Heroes - Season 2

The strike rushing the story arc didn't help things, but the second season of Heroes was a significant letdown. It didn't start out too badly, it just degenerated quickly and was basically a mess by the time it ended. It wrapped up back in December so my memory's a bit fuzzy, but everything's kinda held in a general distaste. I still like the idea of the show and hope they can make a comeback in season 3 so we can chalk this up to a bad situation.

Problem #1: Faulty time travel logic. Hiro travels back to feudal Japan and then proceeds to completely screw up history by changing everything about how his childhood hero's life turns out. What repercussions does this have on the modern day? None, of course. Peter starts off screwing around in Ireland, picking up a wee lass, but eventually loses her in an apocalyptic future before traveling back to the present. He then follows an obvious villain around who convinces him to help prevent that future from happening. Part of Peter's motivation is to get the Irish girl back. I don't know exactly how alternate timelines and all that are supposed to work in the Heroes universe, but if somebody was trapped in a possible future, I wouldn't think the best way to get her back is to make sure the place where she is never comes into existence.

Complaint #2: Peter is an idiot. With his power, he's one of the central characters by default, but he's a complete moron in season two. He follows the villain around despite everyone telling him he can't be trusted, and despite the fact that he has the ability to read the guy's mind at any time and discover his true motivations. He only discovers the truth in time to stop the world's destruction in an absurd moment that of course takes place in slow motion.

Issue #3: Pointless plot tangents. Nikki tries to continue her life with her son, but runs into problems, none of which have anything to do with what's actually happening. The split-personality bit is getting old, and the way it resolves makes me wonder what the point was. I also wonder what the point was of having her husband survive the grave injuries he sustained in the previous season if they were going to kill him off anyway. There's also a subplot involving a couple Mexicans that seemed to bear absolutely no relevance whatsoever. When you kill off a character and then revive them five minutes later, and that causes the fans to be disappointed, you've done something wrong.

Grievance #4: Inconsistent characterization. You'd think by now that Claire and her father would stick together through thick and thin, but unfortunately she's not quite done being an angsty teenager. The entire subplot with the Bennets and Mohinder and the Company (why can't TV writers ever have better names for evil monolithic plot-device organizations?) was a big mess of pointless betrayals and anger. It seemed like they were forcing conflict where it didn't belong. Again, I'm pretty sure the strike spelled doom for this season if it wasn't doomed already, but I'll give them a chance to fix it.