Heroes (TV Series) Chapter Eleven 'The Fifth Stage' (2009) User Reviews

One of the best Heroes episodes ever

[cadillac20 · 9/10 · 7 December 2009]

I don't normally review TV episodes, or shows period, and Heroes has always been hit or miss with me. First season was a great start followed by a season that thudded, followed by more repetition and boring plots. Even the characters themselves became uninteresting. However, this season has been a good recovery. The new villains, most notably the lead villain, Samuel, is a great, much needed addition to the series. While Sylar is always enjoyable as the cliché-ridden series main villain, Samuel has a boat load of charisma and the right balance of said charisma and evil-doing that make him such an interesting antagonist. And of all the new seasons episodes, this was by far the best one.

There is a good amount of action to be had here, but the drama is top notch. I have never really been touched by any moments in Heroes, but the scene between Peter and Nathan was very moving, and I have never really been interested in their story, so that says something. Most of the scenes involving Claire's interactions with Samuel were also very good, in particular a scene towards the end involving Claire and a disgruntled carnival goer. This was a well written episode with several good moments and it's these kinds of episodes that Heroes should always aim to be. Hopefully they can continue this trend and not revert back to the pacing and writing issues of the last two seasons. Keep this up and Heroes may be around longer than we anticipate.

The Fifth and the Last Chapters

[Gustavo_Lequerica · 5/10 · 2 December 2009]

After watching the first volume of Season Four of Heroes it's difficult to think about the direction where the show is heading. The first two chapters were really good and they gave an idea that Season Four was going to be amazing but then it came the repetition of themes that were saw in Season 3 and part of Season 1, I explain: Claire trying to find his place, Sylar being the main villain or stock character because there hasn't been any developments with the character and in my opinion season 3 was the good season to kill the character off but then because Zachary Quinto got more fame due the reboot of Star Trek the writers and producers weren't going to be stupid to end the contract of the most popular actor of the series and that story-lines are being re-used under different concepts. There is little originality on Volume 5 compared to Volume Four due the issues I mentioned for the exception that I like to think that it was the volume that gave a character to redeem himself from his previous actions but according to some gossip in the IMDb.com there are going to be more episodes with Adrian Pasdar. but I think that is bogus information.

I try to think what could damage the show and there are a few facts that could think about beside the writer strike who depleted the show ratings, the departure of Bryan Fuller who was the creative soul of the show because Tim Kring don't know anything about the nerd culture and the superhero scene, the show is going into a path that it's really hard to predict because of that. Maybe the reason the show is failling it's because of his creator and none other else that is acting on charge too much without giving responsibilities to other people or hiring new writing talent that can lift the show from his actual slumber but still one great show that is an homage to superheroes is going to a spiral due the lack of creative personnel.

The last episode of Volume 5 was non-sequential in someway, it didn't gave any detail about Volume 6; the stories weren't interconnected at all and the only probable hint about what is going to happen is a rebellion of mutates lead by a charismatic but sociopath individual. I see something similar as the Caitlin character in Gretchen Berg... or I should better say both characters have suffered the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. The episode in general to be a closer was relatively boring except for the goodbye between Nathan-Sylar and Peter before Sythan regained his true self, I guess at the end we have to wait until January 2010 to know what is going to happen in the rest and if the series don't last for a fifth season it better have a good ending that explains all the gaps in the series.