Heroes returned to BBC2 this week. After season one’s constantly outstanding wonderment was replaced by season two’s somewhat disappointing mix of no pace and deeply unlikeable new characters with bad accents, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
What we got was, I think, an episode that tried very hard to tick all the right fan-pleasing “trust us, we’re still the same show” boxes. So for instance we get more time-travelling and evil future counterparts, we get to actually spend some time with the Hiro/Ando double-act (and what a delight it is to have them together again), and Sylar is back in the game in a big way. At the same time, several of the more annoying aspects of season two seem to have been quietly dropped – amongst them, little Molly whassername has been sent away, and interestingly, stoopid Mexican wassername with the black eyes (who made such an impact on me that I can’t even remember her name) seems to have lost about 75% of her accent.
There are also many new and interesting questions raised, as well as resurrecting a few old ones. How much does Mother Petrelli know? What else did the older generation get up to? How will the future turn out? What does Hiro’s formula create? Is Nathan now completely fruitloops? (And if so, is Lindermann just a figment of his imagination?…this last one is just me, I think).
It’s not all good news, and the spirit of season two lingers on with Hiro encountering a new ’speedster’ character who is instantly twenty times more annoying than just about any crap character this show has ever had. On the whole though, there is a strong sense that the show has found it’s feet again.
My main concern so far is that whilst it is welcome to see a return of some elements of the show which seemed to have passed on, it can get a little tiring if it is at the expense of forward motion. The episode sees a disturbing number of characters resurrected from the dead, whether they deserved it or not. As well as Nathan miraculously surviving being shot dead in the final moments of season two (for which I’m thankful, as I think he is far and away one of the most likeable, complex and interesting characters), we get Lindermann and Nikki (one character I was particularly glad to see the back of). And Hiro’s father gets yet another cameo from beyond the grave. There is refocussing on the more popular or successful elements of the show’s first year, and then there is wallowing in continuity for no good reason…I guess it’ll be a few episodes before we see which way this goes. For now though, I’m a cautiously happy camper.
Regards,
Marwood.
