The Killing Joke

Jeremy Slater makes what may well be the final, mortal cut to HEROES:

The most depressing thing about this season so far is how they've simply reset all of the characters. Peter is learning about his power, the Bennets are keeping secrets, Parkman is using his powers to cheat his way into law enforcement...it's the equivalent of the Lost characters all getting stranded on a second magical island and then feigning shock the first time they see a polar bear.
I'm more inclined to believe that the most depressing thing about this season of HEROES so far is that Nikki the Psychotic Stripper hasn't had any scenes where she makes out with Claire the Indestructible Ex-Cheerleader yet. And that was the most depressing thing about last season, too. But Slater has very neatly delineated what is undoubtedly the second most depressing thing about this season to date, yeah. All the characters seem to be right back where they were at the start of Season 1; the only real changes that have been made -- Parkman's divorce, for example, or Peter's (infuckingcredibly convenient) amnesia, or Father Bennett's loss of his position in the Secret Conspiracy -- make the characters less interesting than before, not more.

If there's a third most depressing thing about this season to date, it's probably the way so many promising secondary characters from the first season -- like Illusion Girl, and even Sylar himself -- have been jettisoned in apparent favor of these idiotic South American twins and (as Slater calls him) Flying Emo Douche.

Ah, well. Just because it's a superhero show on TV, that doesn't mean it has to be good.