Last episode of Heroes drew 6.92 million viewers which are the lowest ratings ever. And that was supposed to be one of the best episode of Season 3!
Yes, Heroes had the biggest DVR increase in 2008. among TV Shows and it’s most downloaded TV Show on Torrents every week ( with Lost ) but how much that really matters?
What these ratings are showing us is that the show is not getting any better and TV audience reflects that. If the show ratings continue to drop, there is a chance the show may become unprofitable for network.
Can Heroes get better?
As someone who has never missed the show, I no longer have any confidence at all in the team making it. I like the show, I will continue to watch it but overall I’m disappointed because there’s no real progress.
Did you saw last scene of episode 3×17? What was that? Someone painting the future, in Isaac’s apartment, and seeing a city being blown up …
The guy has been dead for a while. Stop breaking into his old place. Can’t you paint anywhere else? That annoyed me almost more than the actual paintings. Not to mention Matt’s new power …
Meanwhile, Nathan’s entire story continues to make no sense. What the hell he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and how it all came together so fast!
What I’m really looking forward to see is 3×20 episode – “Cold Snap” – written by returning Bryan Fuller. Hope is alive 
… i hope
I’m sure that there will be Season 4, but if ratings continue to drop I really doubt that it will be renewed for Season 5 which makes me little 
Here are Season 3 episode ratings so far ( in millions ) : by TV Ratings
Episode 17: 6,910
Episode 16: 7,700
Episode 15: 7.900
Episode 14: 8.450
Episode 13: 7,866
Episode 12: 7,719
Episode 11: 7,995
Episode 10: 7,511
Episode 09: 7,646
Episode 08: 7,849
Episode 07: 8,189
Episode 06: 8,510
Episode 05: 8,753
Episode 04: 8,198
Episode 03: 9,502
Premiere: 10,086
Season 1: 13 000 +
Please comment below and share us your thoughts, what do you think about Heroes so far. Can it get better, how?
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I asm really sad that the ratings are going down because the first episode that was shown on monday for me (in the UK) was one of the best i have seen for a while. Personaly i dn’t think season 2 was that bad. i am currently waiting for villains to come out on DVD because i can’t wait to watch it all again. I wish the US and UK episodes were running at the same time!!! i can’t wait to see the newer episodes!!!
Personally, the worst part of the show so far is the fact that two main characters have lost there powers and become useless. Peter’s new ability is definitely not the same as his original empathic mimicry which was a billion times better and more interesting (interesting in the fact that when he absorbs too much he becomes unstable). What is this useless touching power crap? Come on, and the fact he can hold only one power makes he useless. When he has the fight against Sylar at the end of the volume, what is he going to do, have every other hero at the sidelines and tag them for their ability to counteract with Sylar? That is just plain stupid. I do agree Peter needed a reboot with his powers like Sylar had in Season 2, but the fact is Sylar got his original power and telekinesis back, and rebuilt himself from there. Maybe they could have made Peter’s power grow slowly, such as removing passive absorption (such as the person is there in the room and he gets his power) to making it similiar to the idea of his new power (where he needs to touch them to gain their ability) but he still can recall all abilities (he gained from touch). Then Peter isn’t a god as he has to work to gain the ability (assuming the other guy is evil or so powerful he can’t get close to them).
The other character I mentioned who lost his power and has become useless is Hiro. His power was fucking awesome and gave Hiro character. Sure he doesn’t need to always time travel, but at least the deceleration of time (as Daphne proved) and teleportation aren’t extremely out of line and god-like. He still needs to actively concentrate for these abilities to occur, thus his morality (weak point) is there. Ando getting a power isn’t equal to Hiro having his power. It is far worse because Ando’s ability is useless garbage on its own. Oh look at me, I can make red sparks from my arms. Simply crap if he isn’t near someone or boosting them. He has only really used his power twice (once when Matt touched him and once to save Hiro with Daphne). Other then that his ability has no use. Mohinder’s first ability was ridiculous, but with the formula he is just superstrong. Why couldn’t Ando’s ability similiar, just developing into electric manipulation like Elle, but only red (similar to how Merdith and Flint had different fires)?
