‘Heroes’ hasn't learned from sophomore slump

But "Heroes" isn't just rehashing the good stuff. Parkman has been stranded in Africa on a journey of self-discovery, the writers having clearly learned nothing from stranding Hiro in feudal Japan last season. The details are different (there's no love triangle in Africa — yet — and Usutu doesn't seem to be malevolent — yet), but both stories isolate one of the main characters in a foreign land with no direction home.

Peter was headed down a similar path when he was trapped in the body of a superbaddie. With nobody to believe that he was who he said he was, a new group of untrustworthy associates and new, untested powers at his disposal, it was like trapping him in Ireland with amnesia all over again. The story has since been resolved (although in the "Heroes" universe, these sorts of things need to be qualified with a "probably"), but along with Parkman's storyline, it showed an indiscriminate approach to self-plagiarism.

Most baffling, however, is the sneaking suspicion that the writers just don't care anymore. It's becoming increasingly clear that nobody knows what to do with power-stealing serial killer Sylar, who was almost killed in the season one finale and whose return should have at the very least been shelved for a year or two.

Instead, "Heroes" has subjected him to two appallingly hackneyed standbys. First, the anonymous schlub with dreams of grandeur was revealed to be the long-lost son of the superpowered Petrelli dynasty. After that soap-opera retcon, he was recruited to work for the Company and partnered up with HRG, because why not release an unrepentant murderer on his own recognizance and team him with the father of a girl you've made it your mission to kill?

It's a joke of a plotline that makes no sense at all, and the characters are forced to act in ways counter to everything they've done on the show so far.

They're not the only ones acting like idiots. Hiro watched his dead father tell him via videotape not to open a safe that contained horrible secrets that must never be let out. Naturally, he opened the safe without a moment's hesitation, and the horrible secrets were immediately stolen by speedster Daphne. Hiro was last seen putting a sword through his best friend Ando more or less on a dare.

But the show's dumbest, most insulting moment came this past week, when Tracy, after accidentally freezing a reporter to death, wanted to turn herself in to the authorities. Nathan warned her against it, explaining that he'd tried to hold a press conference to tell the world about his flying powers.

What was the response of Tracy, the governor's aide who tapped Nathan to fill a vacant Senate seat while following his recovery from a high-profile assassination attempt at that very same press conference? "What happened?"

What happened, indeed. If the people who make "Heroes" don't even bother watching the show, why should anybody else?

Marc Hirsh is a writer in Somerville, Mass.

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