What IGN wants from Heroes in Season 4
With the Season 4 premiere barely a month away, pop-culture site IGN, (consistently one of Heroes’ toughest critics) posted a very lengthy piece detailing all of the things it would like to see happen in the upcoming season.
We know all too well that the overall response from loyal fans to casual viewers over the past few years has been mixed. So this time we’re really interested in reading articles like this one. What do fans of Heroes want to see this time? What don’t they want to see? And while we’re at it, what do giant pop-culture blogs want to see out of Heroes this year?
As I read through this post I found myself nodding in agreement a few times. We’ve been quick-to-judge posts by IGN in the past, at times probably confusing some constructive criticism with whining and complaining. And while, of course, I don’t agree with every suggestion in the article, I believe every show, especially those with four seasons or more can handle a bit of tough love from fans every now and then.
So while we’re sitting here waiting for Season 4 to begin, let’s open up a discussion about everyone’s expectations for Heroes this year. What would you like to see come Sept. 21st? Do you agree/disagree with IGN? What are your expectations for Heroes in its 4th season? (Leave a Comment)
Season One was definitely my favorite season so far and I think Season four needs to have that feel. I would like to see: Peter becomes a bada$$ again! More mystery like “who is this character sylar?” and “Save the cheerleader, save the world” from season one. Finally, ALL DOORS MUST BE OPEN WHEN FIGHT SCENES ARE GOING ON!
If you don’t start with a low opinion of Heroes like IGN has, I have to admit that I agree with allot of their points. It is like the first two thirds of the first season they were through luck and hard work able to hit everything right.
Interesting characters that had real lives and real problems they just couldn’t stop dealing with because they suddenly became “special”. The potential and mystery, the artistry and themes in the way the show was shot were nothing short of epic…
Suddenly the makers of the show got amnesia and about what made Heroes not just good, but great. Then also as they hit upon real gold they often would pass it up for the unknown prize behind curtain number 2.
If it were a lesser show and they people involved weren’t as talented as they are the show would have derailed worse the train in season 1.
As a longtime Comic book collector that had to stop several years ago for reasons out of my control, it is getting to the point where I when I say “I could have written that storyline better” I am actually becoming serious and not exaggerating.
The show started off with rich plotlines, canonical history and online comic books (that actually covered important things that added to the show experience without taking away from the show viewers that didn’t read them), mysteries and fear of death around corner, and the promise of super posed fights that were of epic scale like a movie climax.
Now real life is all but not even mentioned by most characters, the mystery that drove hundreds of fan theories is gone, continuity and real world facts (like a person getting from one side of the continent to the other in hours by bus) and almost everyone comes back from the dead, and epic battles either are over in 2 blows, interrupted, or take place behind closed doors. That and once compelling characters have been yanked all over the place so much you don’t know who they are or why they are doing what they are doing half the time. Also do I have to point out they pick a topic and beat it to death.
I hope that they really get back on track with season 4 before I have to stop watching it because I am a fan….
There are two main points that I agree with.
1). There needs to be some permanent character deaths. Mohinder is on the top of my list. Nathan should die too. (or I should say, stay dead. )
2) Character personalities need to be consistent. I mostly agreed with what the IGN article said about Hiro, ditto to Peter Petrelli and Syler.
I loved Syler as a bad guy, and I loved Syler as a redeemable person, they just need to make up their mind which one he is and stick with it.
Same with HRG. I loved his original story, but they need to work out those trust issues with is family once and for all, instead of recycling the same plot line each season.
I’m really looking forward to seeing all the characters return to their ‘real lives’ this season. More than anything I’m excited to see Peter go back to work. I’d like to see him be useful for a change.
I generally agree with their points, but I have to add two more:
If it was used as a plot line/mechanism/event in any of the previous episodes, it should be off limits now. No more repetition. Plot holes may be closed up, but no more doing again exactly what was done in the first season (bombs, reversible deaths, founding of companies, etc.). If something was explained previously (such as where an ability came from, catalysts, and so on), no backtracking and changing it now. Leave it alone. It’s done. Move on and come up with new ideas about different things.
Many plot points and characters have been explored and then revisited to little good effect. HRG’s stories are prone to this. That family tension is STILL going on. Hiro hasn’t progressed in a long time. And Claire hasn’t gone anywhere interesting in a long while. Too much stagnation.
