Five Reasons to Give 'Heroes' Another Chance

REMEMBER WHEN OUR love affair with "Heroes" started?

We were enamored with the show that was unabashedly nerdy, complete with comic-book fonts and stylized character design, dark rooms and vivid explosions, artistic prophets and flying politicians.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world" became a mantra not just for sci-fi geeks but for all lovers of good television.

This lasted for ... one really good season.

Then came the writers' strike, and "Heroes" stopped returning our calls. We worried about its commitment. Hiro was spirited away to feudal Japan; Peter annoyingly had amnesia (but compensated by frequently going shirtless); and a whole spetrum of douchebaggery occurred, from Veronica Mars' dad to the weakened Sylar's fawning over the goop-eyed girl.

Given a complete season, the show likely could have redeemed itself, but no doubt it did some damage to its viewership with its fractured and aborted storylines.

But!

Season Three, which debuts Sept. 22, promises to finish what Season Two started, so it's time to take a look back at why we loved this show in the first place.

» Peter vs. Sylar

This is probably one of the coolest fight scenes in any show ever, mostly because of the psychological implications. It pits against each other, in very comic-book fashion, two people with virtually the same powers but opposite motives. Not only does the mirror-image combat make for a great scene visually, but Sylar's almost flippant delivery of his sinister villain lines — "Interesting, I can't wait to try that one" — is spot-on. There are many other Sylar battles, even against Peter, but this one comes out on top.

» Claire's Real Parents

Part of the initial appeal of this show was the mystery surrounding the relationship between the characters. The link exhibited by the symbol was only the beginning — there were layers upon layers of connections that only grew deeper as the show progressed. This unveiling of Claire's biological father, Nathan, was one of those defining moments that kept us riveted. Not to mention the ensuing confusion when we do the math and discover that Peter is Claire's uncle, which in a certain light makes a few of their previous encounters a little awkward. But the father-child theme is certainly carried throughout the rest of the series, from Matt and his dad's hallucination chamber to Chandra Suresh's obsession with his daughter.

» Future Hiro
Hiro is suddenly transformed to a bad-ass with contact lenses and a samurai sword, and goes on to deliver one of the most-quoted lines from television that year: "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

» Psycho Sylar

Some villains are scarier without a back story — consider the Joker from this summer's "Dark Knight." But one of the luxuries of a TV show is that the writers can delve slowly into the bad guy's past a few scenes at a time, unearthing bits and pieces of how such a monster emerged. In this scene, we get a slice (pun intended) of Sylar's relationship with his mother, whose blindness to what her son really is turns creepy and eventually deadly.

» Nathan Gets Shot

Most of the best moments happened during the first season, which is why that year it was nominated for a boatload of awards. But despite the many disappointments of Season Two, one scene made it a whole new ballgame, or, as Mrs. Petrelli put it, "opened Pandora's box." You mean it wasn't already open? But we're hoping Nathan's death wasn't a ratings ploy or a last-ditch effort to salvage the season, and that the writers know what they're doing. If it turns out he really is dead, well, we'll certainly miss the beard (even if he did borrow it from Jack Shephard).

Written by Express contributor Afton Lorraine Woodward