Broken Frontier

Most viewers will admit that in the quest to outshine its lackluster second season, Heroes is frantically cramming Season Three with more plotlines and characters than necessary. In turn, the show has quickly transformed from an intriguing science-fiction series about real-world superheroes to an often tiresome melodrama where every character, event and situation is interconnected. In an attempt to make itself more epic in scope, Heroes has succeeded only in shrinking its expansive mythology.

That problem is compounded in the eighth episode of Season Three. Titled “Villains,” this installment takes place during the same time frame as the beginning of Season One. When Hiro has a vision as a part of his “spirit walk” in Africa, we find out what many of the show’s characters were doing one year earlier. We learn that Claire’s incendiary mother Meredith and flame-tossing Level 5 escapee Flint are siblings. We learn that Sylar, before he started slicing people’s heads open, attempted to kill himself. We learn that Elle—working with Noah Bennet—had a brief history with the power-stealing serial killer and was instrumental in his turn to evil. We even learn that Arthur Petrelli, working with Daniel Linderman, orchestrated an attempt on Nathan’s life when the then-assistant district attorney began asking too many questions about Linderman’s business dealings.

I give the writers credit for bridging the third season with the first and making the entire series feel more like a cohesive story. It was neat learning that Meredith, with her pyrotechnic superpowers, caused the trainwreck from which her daughter Claire saved a man in the show’s first episode and it was pretty cool learning more about Sylar’s past. However, this episode never extends beyond either “neat” or “pretty cool,” and it all feels like a gimmick to retcon established characters and relationships to suit the writers’ needs. Sure, the episode answers questions that are fairly important to the series’ overarching storyline, but who was asking?

Heroes is still a good show that was once a great show. Having said that, this season seems to be preoccupied with the hows and the whys but has largely abandoned the what. Exposition and revelation seldom remain interesting if the story itself becomes stale. However, moving forward, this episode may provide the series with the narrative focus that it so desperately needs in the long term. That is, it clearly defines who the few major players in the Heroes universe are and where their paths will ultimately take them.  A “less is more” approach to characters and storylines may reinvigorate the Heroes fanbase, and help sway one-time viewers who have abandoned the show completely. 

Images courtesy of NBC.com.