And, yes, why IS Mohinder still around??
Season 1 was great largely because of the depth of the characters. Since then, we’ve had neither consistency nor originality.
i want sylar back!!!
I should add that I don’t want any of my favourite characters to die or their actors to loose their jobs, but many of those characters have been damaged beyond repair by twisting their stories off into lala land.
Sylar: borderline unrecoverable because they abandoned too much of the characters original story in Season 1, but Quinto’s acting still makes him compelling to watch.
Peter: the same…
HRG: His character has been all but neutered by the complicated back and forth they have for his character, without the consequences and deep mystery that made him great. Go all out to save him or let him go before it wrecks both the character and let Jack Coleman go out on a win.
Angela: Her character has been yanked around and changed back and forth so much she would have lost all meaning if her storylines weren’t integral to the overall arch. You know that she has be plaid masterfully no matter how her character has been yanked around and changed. I don’t think she should die, but what they have been doing with her character has been hurting the series, so stop it! mmkay?
Mohinder: You have but A SINGLE CHANCE to save this character. The Actor is great, and the way his character was in the beginning was perfection, but now the character has become a scar on the face of heroes, and I would not miss it if he were gone.
Nathan: He started out as one of the best characters of the series, warts and all, you just couldn’t help but get drawn into the character… then they turned him into the most unstable human being outside of Arkham Asylum… He has to go now… yes even the NaLar Nathan. And this comes from an Adrian Pasdar fan who thinks Nathan was one of his best performances to date.
The Company: You know that horrible fascist group that tortures, imprisons, all but enslaves special people… oh and did we mention the Murders!!! Yeah, lets do that again, it will work this time,… really! NOT!
The Ali Larter Du Jour: Heroes drove her characters into the “YAY they’re dead” category so far I thought there was no return, but if they nail Tracy and her new powers just right and stop munging her characters up, she might be worth keeping… or maybe my male subconscious wants to keep the good girl/bad girl dichotomy around with her reassembling herself naked from water….
Just look back at all the talented actors and compelling characters they just threw away… I don’t think it would be a problem to find replacements to help save the show.
Either that or they have to go burnt earth and start over from scratch with new characters…
Agree entirely with Wolven Spectere, and if it has to be drilled into peoples heads, quit experimenting with the show. It’s not a comic where if somebody screws up for their run, you can toss it bin and dial back the clock. The Carnival of Doom, in all honesty, seems a little gimmiky on my end, and if I am wrong, good for the show. But for the love of the great Eclipso, stick with it.
We do NOT need another storyline where we have the world blowing to bits because, strike, Twelve Dangerous Villains on the loose and our heroes having to, strike, an unspecified event where giving everybody superpowers ends badly, strike, a very, very, big bad villian who has relationship to the major hero and villian and a plan to, strike, the brother of the hero planning to give everyone powers causing, strike, the brother of the hero planning to take away powers, causing, strike, the second thowing over the brother of the hero to kill everyone with powers, strike, Sylar. Again.
When that’s the best plot summary you can offer someone on why they should watch Heroes, you have a problem.
Have written more elsewhere, but here’s some things I’d like (nod to IGN – lots of good points, and “some ate roast beef”? LMAO!!!):
1) Future Hiro? Yes – and here’s how: Hiro-now dies while Future Hiro is here… oh dang, can’t get back to THAT timeline, so might as well stay. How valuable is knowledge of the future when its another timeline? And plenty of new twists for the new Hiro/Ando relationship.
2) Claire – enough with the creepy Sylar pairing (”you might even love me”) — go have some fun with someone(s) your own age!
3) Claude – Yep, new moral compass and voice-over for the show. Mohinder needs to go away for a year or two (not necessarily die) and we shift to see Claude’s viewpoint as fly on the wall.
4) Picking up on the “year or two away” – the thing about comic books is that characters DO disappear for a while, and then when they come back they’ve changed enough to be interesting again. Send others away for a while… and if the actors are available in a year, bring ‘em back.
5) Door is always open for Adam to come back – maybe Papa P didn’t get every last drop. And boy should he be pissed at the Petrelli clan!
6) Lyle – If the kid’s still around, put him in the middle of a plot and do something with him… something new for HRG who should stay away from Claire for a while. Let the girl breathe… deeply.
