Heroes: Season Two

Four Months after the events at Kirby Plaza, Nathan (Pasdar) is trying to get over the loss of his brother, Claire (Panettiere) and her father (Coleman) are starting over in California, Matt Parkman (Grunberg) has joined the NYPD, Mohinder (Ramamurthy) is working for 'The Company' and Niki Sanders (Larter) is trying to find a cure for herself. Elsewhere, while Peter (Ventimiglia) has amnesia, Hiro finds himself in 1671 Japan with legendary warrior Takezo Kensei (Anders) and Sylar (Quinto) awakens powerless, a deadly virus begins to spread.

Despite how generously-acclaimed and compulsively-viewed the first season of Tim Kring's costumeless superhero tale was, Heroes sophomore year doesn't live up to expectations. Essentially killed off by the writer's strike, which cut it down to mere 11 episodes, down from the previous season's 23, the end result feels crammed and rushed as the writers scramble to wrap up storylines which were obviously designed to go on for longer. Hell, there's barely even any time for Mr Muggles.

While this is hardly Kring and co's fault, season two splutters in its early stages. Sure, it's still a decent genre show and frequently watchable (pretty much any time the fantastic Jack Coleman takes the screen), but the multiple problems evident were even acknowledged by Kring in an eloquent (and admirable) apology letter to the fans printed in Entertainment Weekly; slow pacing, poor intros for the newbies, and Hiro being in past Japan way too long (though Kensei christening him ‘carp’ is genius).

Additionally, instead of developing the interesting plotlines left dangling, we get new distracting characters who don't work too well - like South American twins (Ramizez and Ortiz) who can cause/cure a mysterious sickness - and a reboot of sorts that frustratingly separates everyone after it took an entire season to bring them together. Doubtless, this was a good idea for Peter and Sylar as their abundance of powers has created the 'Superman problem' (they are now too powerful to write logical drama for), but for the main part it feels like a repeat of last time.

Claire mistrusting her father while he hides his clandestine efforts? Check. Mohinder working for 'The Company' with the ulterior motive of helping people? You bet. Peter attempting to stop a large-scale peril in the future while Isaac Mendez's precognitive paintings (yes, he died last year, these are eight 'final' ones. Sigh) are used as road signs? Present and correct. As for logic holes, let's not even mention Ando finding Hiro's hidden scrolls.

Importantly, Season Two isn't completely without merit, it's just that it pales in comparison to the standard already set. With a clean slate set for the upcoming third year, let's just hope that saving the cheerleader will save the show.