Last week, the fourth season of the NBC drama Heroes premiered.  I love this show, have watched it since the first season, and will probably stick by it until it runs its course.  However, I can’t overlook the major destruction the show is working in the lives of its characters.  It started with the end of last season when they cut down the original cast still further with the death of Nathan Petrelli, but then brought him back by making Sylar believe he was Nathan.  There’s two characters whose lives are destroyed, one permanently, but by the looks of things, Sylar is back on track to what he calls a life.  Then there’s Matt Parkman, the one who did the Nathan/Sylar switch and who is now being kept constant company by Sylar, whom Matt can’t seem to help but scream at in front of people.  Noah Bennet is working through the end of his marriage and is currently living in an apartment alone, eating cereal for supper.  Peter Petrelli isn’t doing much better.  Sure, he’s happy working three shifts as a New York paramedic alone, but the furniture in his apartment consists of a bed, a cork board, and a phone that sits on the floor.  Congrats writers, you’ve managed to make one of the most likeable heroes into a self denying, family dissing workaholic.  Then there’s Claire Bennet, for whom things seem to be going pretty good, but the show never lets anything good happen to her.  She’s been through three boys in the last three seasons, and none of them have stuck around.  Her friend, Gretchen, won’t stick around very long either if she follows precedent.

While I acknowledge the need for a TV show to keep watchers’ interest, completely destroying the characters and annihilating everything about them doesn’t make me want to watch more.  It makes me sick watching Parkman yell at Sylar and Peter being manipulated for at least the thrid time.  Plus, these last two shows have been rather slow.  They better get the plot moving soon and have the characters get their heads out of the clouds.