Give back Hiro’s and Peter’s original powers, please.
Nate i agree with what you have to say, its just not the same without Peter having his all powers. He seems uesless!! Your point about the fight with Sylar at the end of the season is true, without having the ability to hold mutiple abilities at once Sylar will kick Peters ass, or worst still kill him as Sylar has regeneration and Peter doesn’t anymore.
All it takes is 2 amazing episodes, and that should be enough for a 2 million boost. There is a lot of hype for the Bryan Fuller episode Cold Snap. That alone should boost ratings a little. I like to stay optimistic and hopeful. If Cold Snap fails to deliver, then there will be problems.
There is talk of cancel which would be bad. People have given up on the show already. Heroes needs to finish strong if there is any chance of survival. If not people won’t care and the show will be axed.
Stian, that’s just sad….and scary….
“I think heroes is the greatest TV show ever! and if heroes quit I don’t think my life would ever be the same again, heroes is great and it will always be, I am watching every episode on TV, downloding every episode, and I’ve bought both two seasons on DVD, and I’ll continue with that .
Heroes is one of the greatest things in my entire life, and it’s just keeping on getting better and better all time.”
Stian, that’s just sad….and scary….
Stian you really do need to get a life and get out more!
PErhaps because they keep recycling some of the most tired story lines in similar series.
Hey, let’s give everyone in the world hero powers – as seen in 4400
Hey wouldn’t it be fun and original to take a superheroes power away – Superman 2, x-men united, 4400, smallville
Hey lets have a bunch of woldwide conspiracies and governments persecuting supers – X-files, X-men, Watchmen
What they need to get back to is just ordinary people dealing with superpowers, quit the legion of superheroes, political storylines, etc. Let’s just have episodes where Peter and Silar battle royal.
I don’t think he meant it lol :9 or he’s just spamming …
yeah, but thats easier said than done
i wouldnt blame any of this on the writers. i think heroes next year MUST move to another night to save the show because 24 is an amazing show and its so hard to choose between what to watch. and since the new season of 24 aired before the new volume of heroes aired many probably had to choose between that or heroes. since ER is going of the air, nbc should consider moving heroes to that time slot and see where it goes from there next year. i’ve been watching heroes ever since it first aired and missed 24 almost always but now 24 has the upper lead and heroes cant continue to compete or it will be the end and heroes is my favorite show!
Chad, if NBC moves Heroes to a 10pm slot on ANY night then I won’t be able to watch as I’ll be at work
. Now if they go with 9 pm on another night I could watch. I’m OK with Mondays at 9pm. Heck I don’t watch House anymore (and that’s now on Mondays at 
for fear I might miss something at the start of Heroes.
Heroes musn’t be cancelled! TV will suck without Heroes. Let’s hope the ratings rise above 7 million for the next episode.
sorry tarot, that was just a suggestion, but what i do think needs to happen is they must move to another timeslot. maybe not at 10 but somewhere during weekdays and not friday. my point is i think the writers are doing a great job this volume and they dont get the credit because of other shows. maybe not at 10 but they must move to a different time slot however. trust me if they move to a wednsday or tuesday they would probably do much beter especialy since american idol’s ratings are droping.
I have been a huge fan of Heroes but since last volume three are a lot of things bothering me, say for instance the first episode with something like Nathan resurrection. I know this is a show about people with extraordinary powers but this specific situation doesn’t fit in the story. I have been watching last volume by downloading the episodes because I live in Latin America
, and sadly I agree with most of the other people who has post an opinion here: the storyline has been lost, maybe the only one thing is still interesting is the Sylar’s story, but the rest of the time it has been the same during several episodes: the world is going to an awful end because of someone’s power, main first season characters like Hero and Peter are lost without their original powers, Claire is constantly complaining about being special and is always saying she is going to help others, but then she talks with HRG and all of her thoughts disappear. What happened with the evolution history? What about finding other people with really amazing powers? What about characters that are been forgotten, like Micah and Molly? What about the girl (Caitlin) Peter knew in Ireland when he was amnesic?
