Why I now Like Sylar: An argument in favor of Super-Powered Sociopaths

So, I’ve been following this little known show, Heroes for the past two-and-a-half years and I have to say it’s been pretty fucking good. Every single episode leaves you screaming: ”GODDAMN IT-WHAT-THE-FUCK!?!” The first season was phenomenal, although the first show almost lost me as a viewer. I couldn’t get pass the cultural stereotype of Hiro Nakamura , despite immediately alighting to the nod advanced to Neal Stephenson’s adventurous tongue-in-cheek good guy-Hiro Protagonist.[Pen ultimately, in pop sci-fi, the best name provided to illustrate the character’s literary element… Alfred Bester’s Gully Foyle.] The Star Trek references , though appreciated, served as accoutrement to Hiro’s geekified stereotype of what a real- American [to use the McCain-Palin parlance] views of a young Japanese male: sexless, odd mannered and infatuated with speculative fiction.

By episode two, I was like, “ this show is hot.” I don’t know if it was the vivisectioning of Claire and I’m not sure what that says about me as a person, but I was drawn in. The story threads were linking up as we followed Peter and his ambitious brother Nathan, Parkman, Suresh, Nikki, and our own loveable sociopath, Sylar.

Gabriel Gray cum Sylar is the personification of decadent evil. A bit more than a siphon of human emotion, Sylar is a genetic thief, violently stealing the gifts, powers, of his awakened adversaries; and make no mistake, everyone with a power worth having is an adversary. Even the guy who can melt toasters into liquid goop.

I’m gonna jump right into Season three, Villians. Sure it’s running slow. It’s a lukewarm. It comes off as less inspired as the “Genesis” or “Generations” And yes, it reads like all of the worst of Chris Claremont in the eighties. [I fucking went there! All you X-Men heads represent] Really, Mr. Kring, did you think we wouldn’t notice parallels between the Petrelli boys and the Summers brothers, really? Beneath the depths of its contrived story threads, chief among them the promiscuous wanderings of the Petrelli clan, the emotional vulnerability of Claire’s Tin-Man, if only I had a heart to feel; and the Brundel-fly transformation of Mohinder, lies the exploration of Sylar. While Hiro and his trusty side kick Ando (C3PO) serve as the overarching synecdoctal archetype for Joseph Campbell’s heroic journey.

In this season Sylar has taken on the role of the awakened hero called to action. “Villians” is Sylar’s story, his time to change, shifting from sociopath to a kinder-gentler-I’d-drink-a-beer-with-him-kind-of sociopath. A sociopath worth watching and anticipating, unlike Bush’s executive office.

The resurrection of the Petrelli patriarch as a power leech is an excellent of not easily read political statement on the excess of the rich and it’s detriment on the poor. The consumption of communal resources individually outweighing the needs of the majority poor speaks loudly especially in light of the middleclass bailout of the elite. [And these fuckers aren’t even flinching. They stole our money and are enjoying luxurious vacations as a result.] The Petrelli progeny are no different, they just siphon the resources in their own way… Peter absorbs it without taking much [he’s green that way]; Sylar outright ham fistedly takes it; Nathan aspires to control it. This interpretation holds if you’re some Marxist-Scoialist-Commie-Obama-Palin conservative, (notice the small “c” as in the word as an adjective not a political noun)Government loving redistributionist of wealth with a hard-on for injecting socio-political commentary into a harmless television show depicting men and women flying but not in tights. (I’m just saying.)

The audience needed someone scarier, more despicable and less redeemable than Sylar. And we did we get… Robert Forster, who by the way is phoning in his performance (yes, I agree Jamal). But teleconferenced in or not, half of Robert Forster is well… better than no Robert Forster at all. It’s a shame Eric Roberts is not back, he made a hell of a fucked-up PrimaTech enforcer when not doing bad Akon music videos.

Forster’s big daddy Petrelli vastly overshadows Sylar in the badass-evil department and helps to paint Sylar in sympathetic If not physically vulnerable light; while not forgetting the highly manipulative momma Petrelli tugging at Sylar’s heartstrings. If which I must harkens back to the eighties to pull out this sweet little expression: EAT THE RICH!. The Petrellis are one fucked-up family, with the exception of the emo-I-must-save-the-cheerleader-who’s-undeniably-hot-yet-my-sister-and-I-still-wanna-hit-that-seven-different-ways-to-Sunday-but-can’t-and-because-of-so-I’m-conflicted-Peter Petrelli.

But screw Peter, power-no powers, and my money’s on Sylar who has just begun his heroic Journey to discover himself, Gabriel Gray. Won’t it be interesting if just like Ed Norton’s character in Primal Fear, Gabriel Gray never existed. I just got one thing to say to Sylar…

“GET’EM!!!!”