HEROES - Season 2

[Captain Craig]

So I did a marathon of HEROES S2 over the course of the weekend and have now finished all 11 episodes in about a 36hr span. I appreciate the comments from my Season 1 thread as it helped me get into the series and perhaps before Season 3 starts tomorrow night I can see some more in depth opinions on Season 2.

In the press and about the 'net I heard that this season wasn't that good. I never read in depth the opinions because I had no vested interest. Now that I've seen it I don't know for sure what the complaints were in totality. I think that because Season 1 was so good, despite the anticlimatic ending, that Season 2 looked weaker in part because of the strike and perhaps because it was spaced over several weeks that include hiatus between episodes.

I thought that season 2 was moving fairly good until the last 2-3 episodes. Perhaps those are the ones that had to compress to wrap it up.

I think that there are some things that are left hanging or are not explained to my satisfaction unless I missed something.

-Peter in the cargo container. How long was he there based on the episode "4 months ago" his placement in there was listed "3 weeks ago". He survived without eating for that long? Yeah, I stole the Ipods and then chained myself here. Then after the reveal of a betrayal he is suddenly "one of them"?

-Caitlen was left in "a" disease infested future. A say "a" future cause its an alternate one from the "nuked NY" future apparently.

-Maya's power is never explained. What she emites? How Alejandro contained/reversed it.

-Between Hiro and Peter jumping through time are we going to have a big "crisis in time" to heal the damage done? Assuming they are damaging it. It seems lip service is given to "damaging the time/space continuum". Is that just a nudge & wink to us SFF fans or are they damaging it?

-What good is Monica's power if she can't retain the use of the skill indefinetly?

-So DL survives Kirby Plaza only to be killed on a nightclub stairwell? Him not going intangible then seemed lame when before he anticipated the dude throwing the punch. I'm to believe street smart DL wouldn't be ready on the stairs also?


I liked it overall and feel that now having seen the show to date in 3 weeks time I probably like it as much as I could had I been up to date the whole time. Its flaws are at this point not as magnified cause I haven't had weeks to dwell on them and the positives overtake what issues I do have.

It was a surprise to me that David Anders of Alias fame(as Sark) shows up as Adam/Kensei. JJ reusing an actor, like Greenburg, that he knows he likes. I was rather hoping he would be a more solid good guy though.

What are the groups opinions on HEROES season 2?

 

[Campe]

It turned me off to the show. Honestly, the show didn't evolve much during season 2 and that's where the problem was. It just seemed like it was more of the same. There were new characters that were completely pointless and worthless. The show didn't seem to take any real risks.

I will admit, however, I am TiVoing tomorrow night's premiere out of pure curiosity, but I'm really not in any big hurry to watch it.

Oh and JJ has nothing to do with Heroes.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I caught up with the show via DVD and watched both seasons back to back. Season two wasn't bad, per se, but the problem is it wasn't very good, either. I agree that the ending felt very rushed and compressed, but it suffered greatly from the separation of Hiro/Ando and Peter/Nathan. Sure, it was great stuff when Peter and Nathan saw each other again, but there wasn't enough of it. Also, the new characters, Monica and her family, and Maya and Alejandro felt rudderless, not connected to the main plotline. I couldn't get into them even though there wasn't really anything wrong with them as characters. The Peter/Caitlin bit seemed pretty schmoopy, too, and what happened to her anyway? Is she lost in an alternate future? Did the future change around her, and she woke up in 2008 in New York in entirely different circumstances? Did immigration deport her back to Ireland and why doesn't Peter seem to give a shit?

However, I'm willing to give season three a shot because of the storyline with Peter and Nathan, the shooting and Nathan's new direction in life. Nathan and Peter both look to be pretty fucked up by what happens. I'm betting that's going to be fascinating storytelling. That's what I'm hoping.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I forgive S2 for its faults because it really wasn't really a complete arc because of the strike. It very well might have gotten a lot better before the end (of course the opposite is also true).

On the bright side, Tim Kring recognizes S2's shortcomings and will supposedly address them in S3. If not for the strike, the remainder of S2 might have continued going in the wrong direction that it was heading, and it might have drove away more viewers.

