I don't want to start a fight or anything, but am i the only one who thinks season 2 is getting worse and worse? I really don't care about any of the storylines except the Maya-Alejandro-Sylar one. (sylar FTW!).

I mean, I even skipped the Hiro storyline in the last episode because I was so tired of him and his stupid storyline. And that's something that never happened before with this great show. But this season's storylines... I mean, which one is interesting? Claire's? Mohinder's? Peter's? Nathan's storyline with Matt is quite interesting, though.

I keep watching because I'm hoping the next episode will be better. I'm not the kind of person who stops watching a show because the last episodes weren't great, but I feel confused, especially if I watch any of the great episodes from season 1.

This show needs more Jessica kicking butt (Niki? No thanks), more Monica and more Kristen Bell.

Can't wait to see the next episode, though.

I'm a big fan of this show and will not leave it. However, I think the Kring is losing the fringe audience.

I have friends who are bailing. Why? it's too confusing. For the hardcore fan - like myself - it's easy to follow along cuz I will put my geek shoes on and find the answers to what I think is confusing. The fringe audience will not. The give the show one hour per week and that's it. Nothing extra.

Kring said he learned lessons from watching "Lost." But he's not following them. The show is moving too slowly with too many questions always unaswered to taking too long to get answered. I understand you have to have some cliffhangers, but Kring is losing the fringe audience cuz this show is just too hard to follow if you are not willing to put in the time to look up stuff, read the comics or hang out on this site.

I still think this is the best show on television. But it's starting to feed a smaller niche and that niche will continue to get smaller and smaller if Kring doesn't pick up the pace and avoid what "Lost" failed to do.

"People Magazine" recently said the show is suffering a sophomore slump.

i thought this episode was pretty darn good. best ep so far. however, i think the main reason why it's kinda taking a slow start is because they're are just simply too much characters and storylines going on and it's just jam packed into one. but overall i think season2 is doing pretty good so far.

I kinda like it... but I agree most of the season is a bit confusing compared to the first, where we had the whole bomb thing drawn out right in the first 2 episodes. There are duller moments for sure, but to each his taste, there were some in the fist season as well, for some reason Niki's whole storyline bored the crap out of me back then until around episode 20 or so

I think you're getting more solid episodes, but without any real direction of the plot right now. As some have said, last season we already knew by episode 2 what the ultimate problem was going to be. Eventually everyone came together to stop it.

This season, we have Hiro in the past, Maya and Alejandro just now making it into the US, Peter is just finding answers, we have the boogieman, a mysterious killer, the virus, the company, and the Isaac Mendez paintings. Not to mention Claire and West who, so far, seem to offer no real contribution to the plot. I think theres just a lot going on right now, and it could stand to have some greater sense of direction. I think, however, the pay off towards later episodes in the season is going to be greater, because all these threads have been started that eventually will reveal "holy crap, this happened because this and this." So payoff *I hope* is coming.

At least now with the latest episode, there is some idea of an overall threat that they have the stop.

I like this series alot; the majority of the characters we know alot about, and they are growing. Matt and Nathan are getting more screentime then they did before and they are handling it well (or so I personally think.) Not only that, but even though alot of Heroes began scattered about, we are starting to see them meet up; Nathan, Matt, Niki, Mohinder, Molly and Bob all working together, and its only a matter of time before Monica starts helping them out. Personally, I think Peter is bound to come along in a couple of episodes too, and Hiro as well.

I think the reason it seems so slow is because everybody's doing their own thing on a seperate path right now, and there's just too many storylines happening at once. Once the paths start converging...which they most certainly will, things are going to pick up, and FAST.

Think about the fact that in most of the past episodes, it was either introducing a new character or setting up a new plot for every individual character. Also think about the fact that your favorite two parts of the show at the mo' are two stories that have already converged together.

Next week's episode is going to bring even more of this converging together.

Didn't like the episode. I enjoyed only the parts with Mohinder and Monica (because Monica rocks too much and Mohinder... well... I'm biased ), and the one with HRG. The rest, pretty boring. Honestly. But... I have faith, now I think the main explanations are over, we're onto the main stuff right now.

But... I could do without Kristen Bell. Didn't like her character, didn't like her acting, Monica's 10000 times cooler and she deserves more screentime. Which I think will come in the next episodes, if she follows Bob's suggestions from the end of the episode.