I’m still watching the show hopping for a better episode, but although I liked the initial story a lot, I’m not going to wait for ever
Chad, I avoid American Idol like the plague. I know some like it but I can’t stand it. I’m not big on reality TV as a whole. The only reality shows I watch are Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International. I’ve been known to watch a game show or two, as well, but that’s not “reality TV.” As much as I love GH and GHI, if Heroes were on opposite them, I’m watching Heroes.
trust me i dont watch american idol. im just saying heroes should go on at the same time as american idol because the ratings for heroes would probably go up since american idol’s ratings are down or it should go on at the same time as survivor.
exactly my point more people would rather see heroes than reality tv which is why heroes should move to a time slot competing against survivor or other reality shows.
Butif NBC moved it they would actualy have to make an effort with advertising the show.
unfortunatley there will be some concequinces but I think it would be much beter than losing it.
nevermind on twitter greg grunberg just confirmed season 4
I definitely agree that Heroes has gotten worse. There is no more anticipation as to what will happen next. It seems boring and nothing has changed through this entire season. And in last weeks episode, they only showed Peter, Matt, Suresh, Nathan, and Noah. Why not show us what is going on with the other characters? I find this season very unattractive and fear that the show will come to an end. We need some new action, a new twist, or something!
And by the way, does anyone know what happened to West? And is he going to return?
The writers don’t have the balls to kill off any of their characters. It’s simple.
I’m not 100% up to date on the current season, but this is what I’ve seen.
Let’s ignore Season 2 (the writers sure as hell did; you could go from S1 to S3 without realising you’d missed S2, as there was very little that led on continuity-wise).
They killed Elle, and they POSSIBLY killed Meredith, and that’s about as close as they’ve gotten to a central character this side of Isaac. I’m not one to say that you mustmustmust get rid of characters to keep a show fresh, but there’s no turnover, and there’s little tension. Every time they kill somoene off, it’s temporary until they get restored/saved/proven to have faked it/revived. Seriously, when someone gets shot, do we actually give a rat’s ass any more? They’re obviously gonna be brought back to life next episode.
Hey, what’d'ya know? They got brought back to life next episode! How about that??
So frankly, it’s just not all that fun to know that this central cast is the one we’re going to be stuck with for the rest of eternity. And the chances of this altering are minimal.
Why?
Because the writers and the actors have gotten chummy with one another. I think this was proven the moment Ali Larter got cast to play her own character’s Long Lost Identical Twin/Triplet. Funny that, Niki/Jessica and Tracy seem to have a lot of overlap. Gee.
It’s not a secret that certain actors/actresses have been seen hanging out with one another. That’s cool; fair play to them. And there’s also nothing wrong with the writers listening to the fanbase. Far from it; the fanbase gets to tell people where they’re going wrong, and what’s going right.
But between the fanbase’s gushing and the actor cameraderie, something’s gotten lost and the writers seem to have confused the What People Want with the What The Show Needs.
Personal opinion? The two most irritating characters just so happen to be the two characters who are immortal. And therefore are never ever going to die. Ever. Yey.
It’s a joke that they bring in peripheral characters all the damn time (see the HUGE plethora of Heroes tie-in material), to kill them off after ten seconds of airtime. Example that comes to mind is the woman Angela “fed” to Sylar; she had been a character the BBC had cooked up over the space of, oh, at least eighteen months? A big collaboration between two networks on different sides of the atlantic, and got introduced into a variety of tie-in materials. What happened? She got one line on the show before getting brain’d. And from what I’ve seen so far, Sylar’s never even used that power. What the deuce was the point?
Like I say, they’ve gotten comfortable with what they know and are too weak to rock the boat. That’s what the show needs. Rocking. Kill off some of the main characters. Not the supporting cast, not random mooks, the people we’ve grown to know and learn to love (my personal instinct reckons they’re going to get nathan to be sylar’d soon, but if this happens, i’ll facepalm at the sheer predictability value, but yeah that’s just me).
