Is Heroes season 3 good enough to win back the fans?

Tim Kring (Providence, Crossing Jordan) created Heroes, a science fiction television series inspired by comic books. It is about people who discover that they have super powers. As they learn about their powers, they also find other people with special powers. A mysterious company with a shady agenda knows about these people and monitors them. Those that the company decides are too dangerous are captured and kept in cells. Some people with abilities are recruited by the company as special agents.

The group of heroes that we meet in season 1 learns about a nuclear explosion that will happen in a few weeks time in New York City. All season they work together to try to stop it. Of course every season there are new threats. The cast of Heroes is large and there are usually several loosely connected storylines going at once.

Each season of Heroes is given a title, like a volume, and episodes are chapters. Season one was "Evolutions". Season 2 was "Generations", and the first half of season 3 is "Villains".

The comic book connections do not end there. There is a series of online comics at the NBC website created by a variety of artists. They extend the stories and include characters that don't even appear on TV. It is not necessary to read these to follow the television episodes. You can find them at the official Heroes page.

"Villains" has ended and the new volume, "Fugitives" will begin on February 2nd, 2009. It was a roller-coaster ride. I've flip-flopped over this show as many times as Sylar vacillated between evil psychopath and wounded soul seeking redemption. That has been the mark of the whole third volume of Heroes. A more detailed review of "Villains" and the finale follows.

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Some episodes were great. I really liked the uneasy and tentative friendship/partnership that Claire and Elle started to develop in "Eris Quod Sum". I also thought that the character Doyle, "The Puppet Master", was creepy and interesting.

Just when I would think I was getting my bearings and was back into the Heroes story, the next episode would give me whiplash as it turned in a whole new direction. Especially annoying was the two part "Eclipse" episode. What a waste when the things that happened were all undone when the eclipse was over. So we learned what Daphne's deeply secret past was, and that was no big deal at all. Yawn!

Ultimately, I kept tuning in to Heroes despite being slightly irritated and disappointed overall. What does that say about me? Hmm, I'm afraid to look at that too closely.

OK, how was the volume finale? I thought it was one of the better episodes of Heroes season 3. Sylar was at his best in no-holds-barred psychopath mode. Having the Bennets (Claire and HRG) and Angela locked in for a cat-and-mouse game in Primatech was great edge-of-your-seat stuff.

However, everything was wrapped up a little too quickly in the end. There was also a bit more whiplash. Nathan suddenly has an epiphany and turns on his brother to pursue their father's plan to give abilities to everyone. Then, after the plan is thwarted he turns on everyone and goes to the government to put all the other "special" people in prison to protect the public because they are so dangerous? Oh, and isn't this pretty much the same line as the future we already saw in the season one episode "Five Years Gone"? It seems the writers are still going in circles.

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With the superpowers, the comic influence is easy to see in Heroes. Thankfully Tim Kring did not want them dressed in comic style superhero outfits. The design of the show is based in a realistic world. The storylines and the dilemas the characters face are strongly influenced by comic books. There are two comic book series that some elements have been directly inspired from.

X-men is set in a world where a percentage of the human population have genetic mutations that give them powers. There is no specific source, just a sudden jump in human evolution. There is conflict between the "normal" humans and the mutants with their powers. The X-men is a group of mutant heroes that work together to keep the peace and prevent militant mutants from destroying all the humans and taking over the world.

The Watchmen is set in a dystopian alternate history of the United States. They are trying to prevent total nuclear holocaust brought on by cold war conflict. There is only one character that has special powers. The rest of the heroes are regular people. There is a lot of character development and internal conflict (emotional and ethical).

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