WhenHeroesfirst hit screens in 2006, it was genuinely ahead of its time. Long beforeThe BoysandInvincibledeconstructed the superhero genre,Heroestold a grounded, character-driven story about what would happen if ordinary people suddenly developed extraordinary abilities. Its gritty tone, fractured timelines, and focus on everyday human drama elevated it above typical network fare. However, for all its brilliance, the problems withHeroeswere always lurking in the shadows - and now, nearly two decades later, they’re harder than ever to ignore.
WhileHeroesremains a beloved cult classic, rewatching it with modern eyes reveals how frustratingly inconsistent it was. Like other mystery-box shows from the same era -Lost,FlashForward,Fringe-Heroesmade a lot of big promises it couldn’t quite keep. Many of its ideas were brilliant on paper but poorly executed in practice, especially once the show lost momentum after its iconic first season. These problems withHeroesmight’ve been forgivable in real time, but 19 years later, they’re glaring. For all the nostalgia and iconic moments, some things just don’t hold up.
10The Impact Of The 2007-08 Writers Strike Is Obvious
Season 2 Feels Like It Stops Mid-Sentence, And It Basically Does
On a rewatch, theabruptness ofHeroesseason 2isn’t just jarring, it’s baffling. The storylines are dropped mid-flow, cliffhangers feel artificial, and key plot developments are rushed to resolution. That’s because the 2007-08 WGA strike forced the season to end at episode 11 instead of the planned 24. It was a logistical nightmare for a show that thrived on slow-burn storytelling and overlapping arcs. While many shows were impacted, its especially obvious withHeroesseason 2 (and all the more notable given that the solid writing was a key strength of season 1).
The problems withHeroesduring this period are obvious:characters suddenly vanish, major events are glossed over, and the season ends on a whimper instead of a bang.Even more frustrating is how it impacted future seasons, which had to awkwardly course-correct without the proper setup. Looking back, the strike wasn’t the show’s fault, but the damage it caused is still felt 19 years later. While the WGA strike was justified, it still significantly impacted the legacy ofHeroes,perhaps more than any other show of the era.
9Heroes Didn’t Know What To Do With Ali Larter
Niki, Tracy, And Jessica All Felt Like Unfinished Drafts Of A Better Character
Ali Larter’spresence in theHeroescastshould have been a major asset. At the timeHeroesfirst hit the air, she was one of the most recognizable names on the cast list thanks to movies likeFinal Destination.However, across four seasons and three characters (Niki, Jessica, and Tracy), the show never quite figured out what to do with her. Each of Ali Larter’s characters inHeroescame with a new power and backstory, but none of them had the narrative weight or cohesion of the main cast’s arcs.
It’s one of the more persistent problems withHeroes- the showkept rebooting Larter’s role in hopes of landing on something iconic, but instead it just felt like diminishing returns. In a rewatch, it’s hard not to see these pivots as signs of creative indecision. Her characters had potential, but ultimately became side plots that never paid off. Even worse, Ali Larter’sHeroescharacters often feel like they’re getting in the way of otherwise interesting plot points. For example, Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey) and D.L. (Leonard Roberts) trying to evade Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) was a gripping narrative idea, but was regularly sidelined by Niki/Jessica and their relatively weak dissociative identity disorder arc.
8Too Many Non-Powered Characters Got Powers
WhenHeroesfirst arrived, the characters were an interesting mix of people learning they had powers, and their human friends or family trying to adapt to the change. This mix of non-powered vs.powered characters in theHeroesrosterwas incredibly important, both for character development and keeping storylines engaging. Unfortunately, the show lost sight of this. Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Ando Masahashi (James Kyson) were standout supporting characters inHeroesprecisely because theydidn’thave powers. Suresh brought a scientific lens to the story, while Ando was Hiro’s moral compass and comedic foil.
However, as the show progressed, both characters gained powers - and, oddly enough, became less compelling. The problems withHeroescrop up again here: thewriters didn’t know how to maintain tension unless everyone was superpowered. By giving everyone abilities, the show lost what made its world feel grounded. Suresh’s mutation arc, in particular, derailed his storyline into incoherent body horror-lite, and Ando’s supercharge ability felt more like a plot cheat than meaningful growth.
7Claire Became A Bit Pointless After Sylar Got Her Powers
Once Sylar Became Immortal, Claire’s Role Started To Fade Away
Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) wasthe emotional anchor ofHeroesin the early seasons. Her arc was central to the series’ iconic “Save the cheerleader, save the world” plotline, and she was set up to be a central figure as the show progressed, especially given that her adoptive father, Noah (Jack Coleman), was the man responsible for bringing superpowered individuals for The Company. However, after Sylar (Zachary Quinto) absorbed her regenerative powers, Claire’s importance dramatically waned.
While this shouldn’t have changed how important Claire was to the unfolding plot ofHeroes,the show struggled to give her anything impactful to do after that. It’s a clear example of the problems withHeroesand how it handled power scaling. Once Sylar was unstoppable,Claire’s role shifted from protagonist to passive observer- often just tagging along with Noah or Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia). Her arc stagnated, and in hindsight, her best moments were all in the rearview.