Kill off the old tropes. We reached a point where no characters could time travel or paint the future, so why the hell are the writers trying to force these skills onto other people, if not for the sole gimmick of keeping them in the show? Gone is gone.
Stop bringing in supporting characters for the sole purpose of making the Main Cast look better. Claire’s got another love interest? HRG’s making deals with the devil again? Yawn.
Quit being so damn nostalgic, writing team. You’re not fooling anybody any more. At the start of S3 I was grumbling that they were using special effects as a subtitute for real plot (powers+explosions =/= storyline), but now there’s things going on, and the writers have made a conscious effort to look at the show’s roots, but if they do it through rose-tinted glasses, like I’m fearing they are, then they’re screwed.
Can the show be saved?
I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath.
@Chad 2 comments above
That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while.
I have watched heroes from day 1 and it has been the best show on television since then. True, the storyline may have shifted a lilttle bit but at the same time it gives a new perspective to the show and a different look. Alot of people are not looking for a change in the show because they are used to everything season 1 and 2 brought to the table. And yes season 1 and season 2 had you on the edge of your seat from begining to end but so did this season that is going on right now. There have been some moments that confused me and had me wanting the writers to explain some more but lets not criticize the show and say its whack when its not. To me its still the best show or one of the best show on television and if the ratings dont go up and they dont bring it back i dont know what i will do. Lets see how the season plays out and where they go with the plot and hope they dont get too ridiculous with it.
Funny how so many people come on this site and still miss the page with the quote from the writers saying Peter still has the same power, he just has lost touch with his empathy and needs to regain that.
Anyway, screw ratings right now. Greg Grunberg confirmed via twitter that there definitely will be a season 4 coming late ‘09/early ‘10.
I thought I watched episode 17 last week? 16 and 17 were too similar.
Biggest problems with this season.
1) Is there anyone new or old stepping in?
2) The same 2 story lines are being dragged out. We need more off shoots.
But I will still watch it
u absolutely have no logic at all. if it was the most downloaded tv show then of course the number of people watching it on tv are considerably lower. duh!!!
well, this is not only my idea but everyone seems to have the same opinion as I! the show has gone down hill since peter lost his powers. the show was so exciting when syler and peter used to fight each other with their real powers and thats what we want to see, a show with people that have abilities. now syler is going around with that pathetic useless kid for the last 4 episodes with no conlusion of anything. I love the show and i know that the show is not progressing at all. I have in mind that somehow peter will find a way of leaning how to borrow as many powers as he wants at one time with some trick, such as syler with the eletric girl.
season 3 the villans was really good, but the following volume is like bush taking over bill clinton’s place at the presidency position.
YO THIS SHOW SUCKS NOW. NO ONE SHOULD NEED TO RESEARCH OR FIND OUT EXTRA INFO TO HAVE HOPES THAT IT WILL ONE DAY BE GOOD. I.E. PETER NOT IN TOUCH WITH HIS POWERS.
THIS WRITING SUCKS, THE EFFECTS SUCK (SO MANY TIMES YOU CAN SEE THE GREEN SCREEN OR BLUE SCREEN….) LIKE WTF. ARE THEY HIRING KIDS FROM MEDIA COURSES OR WHAT. TALK ABOUT AWFUL KEYMAPPING. MAKES ME LAUGH THAT THEY CLAIM THEY GOT SUCH A BIG BUDGET CAUSE IT MUST BE GETTING SPENT ON DRUGS OR WHAT NOT. PROBABLY SOME SORTOF STIMULANT THAT INFLATES THEIR EGOS AND STOPS THEM FROM DOING THEIR JOBS PROBABLY, ERRRR COKE.
I HOPE THIS TV SHOW MAKES ‘HEROES’ TOILET PAPER SO I CAN WIPE MY ASS WITH IT EVERYDAY.
Um…So, what show was it you do effects for? Obviously, with your gentility and intelligence it must be a high quality program.
i believe the show was doing really good when peter had all his powers because he was freaking bad ass, he could go back in time, be invisible, fly, heal himself, and much more. so if he gets his real powers again, he will be better, and wtf, his brother is fuc**&&8 asshole.
