Heroes Season 3 Preview

The AP had the following story on the new season of Heroes (written by Frazier Moore):
Back for its third season, "Heroes" is confronting high expectations from its besotted fans. And also a bit of resistance from former and would-be fans who couldn't make heads or tails of the show last season.

"Message: We care," the producers have been saying as they promised to get "Heroes" heroic again.

But to judge from the season premiere (a second hour airing Monday wasn't offered for review), the series has met with only mixed success.

The look and style of "Heroes" is as grand as ever. Everything about the show's design, including the lettering for the captions and the eerie three-note musical signature, feels like part of a marvelously unified package.

If only that package could contain the series' plodding mishmash of a story. At the risk of sounding feeble-minded or, even worse, un-cool, I again ask the question I've asked about "Heroes" so many times before: What is going on?

The murky, brooding, free-range narrative seems to glory in its abstractions. The action hop-scotches around the world, and back and forth through time. The internal logic of the show seems always ready to defer to the situation at hand. And the characters have multiplied like roaches.

There's a grandiose goal at the bottom of it all (saving the world, y'know), in the face of fierce opposition. But is this existential tug of war really going anywhere? Couldn't everybody stop, relax their scowls and take a chill pill - just once?

I've always admired "Heroes" for its epic, sprawling vision - up to a point. But an occasional save-the-world pronouncement isn't sufficient to maintain coherence. Not with this scattered affair.