HEROES season two could have been brilliant. At the end of the last series, popularity of the show had risen to a (for the time being) peak and, although the series one finale meant that throughout the season very little had actually happened, the show seemed to have a lot of potential.
Yet that potential certainly didn't involve losing two million viewers and turning in a series that never found its feet or any kind of coherent tone.
Effectively pressing the restart button on at least seven characters and introducing only one character of any real merit, the story started at a lumbering pace.
With Hiro trapped in feudal Japan and Peter having amnesia, the heroes get back to living their ordinary lives, until some of the older generation start dying, and not peacefully in their bed either.
There, that took about one minute to set up.
So why does it take this series, shortened by the writers' strike to make matters worse, at least seven episodes to get to any kind of progression and antagonist?
It becomes unbearable waiting for the story to get there and by the time we get to anything interesting happening, it ends. No, messing about, it just stops.
In fairness, from episode eight the show becomes better, funnier and punchier.
Heroes does action quite well and Hiro is a character who could stand up among many of the great hero characters, yet creator Tim Kring almost enjoys wasting his potential, shovelling him to Japan, the most boring sub story this season chucked at us.
The acting is at least a tad bit consistent. Masi Oka, as Hiro, steals the show with Jack Stevenson, the ex-Dynasty star, providing humour and some tension to the proceedings.
The show needs it - with again no characters really dying properly, the show now lacks tension.
And with only Sylar providing any real menace, the villains were just minor distractions from the characters' more human plights.
Which is all very well and good, but with no real action or dramatic events we're left with tedious events that feel like someone pushed the repeat button.
For example, the Claire/West was pure teenage schmaltz, never really going anywhere and not really making you care at all for either character.
Well, volume three, as the show likes it to be called, at least seems to be going in the right direction, with the creator admitting the show lost its path.
There will be a lot more action in the upcoming series and hopefully this wont come in the way of an actual story and vice versa.
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