Ok …Where do we even begin??
I’m a huge fan of this show ever since I bought the first season dvd and watched it like 5 times or something. I was totally addicted to it, it was the most brilliant show I’ve ever seen in my life.
Then came the second season where things started to go north..Hiro being stuck in Feodal Japan for too long and the whole Hiro-in-love thing, Ando being thrown away after his huge part in season 1,the whole West thing which I hated the character and glad he is ruled out,the whole Micah and his cousins storyline which was really boring even though the cousin had a cool power…Alejandro and Maya…They had a potential to become so much more but the writers had other plans I guess…Peter cutting off his hair (lol) and the whole virus thing which could have been great ended too quickly…
Of course there were good stuff about season 2 also which I think deserves mention even though many people hate it:
Peter suffering amnesia was really cool I loved the whole Ireland storyline.It gave depth to his character.The whole 4 months ago episode was also great.Best ep. of season 2 by far I think..
Nathan going into depression and searching for his brother was really great.They included him into the action with Parkman and stuff…His character really developed ..
Elle..I loved the character ..Though they killed her …
The whole virus thing…It was meant to be great but thanks to the writers strike we got nothing…
And lastly..Adam Monroe..It was the greatest thing season 2 had…I loved the character,I loved his power..He looked badass, he acted badass..But in season 3 everything changed..
Season 3 started really cool…Future Peter showing up,another bad future on the horizon, Sylar starting to be a good guy (Even though I never ever liked or accepted the idea of Sylar being Peter and Nathan’s brother,I’m glad they ruled that one out),the whole Villains escaping thing…It was great…But then..First they killed Adam Monroe which was a huge mistake in my opinion..But it was needed for Arthur Petrelli which I loved as a great character too..But in the end he got killed too…And at the end of the season what do we have? Nathan,who we accepted as a good guy now started something stupid that contradicts his own character that has developed for the past seasons…I mean it is purely stupid to take a good character and just make him bad just because he saw some bad guy took control over a village!?!? I mean there are always bad people in the world what makes Nathan think that EVERYONE need to be taken away?!? …It is too stupid for the show I wish they could change that like Nathan isnt really Nathan or there is something much more deep going on that made Nathan do this…..
And ahem…What the f. happened to Peter’s powers?!? I mean I know ..most of you people like this show because of powers and Peter had most of them…Why take them away???? It is really stupid..They need to give Peter his empath ability back because that is H?S character!!!
Take away Matt’s ability of painting the future…It is YET AGA?N purely STUP?D!…Each and every one of them have ONE power and only one…It is needless to give one character two abilities…The whole Matt painting the future thing shouldnt have happened in the first place…
And lastly…Give us more action…Give us some ability vs. ability kinda fighting…Give Peter back his powers so he can be bad ass and make the show worth watching again….Dont make these stupid mistakes like Matt painting the future thing or Nathan just deciding to be a bad guy in 5 seconds kinda stuff…Give it more depth, more action , more interesting storyline…Like season 1..Then you’ll have your ratings back…
haha WELL SAID JOHN!!
I do agree with the idea that Nathan has become evil needs more development, and I didn’t like the whole Matt painting the future, i think it was just a way to prove the writers were lazy and couldn’t come up with a brighter idea…I mean they didn’t explain how Matt was able to see that African dude who gave him the ability in the first place!!
More action is needed between characters…i think this volume is focusing more on the idea of a story that on powers (which is basically the whole idea behind the show)
Season one was the best of all…when i bought it, I couldn’t stop watching and finished the entire season in like 2 days! lol
One thing ive noticed about this season is the writers are not completeing the storys which they create. Like Pikora mentioned how was Matt able to see african even though he was dead, why has he got a new power??? The writers have also never said how Nathan got healed from being shot.
After Nathan was shot, i think the way the explained was “he was touched by God” or Linderman healed him, but since Linderman wasn’t real, and it was all Maury’s illusions….I’m not sure.
Anybody got an idea?
