Finishing Up The Season: Heroes

Is this show still on? Really? I've grown devastatingly tired of it, and can hardly believe I'm still watching it. Perhaps I should give up, but I feel compelled to acknowledge just how awful it is. It used to be a good show, though it should not be seen as ever having been a great show, but now it's almost as bad as "Prison Break." Nothing makes sense, everything's laughably bad, and it's painful to get through some episodes.

This new "Fugitives" volume, which in December I forecast would turn the show into a failed imitation of "Brazil," did absolutely nothing, just like the volumes before, to progress the story at all. Supporting characters with no real purpose, like Daphne, were killed off, while others who just don't seem to die and really should, like Nikki/Tracy and Sylar. Zeljko Ivanek, quite the hot actor these days after this Emmy-winning turn on "Damages," was a great choice to play the role of Denko, but his material got progressively worse. The idea of him working with Sylar to fulfill his vengeful hunt for the heroes was intriguing, but ultimately just got in the way of legitimate storytelling by having Ivanek and Zachary Quinto try to do their best impressions of each others' snarls. Denko's continuing agreement to give Claire immunity didn't make an ounce of sense, and I've never hated her more than I did this season.

Claire interviewing for a job at a comic book store, much as it caters to the comic book fanbase who likely account for a major portion of the show's audience, was simply ridiculous. I couldn't care less about her trying to protect the fish-breather, and the revelation that the elusive Rebel was actually Micah was pretty dumb. The fact that an entire episode basically focused on Ando making faces at a baby shows that the writers are truly straining for ideas, and they're coming up very short. The directions all the characters went in are senseless and incoherent. The horror episode "1961" was an odd break from the rest of the series, but in my mind, a failed experiment because it didn't really add anything to the show other than the insertion of forced connections between the heroes' families that don't really align properly. And then there's that finale, where once again, we're back where we started.

Seeing Sylar go on TV as Nathan was random as anything but got me a little excited for a return to those "Five Years Gone" days of intrigue and possibility for the show. It quickly went downhill when Sylar used his shapeshifting ability to deceive everyone and then killed Nathan. The end truly perplexed me, and not in a good way. If Matt could so easily convince Sylar he was someone else, why not do this earlier? Sure, it's not a completely foolproof plan, but at least he won't be killing people for a while. This whole "moving the spot where he can get killed" thing doesn't impress me. The writers are stretching things, and I don't buy it. Sylar's a villain, but the show's had equally impressive ones, like Elle, or, I suppose, Arthur Petrelli. Regardless, nothing has really changed in this show now other than the threat of Sylar being a bit less actively potent but much more threateningly dangerous. I can't imagine what's possibly in store for next season. I'm sure it will be a preposterous snooze.

Season finale: F
Season grade: F
Season MVP: Kristen Bell