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‘Heroes’ massive Season Two storyline progressing slowly

I’m not certain what the fuss is about.

Last week introduced Kristin Bell (“Veronica Mars”) as Electro-Grrl on “Heroes,” and it seems like she’s a baddie. There are new characters – South American twins who seem to have power over life and death, a kid who can fly and a New Orleans teen who can do anything she sees demonstrated even once.

And there are first-season characters who aren’t on screen as often. For instance, Hiro Nakamura is in feudal Japan and his friend, Ando, is learning of his adventures in the present day from bits of parchment Ando discovered in the hilt of an ancient samurai sword. Claire the Regenerating Cheerleader, her creepy father figure and the Haitian seem to be hiding from the Company that’s involved in tracking down all the heroes, while Mohinder Suresh is pretending to be working for it.

The sociopathic cannibal Sylar has reappeared in South America with memory loss. His superpowered nemesis Peter Petrelli has reappeared in Ireland, also with memory loss. Also, Matt the Mindreader and Peter’s brother, Nathan, tracked Matt’s father to Philadelphia, where they get trapped in a nightmare Matt’s father weaves for them and the little girl, Molly, who Matt was looking after.

I’ve heard complaints that favorite characters are being displaced by new ones no one cares about, and that there were too many characters to begin with and now there’s too much going on.

I’m not certain I agree.

The Company

First, there’s a group of a dozen or so genetically evolved persons who discovered one another and came together and formed “The Company,” with high-minded plans to locate other superbeings and improve themselves and improve the lives of others.

So they said. In that one of them, Linderman, seemed to want to do this by subverting the electoral process and get a superbeing elected, that seems more than a little subversive. And others, like Matt’s father, seem to be psychos. Meanwhile, someone is targeting these old-school heroes, including Nathan and Peter’s mom and heck, they already got Hiro’s dad.

What I’m saying is that there’s a huge, complicated story being envisioned in this show. The way they’re telling it, it will necessarily unfold slowly.

Also, there needs to be new characters with new abilities all the time because the target audience for this show is easily bored. Also, regardless of how many new characters with new abilities appear from every direction, there’s an endless need for cannon fodder. “Heroes” is a violent show with a lot of casualties and whenever someone is lost, you (usually) lose their storyline and their ability.

This season has included the first duplicate abilities. Both Claire Bennett and Hiro’s 16th century hero Takezo Kensei can heal from any injury, and both Nathan (incidentally, Claire’s biological father) and West (incidentally, Claire’s boyfriend) can fly. Characters like Peter and Sylar have been able to absorb other superbeings’ abilities, but most of the superbeings we’ve met just have one ability – hearing, memory, invisibility, etc. – and they’ve tended to be different.

New season, same show

Season Two is indeed a different creature from Season One, but despite new alliances and new motivations, there’s a comforting continuity to it as well. Essentially, people with superpowers are trying to figure out what they are meant to be doing with them as new abilities manifest all the time. There’s a shadowy group who might be good and might be evil and there’s people in danger and heroes to save them.

The show does take on a kaleidoscopic quality as the storylines shift and sift through and past one another, surfacing and then retreating to a seemingly vast back-burner. And the story is advancing very slowly.

Season One, of course, was frustratingly similar, if memory serves – telling a little bit of the story over several weeks before weaving the many different storylines together in a generally satisfying way.

I’m not thrilled with absolutely everything that’s going on this season, but I’m absolutely engaged.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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