I did have a personal theory that Peter may go back in time and heal him using Linderman’s power if he ever knew they he had it, but since Peter lost all his powers thats impossible!
ok – the reason the show is losing ratings is because people are getting tired watching the characters v e r y s l o w development – and almost z e r o progress as a group of power – full people they should be stronger – we all want the heroes to start kicking some ass already – or atleast moving forward and getting confident in what they can do and have increased thier abilities. but honestly they all seem to have the dreaded “FROTO” lord of the rigs disease – where they remain trapped by their own lack of objectivity, a total refusal to accept reality, and a pathetic (and ironic) “inability” to act with any long term planning to further a cause – and they constantly underestimate the enemy – the only character that seems to be changing and growing is Sylar – hes interesting to watch, otherwise the others are really losing our interest – plus it would be nice to see a new hero that just gets it all and is not afraid or timid – someone people can rally behind because the others are all easily manipulated – that could be peter – except that he should have all his powers back already – the one power at a time thing is lame.
For those of you who don’t know why Nathan was healed this explains it. I think it was season two there was a flashback when Adam and Peter were friends and escaped from the company.Then thay went to the hospital were Nathan was. Adam was like Claire.He couldn’t die. So he gave Nathan his blood as a deal with Peter that he would help him get the virous.
Mia, that one episode was season two, and they helped nathan with the blood but nathan healed from when he burnt from flying peter away in new york at the end of season 1.
John, you said everything all this stuff now is bs. however, i cant stop watching the show, but if peter don’t get his powers back, i will give up someday. lol
anyway, i hope he gets his powers back, and i think ando can be the one to help him with that. you know hiro got all his memories back when his mom did healed him! so maybe ando and the flash girl can take both hiro and peter back in time so both of them can be healed completely.
by the way, i am not only upset with peter losing his powers, but with hiro too because he was the fun guy from the show, and he is not even that much in the show now.
man, when peter used go invisible, fly, and beat shit of anybody i slept even better because i knew that time would go faster, and next monday would be there shortly for to watch some more.
We should make a video and put on youtube asking for peter’s power back!!!!!!!
Mia,
Adam healed Nathan with his blood after the explosion…not after he was shot
ok i am concern about something. in season two when peter came back from the future to alert about everybody with abilities and things were out of control.
First of all, in order to get the formula they would need to get something from claire but arthur had already got from hiro, so arthur is the one who got the formula to work. so can someone explain to me why peter from the future had his powers, and how hiro from the future had his powers when he stoped the train to talk to peter. i mean he didn’t have an eccent that one time, so it means he’s from a future away from that!!!! this show is getting more confuse than Lost.
@robinho
There have been several futures on the show which have been altered because of the actions of characters with either foreknowledge or time travel. It was assumed that Claire had the catalyst, but Hiro and Claire travelled back to the rooftop exchange and prevented that from happening. Peter’s future, the one with Costa Verde exploding because of Sylar’s son’s death has been altered. Pinehearst is no more, Knox is dead and it is proven that Sylar is not Angela’s (cough cough) son. (Although, I still think they’re related….a la Wendy.) Hiro’s future showed a battle between Hiro and Ando. but that may have also been changed based on this season’s events. However, unless I’m mistaken, that future doesn’t show a Hiro with powers, necessarily and it does show Ando with the supercharger power. Basically, events in the future are not fixed in stone. the future is maleable.
@ Robinho,
Before Arthur or Hiro got the catalyst, remember they called HRG to ask him to give them Baby Claire so that she could have the catalyst…in the meantime, the old Hiro went to his mother and asked her to give him the catalyst….so if the old Hiro and the old Claire weren’t there, the catalyst would have gone to Baby Claire…so technically, in the present day, she was really the one with the catalyst, until Hiro altered the past, which therefore, altered the present day, which THEN led to Arthur taking it from Hiro.
also, there were a lot of different foreseen futures that were altered in the present day…so if certain events were changed the entire future was changed…In season one, when Future Hiro was on the train with peter, he came from the first future, which AFTER the nuclear explosion…then there was the future where the Shanti Virus was spread and killed 93% of the world population, then there was the future where Sylar had a son and Matt and Daphne had a baby, and another future where everyone had access to the formula…I think that’s all the foretold future we know so far that were altered
well thanks guys. i guess the thing with the present and future it is the same thing as back to the future. lol idk. i am just messing around. but anyway in 3 years of heroes i can tell u guys which episode so far is my favorite. It is from the first season; five years gone.
boy that episode when hiro went to the future, and syler was the president pretending to be nathan. peter was a freaking bad ass. when he started to fight syler, i started to get sad because it was almost the end of the season and i would have to wait the whole summer until next season started.
can someone tell me which episode u think it was the best one?
