Villain Profile: Arthur Petrelli

Arthur Petrelli is the father of Peter and Nathan Petrelli.  Through the first couple of season we were told multiple stories of how he died, but the truth ends up being that his wife poisoned him because he was planning on killing Nathan for standing against his illegal activities.  She thought he died but he didn't; instead he spent a year being paralyzed.  Due to his ability to absorb other powers, he eventually recovers and even steals Peter's abilities, making him virtually unstoppable. 

Arthur is the main Villain in the first half of season 3, the worst season of heroes.  Arthur is a villain who could have been pretty cool, but instead of focusing on some grand scheme of his, it's mostly about him simply having a lot of powers.  If we hadn't already seen this from Sylar it might have been alright but at this point he feel kind of like a recycled character.  His whole story line feels like a soap opera anyway.  They thought he was dead but he isn't, he tells Sylar he is really his father, but he isn't, etc.

Another problem is his plan doesn't really make any sense.  I have no idea why he is trying to give everyone superpowers because he is constantly paranoid about anyone with powers who could be a threat to him.  Unless his goal was to give everyone powers so he could steal them all, I really don't know what his motivation was.  Like all of season 3, there was some really good stuff and some really bad stuff...Arthur is just a product of that.  

It's unfortunate his story wasn't all of season 3 so he could be devolved more.  Perhaps given some grand reason why he wanted to do what he wanted to do.  The second half of season 3 is the worst overall story from heroes so it would have been nice to see this one fleshed out and made sense of.  Arthur is even warned that the world will be destroyed because of his plan (by someone who can see the future) but he still doesn't listen.  Whatever his motivation was, apparently it was a strong one.  Sadly, we will never know since he died in the middle of the season.

On a side note, I am not sure why he didn't heal from his gun shot would after the Haitian was gone.  They had already established multiple times (Claire, Sylar) that if someone with a healing factor dies because their powers are blocked in some way, they will heal and come back as soon as their powers return.  Both Arthur and Future Peter Petrelli died from being shot because the Haitian was around and never came back (as far as we know).     

Villain Profile: Doyle

Eric Doyle is a villain who first showed up during Heroes season 3.  He has the ability to control people like puppets.

Though not a main bad guy like Sylar or Sullivan, Doyle shows up multiple times over the last two seasons of the show.  I like that he has a creative power that isn't seen in to many other places, it's not your typical flying or super strength.  Doyle is one of the bad guys who escapes from level 5 in season 3.  He is an interesting character, actually one of my favorite bad guys on the show.

He has a thing for Claire's mom (biological mother) Meredith and is pretty vicious the first time he is encountered by Claire and both her bio mom and adoptive mom.  He takes control of all three of them and makes them play Russian roulette.  I don't even know what his end game was here.  He comes across as kind of a rapist/creepy type but then seems delighted when he thought of Meredith dying (even though he seems to be infatuated by her).  That whole situation just makes him that much more demented, that even if he has a crush on someone he still enjoys seeing them suffer.

Unfortunately for Doyle he runs across Sylar multiple times (sometimes off screen) and battles it out.  He always loses in the end but does better in their last confrontation.  Doyle attempts to reform during the course of the show, or at least claims he will reform, but then in the same episode gives Claire a smirk like he was just saying that to get help when he needed it.  In the end he ends up at the Sullivan Brothers carnival working as a puppeteer.

While at the carnival we see that he has somewhat reformed but everyone at the carnival seems willing to kill if they feel it's needed.  He is also very protective of Samuel Sullivan, even attacking Claire who had previous helped him.  This guy is actually one of the more powerful specials out there and could take on just about anyone short of Sylar and a few others.  Against regular humans he has been shown to be able to control at least three people at once and I do not know what his limit actually is. 

Many other characters in the show had their powers advance over the show and it would be interesting to see if Doyle's powers ever increase in some interesting way as well.  The last we see of him is when he is tied up by Sylar, after that his whereabouts are unknown.  I do like that Doyle made several appearances but wasn't overused.  He has interesting powers and is just the right amount of unstable.

Villain profile: Sylar

 If you have watched the now canceled TV series Heroes, you are very familiar with the character Sylar.  He started out as the main villain on season 1 but his character evolved and changed over the course of the show.  He is sort of the opposite of the main hero in season 1, Peter Petrelli.  Both of them have the ability to copy other specials powers, Sylar just kills people to do it while Peter does it through empathy.

In season 1 Sylar mostly just travels around murdering other specials in order to steal their powers.  Gaining more and more power, becoming important, that is Sylar's main purpose in life during this time.

After season 1 I think the writers thought about their situation, coming to the conclusion that both Sylar and Peter have been made much to powerful so they had to come up with some way to tone them down.  With Sylar they made him lose his abilities.  During all of season 2 he is just an ordinary man trying to figure out how to recover his lost abilities.  He still kills plenty of people along the way in his journey and at the very end of the season recovers his powers.

