The Power of Meanwhile... : Heroes returns

Perhaps it is the power of lowered expectations, but I was quite impressed by the season premiere of Heroes. I have been going through the listings deciding which shows live or die, who will make the cut and who will get sent to the island of lost toys. Sorry Grey's Anatomy, abuse my favorite characters for too long and I have to say NO MORE! Heroes had been on the chopping block. I feel like I could have skipped all last season and would not have been the worse off. People criticize Lost for having bad seasons, but even in their worst times, they still introduced terrific characters that altered the show and stayed on. Beginning of last season vs. beginning of this one? Not one person made it. And several of the stalwarts are (thankfully) absent. Good luck with that hanging out at a military base and watching old home movies project of yours Suresh. Don't call us. No seriously, don't call us.

Back in the slimmed down show, the mandate seems to be “Let's take a breath” and I couldn't be happier about it. All the characters have had a chance to hang out, get into their surroundings, have conversations that aren't about metaphysics and genetics and just breathe. What a wonderful idea. Each of them now feel more alive and awake then they have in years. Claire is still trying to fit in, but is not the whiny teen anymore. HRG is feeling the damage of years of secrecy. Hiro has turned his gaze outward, not trying to make himself the bestest hero of all time. And Peter, my long lost favorite character, has actually found his place in the world, and its a pretty good one. In what should have been the classic heroic refusal of the call to action, Peter really sold it, convincing us and HRG that his way was much better. When he told HRG that they should let Darth Maul have the magical dingus, it was one of those wake up moments that the show would never have stopped for last year.

We are not without issues, however. We still have the dreadful arc of the many named blonde. So through the break, she'd been a relentless killing machine, assassinating all those who hurt her. She meets up with HRG after botching her attempt on him and in a couple hours, now it's all good, water under the bridge (heh). I know you were trying to kill me yesterday multiple murderer lady, but would you like some soup? And all is well. Um, what? It's not that I dislike Ali Larter, but it seems no matter what they do she is always in the worst storylines. And the Petrelli Power Players are running the same scripts from the start of the show. Having Sylar hiding in plain sight is an interesting idea, but how is this going to play out? I don't really want him or Nathan back, so it's never going to end well. Having Sylar as Head Sylar, ala Number Six and Scorpius, gives him a chance to ham it up and torment Parkman, but will eventually lead to him getting his act together and then we're right back to 'what the hell do we do with the villain we created?' problem that has plagued the show since the second season.

But overall, I'm very impressed. The show has lightened up, opened up and seems to be going in new directions. I don't know what to make of the carnival of freaks, and I'm pleased with that. Gray areas and complex choices are what the show should have been making use of all along. As long as they keep focusing on the core characters, don't feel the need to bring back those who have drifted off into the margins (have a good life in fanfic Maya!), and let them have real conversations with each other, I won't be embarrassed to admit I watch the show anymore. And that's not something I could ever have imagined.