Heroes

Warning: I will likely blog about television every day this week. Just sayin'.

I watched last week's Heroes (the future ep) on Friday night and last night's Heroes actually last night. And it's really weird. I enjoy the show a lot while I'm watching it. I like when they surprise me (REALLY should have seen it coming that Sylar was the president) and love the knots and circles and constant intrigue (solving the Walker problem to save Matt and Ted and HRG means eliminating the little girl who can find anyone, anywhere, who can also find Sylar so they can stop him except she can't use her ability because she's sick but wait Saresh can save her and does).

But once I'm done watching it, I'm meh on it. If I start talking about it, it's complaints, or what I don't like. The seven-week hiatus didn't bother me at all, and I'd be fine with cancellation.

I was disappointed with it early on. The mythology was all over the place. All these people seem to have just discovered their powers all at once with no explanation (the promos, to me, implied that the eclipse did it, but some of them had powers before the eclipse). They're all different ages, live in different places, have different kinds of powers, but they all came into them in a short period of time. To make things worse, this isn't new. Other people have had powers in the past and for longer than the current crop. So the genetic anomaly makes no sense to me. Oh, and now all of a sudden DL and Jessica/Nikki were CREATED? I don't get that.

The serial killer plot was way too conventional and annoying, very dichotomous from the rest of the story threads, until they explained how it was connected to the powers. Then it was fine. But Clea Duvall has disappeared off the face of the earth. Speaking of which, what happened to the wireless woman? Did I miss something? She came and got Ted to kill everyone, and we never saw her again? What was the point of that?

Matt was hearing people's thoughts before the Haitian tagged him. But then he was saying that the Haitian had given him his powers. I don't know if they were trying to make us believe he got confused after his abduction and didn't remember having them before, but if so, it was clumsily done.

Too many of the characters whine too much. Claire drives me INSANE. After eight months and understanding that New York City was going to go nuclear, you'd think she'd get over herself. People keep telling me she's only a teenager, and her attitude is normal. Well, then, give me a non-normal teenager, one who thinks it rocks the world that she can't be killed. Give me a Kim Possible wannabe. That's what I'm trying to raise my girls to be.

Nikki/Jessica is the other one I can do without. I was so happy when I thought she was dead. (I know, I'm terrible.) I don't mind moral ambiguity at all, but they have to have some better developed motivation or redeeming qualities.

Okay, enough complaining. If I don't like the show, why watch it?

Because I do like it. I love Peter (and OMG, Future!Peter is so freakin' badass HOT) and I like Nathan and his struggle between ambition and ethics. Hiro and Ando are awesome, HRG is compelling, and the Petrelli matriarch is deliciously awful and not at the same time.

Sylar having a line he didn't want to cross was perfect. Finding a way to make it beneficial to him was essential, with a backstory motivation that didn't feel contrived (though mommy issues can be considered cliché, it wasn't overdone). A villain who is more than pure evil always enhances a story.

I mentioned the twists and the connections. Cleverness always appeals to me, even when it's heavy-handed, and in this show, it's not.

So, two episodes left. You can see how it is likely to end, and yet, you have no idea. There is a TON of information they have hinted at and don't seem to have enough space/time to provide, but we'll see. I suppose that even though they're supposed to wrap up this story and start anew in the fall, they can hold back a few things for later.

Bottom line: Heroes will stay on the TiVo list for the fall, though it will never be among my favorites.