Season four of Heroes had the show taking steps back in the right direction. After the disaster of the past two seasons, the show titled this season "Redemption" to try and earn some respect back. In my mind, they did earn redemption. This season wasn't as good as season one, but Heroes was fun to watch again. Heroes hasn't been fun at all since season one. This season finally started to organically develop the characters again and introduced many new characters I enjoyed.

This season starts a few months after season three, and all of the characters are dealing with the repercussions. (spoiler) For instance, after pushing Nathan's mind into Sylar's body, Sylar is now trapped in Matt's head. Sylar for the first half of the season tried to get back into his body, and along the way insults Matt in the most hilarious ways possible. (end spoiler) These guys together was one of the best parts of the season. The new characters this season are all very cool, which is something that hasn't happened for a long time with Heroes. We get to see the main villain Samuel Sullivan (played by the ever charming Robert Knepper) develop over the season and we see how and why he develops his evil plan near the end of the season. My favorite new character this season was Emma, a deaf file clerk at Peter's hospital who develops synesthesia (the ability to see sound as color). Her and Peter's relationship was another highpoint of the season. I really liked how this season focused on the characters instead of another generic "Let's save the world again guys!" story like they've been doing for a while now.

The story also slowed down this season into something smaller and digestible. Instead of trying to cram everyone's storyline into one episode, this season only included about 2-3 in each episode. This allowed the individual stories more time to develop and slowed the pace down to something enjoyable. When watching this season on TV it was too slow when there was a week in between each episode, but I recently streamed the season on Netflix and the pacing was much better when watched back to back. There was a real slowdown mid-season though that did kill the momentum that the season had been building before then. Watching it on TV, this slowdown was painful to watch week after week and I wondered if Heroes' return to quality was only temporary. It was as if they had only created enough story for 13 episodes but then had to stretch it out into 18 episodes. After this lull in pacing though the season picks right back up and finishes with the best season finale of the show yet.

I don't want to spoil this season for those who haven't seen it yet, but suffice to say the turn around Heroes has done in quality this season is almost unbelievable. For a while there Heroes was one of the worst shows on television, but this season managed to crank out material that was lots of fun to watch. The people giving this season one star have stopped caring for Heroes long before season four started. These people are suffering from disappointment, which is worse than being bad at first and then getting better. Heroes was great at first, and people invested time and money in it expecting it to get better. However, Heroes got worse and worse. People are now bitter about the show and aren't willing to give it a chance. If you are willing to give this season a shot, you will see how much better Heroes has gotten.

Update 05/16/2010: Heroes has been canceled. While it's sad the show has been canceled on its rebound, it's not surprising considering how awful the second and third seasons were. In the second season, the characters puttered around and things moved very slowly. In the first few episodes a lot of nothing happened. It slowly picked up as the season went along, but then the writer's strike hit and they gave us a crappy wrap up as a result. The worst part was (spoiler) they forgot Peter's girlfriend in the future. I know she was probably erased or something when the timeline changed, but it made no impact on Peter what-so-ever in the third season. (end spoiler)

In complete contrast, the first volume of the third season had the characters running around at a frantic pace doing everything under the sun. The worst part about it was that they didn't have very good continuity between episodes. It produced entertaining individual episodes, but as a whole the volume made no sense. The second volume of season three was much better than the first. It had a central storyline to focus on and slowed the pace down. On the flip-side it took a few episodes to find its feet, and the finale was god awful. (spolier) They focused on Claire and the door during the huge Sylar/Nathan/Peter fight?!?! You teased us in the first season finale, but now you actually have it and do the entire thing off screen? There is no excuse for something that stupid. I almost quit Heroes when they had that as the "big climax" of the season. Thank goodness I didn't. (end spoiler) In the end, although it was much better than season two and first half of season three, it only managed to be decent.

It has been said time and time again, but it is true: Heroes had huge potential but wasted a lot of it. From characters dying and coming back to life inexplicably (How many times did Nathan die?) to running around in circles for storylines (they held on to that future painting gimmick for a seemingly endless amount of time), Heroes just never lived up to what it wanted to be. Seasons one and four are good, and the second half of season three is OK, but the rest is just garbage.

I'll probably do a more complete review of Heroes as a whole when they release a complete series box set, but this is already a good summary of what went wrong with Heroes. Despite being canceled, Heroes isn't quite dead yet. NBC is making plans for a two-hour TV movie to wrap up the series, so we will get more closure than the season four finale offers (which does serve as a decent series finale if the TV movie falls through). Although Heroes is gone, which most people would say is for the better, it has undeniably left a mark on sci-fi television and pop culture in general.

So a few years back this show called "Heroes" was getting all kinds of hype, I finally sat down to watch it (on DVD)...and though I liked certain aspects of it, I eventually found it tedious and pretty much stopped about 1/2 way through.

Then I heard snippets of the plot line of Season 3, and then I managed to start watching season 4 (simultaneously) and I have to say, just when the show seems to keep losing more and more viewers, it seems to be getting better and better.

Part of what makes season 4 a particular treat is the way that the creators and writers really expanded on the more universally applicable concepts of "belonging," "fitting in," "people curious and admiring that may turn to hate," and "redemption." Although this is full of "specials" and great ability clashes and sequences, this season is really rather character focused and humanistic.

The bi-curious relationship of one of the main characters, the continuing complexities of everyone's favorite charasmitic "Villain" Sylar get even more deliciously satisfying, and the "other" villain of this season, a mysterious man named Samuel Sullivan, (who is only much later revealed for his true plan and power) serves as a capable, driven, obsessed, if somewhat over-the-top adversary.

Season 4 kept things rather tight tidying everything up, leading into the next volume in a succinct 18 episode story arc. If you're like me and gave up on "Heroes" early on (or like many others, during season 2) give this season and season 3 a chance, the show has really matured and is worth a watch.

The Heroes TV series began with a huge bang. The characters and intersecting plotlines kept you captivated until the climatic season ending. Very well done.

Season 2 started out slowly, but still had strong acting and character interaction. I enjoyed this season primarily for Hiro's journey back into feudal Japan as Hiro was by far the best character on the show in my opinion.

Season 3 was a mess. As people here have already said, there were characters that we met in Season 2 only to see them drop off the face of the Earth and forgotten in Season 3. Add in stupid storylines like Peter and Nathan's father coming to life (boy was that guy a terribl actor and the internment camp plot line that had some promise, but fell flat in the end.)

So comes Season 4 with hope and promise that they could have redeemed the series back to its original glory, sadly this is not the case. Some quick points:

#1) Too much Claire. Her character became annoying and unwatchable in this season. I didn't understand why the producers insisted on her having so much air time, but they did at the expense of the show.

#2) While Robert Knepper is a good actor and the Samuel Sullivan character was creepy, the whole carnival angle dragged on for too long with a silly ending.

#3) I was hoping for more Hiro in this season, but sadly we didn't get that. The few times we did were the bright spots of this season. Particularly the touching scenes with him and Charlie.

#4) Not enough development of Noah's character. How about having a cool angle with him battling his wife's new guy who is secretly a special planning bad things and taunting him and his failed marriage? That would have been good stuff. Instead Noah is diminished to a sad character who spends time in regret and wondering about what could have been. What a waste.

Bottom line: I don't blame NBC for cancelling this show. It began with such promise and disappointed in the end.