Whose family is the most in need of lots and lots and lots of group therapy?

The Petrellis - Illegitimate children. BroYay. A matriarch who possibly wants to blow up the city.

The Sureshes - A dead child. Another child born solely for his antibodies. Lies upon lies about that dead child. Chandra possibly helped spawn the serial killer Sylar.

The Grays - Actually did spawn the serial killer Sylar. Obsessive collectors. Sylar whacks his mom in the face with a snow globe. Mom is definitely out to lunch. "Ordinary"? I don't think so!

The Nakamuras - Require kidnapping in order to get in touch with each other.

The Sanders-Hawkins Clan - Multiple personalities. High body count. ATM robbery. "I should've left your arse stuck in that wall."

Other - is there any family more screwed up than these people?

LOL! I love how you described the Nakamuras!

"require kidnapping in order to get in touch with each other,"

But I didn't choose them, I chose the Gray's because at least the Nakamura's ARE in touch with each other, whether through kidnapping or not.

I chose the Petrellis, they're all messed-up!
And they keep messing up with other people.

I picked the Grays, for obvious reasons, but what about the Bennets?

"Morally grey" dad, brain-damaged mom, irritating litttle brother, daughter with own messed up family, and of course Mr. Muggles.

Petrellis.

If only for fan-interpretation .

I thought about the Bennets, but then it occurred to me that sadly, HRG is probably the best father figure in this entire series...

Well, DL's not that bad. He just doesn't get all the dramatic scenes with dramatic Micah.

whaddya mean sadly? I think he's a great father!

Mr. Muggles is the most normal one in that family


Lyle... gah, I hate him soooo much.

Point taken about DL!



Sadly, in the sense that HRG began the series as the ruthless Company man, lied to his daughter, erased his family's memories, etc etc... and yet he's still one of the show's best dads!

*Tries to imagine his Nan having plans to blow up half of London...*

But you really have to love Peter's rational thinking;

"Claire, when I last almost went critical cause of my power a guy called Claude decked me and that totally defused the situation... so if I overload again, you know what you have to do... shoot me in the head!"

No I have to say, I think that ties it for me, the Petrelli's are just whacked out...

HEY!

The Petrelli's are the obvious answer (with the philandering Nathan, his sexually frustrated invalid wife, lying pyro ex, secretive kleptomaniac mother, suicidal father, delusional brother, illegitmate daughter, and the fake brunches) but the impending Skywalker/Vader relationship in the Nakamura family is a close second.

The Gray's are no more and should be removed from the running.

HRG FOR WORLDS GREATEST DAD!

But the fact that the Gray's are no more should only boost there raitings. Seriously, how ever bad everyone else is, they will always be worse.

Just playing devil's advocate here . . . but, isn't it possible that Sylar has a few more relatives? Surely, the Gray's family reunion would be a reason to seek therapy.

I completely agree with this. With the Petrellis, you get manipulation, sarcasm, lies and cover ups... but it's expected, they all do it (yes, even Peter and Claire, she did plenty on her own earlier), and they know how to deal with each other. And they have the same sort of aim in mind: a better future, and one where if at all possible Peter doesn't blow up. I'd say they function in their own way.

The Grays, however, kinda don't seem like they ever worked. Mrs. Gray (was her name Virginia? Did I make that up?) seemed like, supportive as she tried to be, she was incapable of really listening to her son. The Petrellis 'get' each other; the Grays didn't.

I'm not just measuring up the two families and seeing which churned out the worst member, it's a question of what worked. The Petrellis, despite flaws, work: they still see each other, they know how to work together, they understand each other. We've never seen the slightest thing to indicate that the Grays ever worked as a family.

Unless someone's got a different definition of a 'dysfunctional family' (a phrase which, by the way, has been thrown around TV so much that it's lost most of its meaning to me) is, I'm sticking to my guns here. Petrellis=functional. Grays=not. That's what I think.

I think you are all giving Sylar's obvious dysfunction too much weight to your argument. His heinous crimes stand seperate from the Oedipal relationship that inspired them.

50% of the phrase 'dysfunctional family' is FAMILY. We've only met ONE member of Sylar's family and she is now dead. Yes his relationship with her was flawed but now it is over. You can't make any assumptions about his other relations should they exist.

