Watch Heroes Episode 3.5 "Angels and Monsters"

As a writer for a popular television website, I expect to run into spoilers. Like many true TV fans, I'd rather be kept in the dark on some of the bigger mysteries - I will have no desire to find out how Lost ends before watching it myself. But if I wanted to find spoilers, that's my right.

However, it is not NBC's right to force spoilers on me, which is exactly what happened with last night's Heroes. On Saturday I was at home watching the new Knight Rider (don't you dare judge me), and I saw a commercial for Heroes. I wanted to whet my appetite for a show I've been enjoying this season, so I watched, and was horrified that not only did it give away that Arthur Petrelli returns, but it said he was “the leader of the villains.”

At the time, it seemed like a fairly important thing to give away, but I assumed it was like 24, where an apparently spoiler-filled promo only gives away the first 15 minutes, and there's a whole new twist after that. Unfortunately, the Heroes twist wasn't like that. At the very end of the episode, Arthur Petrelli is revealed as the mastermind behind the villains.

It felt a lot like when I first saw The Sixth Sense, but I'd been told that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time. Without the mystery or the build-up, it's just a waste of time. Sure, I could focus on the cool twist with Maury Parkman's involvement or that he was creating visions of Linderman, but the NBC promo trumps that.

I acknowledge that ratings are down and several critics have abandoned the Heroes ship, but that's no excuse to give away crucial, major twists during a commercial. If I had stumbled onto the spoiler while researching a story online, that's fine, I can blame myself. But for the network to give it away is unfathomable.

On it's own, I like the idea of an evil alliance. I like Daphne, Knox, Adam Monroe, Hiro and possibly Matt Parkman teaming up under the leadership of Maury Parkman and Arthur Petrelli. However, it's impossible for me to view the revelation objectively, since NBC decided to spoil my fun.

If you still don't think it's that bad, watch the promo below, which I saw on Saturday, then think about last night's episode and how the big final reveal is completely ruined.




-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)