I agree with BB the Monica/Mohinder scenes were what was driving the episodes. I don't get this point that the overarching premise just was landed today. Really it is by far the most bogus to me. The hooded Killer, the twelve, the virus, Maury Parkman, Bob, and taking down the company, though there are many they all equal one thing = THE EVACUATION. So whom ever is saying that the overarching storyline hasn't been introduced, you are lying and failing to see that they have been increasingly giving little by little to get to the evacuation (which was disappointing to me) I mean yeah there are some slow plot lines, namely: Hiros, Claire, the Twins, and mainly Peters painful journey. But I think it is going to pick up (I thought it HAD picked up two episodes ago and last episode: but no they hit a brick wall this episode.) Well sweeps are next week, so of course there will be exciting news. Also, the fastest storylines, and the most intriguing are Matt, Monica, Nathan, Elle, and the development of the 12. All of which are storylines that keep me in. and I hated Nathan last season, picking up interesting points each episode for me.

It's the plague of an Arc based show vs an episodic show. There's more to set up in something like Heroes than there is in say, Journeyman. There's an overall arc to Journeyman I'm willing to bet, but each episode pretty much stands on it's own. Heroes, the episodes are not really stand alone. Babylon 5 was probably one of the better arc based series and even it had it's troubles with the format that almost killed it before it got to it's 5 year mission.

I also know of a few people that really wants to bail on this show... but What i think is that.. there are WAAY too many characters introduced in this new season... i mean.. it wasnt a problem last season because somehow everyone was connected somehow.. my theory is.. is that when everyone is joined back together again.. it should be good.. but.. with Hiro in feudal Japan, Peter in Ireland/Vancouver, Sylar in Mexico, HRG in Russia, Claire in Costa Verde, NAthan and matt in Philly, Micah in New Orleans, Ando in Japan.. forgive me if i forgot anyone.. but... they just need to bring them all back together... even if they are building up for a big reunion of characters.. its already long overdue...

But think about last season; it wasn't until the last episode that everyone really got together. They would occasionally come across each other, but apart from that they didn't really hang out until toward the end. Just look at someone like Matt, who didn't really meet Mohinder until something like the 3rd last episode. I don't see the big deal with everyone not knowing each other; it worked last season, and it will work this season.

I'll be a Heroes fan till the finale of the entire series...superpowers + overarching plots + people of various races = television gold to me

how could anyone NOT like this last ep? Peter FINALLY time traveled!! and yes it's been a lil slow this season so far, but it's about to get CRAZY! WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA'AM!

Right, because "Pople" magazine knows a lot about TV.

No offence, but if newcomers are confused MAYBE they should actually WATCH Seaon 1 rather than come into a show in its second season and expect to be able to follow it. If Kring had done some lame reset button and abandoned all the season 1 stuff, you can bet you'd all be b*tching about that instead.

Everytime I read a "season 2 is bad" thread I get a different storyline that sucks.

One post will say Mohinder's story line is crap, I want more Hiro.

And then the next will say Hiro's storyline is going no where, I want to see more of Mohinder in the Company.

And then the next one will say Hiro's and Mohinder's storylines both suck, we need more Peter!

ect. ect. ect. On and On and On.

There is no one storyline that would make the whole show better, and there is not one storyline that makes the whole show suck. They all work together, because eventually they will all come together, just like last season.

Well I agree because how can a perosn expect to get what is going on in S2 without having even seen one or two episode on S1. The storylines arent that hard to follow either way. I don't know anyone who is dropping the show but i do have a couple of friends who want everything spoonfed to them so they dont have to put in any thought. Personally I like to have to think about a few things.

Even though some of the stories are seperated right now, characters are meeting up and working together so things are starting to some together.

I do not blame it on a single storyline, but the writers have definitely made mistakes that are going to nip them in the butt sooner or later. The show is still very good, but somehow a lot of things that were great in the first season have become casual (and that is not saying I do not want to see more power-based action). The epic scale is missing. Or is it just the epic tone?

Heroes is still a very good show, but it has gradually lost its greatness.

