Heroes: Volume Three. An overview of Villains

The opinion of the critics says no to Heroes whereas the fans though put off at some of the more “absurd” storylines says yes.

So who’s right? As an amateur Heroes columnist I have seen this argument from the side of the critics, but as a diehard fan that fell in love with the first episode I watched I’ve seen the good side of the latest Heroes volume. My anticipation was high on Tuesday 23rd September when my download of the double episode premiere has finished. I burnt my DVD, whacked it in my player and was in awe. For those who don’t remember that two hour premiere had the once amazing “Sylar’s a Petrelli!” plot twist along with the reintroduction of Meredith, Mohinder giving himself abilities, Future Peter taking over Peter and sending Matt to Africa and Hiro and Ando meeting their speedy match. The series was set to look a-w-e-s-o-m-e. So what made everyone turn against it?

The third episode, One of Us, One of Them was where things started to go wrong for the heroes and their new villainous opponents. Though fans loved the villains and the trapped Peter Petrelli in the bank robbery and the Sylar/Noah team up some critics started criticizing the ideas. While fans laughed ay Sylar’s “these blocks need to be at least 30 ft back or the media will be right up our ass, are you trying to get one of these civilians killed? Oh and we’re going to need some coffee. Decafe. You drink decafe, right, Noah?” Critics were hating the “wannabe” bad boy Claire Bennet scenes. The fourth installment, I Am Become Death wasn’t taken well with the whole “Oh Peter has the hunger! What will happen now?” but the episode still had its ups with Peter murdering President Petrelli and Sylar’s son Noah.

Angels and Monsters and Dying of the Light were slightly better than episode three and four, but still received negative reviews from the critics. The episodes saw the return of Arthur Petrelli, well they saw him lying in a bed on life support, which lead pretty much every fan buzzing and then Arthur taking the ability of Adam Monroe and killing him in order to cure his paralysis. Fans were shocked when Arthur took Peter’s powers and were curious as to what would come next, whereas critics and critical fans damned the plotline, some claimed the writers were lazy and out of ideas for bringing back a “dead” man. My verdict? It was pure genius. Robert Forster was an amazing actor in the series, and now I think about it, I don’t think anyone else could have pulled of Artie and I don’t think old Rob would have suited another part. His portrayal of Arthur Petrelli was one that I’ll never forget, even though the character will be long dead by the time Fugitives starts.

Villains was a trip to the past, seeing what made Flint, Artie and Sylar Villains. Questions were answered, even if the answers weren’t 100% satisfactory. I never read into the critics opinions of the eight chapter of Villains, most of the headlines seemed pretty negative, but personally I enjoyed the trip to the past. I liked seeing Arthur before Pinehearst, how he manipulated everyone, why Angela tried to kill him. I loved the twist that Linderman betrayed him by letting Angela know what was going on. The funeral scene at the end made me crack up. The story of Flint and Meredith - the flame throwing siblings- was adorable and the introduction of Syelle and how Noah played a huge part into making Sylar a killer? Amazing. The wiping of Hiro’s mind so he believed he was ten? I didn’t like it all that much. I saw it as a bit of a stupid plot line for the Emmy-winning, Masi Oka, especially since Hiro had got him the award for his portrayal in Season One. The ninth episode It’s Coming wasn’t one of the best. The scene with Elle frying Sylar? Ha, genius. But Peter playing hero with no powers and Claire being all “defensive player” wasn’t what I was looking for. But the bit that ticked me and hundreds of other fans off? Why the heck, when Daphne confessed her love to Matt did they not kiss? If they’re so in love why haven’t they even had a peck yet? It’s like they’ve been given the world's worst love story. And the critics picked up on that point too...

Then came The Eclipse. Both parts were viewed as either a loss of decent plotlines or a good idea gone bad. Everyone lost their powers in the longest lasting eclipse in existence. The whole thing seemed to be a story whipped together with the stupidest plot ideas ever; the return of the 9th Wonders Comics so Hiro could try and get his memory back? Killing two characters who’d come to life as soon as the eclipse ended? And then some of the laziest writing I’ve ever seen, not bothering having the big showdown straight away. What kind of vengeful killer waits for his enemies to have sex instead of taking them down while they’re kissing? The whole scene made poor HRG look like a freaking pervert much to the amusement of fans. And the other thing people “had major beef” with? The Sylar “chop ‘n’ change” and believing everything he was told. Seriously, the best character went to being one of the most pitiful things I’ve seen on television.

Now we come to Our Father, the penultimate episode. Yet again it opened with people having “major beef” with Sylar. Who kills someone who betrayed them and gets mega upset over it? I mean sure he loved her but didn’t she like betray him hundreds of times? And what was going on with the pass-the-parcel game and the catalyst? And finally why did Peter not let the Haitian shoot Arthur if he knew he might wuss out and not do it? Honestly, the characters made me angry. Though the Sylar and the lie detector gag made me laugh “Ooh it does kind of tingle...” It was like having the old, funny, season one Sylar back. You can tell the episode wasn’t that much anticipated as it had the second lowest rating, the lowest being the episode aired Thanksgiving week.

And finally, we hit the finale. Dual which was originally War then Duality then Duel then at the last minute Dual. I think everyone lost track of the name for a while. In my opinion, the finale topped off the series. It was hilarious and heartbreaking. It saw the Petrelli brothers splitting; the amazing brotherly love was destroyed. We saw Peter trashing the lab with Knox and Flint, which to me looked a lot of fun. Ando got his powers. Pinehearst was destroyed, and so was one of the PRIMATECH facilities. Sylar was the highlight of the finale; his dead-locking PRIMATECH and “hunting” Noah, Angela, Meredith and Claire was hilarious. The ending of the episode was more than satisfactory, and left me wanting to cry at Nathan’s treachery and the loss of Meredith. It was the cherry on the not so amazing Villains cake.

Yet, overall, despite the flaws, Kring and Co. did an amazing job. It is as watchable and not boring like Generations, yet it couldn’t beat Genesis, but, for thirteen episodes which were hated on by critics and loved by fans, I’ll have to say; the fans were right; despite everything bad, Villains was worth it, and I’m proud of every fan who’s stuck by the show.

So now we can raise our nerdy, metaphorical glasses, and hope that Fugitives fully restores the glory Heroes deserves in February.