Heroes and their "woman" problem...

[SuperT]

Am I the only one or has anyone else noticed the problem Heroes has with writing their women characters?

Me my friend joked the other day that women characters last about as long on Heroes as minority characters do on Lost. (lol) But, it's become increasingly noticeable this season.

They seem to just relegate the women characters to either one or two catagories either: A) Damsels in distress or B) minor background characters.

It's always seems like the males get the meatier roles and the women are left hanging. They really need to get with the program and write some good femme fatale characters for this show.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I agree, they have failed in the female charecters department. All they do is end up ruining them (which they did with every single one except for Angela)

 

[SuperT]

Yes. Lets run down of all the female's they've ruined or thrown by the wayside.

Eden: Okay, I'll let this one slide since the actress wanted to leave the show to pursue movies.

Charlie: I'll accept this one as well since it furthered Hiro's story significantly.

Simone: Totally underused and the writers even came out and told us the only reason they killed her was because they had no idea what to do with her. Unacceptable

Audrey Hanson: WHERE IS SHE?!?! Her and Parkman had great chemistry together during season one, and worked so well as a team. She would have been a great non-powered character on the show.

Candice: Another great character that had plenty of potential, totally ruined and killed off. Her powers gave the writers an easy out if the actresses that portrayed her wanted to leave eventually. She had spunk, wasn't afraid to use her powers to get ahead and bad ass.

Monica: A great female character and even greater power. Embraced her ability from the get go and was not afraid to use it, even for the most mundane things (getting Micah's stuff back) and was likable and had a tragic backstory to boot.

Maya: Totally stupid what they did to her. I'll give them a pass for her storyline during season two since they did have a pretty good plot working up for her that got cut because of the writers strike, but the writing for her during season three was absolutely ATROCIOUS. They make her Mohinder's sex toy for about two episodes, wrap her in a cocoon, cure her powers, then ship her off only to have her appear for 2.5 seconds in one episode. They totally could have worked in a revenge plot after Sylar killed her brother, they never gave her any significant screen time to show her grief or emotions at all. Horrible writing.

Niki: Now this one, I take personal because she was my favorite character from episode one of season one. They finally have her beat Jessica, come to terms with her powers, could have written a great storyline about her having the virus and hopefully overcoming it, but no. They put her in a building and blew it up and then tell us they had no more story to tell, but they had plenty of story for a long lost sister she had? COME ON!

Molly: Where the hell is she?!?! (I know where she is, but most people don't). I liked her a lot.

Elle: :facepalm

Meredith: Stupid, stupid, stupid. All we ever saw of her was just letting her light her own hand on fire, and she had about two scenes the entire season with her own daugther abd past lover Nathan, for that matter. Wasted material.

Claire: What have they done to you Claire? They have completely WRECKED Claire's character beyond belief. She was the teen cheerleader everyone loved during season one and now they've turned her into an annoying teen whining about her father(s) every two seconds.

Did I miss anyone?!?

 

[Mdizzle]

Audrey Hanson: WHERE IS SHE?!?! Her and Parkman had great chemistry together during season one, and worked so well as a team. She would have been a great non-powered character on the show.

Maya: Totally stupid what they did to her. I'll give them a pass for her storyline during season two since they did have a pretty good plot working up for her that got cut because of the writers strike, but the writing for her during season three was absolutely ATROCIOUS. They make her Mohinder sex toy for about two episodes, wrap her in a cocoon, cure her powers, then ship her off only to have her appear for 2.5 seconds in one episode. They totally could have worked in a revenge plot after Sylar killed her brother, they never gave her any significant screen time to show her grief or emotions at all. Horrible writing.

Elle: :facepalm

Meredith: Stupid, stupid, stupid. All we ever saw of her was just letting her light her own hand fire, and she had about two scenes the entire season with her own daugther or past lover Nathan, for that matter. Wasted material.

