What to say about Heroes?  Since my last review, a great deal has happened, and yet it doesn’t feel like it amounted to a great deal.  One week, I’m think, “cool, finally, they got it right.”  Then the next week, we’re back to “yawn.”  Finally I realized what the show feels like.  Have you ever ridden in a car with someone just learning to drive a car with a manual transmission?  It simply isn’t a smooth ride;  too many jerky motions.   That’s how the ride this year has felt.

Since my last review, Claire learned that Sylar killed and replaced her biological dad; she visited the Carnival; she found out that Samuel is an evil man; she was kissed by Sylar and finally she was taken prisoner by Samuel and his men.

Yeah, Sylar kissed her.  Finally free of Nathan, he finds himself impotent, unable to kill.  So he goes to Claire to find out what’s missing in his life.  (He went to her after acquiring Lydia’s power to see secret desires.)  By kissing her and by listening to her, he learned that it is his powers that have driven him away from humanity, to murder and loneliness, which is his biggest fear.

So he goes to Matt to have his powers turned off.  Only Sylar didn’t realize something; something that we, or at least I, have forgotten.  Back in season 2, we learn that Matt’s father was worse than Sylar.  He is a powerful telepath who had the  power to trap people within their own mind.  Matt the son has the same powers of his father and that makes him just as dangerous–worse than Sylar.

Using that power, Matt traps Sylar inside his own mind.  Then in a very macabre act, he bricks Sylar up inside a wall in his basement.

But Peter has come to rescue the killer.  Yes, Peter has to rescue his brother’s murderer.  You see, he learned in a vision that Sylar was supposed to save Emma, a girl that Peter obviously likes.  But she is in danger and  has gone to Samuel.

Now in the meantime, Samuel has had his heart broken, killed a town and rigged things so that Noah looks like a monster who killed Lydia.

And while all of this is going on, Hiro teams up with Ando to rescue Surresh, then he ends up on an operating table because  of his brain tumor.

On one level, this sounds like a very complicated interlocking storyline; on another level, it just sounds convoluted.  I lean towards the latter.  This is why I think the show feels like a student learning to drive a manual transmission.  Too much jerking, too many false starts.

I realized 3 things–one, this storyline is too long.  To make the overarching storyine of Samuel fill a full year, the stories are stretched, run tangents before returning to the point.    If they had cut the story to fill a half year, it would have been a more coherent whole.

Second, they have to stop using Sylar. I admit, when the character first appeared, I hated him, but over the years, I’ve grown to like him.  But enough is enough.  The Joker might be Batman’s arch-enemy, but he doesn’t appear in every Batman storyline. Sylar on the other hand, has been in every season.  Give the guy and us a break.  Familiarity breeds contempt, or worse, boredom.  I also have to wonder if shoehorning Sylar into every season, including this one is one reason for the bumpy ride this year.    So, let’s see new villains, which brings us to point number 3.

Samuel is a lame villain.  First off, his powers don’t translate to TV very well.  In comics, earth movers are much more visual and exciting, but on TV that kind of special effect is mooted.  Second, even if his powers were formidable on screen, Samuel himself is lame.  The guy comes across as a sleezy used car dealer more than a sociopath.  That’s not exactly Dr. Doom.

The show hasn’t really had a good villain since season one’s Sylar and the Corporation.  Since then, the villains may have started well, but they’ve fallen flat and that’s the problem.  Heroes need villains, worthwhile villains.  Unless Heroes gets some, what’s the point of the show?

If this show gets another season, let’s have year without Sylar, but with a new threat, a new formidable villain and then throw in the right mix of real life drama.  Then maybe the show will be worth a new season.  If it is more of the same, then why bother?