Thirteen Things I liked about Heroes Season 2

[weewarrior]

Writing this up, I realized that this only halfway qualifies as being a positive list, since in hindsight, I wasn't incredibly pleased with Season 2, nor with the way storylines and characters I liked were constantly shifted aside. Of course, it is slightly unfair to evaluate what is basically an unfinished product, but on the other hand, this was supposed to be a completed volume all along, and as such should be possible to be judged on it's own merit.

1. The patchwork family of Matt, Molly and Mohinder: far too little was done with this, but what we have seen, I adored.



2. Matt's development in general, and his investigation of the Elder murders in particular. The latter possibly because it contained most of the other characters I adored - and here, too, I wish they had developed the story a little more and a little deeper.



3. Every second Nathan and Matt were on screen together. Greg and Adrian should really pair up for their own drama show with comedic spin.



4. Adrian Pasdar and Stephen Tobolowsky joining the ranks of Ron Rifkin, Victor Garber and Michael Hogan by turning purely expositionary talk into something dynamic and interesting.



5. Peter Petrelli being a girl. No, really, check his passport.



6. Ashley Crow being one of the (far too many) actors this season who made the most out of miniscule screentime. At the end of all of this, she's decidedly the Bennet family member I enjoy the most (apart from Mr. Muggles, naturally.)



7. "You look like a carp." I'm usually pretty indifferent towards David Anders, but Kensei cracked me up pretty frequently.



8. In a similar vein, Adam's facial expressions at some of the more noble outbreaks of Peter's conscience.



9. Angela Petrelli as the Queen of everything. I want the Petrelli spinoff of the show yesterday.



10. Two scenes with Sylar: First his "Golly. Really?" reaction to Derek pointing out the Wonderless Twins were murderers, and second, even though my reaction is far from decent and feminist, and I'm quietly ashamed of it, the moment he shot Maya. Nothing but good wishes for Dania Ramirez, but between X-Men 3 and her disastrous storyline here, I'd say superhero fiction isn't the right thing for her.



11. The relationship between Elle and Bob Bishop - presumably meant as a dark mirror to Noah and Claire Bennet, it certainly looked like a dark and fascinating spin on the relationship between Veronica and Keith Mars to this viewer.



12. Monica Dawson. For once, a female character who wasn't almost entirely defined by her relationship to a male one, and who wasn't introduced through sexual peril. I have no idea if she'll remain interesting - I certainly wasn't fond of the turn her storyline took in the end - but at least the writers proved that they are able to do it right now and then.



13. Nathan Petrelli. I'm not entirely sure what it says about the show that they take a potentially great character played by one of their best actors, put him on the sidelines for most of the season, and then use him for yet another "will he live or will he die?" cliffhanger, but I bet there are a few expletives involved. What we got, I enjoyed, but it was certainly far too little, and the ending somewhat cheap. Oh well, we'll see what comes out of it, I guess, but it cetainly left me a lot more cynical in regards to the writers knowing what they're doing.