Life of Sylar

Of characters on TV these days, there are few unforgettables. These are characters so outlandish, so believable, so downright awesome, that it is unlikely we will forget them. Barney, from How I Met Your Mother is one of these characters, as is Dwight Schrute. And up there with them, is every ones favourite villain from heroes, Sylar Gray. Sylar and Dwight are possibly the two finest personalities on television right now.

But the hold Sylar got on us in the great and bold first season and the muddled and shortened second season of Heroes is slowly being eroded. For the twelve people still watching Heroes (which is a feat in itself) the writers have continuously treated us like ignorant children with the constant, and unexplainable character changes our heroes have had to undergo. Sylar's character seems to change with each episode, and they've all got progressively less believable, until just last episode when Sylar killed Elle (or at least that's what we're meant to believe).

These changes have been ridiculously frustrating, and even more so because so much effort was put into making Sylar a downright badass, capable of causing fear, anger and admiration among viewers. He was shrouded in mystery for large parts of the first season, and then, more and more was revealed to us. Flashbacks showed his desire to be special, and how his early life sculpted him into the maniac he became. The scenes where Sylar began his hunting and collecting of powers were incredibly enjoyable, as we got to watch the progression of the finest character on Heroes. And who can forget the absolutely fabulous scene in season two, when Sylar taunted Maya's brother (Alejandro) in English, in terrifically gruesome fashion.

This third season has been littered with bad decisions made by poor writers, trying to have us believe that Elle created Sylar, and other nonsense like that. His sudden love of Elle was badly done as well, as it was never seen in the show prior to it being revealed to us. Also, the family connections were poorly done, if not somewhat promising. It is believable that he would desire those connections, but too little has been done to develop those connections. On top of these constant personality changes was Sylar learning the power of empathic mimicry. I refuse to have Sylar not be cutting head's open!

For all the negatives, there have been some positives. The flashforward to Costa Verde, where Sylar had become a loving father and had learned to control his hunger was an interesting twist, as was the incredibly creepy stalking of Claire, and the subsequent brain-examination. The writers have to be praised for the "Claire, that's disgusting," line. With these positives in mind, and the fact that Sylar apparently opened up Elle's head (...to get a power he already has?) Sylar's future is definitely bright and tinged with sadistic madness.

Well, that's my inaugural blog, feel free to leave comments (if you can...) and tell your friends. I've got much more Heroes content, including updates, my list of how to fix the show, fearless predictions, reviews, and tons of other interesting crap on the way. Stay tuned!