sdelmonte | Heroes Finale

Guess what? I'm in the minority about this episode. Oh, I liked it, but (as usual) it didn't knock my socks off.

The last ten minutes were great. The rest? It schlepped. It was poorly paced and blandly scripted. I was not happy to have Mohinder's pretentious narration back, I was not happy that the otherwise intriguing scene with Peter in the past had two rather hokey speeches (by pastPeter and by Charles), I don't care for Molly the Walking Plot Point, and I found myself nitpicking at a rate high even for me.

I will not deal with the nitpicks here. I will simply say that I think Tim Kring is a pedestrian screenwriter, and that it's a good thing he only wrote the pilot and this episode, since many of the writers they've used are better.

Fortunately, the big ending was really good (if a little short for a big ending), the scenes with Hiro and Ando were great, the bits with Claire and just about anybody and with Noah Bennet and just about anybody were great, and the sacrifice of Nathan Petrelli was heartfelt. The set-up for next season, with Hiro in the past, with hints of a worse villain, with Sylar's body missing, were quite intriguing. I will still be watching. I will probably still be nitpicking as well, but I'm in for the long haul.

Oh, and unlike the vast majority of comic books out there, unlike some TV shows I love but will not name here, we got an actual ending to a story!

This show improved vastly from the beginning of the season. The acting got much better for the most part, the world building and the hints of a vast and long conspiracy (or two) were very well done, and most of the characters changed and grew in believable ways. But there is still room for improvement, in terms of pacing and acting, in terms of maintaining internal consistency and continuity. I am hoping that we see more of the "heroes" act like heroes, that it stops being about protecting loved ones and starts being about making the world better. About not merely reacting to events but shaping them.

It's worth noting that the heroes essentially failed. Yes, they stopped Sylar, but Peter still blew up. "How do you stop an exploding man?" You don't. It's a heroic thing that Nathan gave his life (and I think he, and he alone of the cast we saw last night, is dead). But - and this is why I didn't like pastPeter's little speech to Simone - it's not enough to die well. It's better to find a way to do the job and still live to tell about it. Next time, I expect to see that as the heroes really do change the world rather than merely stop it from getting worse.

I also expect to see Matt again, recovering and becoming a father. I expect to see Hiro grow into the leader he can be and the warrior he wants to be, with Ando keeping him from becoming too dark. I expect to see the Bennets bringing down the Company and finding more heroes along the way. I expect that Micah and Molly will be joined by growing numbers of younger heroes, chief among them Nathan's sons. I expect to see a showdown between Mr. Nakamura and Mama Petrelli. I expect to Mohinder grow into his role as the brains of the outfit. I expect more twists and turns and secrets. I expect to see Sylar, though hopefully not too soon or too often, because great villains should be used sparingly. And I expect Peter and Clare to be the center of the show again, the visionary and the down-to-earth cheerleader trying to honor the memory of Nathan.

In short, despite my concerns and my nitpicks and my complaints, I really do like this show, and think that it's on its way to being great. It's just not quite there yet.