Anyone else seeing the ongoing similarities?

Heroes started out fresh, interesting and a great serialized program. Since then, it has morphed into a bad professional wrestling produc: Everything get’s tied into the top family, everything seems to be moving way too fast, and – worst of all – the quirky powers and dynamics and drives are all falling prey to the main characters, with no new ones rising to the top.

In other words, Heroes has become the network TV version of the McMahon Family, and one has to wonder how long the show can maintain it’s top ratings and cutting edge status.

The cool part about Heroes has been its ability to make comic books cool. It drew upon the success of the various Batman movies, the X-Men’s history of powers and box-office success, and the impression that comic books can actually crash the motion picture barrier that kept so many Marvel related films at bay.

Heroes is definitively episodic, and at first had enough mystery to propel it as drama. New powers were explored long enough to make them interesting. As characters became familiar, they became intersting enough because you could guess their motivations.

That sense of solid writing propelled Heroes into it’s second season.

But then, those entertainment aspects that have plagued the WWE (well, according to you and me and the millions who have turned their back on closely following the product) began popping up.

While it was natural for Sylar to become a ‘good guy’ – we all know that long time heels end up becoming fan favorites – was it natural for him to become a Petrelli family member?

The Petrelli’s are becoming the Heroes version of the McMahons. And while compelling for a comparison standpoint, it’s not a dynamic that leads to improved ratings.

Last week, big Daddy Petrelli was seen, orchestrating the action, despite being in a comatose or otherwise extremely debilitated state.

Now, that part doesn’t hook up 100% with Vince, but consider that Vince’s appearances in the WWE over the past few months have fallen away, and Shane has become defacto McMahon Family spokesperson. Shane has always been the most fan friendly aspect of the Family (despite his flashes of wrestling where he was able to parlay his easy main event status and monthly (or weekly) demands into a high risk style, all the while not paying the physical price that his ‘peers’ had to endure.)

Of course, Stephanie McMahon runs a lot of the show. Her somewhat secretive marriage with the uniquely talented but running out of his prime HHH is likely the driving force for a lot of what plagues the WWE.

Linda has become merely the business voice, albeit the friendly one.

Again, it’s not a 100% correlation, but consider:

Peter Petrelli, the most powerful of the Petrelli’s, becomes a bad guy in the future. He has power equal to Sylar, the Heroes’ Universe most powerful and dangerous bad guy.

Nathan Petrelli, who is the weakest of the family, has the most powerful of political positions, and remains a key part of the who show. He is linked, romantically (cough,) to the more interesting characters on the show.

Arthur Petrelli is now the lead villain. It’s kind of hard to immediately reconfigure the heel/face dynamics, but then again, this season is a book called “Villains” so we’re backed into a corner where we’ve got to watch it all play out to find out who really are the villains, and who are just pretending to be.

Angela Petrelli is the matron and most manipulative of the bunch. She’s been clearly the subtle but lead heel of the show. At first, her revelation that Sylar was the missing and reclaimed Petrelli was merely an interesting psychological ploy to bring Sylar in. Whether it’s her power played out, or more likely, considering the way it’s been played, that Sylar always was a Petrelli, is the key question, and to me the most problematic aspect of this season.

Again, let’s look at the McMahons:

HHH is a lot like Sylar. He is, in essence, a new found member of the Family, and once this is revealed, how will the dynamics play out? HHH is the perennial WWE Champion, and while those of us in the know question at times if the Family is the reason, the dynamics of his ongoing ‘cutting off at the knees’ of any other talent is the problem.

Linda isn’t anywhere near Angela Petrelli, but she’s a lot like Nathan. She’s almost insignificant in the ongoing aspects of the show, but shows up with power in the business aspects, and is obviously the glue of the whole operation.

Is it Vince, or Stephanie, that play the Arthur part? Today, one must go with Vince, since he’s the guy orchestrating the entire operation while maintaining a low profile. He is the most dangerous, the most influential and the one that everyone truly fears.

Thus Stephanie is the Peter Petrelli of the Family: she has the most potential power, but she’s become a heel because of how she’s using it. The time travel stuff obviously clouds the issue, but hey, we’re talking apples and oranges to begin with.

Shane? Is he like Angela? Or do we resuppose Peter? Regardless, Shane is still a presence, who commands the other characters because of his name. Ok, I’d have to shift Shane to the Peter role. He has tons of power and potential, but because if it, he get’s mixed up in how he should proceed.

So we go back to Stephanie as the Angela Petrelli role, since she’s the most manipulative, the puppeteer and the person setting things up. Her connection to HHH is something that doesn’t line up, but hey, I’m not claiming a perfect analogy.

What I am claiming is that Heroes is going down a dangerous path but tying all this stuff together and cutting off the competition among the characters.

Parkman has been exiled to Africa. He has been sidelined like he’s Lance Cade.

Mohinder has been warped into a killer character, at first I screamed Spider-man, but was told the Fly, but obviously he was Spider-man all along. Mohinder went from fascinating and foreign and knowledgable to vastly creepy and incredulous. He’s now a villain. He’s now one of a dozen or so wrestlers over the past half-decade that got saddled with a bad character, and went nowhere.

Sylar was the key figure in the program, who we all knew would become a good guy, but turning him into the lead family is just too over-the-top, and makes the Petrelli family too much of a dominating presence in the show.

And, let’s not forget, that Claire – the Cheerleader who would save the world, was already established as a Petrelli offspring way, way back.

Once upon a time, Heroes had the interesting visuals and the interesting plot dynamics and the potential for introducing new powers and making them meaningful. The way professional wrestling works is certainly different, but when a show stops losing its dynamics and starts over-writing so that everything gets focused through one filter, does it start eroding the emotional interest?

I’d guess so.

Because tomorrow, I’ll be a little less interested in watching Heroes, not because it’s substantially a worse show than last week, but because I’m realizing that everything its becoming the Petrelli Family show, and at the end of the program, it will be all about the Petrellis.

Not about Heroes, not about displaying new powers, not about the storylines that gripped me in the beginning, or the emotional ties made to this character or that. Now, it’s all about the connections to the Petrellis, it’s all about how the Petrellis’ will rule the world, or destroy it.

Why worry about the second rate characters, or the third rate ones?

Then again, maybe like the NWO, they will all become part of the big gang.

Then again, maybe like Hornswoggle, some third rate character will turn into a Petrelli, only to be written back out of that association in the end.

Great TV is all about great dynamics. Special Effects trump acting skills – heck, it’s not Shakespearean talent that makes you capable of acting your way through being indestructible, or throwing a fireball, or scrunching up your face and stopping time.

Professional wrestling isn’t about acting skills either. Once upon a time, they covered it up by doing sweaty promos, crowd leading catch-phrases, or just by building off the expectations of fans.

I’m here at the end of my column complaining about a TV show, not because of the acting, but because of the writing direction, and the lack of a cohesive set of dynamics in the midcard area.

That’s what a lot of people complain about with the McMahons and the current WWE product.

And calling on the wrestlers to act better isn’t going to save the badly written scripts – scripts that deny the talent from doing what they do best to begin with.

Which, despite innuendos and mainstream perceptions, isn’t fakery, but a craft; it isn’t acting, but wrestling itself.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Stay tuned for some reviews and other fun stuff. Just what was the Warrior all about?