7) Hana – was promising in the web comic. Find a way to use her. Very Oracle (Barbara Gordon) like, and a perfect match up for Rebel and Monica.
9) None of our heroes and villains have ever gone with spandex… but what if some others did and went public? How would our crew deal with that?
I’ve stuck by heroes, but this is its last chance to impress me.
what it needs is….
1) one of us one of them. i loved this in season one, hiro+ando, claire+john connor. watching normal people interacting with our heros was always intresting, but now all our cast has an ability.
2) bad ass villains. someone to truly hate.
3) bring back micah and monica. have them start up there own x-men team.
I think the reason people enjoyed Season 1 so much is that it was a fully conceived story from start to end, it had a good story arc slowly building to a large conclusion.
My regret with the show is that the producers didn’t have the courage of their convictions to follow through with their original idea and replace the cast each season. I still feel this would have made for a much more interesting proposition, and allowed them to possibly even get big name actors (when available) for a season too.
If the last we had seen of the characters in season one in Kirby Plaza, was Nathan and Peter flying up in the sky and exploding, and they left Sylar dead, There was great scope for the surviving heroes to pop up from time to time in other seasons story-lines, they wouldn’t have to be major cast members, but it would have felt like old friends returning to save the day occasionally and leaving them off screen for long periods would mean they could develop their characters as well returning conflicted, renewed or changed. It would have kept the shows mystery and still allowed it to move forward.
But this is the card we have been dealt, so i feel that they really need to:
1) Pick how powers work and stick with it, the constant flip flopping between what an empath’s power is and how it works is just really bad, Matt Parkmans spontaneous power growth is also a terrible development and Sylars magic powers just seem to change to fit the storyline. Even in fantasy their needs to be a logic that works within that and this is Heroes main problem that makes alot of other things unbelievable.
2) From just about everyone’s posts and the IGN’s article their is clearly a hit list of people that need to die for the show to move on. Personally i think their way out of this to rescue the show is to indeed have a mass culling of main characters, a couple could survive but if there was a reason for them to go in to hiding, then they could still return occasionally to help out with impacting on the shows new direction.
3) Stop with all the company nonsense, season 1 it made sense, added mystery, season 2 was a nice twist with Bob, but once it burned down that should have been it.
4) Get rid of Mohinder now, he severed as a great way in to the heroes world initially, but that’s all he ever should have been, either kill him off or give him a reason to disappear, he serves no purpose now except to flip flop sides on a writers whim.
5) Stop focusing on Clare so much, never has a show dedicated so much time to a totally boring character, and the constant “turmoil” with her family has also become lame with Lyle seeming popping in and out of existence again at the convenience of the story.
i really hope things turn around for season 4.
I have been a fan of Heroes from Season 1, but have also been frustrated with the way things have gone.
1. I really, really hate the re-set button. I find it makes it difficult to care about the characters when I know that “something” will hapen to erase all the deaths/bad things that have happened to them.
2. I agree: we need Monica back. It’s time the Heroes started acting like heroes, and she was the only one who seemed to have any intention of doing so. And her power was awesome. Can they afford her if they kill Nikki/Jessica/whatever the hell her name is now?
3. Bringing back Future Hiro would be great; I really hope Sick Hiro doesn’t became a major part of Season 4. So not interested.
4. Casualties I’d like to see: Nikki/whoever, Nathan, Sylar (time for a new villain if they aren’t going to go anywhere with him), Peter. The Petrellis have ceased to be interesting.
5. Characters I’d like to see again: Monica, Claude.
The explosion at Washington DC to come true… and not be prevented. And for there to be a huge battle with many heroes and villains. Too much to ask?
I have loved every season of Heroes and can’t wait for it to return! The clips and adverts I have seen make it look like it will be fantastic! I just hope the actual episodes will live up to my expectations. I know that people are getting rather annoyed with Heroes, because it’s not like season 1. If you really hate Heroes so much, why are you busy writing complaints about it? Of course the other seasons weren’t like the first one, because if they were it would be boring! Also, stop saying it should finish or be canceled, because there are still people who like the show, and all your complaints are ruining it!
Hmm a lot of what I read reminded me of my thoughts on how things went downhill after the first season. Nearly all the notes on character development or sheer lack of rings true for me. I hope though that Heroes rocks this season and we will just have to wait and see won’t we.
