I wish I still cared about Peter Petrelli

My take on serial shows is that once I invest in them, I'm in for the long haul.  I have to know what's the deal with the island, who the mother is, and in this case how people with abilities and people without them will reach resolution.

As many of my other compulsions sometimes do, this has become inconvenient.  When I first decided to jump on the Heroes train it was because I was particularly interested in the stories of a few of the lead characters.  So I Netflixed the first two seasons, and caught up on this season on Hulu.  It was a fun ride for a while, but things about it are beginning to get under my skin.

First of all, no one dies anymore.  In fact, the last major character to die was one of the ones whose story first hooked me.  I don't even almost care about the new character that the actor is playing.  Not that I need to see people dying to be entertained, but the sense of dread any time someone could die is gone.  And when *spoilers* Noah was brought back to life after being shot through the eye?  It's a good thing that happened at the end of an episode, because I would have missed the next 45 seconds as my eyes were rolled to the back of my head.

Next, the title character... Hiro Nakamura.  Again, one of the characters who first hooked me.  I really dug his origin story, but as the series progresses I feel like his character is becoming more about comic relief and less about what it means to be a hero.  I'll freely admit that I could just be looking to see him as the funny guy, but that's the risk the show runs when he says things like "Greatu Scott!" in extreme close-up*.  Masi Oka is a funny.  But every time I see him being funny I give a little sigh because I thought he was funnier on Scrubs, and have hoped that Franklin would reappear at some point.

In effect, I now only watch the show out of habit.  I'm out of characters to care about.  The Bennett family never did it for me, although I am glad that Sandra is less of a damsel in distress.  But Claire needs to stop making out with every dude she meets who isn't a relative.  Peter needs to decide once and for all a happy-go-lucky smart alec, or a brooding tough guy.  Suresh is kind of a tool.  The whole Sylar side story feels like it was concocted just to give him something to do.  And what's up with Parkman falling in love with a girl who's like 15 years his junior at the drop of a hat?  I watch TV for characters.  If I just wanted to see people with cool abilities, I would spend my evenings looking up parkour videos on YouTube.

*to date this has been the single funniest moment of the series.