Wednesday, February 10, 2010

TV Review: Heroes-Volume 5


Television's Heroes is one of those shows, that as a longtime fan, I must admit its best days are behind it, it's arguable that the show hasn't been the same since Volume 1 (the show is in Volumes instead of Seasons). Of course, it doesn't stop the producers from trying. After countless years of listening to whining fans, of the producers trying to deliver what they thought fans wanted and ultimately screwing up the story worse, the producers finally just decided to do what their job is: Tell a story and forget about those whining fans. The result, Volume 5, probably the most solid Volume of the show since the perfect Volume 1, but does that really take much doing?

The story of this season all revolved around this elusive carnival made up of superpowered beings. The beings of the carnival were a superpowered cult in a sense, taking orders from one man named Samuel Sullivan (played marvelously by Robert Knepper), and calling themselves a family, a fraternity of sorts. Of course, one could draw comparisons between Samuel and his carnival and Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants, but alas if you're always trying to compare Heroes to X-Men you wont ever get any enjoyment out of this show in the first place (essentially being an X-Men rip-off since day one). Regardless to say, the carnival was actually menacing and was extremely well played throughout the season, and I definitely got the vibe from the finale that Samuel will become the new Sylar and be the ultimate villain of the heroes (especially since Sylar is now a good guy, stay tuned).

This season we saw some really marvelous Hiro moments, where Hiro learned that he has a brain tumor and is dying and Hiro goes on a quest to right all the wrongs in his life before dying. We witnessed Peter actually using his powers to help people and become the guiding force of this team. Not to mention, Sylar went on a long and winding path to redemption, this time possibly for good. I was especially impressed in the way that they handled Sylar's mind trapped in Parkman's head and his body constantly shapeshifted to look like Nathan, actually worked quite well (though, the Nathan thing dragged on a touch longer than I felt it should have before they finally killed him off and merged Sylar's body and his mind back together). Plus, a new character named Emma was introduced, a deaf woman who can see sound in terms of colors, and she was used to marvelous effect as a potential love interest for Peter in the future. If only the rest of this season was as intriguing as this.

Claire was inevitably the weakest link, and of course the showrunners felt she deserved the most screen time, as always, and we got more and more of annoying, whining Claire. Seriously, she is this series Kate (and if you watch LOST you know what I mean). Her relationship between her father Noah Bennett deepened this season, and speaking of Bennett, his storyline really droned on, and in all honesty, I was not a big fan of finally learning why he became the way that he is. But back to Claire. She got more annoying as she went to college, tried to fit in, and then fell in love with her lesbian roommate, all the while constantly swapping sides between Samuel and her father. Ugh! Can they just write her character off the show, please!

One great thing about Volume 5 was how well they utilized all of the heroes powers for the first time in the show's history. Peter was actually saving people, getting into some real awesome brawls, like when he fought a superspeeding villain in a knife fight, or when he took Samuel's powers and fought him in an earthquake fissure battle in the finale. Plus, Samuel was a genuine force to be reckoned with, sinking an entire town into the ground, and nearly submerging New York City in the end, if it wasn't for those pesky heroes.

All in all, if it wasn't for Claire and Bennett's storylines that dominated the entire season, this would be an A+ season, but alas they dragged down the overall quality in the end. So we must look on to Volume 6 which is already ordered and in production, titled, "Brave New World," and if the ending of the finale the other night was any inclination, it should be intriguing, now that the heroes have revealed their existence to the world. But please, let Robert Knepper return as Samuel, cause he is the Magneto-like villain that this show has been missing for some time.

I give Heroes-Volume 5 a B!

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