6Heroes Ignored Its Most Unique Powers
Creative Abilities Were Introduced, Then Quickly Abandoned
One ofHeroes’most promising elements was its wide variety of powers - not just the standard flight or invisibility, but genuinely unique abilities like melting objects (Zane Taylor), verbal suggestion (Eden McCain), inducing blackouts, or projecting illusions. But these powers were often introduced only to be forgotten, sidelined, or absorbed by Sylar with no further exploration. This is one of the more frustrating problems withHeroesduring a rewatch.
The show teased a massive world of unique abilities butrarely followed through on the creativity. It’s especially disappointing when characters like Sylar acquire an interesting new power - like melting any object into a liquid - and then never use it again. Missed opportunities like this add up quickly. By leaning more and more into commonplace powers like invulnerability, flight, and invisibility,Heroesbecame less of a deconstruction of popular superhero properties like Marvel and DC, and more of a gritty copy of them.
5Heroes Needed To Lean Into Its Horror More
The Body Horror Potential Was Always There, But Never Fully Embraced
Many fans refer toHeroesas “the right show at the wrong time”,and this can be clearly seen in the series regularly dipping its toes into horror waters, only to retract them at the last minute. There were flashes of horror greatness inHeroes,but they fact they wereonlyflashes remains beyond frustrating. Mohinder’s grotesque transformation into a half-spider mutantduringHeroesseason 3and Sylar’s creepy dissection of his victims hinted at a darker show lurking beneath the surface. Unfortunately,those moments were always reined in before things got truly disturbing.
This restraint is one of the problems withHeroesthat becomes glaringly obvious today. In a post-The Boysworld, it’s clearHeroescould’ve carved a niche as a horror-tinged superhero series. But instead, it stuck to a PG-13 tone, robbing the show of the full weight and terror of its premise. The unsettling build-up was often stronger than the payoff. HadHeroesarrived in the 2020s, there’s little doubt these moments would have been put to screen with the full grizzly glory they deserved.
4The Cliffhangers And Twists Lose Their Impact
When You Already Know What Happens, The Shock Moments Feel Cheap
On a first watch,Heroesis full of jaw-dropping twists- betrayals, surprise powers, secret relatives. However, on a rewatch, those cliffhangers don’t just lose impact; they reveal how often the show used them as crutches. Plot twists are dropped in rapidly, but rarely given the breathing room to matter. This repetition is one of the enduring problems withHeroes.
Sadly,Hereosprioritized short-term shock over long-term storytelling, so once you know what’s coming, the weaknesses in structure and pacing become obvious. The constant cliffhangers eventually turn into white noise, withfew of them delivering satisfying conclusions.This is an issue that’s as much a product of the “tune in next week”format and twist-driven entertainment landscape created byLosta few years earlier, but that doesn’t make it any easier to ignore.
Sylar’s Redemption Arc Ruined Everything Cool About His Character
While heel-turns and redemption arcs may work in WWE and shows likeGame of Thrones,they didn’t fit at all well into the world ofHeroes.SeveralHeroesvillains ended up becoming protagonists by the time the show concluded, but in doing so they lost the essence of what made them great in the first place.Sylar started off as a terrifying antagonist- a serial killer with a hunger for power and no moral compass. However, byHeroesseason 4, the show had turned him into a reluctant antihero with amnesia, hallucinations, and even redemption arcs.
The menace of Sylar was gone, replaced by confusion and cliché in a storyline that felt incredibly similar to Peter Petrelli’s, just with a little more guilt. It’s one of the biggest problems withHeroes: it couldn’t commit to its own character dynamics. Sylar’s descent into moral ambiguity might’ve worked if handled with care, but it felt like a transparent attempt to keep a popular character on the board. Meanwhile, too many “good” characters also inexplicably went evil, such as Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) being the villain of 2015’sHeroes Reborn. Themoral whiplash made it hard to care.
2The Show Lost Focus On Character Development
Plot Twists Became More Important Than People
A key criticism ofHeroesis that it started on a much stronger note than it finished on, and the lack of character development is a key reason why. AsHeroeswent on, its early strength - emotionally grounded character arcs - got buried under convoluted plotlines. Relationships fell apart off-screen, motivations changed with little explanation, and character growth stalled entirely. By season 3, the characters felt like pawns in a twist machine.
This issue is one of the central problems withHeroes. Rewatching now, it’s clear that the show lost sight of the very thing that made season 1 so special. Characters like Hiro (Masi Oka), Matt, and Peter were compelling because they felt real, but thelater seasons treated them like plot devices.This became all the more apparent as new characters were introduced in later seasons, suchasHeroesseason 4’stwo-dimensional villain Samuel (Robert Knepper), who has little motivation beyond killing non-powered humans.
1Heroes Never Topped “Save The Cheerleader, Save The World”
Season 1’s Clear Story Direction Was Never Matched Again
The biggest and most unignorable problem when watchingHeroesis that everything following season 1 is a downhill journey. Season 1 ofHeroesremains one of the best first seasons of any TV show. “Save the cheerleader, save the world” wasa crystal-clear mission statement, with every subplot feeding into a single, powerful climax. After that, the show never found another arc with that kind of narrative focus.
This is the defining problem withHeroesin hindsight. Every season that followed tried to replicate the magic but ended up more convoluted and less emotionally resonant. The bar was set impossibly high, andHeroesspent four years proving it could never clear it again. It’s not that seasons 2-4 are unwatchable. They have some great moments. However, in terms of being a cohesive story that keeps viewers on the edge of their seat from start to finish, nothing offered inHeroesafter “save the cheerleader, save the world”feels satisfactory, even decades later.
