Money and our stories

I'm willing to give the show a break on Season 2. With the writers' strike, every show was cut short and the story had to be accelerated. But even in the first few episodes of the show's return, we could see mediocrity setting in.

Our excitable time traveller, Hiro, was knocked back into feudal Japan for some reason. Of course, the myseterious symbol we've seen throughout the first season appears nearly 400 years ago on the banner of Hiro's childhood hero, Takezo Kensei. There are no red herrings on American TV, so of course Kensei throws Hiro into a whirlwind of confusion by being neither Japanese nor actually heroic, and having a special power of his own: regeneration.

Just like Claire the cheerleader, we have another character who can't die. Maybe there is a whole underground subculture of immortal people, fighting amongst each other for a special prize and the only way they can kill one another is decapitation. Then again, that could be another show. Barring Peter's ability to mimic others' abilities and Sylar's ability to steal them, Kensei/Adam was our first repeated power.

Introducing any new character into a show with an already full cast means that we need to be shown how the new guy fits in to the lives of many of the people we know. Adam used to work with Nathan's, Peter's, and Hiro's parents, who actually run the Company that Claire's stepfather works for. And in what I can only imagine was supposed to be a big twist, he was revealed as Hiro's father's killer. Again, there are no red herrings in a series like this. Since he was introduced and is age-proof and has a connection to Hiro, there was simply no other answer in the question of the killer's identity.

The story of season 2 really begins when Peter, rather than Hiro, makes a trip through time to see another bleak future. This time instead of New York being destroyed in a fiery nuclear blast, New York has been evacuated because of the Shanti virus, named after Dr. Mohinder's late sister who Mohinder was presumably conceived to provide antibodies to heal.

Peter started off the season with a bout of amnesia, as many heroes often do, and hooks up with a saucey Irish lass who he later abandons in the future after he travels back in time to stop the release of the virus. What happened to her? Even the writers are afraid to discuss it. After many episodes it doesn't seem to bother Peter that he left this poor girl in a severed time line, so presumably it shouldn't bother us.

Of course, in the scope of the entire world, everything has to happen to the dozen or so people we get to see on television, so the virus was being held in a facility run by the Company. Naturally Momma Petrelli is involved in keeping this secret and all of her old mutant buddies are being knocked off one by one by Connor MacLeod Adam the Immortal. Adam and Peter became friends while Peter had amnesia, but that's not important right now.

Nathan is running around again because Peter convinced Adam the Immortal to donate blood to his nuked brother, so now we know that immortal blood has healing powers. This is used to heal Claire's father later on. Just like travelling to the past to change the future, once you find a formula that works you keep using it.

Two central American characters were introduced for some reason: a brother and sister pair that do nothing but run and cry. She can kill people and he can stop her. They bump in to a powerless Sylar on their way to America. They are looking for Mohinder, and sure enough, so is Sylar. Why did Sylar lose his abilities? And how did he suddenly get them back after a few episodes? I couldn't tell you. The story must go on.

Hiro is disillusioned. Peter gets in touch with his darker side. The virus is stopped. Nathan decides to come out in front of the whole world that he can fly. Some more inconsequential characters and plotlines are started, and after a lot more crying and trying to get rid of her ability, Nikki finally dies in a fire! I, for one, felt cheated and angry when season 3 started up and there she was again. How does anybody actually die on this show?

They stop the virus in the nick of time, thus changing another timeline. Nathan is shot at his press conference that nobody knows why he is having in the first place. The shooter is very mysterious.

It turns out that it's Peter, come back from ANOTHER future to change the past! Here we go again. Now we have two seasons in the can and another on the way, and all three tell the same story. My disappointment begins here.