Loved Audrey. The show needed some strong non-evolved humans other than Mohinder & HRG--Audrey was great. Claire? Let's just not go there (I've posted so much about this in the hate thread). Personally I disliked Maya from the get-go--the wonder twins in general were just horrible and ruined the season for me.

Loved Elle before she got with Sylar and went soft. I can see how elements of their characters are similar (the sociopath angle), but I could never see the romance working--the Bonnie and Clyde thing never amounted to anything. She had a great power and was a definite asset in terms of attitude.

Meredith was a favorite of mine, but I felt, if anything, she was underused. Develop her character more. I appreciated them jumping into her back story a bit more, but ultimately it just led back to Claire's story. Who is Meredith? Let's see more of that. She had great potential.

 

[Mdizzle]

Did I miss anyone?!?

Daphne, Nathan's wife, Peter's Irish gf...um...I can't think of any others.

Angela is phenomenal tho. Always liked her.

 

[SuperT]

Completely forgot about Heidi and Caitlin.

With Nathan in the public limelight, why have we not heard a single peep from his former wife or anything about his two sons?! It's like people on this show have no life other then the ones they show us. Do they not have family looking for them at all?!

 

[Mdizzle]

Completely forgot about Heidi and Caitlin.

With Nathan in the public limelight, why have we not heard a single peep from his former wife or anything about his two sons?! It's like people on this show have no life other then the ones they show us. Do they not have family looking for them at all?!

Haha, that reminds me of HRG and Lyle. Particularly when HRG has that recent convo with Angela when he's trying to give up his former life and return to being a "normal" dad--Angela mentions something along the lines of, go back to your family..aka Claire. And Lyle? What about him? Heh.

It would be interesting to see what Heidi would say about Nathan's hypocrisy. Maybe she's in denial about the whole crippling incident and about Nathan in general.

 

[fu manchu]

Daphne, Nathan's wife, Peter's Irish gf...um...I can't think of any others.

Angela is phenomenal tho. Always liked her.

Here's some more: sandra bennet, matt's ex wife, yaeko, nana dawson and Hana Gitelman.

 

[Mdizzle]

Here's some more: sandra bennet, matt's ex wife, yaeko, nana dawson and Hana Gitelman.

Oh yeah nana dawson...didn't she have a power too?

 

[fu manchu]

it was rumored that she had a power but they never showed it.

 

[SuperT]

Well, seeing as her sister, D.L's mother, had a power I'd bet she has one too.

 

[Abaddon]

Some valid points but in spite of having meatier roles, plenty of the male characters have been ruined as well(Mohinder, Peter, D.L., Sylar, Kensei/Adam, Nightmare Man). With Heroes the writers seem to prefer quantity over quality.

Matt had to move beyond the police angle so they had to get rid of Audrey which is fair. And I was just glad they didn't shove Maya into the refrigerator just to have another "shocking death" that is supposed to make the viewer feel that no one safe.....except Peter, Claire, HRG, Nathan, and any character played by Ali Larter.

On that last note- they could've made Niki a stronger character after season 1, but they were committed to this idea of her being superreluctant to embrace her powers.

 

[Abaddon]

Here's some more: sandra bennet, matt's ex wife, yaeko, nana dawson and Hana Gitelman.

Sandra gets plenty of screentime, and I don't see how her character has been mishandled.
Hana was never meant to be an important tv character.
Yaeko was just used to divide Hiro and Kensei
Nana Dawson was just a bit of stunt casting that didn't amount to anything.


There is no excuse for them not to have addressed Nathan's children with Heidi.

 

[Mdizzle]

Right now, I think Angela is the strongest female character. We've seen her be cold but we've also seen her vulnerability. Plus, her past relationships and past in general makes her a more complex character. We have Tracy as well, but they need to develop her character a bit more imo. Make a little less one-dimensional.

I don't really have a problem with Daphne, but we need to see more of her for her to grow on me.