From season one, I would say Homecoming (where Peter meets Claire for the first time), .07% (when Sylar “kills” Peter, and Claire revives him), and 5 years gone.
From season two, the last episode
oh yeah .07 was really nice too. when peter fought back syler.
No offense Marty and not being a jerk but there are several problems with your train of thought. Adam’s power was explained in Generations as he had stopped aging because his ability had healed him so many times that the cells were dying and regenerating in equilibrium ( Concurrently. ) which is an interesting side effect of his power so that when Arthur absorbed his ability it rapidly aged him as his cells quit regenerating suddenly causing his death. Also this is not some shadowy organization it is the United States Government and with the information supplied by HRG, which means they now know ways to fight as well as suppress ( temporarily. ) people with abilities, if they had taken the time to explain every nuance to how the government came to this it would ruin the pacing of the show and people would complain, so they make only light mention of how this came to happen as the show lets you the viewer fill in the blanks with understanding or lack thereof. They also have mentioned that the Eclipse will be explained and why it drains their powers so calling something as a negative UNTIL it is explained is useless and just promotes negative feelings towards the show and writers/characters. I admit there are plot holes but we watch this show to be entertained and yes, some shows need a better level of understanding from the audience as these shows are NOT written for you to not only enjoy them but to bring ad revenue into the networks which is how they make their money. Which is why DVR confuses the networks, just because there is a “slip” in the ratings does NOT mean no one is watching the show, it just means that the particular demographic of Nielsen families are not watching as the Nielsen system is too antiquated to come in line with our current level of technology and how it relates to our TV show watching experience. There are other people that watch the show that Nielsen NEVER reports on because there is NO substantive way to map the viewing habits of people unless they volunteer for something other than being a Nielsen family. As for depowering Peter they needed to and they needed to quit the stale storyline of the world needing to be saved, This way it brings them into unfamiliar territory of having to defend themselves against something other than a Super Powered Serial Killer, which is nice because it puts Sylar on the defensive instead of the offensive. Hiro also needed to be depowered because eventually time travel and mimicry become stale and just a Deus Ex Machina which can slowly erode the popularity of a show through repeated use. Enjoy the fact it is on, we could be worse off and have NOTHING to watch that causes this much speculation and fan appreciation. As for Ex-Fan, no need to worry about Trolls, just people with no substantive opinion and nothing of ANY value to contribute other than negativity.
It works like this, for me. As multiple people have rightly said, the ratings dropo by itself means very very little. We already know Season 4’s in the pipeline so there’s no chance of things ending anytime soon. As for Heroes, lately, there have been some mistakes. Season 2 can be excused by virtue of the writer’s strike, but the main “problem” with Villians is, in most people’s eyes, the loss of Sylar and Peter’s abilites, and to a lesser extent Hiro’s. I disagree with most people’s feelings on this issue.
The reason why this was a neccessary step is simple: Peter and Sylar were becoming positively godlike in comparison to everybody else. Over time, the amount of abilites they would have access to would have been stupidly large and made them invincible in comparison to everyone else, which is obviously a bad thing. Therefore, the writers HAD to reset their powers to avoid this scenario. The alternative is to watch them become literally overpowered. Further, we cannot keep reusing the idea of Peter’s abilites overloading as Claude has taught him how to control them, and he no longer has Sylar’s power, so that angle is cut off. Sylar has never had a problem with any ability.