I think the season is going a little slow, but when your telling a 23 or 24 chapter story ya have to expect the begining 1/3 or so to be a little slow. They have to set up the story, and have to be really careful to do so, so the bang at the end is as dramatic as they can make it. I personally like how last week they set in motion the reason Adam Monroe ends up being a bad guy, that and the file that bob had.. that just screams of something twisted and exciting. Peters story, i was a little irritated he didnt have his memory again, but damn, the note he got from Adam on mondays show... its all comming together...

Just like a three part movie, the first one is never as good as the 3rd...

No, but it doesn't make much sense, no matter how many people say it.

Which storyline was it that DIDN'T improve last night, exactly?

The storylines are weak, there's no denying that, but from where I'm watching TV, every single one (except possibly Claire's) got better last night... how could episode six be worse than the first five episodes with the exact same storylines when nothing happened?

That's what I don't understand, I understand the storylines are weak, what I don't understand is which ones didn't improve this week.

Claire's does seem to be going no where. I am having a hard time figuring out even where they could go with it. I can only assume her doing that little stunt and then becoming a cheerleader will get her caught by the company.

Though i don't agree that all the rest of the stories sucked and I did feel a certain pull by all of them (though I hated Hiro's story until last night,) I do agree that last night was step one in giving the whole story a direction.

You're certainly not the only one. Just read all the reviews from magazines, discussion boards and the comments from reviews. The disappointment and frustration with season 2 is everywhere. It's also showing in the ratings. The problems are pretty obvious. Too many storylines at once with everyone spread all over creation, all of the popular pairings are split up, too many new characters and not enough time for the original ones, the writing how gone downhill with too much emphasis on stupid love stories that no one cares about, and repetitive storylines from last year, and all of these loose ends need to be tied up quickly before more people bail.

On a live show, one would say they took steps to fix what was wrong in the first five episodes. Instead, they are normally a good 5-6 episodes ahead, if nothing else... so they haven't fixed anything. So everything that has been in the episodes, we've been meant to see... but why? Is it really just "overarching stories have slow starts that build to big climaxes", or is it something else?

Here's a similar take on your topic from the Chicago Tribune yesterday:


Wake me when Season 2 of 'Heroes' begins

Not to pile on to the growing "Heroes" backlash, but …

OK, forget that – I’ll pile on. What gives with Season 2 of that show? As one wag on Newark Star-Ledger critic Alan Sepinwall’s site put it, referring to a possible walkout by Hollywood’s writers this week, “Are we sure the writers of ‘Heroes’ haven't already gone on strike?”

Some of you may recall that I gave the first part of Season 1 of “Heroes” a negative review, and it feels like déjà vu all over again this year – there’s a glacial pace, some wooden acting and an overall plot that takes too long to catch fire. Though the show greatly improved last season, it could still be maddeningly inconsistent. We’d get something terrific like the “Company Man” episode, but the good stretches were often followed by too much bland filler.

Sylar We’re seeing that again this season – flashes of fun or excitement surrounded by a lot of tedium. Though the first episode of Season 2 was a pretty good reintroduction to the “Heroes” world, the past few episodes have been mostly forgettable. Maya (Dania Ramirez), Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) and Monica (Dana Davis) are bland at best, and the rest of the characters feel stuck in holding patterns. I’m even growing tired of the formerly enjoyable Hiro-in-ancient-Japan storyline. (My earlier thoughts on various Season 2 plot threads are here.)

The exception, as usual, involves H.R.G. (Jack Coleman). He’s like Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) in “Bionic Woman” – the only truly interesting character on an otherwise inconsistent and often dull program.

I keep hoping that the search for the other Company bigwigs and the virus storyline will catch fire. The evil father of Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) was interesting – let’s hope he returns. Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose) and the mysterious Bob from the Company (Stephen Tobolowsky) can do no wrong, and Kristen Bell’s new character, Elle, can apparently do wacky things with electricity.

That’s a relief: The show certainly needs some.

I'm not liking Season Two as much as Season One but I'm not ready to give up on it. I know it has the potential to become great again.

Last season I wrote a synopsis of the highlights of the first few episodes. See how that compares to the progress this season:



This season has just been extra slow to get going. I think the momentum is picking up. Once Hiro returns to the present time and Peter hooks back up with people who know him hopefully the show will get back on track.

It's dragging. They should have a three-episode-type rotation all the time - an action-packed episode like Five Years Gone, a cool backstory show like Company Man, and a tie-some-loose-ends-introduce-more episode.

