Heroes Season 3: Villains

I used to think that Heroes was great television. There were multiple story lines involving slightly geeky topics like eclipses, genetic mutations, super powers, and teen angst. If you could see past the typical network caliber beautiful people, you could see that there was a story to be told and perhaps get to care about these characters on their respective journeys of self-discovery.

We learned about time travel. We discovered the Heroes' powers as they did, figured out with them where they fit in a world that didn't know about their abilities. We found out there was a clandestine Company tagging people with abilities and got to know the bad ass in the horn rimmed glasses and his bald-headed friend.

Some of our Heroes took joy in their abilities. Hiro Nakamura could change time and space, stopping time and teleporting! The first time he teleported himself from Tokyo to Japan he shouted for joy. "やった!" "I DID IT!"

Some were afraid of them. Nikki/Jessica Sanders with the prominent front teeth was terrified of her split personality, super-human strength, and her propensity for crying.

Some completely denied them. Nathan the political candidate could fly but decided to hide his gift because... because... well, for some reason important to him.

Their mission was simple: Save the world! Future bad-ass, sword-wielding, no-glasses, good-English super ninja Hiro came back in time to alter the past to avoid a terrible future of mutant camps and Nikki the stripper. Future Hiro taught us that the future can be manipulated, the timeline changed and terrible disasters could be wiped from the future's history. Hiro was being a hero and we were hopeful.

Season 1 was good even after humanizing and demystifying some of our favorite characters. The kick ass company man in the horn rimmed glasses turned out to be the dad of the cheerleader who would bend and break the rules to keep her safe from the other genetically different people in the world who would cause her harm.

But they saved the world. The villain was mostly defeated and the good guy lost control of his power and Nathan took to the skies after all to whisk Peter away so he could explode safely in the air. Little did we know what would happen to our superpowered friends in the coming years...