In season 3 we see Sylar's biggest weakness, he is mentally weak and easy to manipulate due to his mommy issues.  Unfortunately I think the writers made a mistake with Sylar that season.  They let him finally take Claire's power and another specials ability to shape change.  Now you can't even shoot or stab him in the back of the head to kill him (the only way to stop someone with that ability) because his shape shifting power lets him move that spot.  They made Sylar way to strong, so instead of getting into any battles he mostly just drives around learning about his past. 

He comes across his real Dad ( Sylar was adopted by his uncle) and finds out he has the exact same starting power as himself, the ability to take the powers of others.  We pretty much see Sylar's fate here, to become bored and alone.  I didn't really like how Sylar jumps from being a bad guy to a good guy to a bad guy so much in this season.  Like with a lot of other characters on the show during this time, his behavior seems to change on a dime.

In the 4th season, since Sylar is so powerful and they can't do much else with him, he pretty much just travels around some more trying to find some kind of meaning to his life.  He eventually  becomes trapped in his own mind, in his own personal hell, by Matt Parkman.  Since no one can physically beat Sylar anymore this is pretty much the only way he can be defeated.  During his time in his own mind (which felt like 5 years for him) he, with the help of Peter, becomes a good guy once again.  Peter forgives Sylar for murdering his brother Nathan (at the end of season 3) and they go off to stop the new bad guy.

Sylar is a good character but it seems like they mostly kept him around after season 1 just because he is popular.  It is interesting that he is the only main bad guy who actually repents and changes his ways but they shouldn't have had him switch back and forth so dramatically multiple times.  I also don't think he should have gotten Claire's power as that just makes him unbeatable in a fight (especially with Peter losing all of his powers).

I thought Sylar in season 2, being depowered was fine.  I simply wouldn't have let him get his old powers back, just start him over with a clean slate in season 3.  They also should have killed him during the 4th season (if not earlier).  They could have used the same redemption story line and had him sacrifice his life to save Peter, making up for his murder of his brother.

If the show had gone on I am not really sure what they would have done with him since he is basically invincible and has unlimited power.  I just think it would have been better to tone him down (by leaving him mortal he still has to worry about being killed and can be defeated) and keep him a little more consistent in his behavior but overall he is still used pretty well throughout the show.  I also understand that they wanted to keep him around because he is a fan favorite.  Having him give up his own life for the greater good, after having done so much evil, would have been a great exclamation point on his redemption story.

Sylar is a great villain, just used to much.  Like Jaws or Norman Bates, the less you see of him the better.  Leave some things to the imagination.  Filling in the blanks with your own mind is always better than being shown every little detail. 

Heroes season 4, ep 1: Orientation

Today I am going to start reviewing the tv show Heroes, starting with season 4 because that is the season I am currently watching on DVD.  I have already watched the first three seasons but I like to write reviews directly after watching an episode so my feelings and thoughts on that episode are fresh.  After I am finished with season 4 I will go back and rewatch the first three seasons again. 

The first episode, entitled Orientation, is a double length episode.  This episode is really good and really bad. 

The Good:

We are introduced to some new characters from a carnival.  Lead by the mysterious and creepy Samuel Sullivan, they intend to find a replacement for Samuel's dead brother (he died off screen so we have no idea how he died or why).   We don't know exactly what they are after or what their end game is but they seem a little shady and we know they are willing to kill people to meet their ends.  These character have interesting (and mostly new) powers.  Finding out what exactly these characters are up to is an interesting mystery that starts this season off with some anticipation. 

Peter is back to work as a paramedic, savings people's lives using the powers he acquired from Mohinder (he is basically like Spider-man minus the webbing). Hiro has started a business with his friend Ando called "Dial a Hero".  Things go down hill quickly though when we find out something is wrong with Hiro and he is no longer in control of his powers fully.  Instead of stopping time, time is stopping him. 

There are several stories going on that involve the ever popular Sylar.  Nathan (actually just Nathan's memories in Sylar's body) is starting to have powers manifest he never had and he doesn't understand why.  Elsewhere, Matt Parkman is starting to see visions of Sylar, whose consciousness is trapped in Matt's mind, causing him trouble. 

Noah and Danko (the villain from the second half of season 3) have to deal with Tracy who is out for revenge against them for their plot to round up all people with abilities.   

The Bad:

All of this is pretty interesting and you may be asking yourself, what is so bad?  One name: Claire.  Her story line of starting college and having an annoying roommate seems completely useless, pointless and distracts from all of the other interesting stories going on.  It seems like everything with her was thrown into the show because her character is popular with teenage girls.  It also seems like her annoying story line gets more screen time than any of the other stories.  This may not be the case, it could just be that her story is so bad and slows down the pace of the show so much it just seems like an eternity.  Her character probably should have been written out of the show after season 3 (or at least reduced greatly). 

This season does feel a little different, more like the 1st season (which is a good thing) and it does show promise for an interesting season.  It has my curiosity peaked. 

I give this episode 3 out of 4 stars (it would have been 4 out of 4 without Claire's storyline bringing it to an annoying crawl constantly).