I think they have to keep people guessing throughout the season but have one overall conflict that brings all the heroes together. Also I think there should be a major death in the middle of the season to keep fans excited
Personally, I agree with the ideas mentioned in the IGN article if not necessarily the vitriol and sentiment behind most of it. I still hold fast to my thinking that volume 2 was more than adequate (despite it’s many critical flaws), and holds up as a fulfilling Heroes story arc. Volume 3 started of excellent (I believe the season premiere to be one of the best and most exciting episodes of Heroes ever) but did decline in quality due to plot pacing problems, while volume 4 did it’s best to reign the story in and try to bring us back on track. But enough about my defense of the show. Here’s some of the things I’m hoping get developed/adjusted:
1) Sylar should be returned to his evil/bad-ass status. No soul searching, no pointless road trips. While it’s obviously impossible to have him return to his “mysterious evil” status that he held in volume 1 since his identity’s been revealed (as well as his motivations), I agree with IGN that he should be used more sparingly. By bringing him to the forefront every episode, it diminishes his presence. He gets saturated, if you will. The promos we’ve seen and the storylines that are going to be explored (SPOILER ALERT: He’s haunting Parkman’s mind trying to get his consciousness returned to his body and what’s left of his persona in his own body, now thinking it’s “Nathan”, is fighting to break through) are definitely bringing Sylar back to his malicious ways, it’s important that we not focus on him constantly.
2) Resolve the “Caitlin lost in alternate future” thing once and for all! Her character was an excellent counterbalance for Peter in volume 2, and the fact that she’s still missing is never addressed again has been a thorn in Heroes fans’ sides for over a year, digging deeper each passing episode. Even if it’s just a throwaway line like “Oh, btw, Caitlin called from Ireland. She’s cool. K, thanx, bye!” would soothe that itch. I liked the character enough that I’m one of the few that would gladly welcome her back on the show as a romantic interest for Peter who, as always, is just trying to be normal.
3) No more closed door fights! While I understand that budgetary concerns can’t have heroes throw down every episode, I would gladly welcome an episode or two without ANY powers if it mans better character development and larger budgets for when people finally do face off. One of volume 1’s greatest strengths was how people would be on separate paths and suddenly converge to have their respective powers face off (ie: Parkman vs Jessica). I can’t even begin to express how annoying/frustrating these anti-climatic confrontations make fans.
4) People need to die. While I don’t agree with IGN’s sentiments on who should kick the bucket and why, I agree with the idea that people should. Claire can’t get hurt, but if somehing gets stuck in her noggin at a certain spot, her healing gets shut down (as shown when the log was jammed in her head and she only got better when they took it out in the morgue). That’s cool. I get that. Her blood (or the blood of any self-regenerater) working as a “cure” for a bullet to the face, NOT COOL! “Deus Ex Machina” at work. It not only plants the idea that “everyone’s safe and no death is permanent” into the subconscious of the viewer (a complaint many comic book readers have dealt with for years already), but when it’s NOT used (in this case volume 4’s ending) bring about the same kind of anger from viewers. “INJECT NATHAN WITH HER BLOOD, IDIOTS!” was shouted at televisions everywhere. By thinning the herd, it will not only present us a world of true consequences, thereby deepening the storyline for viewers, it will also free up screen time for characters new and old to develop.
5) Don’t introduce characters unless they’re important or become so. Maya and Alejandro, are the go to examples for fans in this regard. Up until this point, they served no other purpose than to be a sounding board for Sylar on his road trip back. We could have just as easily been shown that Sylar is still a bad guy by having him show up every couple of episodes killing some random person for their car, money, possesions, etc, slowly bringing him closer to Mohinder. Monica is an example of character development/introduction done correctly. By volume 2’s end we truly cared for her and wanted to see more of her in action. Like Caitlin, Monica is another character that needs to be addressed.
Well, that’s about enough rambling for now. I hope most of you agree with my thoughts and if you don’t, that’s okay. That’s what makes Heroes a great show. It can be enjoyed many different ways. Here’s hoping for a great season 3 (aka Volume 5)!
This article hits the nail on the head. I agree with almost everything they say, especially about Hiro, Monica. But please, NO vampires!
I only liked Mohinder during Volume 3 and he was growing jelly on his back. Now that that’s over, and he’s not really using his strength for anything, kill him, I’m getting bored of him.