You might remember me from when I used to comment on your review back in the early episodes of Season Three. I drifted off from the show in the middle of Volume Four, round about “Shades of Gray”. It wasn’t any one plot point that repelled me, it was just that I found I was no longer interested in the storylines or characters; to put it simply, I was bored and had more reasons not to watch the show than to carry on watching it. However, when this season began, I thought I’d give it a go (albeit a bit late) and from this opening episode, I’m pretty glad I did. It wasn’t overwhelmingly fantastic, but it felt fresh, new, and exciting - a far cry from the stagnation that I personally saw in Volumes Three and Four.

Each character has a clear storyline, most of which are enjoyable. The carnival is intriguing, with Edgar’s speedy knife skills catching my eye immediately. His fight with Tracy was very stylishly done, although I was sad to see Danko go…he was one of the bright spots of Volume Four. Although I hated the idea of Sylathan when I first heard about it, I loved the way it was handled in this episode, and the way it really bit Matt and Angela in the ass. Peter is, as you said, likeable again, which is always a plus because he’s always been my favourite character. Claire at college is entertaining, but Gretchen has potential to become annoying. And the Tracy/Noah collaboration - I’m not getting any vibe of romance from this episode alone, so I’m looking forward to seeing where it’s going.

That wasn’t to say this was a perfect premiere - Hiro and Ando still annoy the hell out of me, the Guitar Hero scene was the most shamelessly blatant plug for a product I’ve ever seen, and there were points where I felt a little bored again. But overall, I was pleased and am ready to watch on.

If this epithet is being used to refer to Daphne, I really, really disagree. She was given a full farewell and written properly out. Matt did grieve, even if people think it wasn’t long enough. No, sadly, that epithet is ONLY appropriate for a certain S2 character…

“…I find it interesting to compare this opening to Volume Three’s, because this was almost the exact opposite: Volume Three started out with the focus exclusively on abilities and catastrophic events, whereas Volume Five has started out with the focus predominantly on the characters and their emotional states, with the abilities serving as a complication to that. To me, that’s why this is a much more solid foundation for a great volume.”

It seems like we both share the same state of mind. That’s exactly what I thought, and I’m glad that the show may finally reach its “Redemption” soon.

” “Sathan.” I love it! I’m sticking with Sylathan, but I love it.”

Yay!, glad to hear you loved it. Makes me kind of sad that you’re sticking with the a bit longer “Sylathan”. I think that “Sathan” could be better used for quicker typing and to make fun that the devil is inside Nathan’s body XD (Supernatural shout out BTW). But hey, to each its own Its actually better than “Nate-lar”.

“Re: the speed of the Sylathan story: I’m glad it’s not dragging on for too long, but I’m curious about this too. I wonder if TPTBs are trying to write their way out of it as quickly as possible because they’re desperate to put it behind them, or if they want it to run its course because they’re planning to introduce an outcome and they want to get to that storyline early on.”

I’m torn with this. For the twist itself, It will be good to see them not drag it, but all I want is good development of it and not a rush job to get it undone. Because it would feel like they are seriously making decisions based solely on fan forum, which is actually blasting the twist. I seem to be in the minority that liked wherever the show wanted to go with the twist. And them responding to fan forum has proven quite bad in the past (they responded the criticism that Season 2 was too slow, and they responded with speeding up things to a fault). So I think TPTB should handle this somewhere in the middle. Making fans somewhat happy but still doing whatever they have planned for it. There’s nothing better than giving creative freedom for a writer to work with whatever they’re comfortable with. They can’t always fully appeal to the best of both worlds (sorry the Hannah Montana pun). As to the outcome and trying to get to another storyline, I’m in, as long there’s good development for it. They already have all the time of the world.

“Re: the upcoming kiss: I’m keeping an open mind. I get why people have written it off as a gimmick before they see it, but I’d like to think that several writers and directors on the show can express something with it and realize it very elegantly.”

