Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I just wanted to briefly go over some ideas I had that I felt would've lent itself to a longer run for this series. It seems once the writers realized they couldn't have every season involve the world being in peril they just lost their steam. The last two seasons on Heroes was very up and down, and I feel the following should've been changed to allow for a better experience (in no particular order):

1. In season 1 we were treated to Future Ninja Hiro. When he stopped time while Peter was on the train, speaking in perfect English, a badass samurai sword strapped to his back, who didn't let out a big Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure-ish "woah"? That would've made a great storyline for sure, but I'll go one further: the writers became confused how to deal with the difficulty of handling Hiro's power in the storyline - why couldn't they have totally wiped out his powers in a future storyline and simply had him run around as an excellent swordsman ninja? What was the point of Hiro's Dad teaching him how to be a samurai (I know, I know, it was to be able to fight Sylar, but you know what I mean).

2. The show needed a Legion Of Doom (for lack of a better term): The entire Samuel/Circus of Freaks storyline needed to be right after the whole "Heroes/Villains" storyline. The main difference was this time the fate of the world wasn't going to hang in the balance like it did when Arthur Petrelli attempted it. Just your average bunch of super powered evil people headed by a main villain with delusions of grandeur. This should've been the next logical progression going from "save the world" to something just as menacing but not as critical.

3. They really should've explored the whole arc of Nathan Petrelli/Tracey having their powers come from a scientist. That was really a game changer. There was a few avenues they could've persued from that one nugget alone. Never should've had Tracey kill him so quickly. Or, if she needed to kill him so quickly at least let him reveal he was just a small cog in a much larger project. Implications were huge. And it all went "poof" as soon as it was introduced. Furthermore, it would've done wonders for the show to simply have Ali Larter removed from the show when Nikki/Jessica died. From that point on she served no purpose on the show except for eye candy.

4. I touched on this before, but they should've made Micah evil. He could've been like Marlon Brando in Apocolype Now, only Micad would've been surrounded by robots and eletronics that he spoke to. An entire season could've been filled out with this plot alone. This way you have the entire cast of Heroes joining together to fight a common evil enemy, with various episodes consisting of Heroes fighting robots.

5. After season 1, Claire should have went to college and that should've been the last we saw of her. She was never as important as she was in season 1. From that point on she only got in the way. It became annoying to see this tiny girl whose only ability was to not get hurt think she could battle villains. This last season she was naive to the point of endangering others. And I expected more out of her lesbian friend. I thought that was going to go somewhere.

These were just a few ideas that could've squeaked out a few good season of Heroes.

Season (Series?) Finale of Season 4

Oof, it looks like this series is coming to a close. With ratings having plummeted - leaving the series likely not to get picked up for next season - it looks like this is probably a good as time as any for the show to close up shop. The storyline of the past 3 episodes should've been the storyline to start the season. We all knew Samuel was the main villain, why it took the whole season to make it official is curious. The season moved along at a slow pace, viewers dropped by the week. I haven't watched the season finale yet, but just the whole preview of Sylar stating "I'm a hero", it just seems like a good way to get the series to come full circle. All along, it appears, Heroes was about Sylar. Sure, there were times various characters became too powerful for their (and the show's) good, but their abilities were dealt with - however sloppily. It just feels right that to start the series off with the ultimate mysterious villain, progress over the years to show how multi-dimensional and multi-layered he is, and now end the series with the ultimate villain becoming one of the good guys. Seems kinda "kumbaya" to me, but I like it.

There is no where for this show to go. It's probably too expensive to produce. Special effects this season were sparse. Various characters have been laid to rest with no room to progress. HRG is a shell of his former self (seriously, how much as this character changed/devolved from that first mysterious father figure/agent from season 1??). Hiro is useless and it's sad to see the move to turned him into him comic relief after season 1 showed the promised of how ultra-cool Future Ninja Hiro could be. Peter? Useless, his character was always flawed - the ultimate case of a person having more power than they know what to do with it. Suresh is basically banished to India. They never properly wrote off Tracey, what a sad way to just leave someone in limbo. Claire inherited the mantle of most annoying character and now seems relegated to a life of hot lesbianism. Parkman showed promise during the "Fugitives" storyline, but the writers castrated him and turned him into a housemom.

Alas, it is time. Say what you want about Heroes, but we'll always have season 1. They can't take that away from us.