Heroes is one of the most controversial shows of the decade, but not for the reasons you may think. When Heroes premiered, it was one of the most popular shows on television. Fanboys were created around the world, but disaster struck: Heroes, for reasons unknown, started to suck after a wonderful first volume. Fanboys were in denial everywhere: Was their precious Heroes really going down the drain, or was it just a hiccup? People expected old Heroes to come back when volume three came to us, and.... Heroes was awful. People stopped watching, but as they stopped, the old Heroes we loved slowly came back in volume four. Now the show is in volume five, and did the show returned to form? Read on...
VOLUME ONE: GENESIS - Here's the thing about Heroes: Instead of having "seasons" like normal TV shows, it has "volumes" to be more like comic books. Volume One is where everything starts. In it the Heroes must stop a nuclear bomb from exploding in NYC, but all of the Heroes are scattered around the world and none of them except one knows about it. We're introduced to the main cast that has remained with us up until recently. The best part about superhero stories has often been said to be the "discovery" phase, and the whole first season is devoted to that. As the volume progressed, the characters become more accustomed to their powers, showing the natural stages of average Joe to superman. The magic of real people having superpowers captivated the world. The only major downside to this volume was the average finale. People expected a grand finish for the volume, but one wasn't delivered. Maybe I wasn't disappointed because I watched this volume after the fact, but fans were just plain angry. Despite the sub par finale, expectations still soared for volume two...
VOLUME TWO: GENERATIONS - Volume Two dealt with heroes from the past, and the heroes also had to stop a virus from being released. Sounds exciting... at least on paper. In execution however, this volume was horrible. Nothing happened in the first 4 episodes. It was BORING. These people have superpowers, but they aren't doing anything. Things started to pick up, but none of it seemed to be planned out. As the volume started to be interesting, the volume was cut short due to the writer's strike. What we're left with is a boring mess that made fans want to tare their hair out. Tim Kring apologized for the show's 180 degree turn in quality. Fans laid the blame on the writer's strike, so expectations soared yet again for volume three...
VOLUME THREE: VILLAINS - Volume three had the heroes trying to stop a formula which gives normal people superpowers from being mass produced, and would therefore destroy the world. This season started out by introducing new characters to us and created exciting new twists that should have been awesome. After the premier though, things started to suck. Instead of things being too slow now, they were too fast. Random things were happening left and right, the plot was spinning out of control, and fans everywhere gave up on the show. Thankfully, this volume was only half the season, and Heroes then segued into volume four...
VOLUME FOUR: FUGITIVES - After the events in volume three, the show rightfully decided to ignore most of volumes two and three. This volume had the heroes on the run from the US government. After the madness of the last two volumes, people had given up on the show. Something happened which I started calling the "Heroes effect". The Heroes effect is this logic: The last two volumes of Heroes were so awful that Heroes is bad forever no matter what. This of course is not true. With this volume, the plot slowed down and the heroes started doing rational things. We started to actually care for them again, and they did things logically again. The magic of the show started to return, but by this point there were only about 10 people left who cared enough to notice. The volume also slowly drifted away from most of the show's usual tropes, and fans started to actually look forward to next week's episode. With Heroes starting to get back on track, we now have the current volume...
VOLUME FIVE: REDEMPTION - This volume, aptly titled "Redemption", shows how the writers have learned from their mistakes. The cast aren't bouncing off the walls like in Volume Three, but they aren't sleeping like in Volume Two. The heroes did things we can relate to again, the new villains this round were the most interesting since the first volume, and most of the stuff they did was logical. It started off a bit slow, but takes off with episode 4. After that most of the episodes were awesome up until episode 12; then the volume became really boring. Almost Volume 2 boring. It kills all of the momentum it built up. It's like this for a while, but then the last 4 episodes are fantastic. This volume, unlike all of the others, actually has a satisfying ending. If it didn't have those really slow episodes in the middle, Volume Five would be just as good as Volume One. It's certainly more entertaining than the previous three volumes.
Looking back, it's a miracle how the show got back on track. Heroes promised so much in volume one, but didn't deliver any of it. Heroes had fallen so far that the turn around in quality doesn't even matter now. Most people who watched the show are now biased against it, and the ratings are so low that the show's future is in doubt. Luckily NBC's ratings suck this season, and Heroes is still one of its better performing shows, so Heroes might get lucky.
If you plan to watch Heroes for the first time, skip volumes two and three. They'll make your brain hurt.