You can't have a 'red apple' without an 'apple'.

The Petrellis. Even Nathan admits it. ("They're like us." "Dysfunctional?")

They have so many secrets, and I think I can almost 100% guarentee you that one of the Petrelli brothers is an illegitamate child. The family oozes angst, and each member is so incredibly messed up, it's kind of hilarious.

I wub my dysfunctional Petrellis, though...

Both familys are dysfunctional. What im saying, the Grays take the cake, and argue over who gets the first slice.

Honestly, look at your own family. Every family fights alot. Ofcourse not to the extent of the Petrelli's..but they at least love each other. What we have heard of Mr. Gray, he forced his son into his own work, and probably didnt get along with his wife. And that women could take on most families byherself.
There was no love there. They was a lot of bitterness and alot of desperation that was masked as love. It has nothing to do with what Sylar has done. Look at how the two familys function. The fact remains that the Gray's just didnt...

I voted the Sanders/Hawkins clan. Sounds like dad abused Niki and/or Jessica and killed Jessica, alcoholism is involved, DL and Jessica are about to kill each other, and Micah is already an atm bandit, soon to be vote rigger. Throw in multiple personalities, multiple personalities, and internet porn and you've got one messed up family reunion. Yikes!

I'm gonna have to go with the Petrellis here.

starting with Dallas (Mr. Petrelli), who implanted weird ideas into Linderman's head and took advantage of him coz he was special. Angela somehow got involved. Dallas involved with the Linderman group, he dies coz of it, Angela's STILL behind it all, Peter can't get a break, Nathan's a little pushover with an illegitimate child, secrets abound, oh my!

by the way, did nobody consider the Bennets?
I mean sure, they can't match up to the Petrellis, but c'mon...
a paper-salesman NOT, a wife more obsessed with her dog than her own family, adopted Claire who came from the fire, and we mustn't forget Lyle-- "Shut up, Claire!" is like, all that's in his vocabulary.

I think that shows how much life their storie lacks compared to everyone elses. After all, Jessica's death toll may just be up there with Sylars, if not more (We may have to look into that). D.L was involved with the mob, his little "crew". They really are messed up. Plus D.L and Niki keep trying to kill each other, usually infront of Micah.
With all of this, the Petrelli's and the Gray's...they all seem so much worse, and so much more interesting. To be honest, most of the time i just dont really care about the Sanders/Hawkins.

just because they've been written out of relevance doesn't mean they're not f*cked up.

Definitely the Greys. At least the others haven't tried to kill each other.

Well, there's the Niki/DL fights mentioned above. Also, some have speculated that Chandra deliberately exposed Mohinder to Shanti's super-rare virus, which isn't cool either.

I'm actually starting to think the Petrellis are the most functional...

Heehee, me being "some". I think Mo wins "Daddy issues" (Sylar gets "mommy issues", but that's not a popular category). I'd save dysfunctional being either Sanders/Hawkins or Petrellis. On paper it would be the former- they keep trying to kill each other and all of them have committed crimes! But I guess their story doesn't get enough spotlight to really attract attention.

We haven't met Sylar's "family"- only his mom. We've heard him talk about his dad, but that doesn't count.

So Petrellis for the win!

I chose The Grays, cause Sylar is a serial killer and his mom is just plain weird.

I chose the Petrellis.

There's so much going on there, it's scary. I'm just waiting for some sort of schism to rip that family apart into three groups - Nathan, Peter, and Claire trying to stop the bomb (well, I think Nathan wants to stop it, but maybe he doesn't); Angela Petrelli is in a group all on her own for now in wanting to blow up NY; and Heidi, Monty, and Simon are the only "normal" ones who keep up the image of "normal."

Besides, I wonder how Heidi's gonna take it when she finds out what's really going on. Who knows? She might be in on the whole blow NY up with Angela.

Normality gets shattered into pieces around the Petrellis.

Then there's the fact that there's more of them than any of the other families. Their storylines are tied into the main plot for this season.

Anyway, can someone define dysfunctional family other than that it means that the family is messed up?

