Heroes has always talked itself up as a fast paced, pulse pounding show, with ingenious plot twists and top quality special effects. But the latest episode “Villains” has none of that, instead deciding that, instead of advancing the plot, that having a tedious flashback episode explaining some of the underdeveloped minor characters was a smarter move. Oh yeah, this is going to be good.
After another pretentious waffle-a-thon by Mohinder (for fucks sake) we're treated to a scene with the Petrelli family, shortly before Arthur's faked death, and these scenes are the better parts of the episode. The performances are fantastic, some of the lines are just as good, and it's a nice reminder of how much better the characters were in season one - back when Peter was a nurse, and not Captain Drama-pants. What else makes the episode good is Angela Petrelli, and it made me realise that her character has quickly become of the better things about Heroes, probably because she's one of the few characters with actual complexity. Despite always playing the victim she's incredibly manipulative, and with her dark, troubled back story she's an genuinely deep and emotional character. It's a welcome change from the other Barbie and Ken dolls that have been generously dubbed as “characters”, when “over-dramatically positioned cardboard cut-outs” would probably suffice.
Next, there's a few scenes with Sylar and Elle. Turns out that, shortly after he forcefully acquired his telekinetic abilities, Sylar had a wave of consciousness and tried to hang himself. This is all well and good, but I'm starting to wonder where all of Sylar's changes of heart are coming from. He seems to make the extreme change from brutal killer to mild-mannered mothers-boy in a matter of seconds, and while it was fairly believable in the first season (because it wasn't written quite as ham-handedly) it's getting a little silly now. Then there's Elle who, as opposed to being a slightly masochistic sociopath, is now a sweet, innocent company agent. It's gotten to the point where I've given up any hope of the series maintaining any kind of consistency, although that doesn't mean I'm going to stop complaining about it.
Finally, there's Meredith and Flint, and I'm struggling to see what the point was in these parts of the episode. We all knew Flint was only included to be big, dumb, ugly and tough, but for some reason they felt the need to spend an entire episode reinforcing that.
The whole episode seems pointless, and while the hardcore fans who love the meaningless background knowledge will be satisfied, anyone who doesn't waste their time reading the online graphic novel is going to see the end credits and feel ripped off. It's also a sad reminder of how much better the first season was, back when Noah was a sinister agent, and when Peter wasn't an over-dramatic douche.
And to top it all off – parts of this episode are just clips from season one. If all they can come up with is a glorified clip show then this series has well and truly tanked.
2/5
If they had run the Simpsons' “Sorry for the clip show” song at the end, it would have been forgiveable.
Actually reads the graphic novel – tomdoodle16@live.co.uk
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