 

[Dream]

I thought season 2 was okay but it had major problems working against it. Maya and Alejandro wore horrible. They were so useless and their story was the same thing over and over again. Claire falls in love with a stalker. Also Peter getting amnesia was an eyeroller. The worse thing about Season 2 was that it took forever to get going. Season one never had that problem. Hopefully season 3 bounces back.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^I agree about Maya and Alejandro. Instead of introducing them in the premiere and doing their repetitive trek across Central America for weeks on end, we (the audience) should have met them the same time that Sylar did and learned about them as Sylar did. Everything that we really needed to know about them and their backstory was covered in "Four Months Ago" anyway.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

One more day till the S3 premiere! Remember, it's TWO hours.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

The good thing about season 2, it got better towards the end of the season.

 

[Dream]

The good thing about season 2, it got better towards the end of the season.

Definitely. The last five episodes of the season were as good as anything from season 1. I hope the writers learned that they have to start a show like Heroes with a bang each season.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Things really picked up after Hiro returned from the past.

 

[Hermiod]

-What good is Monica's power if she can't retain the use of the skill indefinetly?

Who says she can't ? Being able to fight like Bruce Lee does not mean that a five foot nothing girl can beat up four or five much larger men. She can duplicate movements, not physical strength.

She is the Heroes equivalent of Taskmaster. He can duplicate Captain America and Spider-Man's fighting skills, but he can't duplicate their enhanced agility and strength.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I'm one of the ones that had no problem with season 2.

 

[Hermiod]

I'm one of the ones that had no problem with season 2.

For the most part, so am I. I am, perhaps, more forgiving have seen what they were going to do before the strike happened and messed up their plans.

 

[Captain Craig]

The good thing about season 2, it got better towards the end of the season.

Definitely. The last five episodes of the season were as good as anything from season 1. I hope the writers learned that they have to start a show like Heroes with a bang each season.

It did get better but still left things murky.

^I agree about Maya and Alejandro. Instead of introducing them in the premiere and doing their repetitive trek across Central America for weeks on end, we (the audience) should have met them the same time that Sylar did and learned about them as Sylar did. Everything that we really needed to know about them and their backstory was covered in "Four Months Ago" anyway.

Maya and Alejandro too me were the Nikki & Paolo of LOST. At this point I don't care about Maya at all. The writers are going to have to really do something to make me care. Plus she seems to be teamed with my other least favorite character now in Mohinder. Could he have gotten anymore stupid if the season had lasted 22-24 episodes?

-What good is Monica's power if she can't retain the use of the skill indefinetly?

Who says she can't ? Being able to fight like Bruce Lee does not mean that a five foot nothing girl can beat up four or five much larger men. She can duplicate movements, not physical strength.

Its hinted I suppose that she does retain the power, she just can't access them at will. Example being she saw the tomatoes being carved into roses and it was hours later that she, subconsciously, reproduced it at work.
Would've been nice for her to access some of the Bruce Lee moves when she needed them.
We could've spent time developing her instead of trekking through South and Central America with Maya&Alejandro.

 

[Hermiod]

Its hinted I suppose that she does retain the power, she just can't access them at will. Example being she saw the tomatoes being carved into roses and it was hours later that she, subconsciously, reproduced it at work.
Would've been nice for her to access some of the Bruce Lee moves when she needed them.

She learned from the wrong source. Bruce Lee was, despite his undeniable skill, an action film star. His enemies queued up to get hit in a predetermined order.

All the fighting skills in the world aren't going to help her fight off several men who are all much bigger than her.

We could've spent time developing her instead of trekking through South and Central America with Maya&Alejandro.

I imagine we will see more of her. She's already shown that she's more willing to use her abilities for heroic purposes than most of the others.

Plus...

Spoiler: Season two deleted scenes

It looks like Jessica or some new personality of Nikki's will be back this season so someone needs to look after Micah.

 

[Luckyflux]

I caught up with the show via DVD and watched both seasons back to back. Season two wasn't bad, per se, but the problem is it wasn't very good, either. I agree that the ending felt very rushed and compressed, but it suffered greatly from the separation of Hiro/Ando and Peter/Nathan. Sure, it was great stuff when Peter and Nathan saw each other again, but there wasn't enough of it. Also, the new characters, Monica and her family, and Maya and Alejandro felt rudderless, not connected to the main plotline. I couldn't get into them even though there wasn't really anything wrong with them as characters. The Peter/Caitlin bit seemed pretty schmoopy, too, and what happened to her anyway? Is she lost in an alternate future? Did the future change around her, and she woke up in 2008 in New York in entirely different circumstances? Did immigration deport her back to Ireland and why doesn't Peter seem to give a shit?

