heroes finale
Here are my thoughts on the Heroes season finale. If you didn't watch it, for god's sake don't read this.
The season finale was decent, but overall I felt it was a little lackluster and didn't live up to the buildup. It should have been great, but it really felt kind of rushed, particularly at the end, and I think it could have seriously benefitted from being a half hour longer. I'm hoping for the DVD release they'll have deleted scenes reinserted that will help flesh out the episode a bit, but I kind of doubt that they're going to bother cutting any such scenes directly back into the episode.
The final battle with Sylar was anticlimactic and disappointing. After an entire season of buildup, there wasn't really much of a confrontation at all. It really looked like we were going to have an all out superpowered brawl on our hands for a minute there, but for one reason or another the show always seems to shy away from actually showing much fighting (take for example the "Five Years Later" episode where Peter and future Hiro take on a building of security guards--you never see the actual fight take place, which was fine, but in the finale I expected more). At one point we had Niki, Hiro, and Peter all going up against Sylar but only for a few seconds, and then that was it. What really bothered me though is that Darth MaulSylar just stood there and let Hiro charge halfway across an open courtyard and run him through with his sword. This didn't make sense to me, as they've established in many previous encounters that Sylar could have easily stopped him. If Hiro had popped up directly in front of Sylar it might have made sense, but with the dramatic charge I don't buy it.
Also, Nathan Petrelli died for apparently no reason. I'd predicted weeks ago that Nathan was going to have a change of heart at the end, so it was no big shock when he came swooping onto the scene as Peter was about to go nuclear. Why was it necessary for Nathan to sacrifice himself? Did the writers simply forget that Peter had sampled his brother's power and could himself fly away? I can accept that he couldn't concentrate on flying if he was trying to keep from exploding, but one simple line of dialogue to convey this would have done wonders to validate Nathan's death. As it is, it just came across like the writers got sloppy, wanted Nathan to die nobly, and conveniently ignored the fact that Peter should have been able to fly away himself. The heartfelt goodbye between the brothers was rushed and fell flat for me emotionally. I've just watched the first season of LOST, and when a group of characters at the end of Season 1 were saying goodbye (I'm being vague here to avoid spoiling things for others, and I'm only 8 episodes into Season 2, so if you spoil anything for me I will hunt you down and kill you), I found it to be an extremely moving scene, even though I knew they'd be back. Here, I suspect Nathan is gone for good, but I didn't find the goodbye very powerful on an emotional level because they didn't really give the characters much of a chance to react to the event.
Also, I suspect that tying up most everything with a nice little bow at the end is a result of Tim Kring's original plan to completely have new characters every season (a plan that he's thankfully abandoned), but I find that cliffhanger endings (like what the first season of LOST had) really keep me on the edge of my seat and excited to see more. Seeing Hiro transported to feudal Japan isn't exactly a "cliffhanger" because we all know that he could easily teleport out at a moment's notice. So it's not like he's in any real danger. I still very much want to see more, mind you, but I'm not on the edge of my seat. I'll have no problem waiting for the next season.
I really liked finding out Mr. Bennet's first name finally, and it was a wise choice for the writers to wait so long to reveal it, as it was a nice moment of payoff for viewers who've been watching this man for weeks now without even knowing his name. It was also great to finally see all the "heroes" assembled together in one place, even if they didn't all interact. I also liked the little foreshadowing they dropped through Molly about what I can only imagine will be the big threat of Season 2. Overall it was a decent episode, but I really didn't feel like it lived up to its own hype in a lot of ways.
The season finale was decent, but overall I felt it was a little lackluster and didn't live up to the buildup. It should have been great, but it really felt kind of rushed, particularly at the end, and I think it could have seriously benefitted from being a half hour longer. I'm hoping for the DVD release they'll have deleted scenes reinserted that will help flesh out the episode a bit, but I kind of doubt that they're going to bother cutting any such scenes directly back into the episode.
The final battle with Sylar was anticlimactic and disappointing. After an entire season of buildup, there wasn't really much of a confrontation at all. It really looked like we were going to have an all out superpowered brawl on our hands for a minute there, but for one reason or another the show always seems to shy away from actually showing much fighting (take for example the "Five Years Later" episode where Peter and future Hiro take on a building of security guards--you never see the actual fight take place, which was fine, but in the finale I expected more). At one point we had Niki, Hiro, and Peter all going up against Sylar but only for a few seconds, and then that was it. What really bothered me though is that Darth MaulSylar just stood there and let Hiro charge halfway across an open courtyard and run him through with his sword. This didn't make sense to me, as they've established in many previous encounters that Sylar could have easily stopped him. If Hiro had popped up directly in front of Sylar it might have made sense, but with the dramatic charge I don't buy it.
Also, Nathan Petrelli died for apparently no reason. I'd predicted weeks ago that Nathan was going to have a change of heart at the end, so it was no big shock when he came swooping onto the scene as Peter was about to go nuclear. Why was it necessary for Nathan to sacrifice himself? Did the writers simply forget that Peter had sampled his brother's power and could himself fly away? I can accept that he couldn't concentrate on flying if he was trying to keep from exploding, but one simple line of dialogue to convey this would have done wonders to validate Nathan's death. As it is, it just came across like the writers got sloppy, wanted Nathan to die nobly, and conveniently ignored the fact that Peter should have been able to fly away himself. The heartfelt goodbye between the brothers was rushed and fell flat for me emotionally. I've just watched the first season of LOST, and when a group of characters at the end of Season 1 were saying goodbye (I'm being vague here to avoid spoiling things for others, and I'm only 8 episodes into Season 2, so if you spoil anything for me I will hunt you down and kill you), I found it to be an extremely moving scene, even though I knew they'd be back. Here, I suspect Nathan is gone for good, but I didn't find the goodbye very powerful on an emotional level because they didn't really give the characters much of a chance to react to the event.
Also, I suspect that tying up most everything with a nice little bow at the end is a result of Tim Kring's original plan to completely have new characters every season (a plan that he's thankfully abandoned), but I find that cliffhanger endings (like what the first season of LOST had) really keep me on the edge of my seat and excited to see more. Seeing Hiro transported to feudal Japan isn't exactly a "cliffhanger" because we all know that he could easily teleport out at a moment's notice. So it's not like he's in any real danger. I still very much want to see more, mind you, but I'm not on the edge of my seat. I'll have no problem waiting for the next season.
I really liked finding out Mr. Bennet's first name finally, and it was a wise choice for the writers to wait so long to reveal it, as it was a nice moment of payoff for viewers who've been watching this man for weeks now without even knowing his name. It was also great to finally see all the "heroes" assembled together in one place, even if they didn't all interact. I also liked the little foreshadowing they dropped through Molly about what I can only imagine will be the big threat of Season 2. Overall it was a decent episode, but I really didn't feel like it lived up to its own hype in a lot of ways.