TV Series Review: HEROES – Season 4 (2009)

Wow. HEROES is a live action show about people with abilities, essentially superheroes, that deal with how they handle their powers, to how the government gets involved and a whole lot of other goodies adapted directly from the world of Comic Books. Thus far, the 3 seasons have been pretty craptacular, however Season 4 serves to change all of that.

I’m not sure what’s happened, but Season 4 of HEROES is a complete and utter game changer to the previously established tone of the show. The writing is better. The Actors’ performances are better. The storyline is oh so much better this Season.

After the horrible-ness of Season 3 that saw the end of the entire government project of capturing Superhumans, we begin Season 4 with some sort of redemption. Claire is going to college and patching things up with her adopted father Noah. Peter is back doing the paramedic thing and saving lives in his own way.

The fucked thing about this season: Nathan is dead. However, Matt, Noah and Angela Pettrelli have forced his mind into Sylar’s body while erasing Sylar’s mind and forcing his shape shifting body to take on Nathan’s face. Yea… I know.

So we’ve got Sylar walking around looking like Nathan, thinking he IS Nathan… however his old powers all still exist! Talk about identity crisis. This season finally sees a resolution to Sylar’s ever changing flip-flops between good and bad.

Like I mentioned before, everything is better this Season. Peter has FINALLY moved beyond being the whiny and idealistic good guy, to a more badass and cooler hero. As a paramedic, Peter utilizes his abilities to save as many people as he can. Sometimes even deceiving people into stealing their abilities that can help his messiah act better. Just pure awesome.

Noah and Claire are closer and their relationship finally moves past the ‘You lie to me and I hate you!’ routine it’s been doing for the past 3 Seasons. The best thing about HEROES this Season… the end of CHEESINESS!! The dialogues, the actors’ performances the way each character is utilized in small doses throughout the season… just brilliant.

Not to mention the big baddy of this Season is veteran character actor, Robert Knepper! The entire plot point for this season doesn’t give us any baggage from the Season prior it. We start off with a completely fresh storyline that keeps us guessing till the last 5 episodes. Knepper plays Samuel Sullivan, the leader of a magical travelling circus that acts as a safe haven for people with abilities.

For unknown reasons, Samuel tries to recruit all of our heroes into his circus to give them a purpose and have them be themselves without fear or hiding. This appeals to a few of our characters, however the ending is mind blowing.

Season 4 acts as a metaphor with the circus thing, in a way. Calling out these people with abilities as what they are, freaks. The storylines with Samuel is always just out of explanation and each episode brings us closer to understanding what his true intentions really are. It’s pure awesome-ness!!

Season 4 of HEROES is by far the BEST season of this show. Unfortunately, as is with great shows, the network didn’t think so and Season 4 was the last Season of HEROES. IF given more time, HEROES could’ve grown into an amazing comic book / superhero themed mainstream TV show…

Get Season 4 On Blu ray