely scenes, pity they killed him off.
  
• The murder mystery - Good that they managed to make it a character we'd seen on screen before-hand (although, arguably, I'd have preferred it to have been someone else²).
  
• Mr Bennett - As ever.
  
• The Mohinder-Bennett set-up - Pity that Mohinder dropped it for bad reasons.
  
• The moral dilemma of Adam vs the Company - I would be hard pushed to say which I thought was worse (as in the More Evil sense).
  
• Candice's death - If you're going to be that relaxed around Sylar, you're so not going to live long. Although I was less convinced by the fact that death returned her to her "natural" state but unconsciousness (as in the end of the previous season) didn't.
  
• The return of the Noah Bennett / The Haitian pairing - Lovely stuff. Particularly in Russia.
  
• Helix symbol - This almost ended up in the other category, but I'm happy to hear an excellent explanation of why it keeps popping up (by which I'm thinking of the tattoo and the dust of the virus) before I finally pass judgment (or get to the final season and realise there wasn't one). Anyway, the tattoo and the dust were very cool - if they weren't just a gimmick.
  
• Matt's detective promotion - That sequence was lovely and I never thought he'd get it.
  

Favourite episode: Four months ago...

In fact, I'm quite happy with season two and am prepared to give the bad stuff the benefit of the doubt under the whole "writers' strike" tag (whilst having a sneaking suspicion that it may have benefited from it) and look forward to three.

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¹ Update added after talking to ao_lai on 2nd May: Although, this is perhaps a reflection of my view of how time travel might work - ie. I'd go with multiple time lines. However, in the Heroes season 1 universe, it was fairly clear from the future episode there that this series works on a one-time-line which you can back-edit in some ways. So maybe she'll just turn up at the allotted hour, but without all the cra*p that was also there when we last saw it. In which case Peter's theory works.
² Update added after watching Out of Time again: Once I understood it was both Adam and Maury, this makes much more sense and is much more plausible.