Review: Heroes 3×05-3×06

Sorry to have missed a week of Heroes review goodness. There are a couple reasons for this. First, work has kept me pretty busy. Second, and perhaps more significant, last week’s episode was such a structural mess that I didn’t think I’d have anything interesting to say about it. Nevertheless, I’ll give it a shot.

More juicy tidbits behind the veil.

In some ways, these two episodes do form a cohesive unit, and so are perhaps better reviewed together. Several plotlines are introduced in 3×05, “Angels and Monsters”, that arent resolved until 3×06, “Dying of the Light”.

In an attempt to make good with Daphne and infiltrate her company and retrieve his father’s formula, time-bender Hiro Nakamura makes an apparently unthinkable sacrifice of his friend and sidekick Ando. We learn, of course, that this was mere subterfuge, and that Ando is alive and well.

Claire and her adoptive mother Sandra Bennet team up, “one of us, one of them” style, to rescue Claire’s firebrand biomom Meredith from the “puppet-master” Eric Doyle. Although somewhat predictable, the scenario that plays out among them is one of the best-shot and creepiest that Heroes has brought forth in a long time. From eerie music to jarring camera angles to superb acting, the scenes shine out as a cut above the rest.

The other redeeming factor in episode 3×06 is mind-reading former-cop Matt Parkman. Aided by his new totem guide, the tortoise, Parkman searches for Daphne in an attempt to save her from a horrible future fate. Actor Greg Grunberg brings great humanity to the role, along with a touch of sardonic humor, without overdoing it.

From an overarching plot perspective, we’re also learning more about the oft-sighted but little-explained Pinehearst Corporation, which we now learn is headed by none other than long-presumed-dead Arthur Petrelli. Along with Matt Parkman’s mind-manipulating father Maury, Arthur Petrelli is evidently trying to infuse the entire world with abilities. It’s unclear just where these threads are leading, but battle lines are slowly being drawn.

There have lately been rumblings that, like my other favorite TV show Lost, Heroes is becoming too convoluted for the average casual viewer to follow. The cynical part of me clamors in agreement, citing the ADD-prone state of the American populace. My more compassionate, utopian side, however, wants to believe that viewers have faith in the power of storytelling. Heroes has the potential to satisfy that desire in a big way, but only lives up to that potential about half the time.