As long as Nathan is around next season, I don't care how dysfunctional his family gets. He can be Molly's dad and the father of Janice's baby! As long as he's around.

I'm in agreement with you here. Sylar and moms are wack! I can only imagine the family dynamics when dad was around.

Not this thing again. It's been done once, let's not do it again. If you want to watch soap opera, I'd recommend Passion. It has that baby-swapping, illicit affair type of storylines you're looking for.

As for dysfunctional, I'd go with the grays.

Excuse me, but I actually never said I WANTED it to happen. It might simply make sense seeing the brothers' age difference and the completely different treatment the two boys received from their father. I actually abhor soap operas, and would appreciate it if you didn't assume anything about the posters around you. I do not see what about my comment would deserve the bitterness you thrust upon me.

I'd hate to see this turn into a soap opera as well. Claire-Nathan is quite enough, we don't need more daddies popping up.

Yeah then what is this:
"I think I can almost 100% guarentee you that one of the Petrelli brothers is an illegitamate child."

Unless you're a writer, how can you 100% guarantee anything?



No it doesn't. My uncle/aunts are actually 10, 7, and 6 years younger than my mother. Some couple do choose to have children later on in their life. Also, it's quite common for a parent to treat one child differently from the other. Ever heard of things like 'mother is closer to the son' while 'daughter is closer to the father'? It's the same thing.

With all due respect... lighten up.

I hope the writer won't do anything soap-opera-ish like making one of the Petrelli boys an illegitimate child. It's tacky and tasteless and befits soap opera. I don't think that's the intention that the writers want.



Dude, you're just throwing oil into fire.

The Gray's. Hands down. Mon Dieu, they spawned an insane serial-killer, and Mrs. Gray is definantly certifiable! The woman is so completly out there.

Think on The Hard Part: She just wouldn't 'let' Gabriel be! Then she had to go all crazy with that psyco religious talk. Adding, "You're damned!"

We've heard how bad Mr. Gray was with that: "He didn't give me any choice." business. (Concerning Gabriel's watch repairing profession.) Add to that the fact that he seems to have skipped out AND somehow "forced" his son to follow in his footsteps.

Sanders/ Hawkins ~ The only thing wrong with her originating family was the dad killing her sister. Sure it's dysfunctional, but not as bad as the Grey's.

Even taking into account all of Niki's murders Sylar is still more "evil". His intent is to never stop. Niki at least is wanting to. (Or already has. *SHRUGS*)

*** I'm too tired to go on to the other's right now...

I went with the Petrellis. I'm not going to bother listing my reasons as they've already been discussed.

Lol, that statement is funny.

Happy to amuse you!

Yeah, the Petrelli's are just about the most dysfunctional family like... ever.

There are no more words to describe them... it's sad, really.

Yup, but I love the brothers together.

The Grays all the way. The mother is a religious freak that pretty much pushed her son over the edge, and the son is psychopath with bipolar tendencies that killed his own mother and then used HER BLOOD to paint a picture!

Makes you wonder how the father was like when he was around... Maybe he's not dead and is more psychotic than his son!

I went for the Petrelli's. All the reasons have already been explained. They really are a messed up bunch. The others are not exactly like the Walton's though.

The Petrelli's. Those people are messed up. Esespically [spelling sucks, sorry. : [] Angela. That lady creeps me out to no end.

At this point, I'm not so sure anymore (I already voted for the Petrellis).

I mean... Sylar and his Mom just misunderstand each other and don't listen.

With the Petrellis, they listen, they know, and understand, and they love each other, but they're willing to throw that away to get something done (Angela), or cover their own behinds (Nathan), or try to be noble, but not do a very good job of it (Peter).

And who could forget Papa Petrelli? They say he committed suicide, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think in an interview, Adrian said he was killed.

To me it's a general toss up between the Petrelli's and the Grey's. I would love to see either of them on an episode of Dr. Phil.

No family deserves that type of torture.

I dunno though... I mean look what happened when Niki/Jessica was sent to the psychiatrist. If something like that can happen, it might get interesting...and then the Haitian can pop along and erase a few memories.

EDIT: Petrellis at 40 votes and Grays at 43. I'd cheer, if it weren't for the fact that I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.