The way the writers handled this depowerment in regards to Sylar, was excellent, for me. Sylar’s powers were basically reset to his original ability and telekinesis, and we can then watch build his toolbox back up. All fine. The problem with this was what happened next: Half of the abilites Sylar has acquired, are rarely or never actually used. Bob’s, Bridget (the girl who Angela fed to him), Jesse (the prisoner Peter was stuck in for a while by his future self), and the “imprinting” abilty gained in the graphic novel have NEVER been used by him onscreen. It makes absolutely no sense for him to have these abilities if he doesn’t use them and makes the deaths meaningless. Sylar basically has his lie detection, Telekinesis, Elle’s lightning, and Claire’s self-healing that he actually uses. This is all fine- in some respects these are his best abilities. But compare with Season 1: Sylar had, and used, telekinesis, freezing, radioactivity, enhanced hearing, melting, and precognition- all his abilitys were shown off regularly. The one exception to this is Trevor’s shattering ability, which was added retrospectively in Season 3 and therefore doesn’t count.
The other problem I have with Sylar is that his empathic connection, the ability he has to take abilites wihout killing, has seemingly been abandoned. What was the point, again, in having that big revelation if it’s never used? The only example of it is with Elle, which, ironically, counts for nothing because he would eventually kill her anyway. I’m not saying Sylar should give up killing- clearly not. I’d just like that aspect of his character to be explored more. Do that, and have him use the abilities he has, rather then mindlessly adding new ones, and I’m happy.
Peter, on the other hand, is slightly different. Again, in Season 1 he showed off multiple abilities, and his powers needed to be reset to prevent it becoming a farce. But because people liked that, they are now mercilessly attacking him for being “useless”. It’s stupid and idiotic. Read this carefully: Peter COULD NOT have stayed as he was for Season 1 and 2 for the length of the show. Or rather, he could have, but at the cost of everyone else on the show save Sylar becoming simply inferior to him. I would rather have a depowered Peter then such a scenario. Crying “Waaaah! he suckz now!!!!!!” Is useless and petty, and needs to stop. His character contunues to evolve and develop.
Hiro, however, is a legitimate complaint. While there is an argument to be made about the reversal of his relationship with Ando, it’s being done poorly. There was no need to strip Hiro of space-time manipulation: it’s a powerful abilty, yes, but not obviousuly damaging. It does tend to lead to “Dark Future” plots being recycled over and over (surprise surprise, the first one portrayed in Five Years Gone is by far the most effective, for the majority of viewers). I admit this, but it is also a fault of the writers that the only way they can avoid that type of reptitive plotline is by removing time travel entirely. Hiro was stripped of his ability solely because the writers wanted to remove time-travel from the show. That in itself is excusable: the fact it was done in a fashion akin to performing heart surgery with a sledge hammer is not. The writers have simply shot themselves in the foot and destroyed much of the fanbase of a likely character. This is not helped by the fact that many of Hiro’s experiences from S1 and S2 (Charlie, his sword, Yaeko, even Adam) have simply disappeared. He’s reduced to Ando’s sidekick, in a way that Ando himself never had to suffer duing S1. The fact he wasn’t with Hiro in S2 didn’t help this either, however.
My final criticism (aside from a personal desire to see Claude again, onscreen) of the show is in terms of character numbers. We’ve had many deaths that seemed odd or pointless, and even more characters who simply vanish. The vanishing started as far back as Claude in Season 1 (personal gripe of mine), but it’s carried on. West, Caitlin, Molly, Maya, Micah, The Hatian, Monica, Flint…it’s insane how big the list is. Certain characters are also introduced and then killed off or removed after a short space of time: I’d have liked to have seen much more of Knox, personally. Tracy is another variant on the problem: why kill Niki if the actor was going to stay? And play a previously-never-mentioned twin at that? A smaller cast that we always see, and we can become attached to, is far far FAR better then a massive cast were certain people just up and vanish because the writers can’t handle it all.
The show has a few problems, now, but it’s nothing that cannot be solved, and Volume 4 is actually the most impressive since 1, in my eyes. Hopefully in Season 4 these problems can be worked out…
Swm , well thought out response and you have some very good points. I too would love to see Claude return.
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