Fancast: Inside TV

It's amazing how quickly a show can fall from grace. Just four episodes ago, Heroes was the best drama on network television. Since that time, we've seen a decline of epic proportions. Four episodes. That's all it took. It's hard to wrap your mind around.

The first season was a masterful yarn of serialized storytelling. The pacing was perfect, the writing tight, the balance of the ensemble cast nearly perfect. By the time the season's 20th episode, Five Years Gone, rolled around, the show couldn't have been going better.

» Watch a clip from Episode 20: Five Years Gone

But it all fell apart, starting with the season finale. And through the first three episodes of season three, it appears the curtain has closed. Ironically it was the bomb the Heroes worked so hard to stop that sealed the fate of the show. Only the bomb never exploded. New York was spared, the show destroyed beyond repair.

That bomb and the danger that came with it is what carried the mysteries and intertwining story arcs throughout the season. In its absence, Heroes has been forced to manufacture drama, resulting in meandering and undisciplined writing.

Five Years Gone showed viewers the devastating aftermath of the explosion. Hiro, Peter and Niki had aligned and fought a war to no avail. The cost of their failure and the toll it took on them was such a beautiful portrait of each character, the thought we'll never see exactly what happened should induce nothing less than anger.

Instead, Hiro is currently in Japan helping an oddly placed British man become a hero, all the while lusting after his girlfriend. A virus is plaguing some of the Heroes (Niki included), Molly is having nightmares and Peter has lost his memory. Worst of all? HRG and Claire are in hiding. But instead of going up against the company, trying to stay one step ahead, we're being forced to suffer Claire's personal voyage of self and one of the most painful romantic storylines on TV today.

Oh to be Five Episodes Gone...

FINAL GRADE: C+