Somehow Nathan survives the assassination attempt on his life and the killer gets away. While Nathan discovers religion, he is approached by the supposedly dead Linderman and steered towards a woman who looks a lot like the supposedly dead Niki Saunders to re-enter politics. Meanwhile Matt figures out who the killer was and finds himself overpowered and transported a world away from North America. Hiro manages to perform a task set him by his late father for about 5 seconds before a powerful and secret formula is lost into the hands of a thief. Peter travels back from a future ripping itself apart and Sylar hunts down Claire in order to steal her abilities while the Company finds itself under attack from an equally dangerous organisation.
Heroes season 2 was pretty weak and, reading my review of it again I spotted the following sentence: "I am worried that the makers think that the issue was lack of action and will just throw lots of stuff at the screen instead of really getting down into the substance". I claim no credit for saying this because it was pretty obvious that they were going to go down this way, in particular in relation to the slow plot and over-serious attempts at development. The problem is that the first part of season 3 (volume 3) feels like you're playing a board game against a child because it is constantly changing things to suit itself, without a great deal of logic only its own interests at heart. So we get this constantly flowing stream of plot contrivances that move like lightening the whole time. He's dead in the future but he's not, he's their son, but he isn't but then maybe he is, he's in Africa, he's here, she looks like her but isn't but might be, he was killed wasn't he oh but here he is again and he is dead in the present but alive in the past and now we are in the past and the future and the present and they need to go here but he needs to do something else and she is over here now but they have to stop those people over there from doing that but it might be a double cross because he wants their powers but he doesn't really want their power. Sorry for that but that is what Volume 3 of Heroes felt like to me.
The die-hard fans will embrace the complexity of it I'm sure and say that it is just too dense for some viewers but that is pretentious nonsense. OK, say it is wanting to be complex then allow me to point you to The Wire that is complex but yet draws you in and engages. What Heroes Vol 3 is doing is trying to engage through swift movement and action much like 24 does when it works. However it only takes a few episodes before the viewer starts to stop caring about the countless faux "revelations" served up among all the messy plot movements. It is not that I didn't follow it, it just felt like everyone who had ever worked on Heroes had written an idea on a post-it note, put it on the wall and all the writers did was put them in a sort of order. Because as a sweep the narrative around scientists, politicians, villains and sinister corporations, it offers potential but there is nothing below the plot nothing at all. So I never cared, I never cared who died or who had come back or anything, it just all seemed to be a mess of "things" happening to distract the viewer for that moment rather than trying to build characters or a plot.
Some will say that trying to be serious and develop things was the problem with season 2 I would disagree because I personally feel that doing those things really badly was one of the problems with season 2. Doing it well could have saved the show, giving us this ambitions and complex story but doing it with a patience and emotional complexity beneath it that makes the plot work by way of engaging so much more. This doesn't happen at all here as the writing is such a mess and the attempts at "development" or depth are just left to some "soft music" moments and the usual unwarranted air of "serious importance" that this show has always held. Another clue is the sheer volume of famous faces that the show has recruited again seemingly trying to add names in order to get publicity and viewers; my cynical view perhaps but few of these names add much to the show other than their names so what else am I to think? It is a bad sign when you are glad a show takes a break. Volume 4 has just started in the UK now and I will record it and watch it all once it is finished because I'm not sure if I can bother to watch it week-to-week so much as just "get through it". Of course there is talk of another "reboot" but I will wait and see I hope they improve the problems but it just seems that they have so many issues to address and have so far failed to build on the potential that I cannot see them doing it now.
Heroes season 2 was pretty weak and, reading my review of it again I spotted the following sentence: "I am worried that the makers think that the issue was lack of action and will just throw lots of stuff at the screen instead of really getting down into the substance". I claim no credit for saying this because it was pretty obvious that they were going to go down this way, in particular in relation to the slow plot and over-serious attempts at development. The problem is that the first part of season 3 (volume 3) feels like you're playing a board game against a child because it is constantly changing things to suit itself, without a great deal of logic only its own interests at heart. So we get this constantly flowing stream of plot contrivances that move like lightening the whole time. He's dead in the future but he's not, he's their son, but he isn't but then maybe he is, he's in Africa, he's here, she looks like her but isn't but might be, he was killed wasn't he oh but here he is again and he is dead in the present but alive in the past and now we are in the past and the future and the present and they need to go here but he needs to do something else and she is over here now but they have to stop those people over there from doing that but it might be a double cross because he wants their powers but he doesn't really want their power. Sorry for that but that is what Volume 3 of Heroes felt like to me.
The die-hard fans will embrace the complexity of it I'm sure and say that it is just too dense for some viewers but that is pretentious nonsense. OK, say it is wanting to be complex then allow me to point you to The Wire that is complex but yet draws you in and engages. What Heroes Vol 3 is doing is trying to engage through swift movement and action much like 24 does when it works. However it only takes a few episodes before the viewer starts to stop caring about the countless faux "revelations" served up among all the messy plot movements. It is not that I didn't follow it, it just felt like everyone who had ever worked on Heroes had written an idea on a post-it note, put it on the wall and all the writers did was put them in a sort of order. Because as a sweep the narrative around scientists, politicians, villains and sinister corporations, it offers potential but there is nothing below the plot nothing at all. So I never cared, I never cared who died or who had come back or anything, it just all seemed to be a mess of "things" happening to distract the viewer for that moment rather than trying to build characters or a plot.
Some will say that trying to be serious and develop things was the problem with season 2 I would disagree because I personally feel that doing those things really badly was one of the problems with season 2. Doing it well could have saved the show, giving us this ambitions and complex story but doing it with a patience and emotional complexity beneath it that makes the plot work by way of engaging so much more. This doesn't happen at all here as the writing is such a mess and the attempts at "development" or depth are just left to some "soft music" moments and the usual unwarranted air of "serious importance" that this show has always held. Another clue is the sheer volume of famous faces that the show has recruited again seemingly trying to add names in order to get publicity and viewers; my cynical view perhaps but few of these names add much to the show other than their names so what else am I to think? It is a bad sign when you are glad a show takes a break. Volume 4 has just started in the UK now and I will record it and watch it all once it is finished because I'm not sure if I can bother to watch it week-to-week so much as just "get through it". Of course there is talk of another "reboot" but I will wait and see I hope they improve the problems but it just seems that they have so many issues to address and have so far failed to build on the potential that I cannot see them doing it now.