As for this, it may actually happen like to what happened with “The O.C.”. In their second season, they made one of the main characters, Marissa Cooper, a temporary lesbian with a relationship with the ex girlfriend of another main character, Seth Cohen. When it started, the reaction was the same as the “Heroes” one, a rating gimmick. But the show managed to overcome that and it actually became one the show’s better developed storylines for the character, as it actually was written as a “Something I never experienced before”. I’ve heard that girls sometimes tend to have this feeling during college, and it could KIND OF make sense for Claire in this scenario. The PROBLEM is the context right now. Claire’s storyline right now is about the suicide of her ex roommate and the pushiness of Gretchen towards the case. Until something else is established (which I hope so), I still don’t see how a lesbian kiss may fit in the middle of the suicide and the crime investigation, but like you, Otto, I have my reservations. Thinking about that in “The O.C.” and seeing that it became something better than expected makes me optimistic about how it may be handled in “Heroes”. It’s just that the scenario doesn’t quite fit yet. And with the horrible decline in ratings of this past 2 episodes (which I hope it doesn’t continue to dip), I still can’t see it rather than a gimmick. But then, optimism is the key word.

Yes. One moment I thought Cristine Rose did especially well was the phone call to HRG. You could actually see Angela’s hands shaking. And that moment when HRG hung up on her, and she sorta half-threw her phone onto the table. I think that’s why we got a couple of reshot scenes (as you mention): to convey the toll this whole Sylathan drama is taking on her, and to convey that she isn’t as collected as she seemed to be in the Comic-Con clip.

Yes, for sure. And the fact that they wrote ahead and looked back and saw that needed to be reshoot is very hopeful forme.

I like your point about Nathan being “the unfixable chess piece.” To me, her choice to create Sylathan is still borne out of selfishness (understandable selfishness, but selfishness nonetheless). The fact that she makes mistakes quite rarely — as you say — is one small part of the whole storyline that’s effective. But it’s definitely also possible that Angela wanted to keep an of approximation of Nathan around out of an obligation to keep her dreams on track.

I think it may be the most selfish thing the women has done and she has her share of selfishness - for one it would appear depriving her son of his first born child, just to give her (perhaps her only female heir) the life she never had… not that we may find out there is more there and I do thing it is possible, considering what happened with Adam, that Claire really was in danger from the Company - even if she was a Petrelli - after all Arthur was satisfied until his own son was experimented on so he could have a power, why not a grandaugher? But I digress. As much as Angela says she did it to protect others, and it’s not completely untrue - they we’re at that point still on shaky ground as terrorists to the state, Angela did that for one reason and one reason only - to save her son and as Cris pointed out at Dragon con - to save her plans of him saving the world. I think much like HRG pointed out to as why he did it - she was emotional and made a bad choice. What I loved about her scream at the end of last season was it was half mourning mother, half spoiled child who didn’t get what they wanted. After what Angela had been through in three seasons if she lost Nathan I feel she may have had a nervous breakdown.

Re: the real Nathan somehow being saved: I’d want to see it for Pasdar’s sake, but I personally feel it’s better for the character to be written out. That’s partly why this whole Sylathan twist bugged me. It should have been a clearcut death. Everyone (the characters and the fans) should have either mourned or celebrated, and the trajectory that Nathan’s arc had been headed in throughout Volume Four should have reached its natural conclusion. To bring him back again, after all of the near-deaths and after watching him bleed out in 3.25, would really strike me as a cop-out.

Yes, but I can’t see them losing Pasdar. I’m not a huge fan of the Sylathan, but I have to admit it was powerful and drama is drama because it’s not always happy - however like much of Heroes grand ideas - they forget that this isn’t the end of a movie and that next season they have to deal with what they made - and now two of the most popular actors on the show are playing the same character. So, here’s hoping him coming back is creative and interesting and ads to the plot. But with Time Travel back in the show I’m mighty suspicious.

I hope you’re right. My feeling is still that a lot of Season Three was superb in principle and that parts of it only failed in execution. I could be wrong, but it always seemed to me that Fuller’s biggest influence was in the details: a line of dialogue here, a character’s reaction there. I worry that those are the things the show will lose at the point when Fuller bailed. Hopefully his involvement in the creative process was such that his influence will continue beyond that

Absolutely true - that is one of Heroes faults - good ideas BAD execution, and in the end execution is the be all end all of writing. Everyone said a show about white house Politics would be boring, but Aaron Sorkin’s execution made the show sparkle. I know the show will never be great before, and really was it always so great - the last few episodes we’re gang busters season one, but I remember fast forwarding through Nikki’s storyline sometimes, or telling my friends to just watch the storylines they liked and it was a great show. I think writers like Mark V and Rob Fresco can help with the drama and good dialogue. And I’m excited to see Swoozie back again. So I’m gonna be optimistic. But it Rose and Pasdar were gone it might not be worth my time. Still the opener has made me very optimistic.