Instead, Hiro's arc is taking forever. It's silly that Kaito was in Kirby Plaza waiting for Hiro four months later, or that Hiro is sending little messages in a highly questionable way to Ando. He can travel through time! Hiro could pop back to 5 seconds after he got TK booted by Sylar if he wants to. The messages are stupid! Tell him yourself, Hiro! And what, is 4 months passing in feudal Japan? Why? It was over 300 years ago!

Mohinder went from taking Molly away from the Company to bringing her to the Company - why? Only Mohinder's blood cured her before, and Mohinder knows exactly who is causing Molly's 'coma', where he is, and the fact that the Company can't stop him. Also, he want from Company man, to defiant guy, to mild Company man in a single episode! He knows what the Company does to people - he's acting stupid. What, he has to have the loaded needle in his hand before he injects Monica?

Why would Monica agree to go all the way to NYC with someone she just met, and without telling anyone? If you think she told someone, why didn't Micah or Nana try to talk her out of it, or say 'Sup Dr. Suresh'? And who is bringing home the bacon while she's in NYC?

Why would Peter commit crimes instead of just taking his little box and leaving? Who could possibly stop him?

Claire and West - a punk. She's being manipulated all over the place, and West is near Columbine-ian in his outlook.

The Maya/Sylar story is getting old, because it's being dragged out. Sylar keeps not dying when Maya goes off, or if it's Alejandro reviving Sylar, everyone else isn't reviving with him, like we saw in the first show. It's like, get to NYC already! And it's only been 4 days or something - Sylar had major surgery. How is he holding his own in a fistfight? How is he not in total pain the whole time?

Now, Matt and Nathan, with Maury and Angela, that's a story. Pretty sensible all the way through - maybe Matt was a little too trusting of Maury, but hey, so was the audience. None of the interplay has been stupid there. Also, nice development of Matt's power.

But hey, one out of 6 ain't bad, right?

Maybe they're making the episodes intentionally crappy so when they have a mediocre finale it seems great by comparison.

The two shows around Heroes are doing a little better job of storytelling right now. Chuck and Journeyman, that is.

Uh, HELLO? Hiro didn't pop back in those 4 months. What can Kaito do EXCEPT anticipate his return, whenever and wherever (which would presumably be Kirby Plaza)? Same goes for Ando. Hiro might as well explain where he is, to not have Ando worry, based on the fact that Hiro's ability to jump through time isn't refined enough for that (notice that 4 month interim in which Ando and Kaito knew nothing about what happened to him?). Of course, the fact that no one ever noticed those hidden scrolls is extremely unbelievable.

What does Mohinder's blood have to do with anything? That only has an effect on the Shanti virus. And what do you expect Mohinder to do? Bank on the chance that Matt and Nathan can actually get Maury to release his hold on her while she continues to deteriorate? That'd be an awful decision. Instead of making that mistake, Mohinder took them to a company that has dealed with these kind of phenomena, which happens to be sole reason he went to them. His love for Molly was greater than his hatred of the Company. Following on that thought, Mohinder was never a "Company man". He was pretty much just using the Company to let him do what he sought to do before: help people with special abilities. There was no loyalty gained. He proved his hatred and his morality by refusing to inject the virus, but in the end, he was forced to stay in the Company due to Molly. Still no loyalty gained. And what in the world are you getting on about with Monica?

Do you peg Mohinder as untrustworthy? I wouldn't. Despite him working for the Company, he still has Monica's interests at heart. Plus, he knows about these special abilities, which Monica has been very curious about. Why not go?

At that point, Peter could only use powers instinctively. Taking the risk and failing could mean the destruction of the box.

Seriously, what are you talking about? Everyone else not reviving with him? And holding his own? Sylar was practically destroyed by Alejandro. It's obvious Sylar isn't full condition.

Sylar was getting his butt whooped. Alejandro doesn't look very tough.