However, I'm willing to give season three a shot because of the storyline with Peter and Nathan, the shooting and Nathan's new direction in life. Nathan and Peter both look to be pretty fucked up by what happens. I'm betting that's going to be fascinating storytelling. That's what I'm hoping.

A agree with a lot of this post. I never really liked or dislike Maya and Alejandro...they were just "there". I agree we should have been introduced to them when Sylar meets them.

I liked season 2 for the most. I know that every week I was looking forward to watching it, so that must say something.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Spoiler: Nikki

Nikki is dead. Tracy Strauss isn't a new personality. She's a new spoiler. Micah is out. Monica is out.

 

[Thrall]

To me, Season Two suffered from "Been There. Done that." syndrome. They seemed to revisit many of the arcs and stories from the first season. I know they were going for a "mirror image" of the first season. Season One was about normal people discovering their powers and learning to use them to kick ass for The Good. Season Two was supposed to be about super-humans trying to be normal. But somehow, it got away from that big time and became a retread of Season One. Granted the Writers Strike happened and it would have gone off in a different direction then what they had planned, but even then I don't think it would have been any less derivative. There were so many retreads:

-Character travels to the future to find it destroyed by some calamity in the past( involving Peter) and sets out to stop it.
-Claire and her "I wanna be normal" whiney wannabe Buffy Summers issues and her Daddy Issues. Combined with her attempts to take down the High School Bitch-Queen Head Cheerleader with High School Outcast Best Friend.
-Peter loosing another girlfriend tragically and being used like a total tool by the bad guy into destroying the world.
-More of Matt's family relationship issues. This time with a horrible daddy rather then a horrible wife.
-More of Mrs. Petrelli being an evil cunt and trying to get one of her sons killed "for the greater good".
-More of Bennett being a ruthless, secretive bastard trying to protect his family from The Company and trying to prevent something terrible from happening to them that has been foretold by an Issac Mendez painting.
-More of Sylar joy-riding across the country with two people he plans to kill.
-Another Femme Fatale Comany agent, with Elle taking the place of Candace.
-Hiro again learning that trying to change the past to save someone is a misuse of power.
-Niki fighting gangsters to protect her family

It's like they hit The Voyager reset button and many of the characters regressed.

And they introduced many new characters who just weren't really all the intersting. Monica was decent, but nothing great. She reminded me too much of Charlie. Her final arc with the gang bangers was Kim Bauer vs The Mountain Lion stupid though. Maya would have more interesting if Sylar had turned her evil and she killed her own brother. That would have been cool. But as is, she's just a K-Mart Niki. Elle was an average bad girl at first but she started to have some decent character growth by the end. I'm curious where they go with her. Although I must admit that when she was shocking Peter as a means of foreplay I was screaming "Shock me! Shock me!" Adam was decent, but I didn't like the bad guy turn. Going from Captain Jack Sparrow to The Master was a big stretch for me. If they had kept him as a drunken idiot douchebag I would have found him much more entertaining.

They should have just focused on developing their original characters rather then wasting time and bringing in new ones. I think the season would have been better for it.

 

[A beaker full of death]

I gave up on the series early in season 2. The mock-Irish accents were attrocious, the gaijin samurai was a bore, and, worst of all, the 7th heaven crap with Claire just bored me to tears. I'm too old to be interested in teenage romance.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

They should have just focused on developing their original characters rather then wasting time and bringing in new ones. I think the season would have been better for it

Elle and Bob were all right. That's as far as it should have gone. Weren't they originally going to have Maya's "ability" suck the virus out of everyone? Now she's just going to be Mohinder's piece of ass. The two of them are the pretty ones having sex while everyone else is getting serious.

I agree that they made Peter look foolish. Peter's an emotional person in the extreme, which is appealing, and I get it that Adam manipulated him by healing Nathan's burns, but Peter knows that Hiro's a good guy. They've been through experiences together trying to stop Sylar. For Peter to just trust Adam so blindly with such a potentially deadly virus seemed naieve in the extreme. I get it that he viewed Adam as a fellow prisoner, and I really do understand his trust...up to a point. Adam murdering the female doctor like that should have given Peter a clue. I'm hoping the story of Nathan's shooting and Nathan's new views of the world makes up for that.