8 Silly TV Plot Conveniences Made Possible By Utterly Stupid Writing

4. Sylar Lives! - Heroes

Heroes, for those not too quick-on -the-mark, is a show about superheroes. Set in the real world, the show follows the story of many different characters that discover they have extraordinary powers, such as the ability to fly or turn invisible, and how this affects their lives. The villain, or at least the only one anyone remembers, is called Sylar, played by Zachary Quinto. There are a few points over the show's run where stupid or lazy writing allows irritating plot conveniences, most of which involve teleporting, multiple-personalities, or time-travel, yet we are pushing those to one-side in order to focus on two highly similar examples involving Sylar, as these are the most interesting to talk about/the most note-worthy. At the end of series one everything gets wrapped up quite nicely; serial-killer Sylar gets stabbed to death, the protagonist finally accepts himself, and the plot generally gets tied-up in a lovely little bow. At the start of series 2 however, we learn that Sylar is actually fine, having been fixed up by a mysterious none super-power company called err... The Company. Great imagination there, ah guys? Anyway, saving the villain was a fairly cowardly move on the production's part, clearly realising he was a popular character and thus deciding to drag him out until everyone's sick of the sight of him. It demonstrates not only that the writers had no plan post series one, but also that they didn't really understand or think much of their audience, with Sylar being the first in a long line of characters the show just refused to kill off. Our second problem follows on from this. After coming back, Sylar spends three series absorbing the powers of other heroes, meaning that by the middle of series 4 he is invincible, a shape-shifter, a telekinetic, able to fly, and able to do pretty much anything of which one might be able to think. Knowing they could no longer kill the character, Sylar is sedated and, using the powers of a mind-reader/controller, convinced he is someone else and doesn't have any powers. This is a great concept, as it means Sylar would forever be trapped inside the prison of his own body, yet not even aware that was the case. And then, come series five, and they just... well, had him remember again. Seriously, that was it: he just remembered again. This is a desperately used plot convenience used to unnaturally extend a show's life-span. It was the last-straw for viewers and the show was cancelled after series 5.