I dont know what episode anyone saw, but Sylar got his ****** handed to him. He was barely able to put up a fight, and AL isn't exactly king of muscles. Sylar to me is obviously weak and struggling along; sure he has probaby healed too much but at the same time this is someone who has been stabbed, shot, loaded up with drugs, etc etc... he is obviously quite tough

As a whole i am liking season 2 but i do agree that the Hiro storyline is getting pretty old. By the end of the line it just started to heat up. The story we have already seen though could have definatly been done in like 2 episodes but i think it has to do with lineing his story up with events that happen in the future. I am sure most have herd some type of spoiler that puts David Anders character in the future time line. I think they have been dragging it out so they can reveal his charater in full when the time is right.
I am really liking Mohinders story also though. And as i have said in other posts i think we are getting these fractured and separated story lines now before we see what happened when Peter blew up. I think after that past episode we will see alot of the story lines come togather. I am guessing Mohinder and Matts and Nathans are all going to be the same in the next episode and Peter will probably join them once he gets back to the present.

It reminds me more of Heathers than Columbine. I love that storyline. Let's see some explosions!

So far only Nathan and Matt's storyline that is interesting. The rest feels like they belong in an entirely different series.

honestly, heroes is the best thing on tv that isn't flight of the conchords, and i'm just glad it exists

it's really, really awesome. everything has minor faults, why dwell on them so much when the whole package is so entertaining and compelling?

s01 was amazingly good, so obviously we all think s02 isnt that good, cause we are comparing it to s01, its good, and i really hope it gets better.

i think hiros storyline could be better, hes in the past, kring isnt taking full advantage of that fact, he could make sumthing like hiro returns to the present, and he discovers he changed the world drastically or summing.

i love peters storyline, its awesome that he lost his memory and suddenly discovers all this abilities.

This is how I see it too...it is like a rollercoaster ride...you can't wait for that mad rush and excitement of flying downhill, but the ride up is good too ...or something like that...

I think we were a lil spoiled by the excitement of some of the fight scenes, and now we are ramping
up again in season two. It isn't all future heroes bad #*%'s right now, but it is still good.

Amen brother

Couldn't it be that they are playing the audience, and testing our faith.
The stories will come together somehow, and we don't know how, so the stories seem both stupid and prolonged.

Ugh... Some of the complaints are still silly...

"All the new characters are bland." Characters all more exotic with deeper backstory and better connection to the main storyline than any of the mid-season additions last year... but they're "bland at best." Yeah, Elle is corny, but bland? Not so much.
"Too many new characters and not enough time for the original ones." As though they weren't ALL new characters last year. As though 2 new storylines (Monica and Maya) which tied into original heroes within 10 minutes screen time are the problem. Ridiculous.

What's funny, is that they are put side by side with the REAL problems, and they conflict with them:
"Repetitive storylines from last year" -- Well, YES, if you center on the same characters and you REFUSE to kill any off and you DEMAND that your favorites stay on screen regardless of how well concluded their story is then, YES you get repetitive CRAP.
"the characters feel stuck in holding patterns." -- Well, YES, if you demand reintroduction of all our favorites, regardless of how small a part they play in the overall storyline (or worse, you bend the well-planned storyline to fanservice),

And the proposed solution only underlines how silly fanservice is...
"This season has just been extra slow to get going. I think the momentum is picking up. Once Hiro returns to the present time and Peter hooks back up with people who know him hopefully the show will get back on track." -- On track to WHAT? On track to the Season 1 storyline all over again? To Hiro... doing what, exactly? He has no job, he has no mission. He's got NOTHING to do in the present. Same with Peter... he has NOTHING to do in America other than hang out with Nathan and... go to bars and kick it? Peter has no reason to want to save the world anymore, he's not that same guy... (how does this guy pay his rent, exactly?)

The show is sucking because it doesn't know if it wants to be bold and daring or just give fans more of the same until someone (actors, fans, Tim Kring) gets tired of the same old same old and either the show starts to REALLY suck (Smallville) reinvents itself late and ostracizes fans that hate change and have been given same-old same-old for years (Stargate or Charmed, with allegations of "Jumping the Shark") or just gets outright cancelled when ratings fall below a certain mark (pick one, you get the idea)

And while Season 2 does not improve on Season 1 (though it's not actually much worse, people are pretending the first 6 episodes of Season 1 were like uber incredible, even though they were just new and fascinating)

And that's what people don't seem to be getting. If you have a show that entices people with new-new-newness, you can't follow that up with same-old same-old, even if people claim they 'just want to see their favorite character,' when you give them same-old same-old they cry foul, call bland and give conflicting reviews about what's wrong and claim your show is getting worse and worse, even when it's getting better and better.