In short, the show is bi-polar and always has been to varying degrees. I think it would have been easier if the show sucked outright. That way, we could have walked away without feeling cheated or classified the story as “so bad it’s good” and enjoyed it on those terms. The fact that the show works some of the time makes the stuff that doesn’t work that much more frustrating, because apart from the Sylar fixation, we can’t work out where the inconsistencies are coming from.

“but I think the majority of viewers will tune in for a great story before big explosions and impressively choreographed super-fights”
I’d love to agree but I’m not sure I do. It’s a fact that LOTS of people like shows they can watch with their brain turned off, if you consider what shows are the most successful nowadays. I don’t mind procedurals being around (even though I hate watching most of them), but I like to have the choice, and I can hardly find a good serialized show to watch (if you have one to advise me, I’m all ears).
It’s one thing to say Heroes’ quality went down, but to say it’s too confusing/too hard to follow ? I’m sorry but those people can’t be serious :/.

“Yes, but many of us also like the Petrellicest and the Paire. And some of us like the Claitchen and the Lauroah. We all have our superficial moments. “.
For the “What people don’t care about”, I was more thinking about the visual aspect of Heroes, which has always been one of Heroes’ strenghts, even when the storyline was, let’s say *fuzzy*.
Wait… I thought everybody hated Lauroah :).
And so many people are connected in the show that I pretty much consider any relationship incest now. Though it’s a shame that Nathan won’t be around to sleep with the 3rd triplet :(.

Maybe some people feel cheated because we didn’t get much of Mohinder and Tracy, but I’d rather see anyone being less used than having dumb storylines just to keep the actor on screen.
- We’ve had a lot of Peter but I don’t feel it was too much. Same for Matt.
- Agreed on Claire. What felt repetitive was her relation with HRG (and I know you’ll agree there).
- The counterpart here is probably Hiro (don’t ask why :)) and maybe a bit Samuel (and Emma - as much as I love her - who happens to play a lot of music on screen ^^).
That is why I feel that a few less episodes could have been explored the characters the same way and would have made everyone happy :). Maybe I’m wrong though.

Thoughts on Sylathan ? Of course I think I kinda forgot about him because he’s dead. I’ll just say that I was genuinely surprised of how they played it out, considering how stupid it was to *turn* Sylar into Nathan. - Thumbs up for giving us (and Peter - and maybe Claire since she’s having a MUCH harder time getting over it than getting over Meredith’s murder by the same guy) some closure with the real Nathan.
Agreed on Amnesiac-Sylar, which would have been interesting since we see that they seem to be going the not-redemption-but-at-least-something-that-might-be-new road (probably a way to keep him in the show, but whatever :)). Maybe they could have used the opportunity to show that he wasn’t totally rotten at the core.
Who knows, maybe he’ll still mini-Matt (after all, I think he CAN turn his powers off), rename him Noah, chase Lyle (who?) and Sandra from Costa Verde and keep Mr.Muggles to make Sandra mad at HRG. And that will make Matt next volume’s villain :). That way they don’t have to find a new actor/actress ^^.

Re: the nuances in every episode:

“We appreciate this aspect of the show, but most of people don’t.”

Yes, but many of us also like the Petrellicest and the Paire. And some of us like the Claitchen and the Lauroah. We all have our superficial moments.

I think the reasons why the show lost viewers over the course of the volume go deeper than involved character-based storytelling; perhaps that’s part of it, but I think the majority of viewers will tune in for a great story before big explosions and impressively choreographed super-fights. In a way, though, I think the character-based material was part of the problem. By exploring some character arcs in greater detail, others looked like they were getting shafted, the overall pace felt much less frenetic, and certain weaknesses in the show became more apparent: chunks of the characters’ backstories were ignored (Matt), certain characters’ absence looked even more conspicuous (meaning when Peter and Claire get these enormous, involved character arcs, Mohinder and Tracy look even more cheated); and the fact that certain storylines took too long to develop, and in some cases were never developed at all (Samuel’s backstory and motives, Lydia, Edgar, Gretchen, Lauren…). I’d say some parts of this volume were executed flawlessly, but in a way they made the weaknesses even more obvious.

Valid point about the sluggish pace after Christmas. I’d still argue that there was a distinct volume-opener vibe to 3.13 and 3.14, and I think that’s what gave this batch of episodes a slower feel. It seemed like so many new story arcs were being introduced (Samuel/Emma, Samuel/Vanessa, Peter’s reaction to losing Sylathan, Sylar’s latest identity crisis, etc.). I wonder whether TPTBs planned it that way — to give the post-Christmas batch of episodes a distinct tone and creative focus to set it apart from the first half — or whether it was a coincidence of scheduling.

On Peter and Matt’s character arcs being outstanding: word.

“… maybe Sylar stuck too long in Parkman’s head.”

This felt about right to me, but I do wish we could have seen more of Amnesiac-Sylar. I still think that could have tied into the whole redemption motif even more effectively than it did. That scene between Samuel and Amnesiac-Sylar at the end of 4.06? Magic. That one stands out for me as one of the most memorable of the volume.

“HRG/Claire : a bit repetitive regarding past seasons.”

Yes, although my feeling about Claire’s arc this season still stands: she’s been written as smarter, more discerning and more mature throughout the volume, and I think that’s helped to distinguish her scenes with HRG from the ones in previous volumes.

With Angela, I wonder whether it’s the same creative crutch as taking the carnival away from Samuel: if you take away The Company, Arthur and Nathan, the only real ties Angela has to the story are through her other interpersonal relationships (Peter, Claire and Sylar… sort of). The problem is she had no real stake in the carnival storyline, which is where everyone else’s character arcs were always headed. Which sucks, because you’d think Angela would have as much to atone for as anyone, if not more. That’s one thing that disappointed me — that we never got more of a backstory between Angela, HRG, Samuel, The Company and the carnival.

“- Sylar : …”

^ ^ Love that.

No thoughts on Sylathan?

Re: Hiro: the 4.13 nerdspeak aside, he never drove me up the wall quite as much as he did in Volumes Three and Four. I’m still waiting for some kind of development to Kimiko discovering that her brother has a spectacular gift which he inherited from a line of Nakamuras who had spectacular gifts. That’s an untouched goldmine, as far as I’m concerned.

That moment when Peter hesitated over whether to shoot is the kind of moment I wish we could have seen in this episode; a moment that showed he was agonizing over the decision and that it wasn’t just a case of, “Hey, if my dream says Sylar’s good, he must be.”

Perhaps 4.18 will develop this aspect of Peter’s decision to free Sylar. I hope it does, because that moment in 3.12 illustrates how much Peter wrestles with difficult decisions. He does consider the repercussions to what he’s doing, but for whatever reason we didn’t get to see it here, which is why it ended up looking like an irresponsible decision instead of an impossible one.

Though Sylar stopped the bullets and then projected them, in my mind Peter was the one who fired the gun, so he was the one who really killed Arthur.

It is no surprise to me that Peter saved Sylar. After all this is the Sylar show. He can’t die, he’s too important. Even if it means “dumbing down” other characters to fit him into the story and make it all about him.