"Heroes" Is In Need Of Saving

I wrote a similar piece on my older blog a little less than a year ago but after watching last nights season finale, I feel the need to write an updated, more in depth piece.  Let me start this by saying I really, REALLY enjoy the show.  It is for that reason that I'm particularly annoyed with it's short comings.  The first and second seasons were pretty phenomenal.  I was literally hooked.  Somewhere along the way (read: season three and onward), the writers lost their way.  With the frequency of show cancellations, the nice folks at Heroes cannot just coast along hoping they'll be tossed a renewal letter.  You need to CRUSH the ratings.  And the only way you'll do that is by satisfying your REAL fans.  And let's be real with ourselves: the REAL fans of Heroes are the comic heads and sci-fi geeks.  You'll score a decent amount of casual viewers just because, but to pull the real numbers, you need to satisfy the core audience.  And I know just the way to do it.  This is a long read, but worth it if you've invested years into watching the show like I have.

• For the love of God, stop with the Volumes.  In theory it seems like a good idea to have season long. self contained story arcs but in reality, you're ruining it for viewers.  Think about it; you're only getting 13-20 episodes per season these days.  By the time the season finale hits, I felt like all the "loose ends" so to speak were being hastily sewn together so we could get to the climax.  Not cool.  Get rid of the volumes and it gives you the flexibility to leave us with off-season cliffhangers.  Do you have any clue the amount of people will tune in on the season premier for THAT reason alone?  You kill the story on the season finale and you give people the choice as to whether or not they wanna bother next year.  Bad business.  FORCE these people to watch!  Leave them hanging after every episode!  
• The writing is becoming predictable.  So yea Samuel threatens to level New York City.  OK, Sylar was supposed to level New York City in season 1 and it didn't happen.  Every time the world of Heroes is threatened with an impending doom, the Heroes save the day.  So when Samuel is going on and on about his plan, I'm sitting here like "yea, whatevs".  Sure enough, Peter and Sylar save the day.  Surprise us.  Kill off a main character (and don't backtrack w/ the lame "turn Sylar into Nathan" crap).  Let the villains plan work.  Do something we're not expecting or we won't take any of this seriously. 
• Stop fudging with Sylars character!  Since you guys love bringing in new villians, fine..let Sylar be the Anti-hero.  I'm 100% cool with that.  But don't turn him into some pussified, reformed hero that doesn't even have the balls to kill anyone anymore.  That's what Peter is here for!!  Sylar is by far the most entertaining character on the show, mainly due to the fact that we never know exactly where his allegiance lies.  Turning him into a pure good guy will kill his mojo.  
• Let the Heroes be "super".  Is it me or was there a severe lack of super human shit this season?  How is it we have a cast full of super powered people and barely any of them clashed?  Sylar whipped some people around a few times, and some of the carnies used their powers but I wanna see some epic battles man.  Introduce some REAL characters that will be around for more than one season.  Develop some vendettas and rivalries that will make way for heated clashes.  Stop grouping together the SAME set of Heroes to fight off random bad guys that we'll never see again. 
• What happened to "The Company"?  The mysterious background of The Company was one of the most interesting aspects of the earlier seasons and it's all but been removed from the series.  Who were the other founders?  Remember that picture?  Did it just disband?  There are a lot of plot points from seasons 1 and 2 that have been ignored but that's the most egregious.  Noah mentioned "an old company" on last nights season finale so that's a sign they may be revisiting that next year.  Hopefully I'm right.
• Romance.  Do these people have no love lives what-so-ever?  What is a Heroes biggest motivation to save someone?  Love.  What is a villains biggest motivation to go apeshit and kill everyone?  Love.  Why has this not been explored?  The only character with a hint of a love story was Noah.  Hiro's love interest was off screen for 99% of the season and the writers pussied out of Claire and Gretchens ALMOST love story.  You mean to tell me none of these characters have love interests?  Except Parkman, who's married? (he doesn't count cuz his wife's such a minor character that it's inconsequential).
• Think out your characters carefully.  Sylar as a bad guy was fun, mainly because of his personality and how awesome his powers were.  Danko as a bad guy was obnoxious and smug.  Samuel as a bad guy was just plain annoying.  His carnies were even worse.  Claire being hardheaded and stubborn for no reason is making her everyone's least favorite character.  Peter being a softy despite his abilities is becoming frustrating.  Don't limit these characters.  Have some fun with them.  You can't expect us to become attached to characters that are no fun.  Because in the off chance that the writers grow some balls and kill someone, we wouldn't even care.  I didn't give a shit what happened to Samuel, as long as he was off the damn screen. But I'd be a little hurt if Sylar died.  Even if he was trying to kill everyone on the show.  
• Let bad things happen.  Stop copping out.  Hiro teleporting thousands of people at once?  Tracy miraculously finding Noah and Claire and water boarding them to saftey?  I know there are liberties where special powers are involved but still, don't make shit up as you go along.  Think these things out carefully.  Make sure it makes sense.  It's fine to leave things unexplained; for a little while.  It's perfectly acceptable to retcon a mystery in a later season.  Just make sure it makes sense!!

This next season of Heroes would be it's fifth.  These days, that's about as long as you can expect a show to last.  Lost is about 10 times more popular than Heroes and it's wrapping up it's series with a sixth and final season.  Even tho that's the choice of the producers and not the network, it's hard to justify further seasons of Heroes when it hasn't performed nearly to the level of another show that's about to close up shop.  The fact that it's kinda competing with 24 doesn't help.  If the writers get their heads from out the sand, I truly believe Heroes is a very salvageable show.   Hell, even without my suggestions, it may work for another season or two.  But why give NBC any reason to swing the hammer?  Follow these guidelines and I promise the ratings will increase ten fold.