In our relenteless campaign to get “Chuck” renewed, it might look like we’ve overlooked the season finale of “Heroes” this evening.
It’s not that we’ve overlooked it, but with “Heroes” gettting an early verbal commitment to a new season, we’ve concentrated our efforts more on helping boost the profile for “Chuck.”
However, we don’t want to overlook that “Heroes” will air the finale of its fourth volume and third season tonight at 9 p.m. EST on NBC. And while many fans may have given up the series for dead months ago, the fourth installment of the series has been a rebound of sorts and, with the exception of the flashback on Angela Petrelli episode, has been enjoyable and fun to watch over the past several episodes. (Pretty much from the point that Bryan Fuller returned to the writing staff with “Cold Snap” onward.)
And while the series has found its footing again, SciFi Wire says there are still five things that the season finale must do in order to leave fans satisfied and eager for next season (and given that “Heroes” finales have always been disappointing, this may be a tall order).
Here’s what SciFi Wire says “Heroes” needs to do:
The show needs to give Claire Bennet a happy ending.
Right now, rumors abound regarding which characters may die in the finale. But there are some characters whose deaths would probably alienate the audience beyond the point of recovery, and Claire’s would be one of those. From the first season, viewers have just wanted to see Claire come to accept her abilities and be happy with them. Let’s see a season finale where Claire finds herself in the warm embrace of her supportive adopted family.
The show needs to reduce Hiro’s power levels.
Not everyone agrees. SF writer Paul Levinson, author of The Plot to Save Socrates, who routinely blogs about television and other media at Infinite Regress, says, “The time travel and teleportation of Hiro and now Ando, could use more emphasis—it has always been the single most exciting part of the show for me.” As exciting as Hiro’s powers are, however, making him the ultimate master of space and time was something of a mistake. It is difficult to create an equal challenge for a too-powerful hero without going overboard. Powering him down in the middle of the season worked well to show us that Hiro is a hero even without his abilities. So let’s leave him with some time-manipulation abilities but kill the time travel. Otherwise, we might end up with another digression like the second-season visit to feudal Japan, which most viewers felt weakened the show.
As long as we’re on the topic of characters being too powerful: Kill Sylar.
Yes, a show like Heroes needs a villain who can challenge the good guys, but Sylar’s become too powerful. So how do we off him once and for all?
Have a big battle.
Miranda Thomas, one of the hosts of the popular Heroes podcast The Ninth, makes the point well when she says, “For the finale to be a success, I think it’s time to give the viewers the big battle payoff that they have been craving. As fans we have seen the confrontations between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in the prior seasons leave us wanting more. Season one had a great buildup, complete with a tease of a really knock-down-drag-out fight in ‘Five Years Gone,’ and I think the final episode gave us just a hint of how an epic battle between Sylar and the heroes could top off a season. Season two sort of gave us a whimper and a moan as it ended. This season we need the final battle to be gritty and bloody, where only the strong survive, in order to give it the comic-book feel that marked the first season and set us up for a clean slate come season four.”
A clean slate is vital.
The fifth and final thing the finale needs to do is set up a new direction. For three seasons we’ve been told that people with abilities such as Hiro and Peter are heroes, but we haven’t seen a lot of traditional heroics. Although earlier this season the show shied away from the idea that the heroes should come out publicly, there’s only so much they can do with concealment and conspiracies. If the heroes reveal themselves to the world, we’ll get a chance to see real heroics, the kind that Hiro would be proud of. And this wouldn’t preclude some other evil conspiracy, with brand-new villains that our heroes could start to find out about over the next season.
What will happen? You can find out tonight at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.
I stopped watching after the retcon episode fairly early in the season. If there is a big battle, I might watch. That there is no doubt about a next season proves how broken the system is.
Cared a lot more about Chuck.
“Have a big battle.”
There was a big battle, but they chose not to show it.
well…I’ve been thinking Sylar needs to be killed off too..but they just couldn’t bring themselves to do it..with the way they set it up, especially with the teaser for next fall..is there anyone who doubts that Sylar will be back? Really, they should have just cut Sylar’s head off..or would he be able to regrow that?
Sylar will be back, but not right away.
What I hate is when characters do something really stupid that the audience knows is going to blow up in their faces. And that’s exactly what happened in the season finale. I agree that Sylar should have been killed off a while ago. He was a great villain in season one but has become diminished ever since with all the angst and other whiny garbage that has piled up on him.
I don’t think Hiro needs his power reduced permanently, but I think he needs to start being less of a doof. If all he’s going to be is the comic relief that never does anything right, then they might as well kill off now. In season one, we saw a glimpse of the hero he could become. Now it’s time for him to live up to his potential.