Of Heroes and Villains

I broke down and got the big boxed set of the TV show “Heroes” a few weeks ago. I’d seen several episodes and was thinking that since I rather enjoyed X-men and some of the Smallville series that I’d like to see the rest of the Heroes series.

Well, I have to say that I rather enjoyed most of it. Despite the heavy evolutionist world view and the fact that several of the characters have a I-am-god complex and Suresh’s blasphemous comment in his first scene about god being a cockroach, having the evolutionism as the underpinnings of how they developed those abilities made the abilities origins seem a bit more sound, however, it seems to me that had they revealed later a conspiracy that it was scientists genetic tinkering that caused those super powered results, it would have been easier for me to swallow.

I hate that they were only on for four seasons. It felt like they were just getting started. Yeah sure, they “saved the world” a few times, but it seemed at the end of season four they were only just starting to really come into their own.

The villains were appallingly evil but they were fraught with ambivalence and doubts about their path and that made those characters even more believable. The heroes were flawed humans with courage just as super as their abilities. There were moments in the story line that I thought were a bit too melodramatic – for instance, how Claire held onto that angry “Sylar cut off my head” mantra for so long. The lies on top of lies conspiracy got a bit old and some of Sylar’s acting was a little left of center on occasion. Although Zachary Quinto's character was the baddest of the bad for most of the seasons, there were several moments where I had to shake my head cause his acting seemed a little slapstick – like how he ran through that breakaway door after he dispatched that illusionist girl in season three. Just a tad bit too dramatic.

Anyway, overall, I enjoyed watching it all. My favorite characters were Hiro and Ando. They were so funny, especially in season four. Their funny scenes were a good offset for the very serious scenes where Peter deals with Nathan’s death and the drama surrounding what his mother had decided to do to keep Nathan alive longer. It was a tear jerker, no doubt.

Peter & Simone Sketch by Isaac Mendez (Tim Sale)

I have to say that the artwork in the series was a huge draw for me. I loved the paintings and sketches and how they pushed the storyline. One of my favorites would have to be the sketch of Peter and Simone kissing under a red umbrella. I think it is a bit funny how even after the writers killed off Issac they had to bring in others who would paint or draw the future.

I loved how the characters each attempted to work out whether or not they were heroes or villains. Several of them were murders – most didn’t mean to kill, but the did and they had to get over it, forgive themselves or give into the darkness and jump head first into the villain role.

Anyway, I liked the way the writers pulled the story line through the seasons instead of just having a group of heroes who battled a new baddie each episode. They wrote the episodes like they would comic books and the artistic way in which they filmed it made for great watching. The music was a bit creepier than it likely should’ve been. I mean, I didn’t notice the creepy music during much of the episodes, but as soon as the DVD menu came back up and the music started looping, it wasn’t something I could sit and listen to for very long.

I could probably write for several hours about various themes and subjects that were brought up in this or that season, but I won’t bore you except to say that I believe that each of us do have a responsibility to decide whether or not we are heroes or villains. You can’t be both – I won’t get all religious but everyone has to choose the light or the darkness and “not” making a decision IS making a decision – a decision for the darkness.