Heroes Season 3 – Release Date: 2008

Episode Guide

The Second Coming
The Butterfly Effect
One Of Us, One Of Them
I Am Become Death
Angels and Monsters
Dying Of The Light
Eris Quod Sum
Villains
It’s Coming
The Eclipse Part 1
The Eclipse Part 2
Our Father
Dual
A Clear And Present Danger
Trust And Blood
Building 26
Cold Wars
Exposed
Shades Of Gray
Cold Snap
Into Asylum
Turn And Face The Strange
1961
I Am Sylar
An Invisible Thread

After the shambles of Season 2 thanks in part to the writer’s strike, Heroes Season 3 is a step in the right direction but the fast paced first half offsets the balance of the show. The story leaves gaping plot holes throughout and with the same cast again gracing the screen for the third season, the writers attempt some different angles which largely work out for the worst. The writing is poor and a far cry from the tightly woven first Season. The second half slows the pacing with a more structured story but after some questionable plot decisions in the first half, it feels like damage limitation for vast periods of these episodes.

Despite its frenetic pace during the first half of Season 3, aptly named Villains, there’s actually a pretty gripping story. Its interesting and with enough twists and turns woven through the action its extremely watchable stuff despite some plot holes that are a little too big to ignore. The story itself revolves around a questionable new serum created by returning scientist Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) that allows ordinary people to turn into super heroes. On top of this, a whole plethora of villains are released from a “super-prison” and there’s someone lurking in the shadows pulling the strings. With so many new characters joining the show, it leaves little room for characterisation which is kept to a minimum to bolster out the villains. A big battle is teased too toward the end of the first half of the season but it never lives up to expectations.

The second half has far better pacing and a more cohesive story as a whole, focusing on new villain Danko, a cold-hearted government official hell bent on finding all the super heroes no matter what. Its here that Heroes feels more like the show of old but after the  breathtaking pace set out in the first half, it almost feels too slow at times. Most of this storyline feels like damage limitation as the characters are given screen time and more importantly, decent character arcs.

There are a number of casualties this season and not in the dying off sense either. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) returns but with a confusing medley of character motivations, sees his character turn from evil to good and back to evil again through the course of 25 episodes. Despite a reasonably rushed character arc, Quinto actually pulls it off well with some solid acting throughout. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for either Hiro (Masi Oka) or Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) who despite their best efforts are both given some awful scripts to work with that does irreversible damage to their character arcs. Hiro is unfairly demoted into slapstick comedy despite such promise in the first 2 seasons that teased him to be a badass ninja in the future. Nathan on the other hand jumps between grey area motivations and his lack of consistent writing is among some of the worst in the show’s history.

Overall, Heroes Season 3 tries to rush things and pick up where the first season left off. Split into 2 distinct parts, the first half has some good ideas but they’re rushed, spread way too thinly with an unnecessarily complicated story and frustrating character motivations. The second half tries to repair the damage done by the frantic pace with a dar more coherent story and some semblance of balance but at this point its questionable whether Season 4 will repair the damage done by the previous 2 Seasons to this promising science fiction show.