I have left my blog malnourished long enough, but I hope to keep it well fed in the coming weeks as plenty of games are releasing, meaning there is plenty to discuss.

For now, though, I want to talk about Heroes. The first season caught me by surprise and instantly turned me into a fan. It was a well written show, had plenty of interesting characters (though some less interesting ones as well), and I found the story and plot twists to be well done and thought out (even if you could tell halfway through that they needed to run some plot-hole damage control).

The second season started up, and everyone expected big things. Instead, they got a similar plot to save the future, as well as thirteen episodes of not much happening. Overall, it was supposed to be similar to the first half of season one, where not much happens until all Hell breaks loose, and then once more building up into one climax. People weren’t happy with this, and it has created quite a negative effect on season three.

This is why I hate people. I blame them for all the problems with Halo 2 and 3, as well as the existence of Alien vs. Predator 2 (not the game, but the movie. The game was awesome).

To summarize for those not keeping up, or yet caught up, season three moves pretty fast. Too fast, in fact. Each episode seems to have at least one plot twist, just about each one unnecessary. The characters do not develop in a natural manner, but instead shift in ways that makes them seem contradictory. In fact, if you were to put the second and third seasons back to back, many of the actions of the characters would make no sense. This is nothing to say of the characters that have suddenly vanished off the map from previous seasons.

The very plot twists themselves are absolutely ridiculous, almost taking on a Lost quality. While plenty of them are predictable, they are only so because of how absurd or soap opera they are.

The biggest disappointment of this all is that the season’s premise is actually a good one. While the first two seasons had a major focus on how there is a hero inside everyone, even the most unlikely, the third season tackles with the idea that there is a villain within everyone as well. Turning some characters into villains would create a lot of interesting conflict, development and make you eager to see what might happen.

Yet it is executed poorly. The writers handled the issue irresponsibly, by randomly choosing characters to flip-flop instead of gradually building them into their new role as a villain, and with good reason.

Beneath the cut, I will go into further detail, but to those that haven’t caught up, be warned of plot spoilers.

The biggest, most irresponsible twist of a character was Mohinder. The character was mostly a responsible scientist for the entire show, and suddenly in season three he thinks “hey, I should stick this random syringe of genetics in me and see what happens!”. Bam, he becomes a villain by turning into Spider-Beast. This ruins part of what made Mohinder interesting to begin with, which was that he was a normal human caught up in a world of “mutants”, for lack of a better term (for the record, I feel that making comparisons between Heroes and X-Men is unfair. It’s like the South Park episode where they kept shouting “Simpsons did it!”).

In previous seasons, I liked Mohinder. This season, every time the scene changes to him, I merely groan and hope they do something like heal him or kill him off soon. I now have no connection to the character, as he has become someone completely different than who he started as. He is not Mohinder become a villain, he is Spider-Beast-Man that did science stupid.

The second foul is called on Sylar. Granted, I don’t dislike the concept that they are trying to work with, though I simultaneously have to call foul on Peter as well. Thing is, the first two seasons Sylar was pure evil, with the exception of the one episode in season one where you discovered Sylar had mommy issues. Otherwise, he was someone completely evil, and awesomely so.

But then the first ridiculous plot twist occurs: Mrs. Petrelli is really Sylar’s mother! Due to his mommy issues, Sylar then tries to play the good little boy, despite the fact that the first thing his newfound mother does is allow him to kill someone and steal their powers. Scene change, and suddenly in his interactions with Mr. Bennett he finds himself trying to “fight the hunger” and play the good guy.

His character is taking a complete 180 spin in a manner that just doesn’t seem to fit. What might have worked better is if Mrs. Petrelli basically offerred him more and more power, tempting him with precisely what he’s wanted, but through all the shit going down, all the other villains that he sees, and through his interactions with Mr. Bennett, he gradually begins to see what it is he really has been doing. That his thoughts of people not deserving their powers from season one, a concept that seems to have been abandoned and simply turned into “a hunger”, shifts as he sees how others wrongly make use of their own. Encountered with “mutants” who blatantly abuse their abilities, he begins to see what he has really been doing.

Simultaneously, I like the concept of Peter descending into darkness. Until now, he’s had a very black and white view of the world. Then he’s encountered with his first decision to break that: to shoot his brother to save the future. This descent into darkness, where he has to confront the fact that in order to do what is right he might have to make some dark decisions. However, it has once again taken a very drastic turn. He jumps into the future, sees Sylar as a good and innocent man, gains his ability, and…now he is becoming to angry and dark, too fast. He tries to kill his mother, blames Sylar for “this hunger”, and so on. If anything, the future should have challenged his beliefs even further. His opinion of Sylar shouldn’t be black and white, but different. After all, he saw a monster changed into a human.

The list just stretches on and on beyond those examples. Micah and his cousin are completely forgotten, despite the fact that Micah was an awesome character and his cousin had potential. Molly seems to have no sudden importance except in a future where her own shapement into a villain is building. This is, of course, nothing to say of the woman from season one that told Parkman and Ted Sprague about the markers and how to get into Primatech Paper’s underbelly. Interesting characters just keep vanishing. Oh, and now Adam Monroe is dead, and he was awesome in every way. Good job, guys.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t anything good about the season. I certainly like the Daphne character, which is unusual considering I felt the opposite when she was first introduced, and I like that Parkman is a good guy instead of leaning towards becoming a villain (which, interestingly enough, he was doing in season two and would have made sense to continue on with season three). Hiro and Ando are as entertaining as ever, but once again I’m forced to complain as they had to repeat a conflict right out of season one. Once more the two friends had the moment where Hiro told Ando to go back home, just like in season one, and then they resolve their issues and continue being friends.

Oh, also, come on guys. Mr. Petrelli? As soon as I saw all the tubes I had an inkling, and it was right. Seriously, you jerks aren’t even trying anymore.

I don’t know who to blame this season on, and I keep on thinking “hey, it can still be incredibly awesome, it’s still early”. The fact is, that is just wishful thinking. It is still a fun show to watch, but my Monday night highlight has swapped from Heroes to Chuck. At least they managed to deliver at the end of a repetitive game of love-triangle last week, and followed up with a very interesting episode this week.

On the whole, I’ve come into agreement with this guy. You either have to just stop watching, or shut your brain off. Which is a shame, because after I had watched the first season I had thought Heroes might be one of the shows that saved television from its epic level of suck.