I was a big fan of Heroes after watching Season 1 and stayed interested into Season 2, but after Season 3 I didn’t know what else they could do with the characters after exploring much of the back story of the company and the Petrellis. The ending of Season 3 left Nathan as someone to watch, but after Sylar came back so many times, you kind of new what was going to happen. So they added the Sullivan Brothers Carnival, some new specials, and connected it to some of the existing characters. I just finished watching Season 4 on Netflix (the best way to watch it – no commercials), and I was satisfied with the way they wrapped things up.
**Spoilers ahead**
Unlike Alias, which definitely should have ended after Season 4 (Season 5 was pretty so-so, with Jennifer Garner out of action for half of the season because she was pregnant), Tim Kring and co. made the right choice to end things while people were still into the show. Season 4 of Heroes had a lot of good cameos by characters who had appeared in previous seasons. The season left some unanswered questions like what happened to the invisible girl whose father Noah killed? Also, we didn’t get an end shot of what the heroes did after the battle at the carnival. Claire stirred things up with her on camera actions, but we can assume Hiro and Ando went back to Japan where Ando married Kimiko; Noah and Lauren probably stayed together; Matt seemed content to be a stay at home dad; Peter and Emma may have gotten together; and Claire and Gretchen may have stayed together as well. I guess Tracy decided not to go to the carnival and go back to what she was doing since she was pretty dressed up when Lauren called for help. But Sylar, who is now a hero, who knows if he stays good or not. And what happened to the carnival people? Also, hopefully Suresh and his wife(?) made up (his presence was pretty contrived in this season – he watches a film from 1961, somehow builds a compass to the carnival, which hadn’t started yet, goes looking for Samuel, then gets killed for doing it (also Joseph gets killed as a result of Suresh’s visit, although Suresh is saved later by Hiro). It kind of reminds me of Matt’s role after Sylar left his brain – not much of a purpose left in the show except to trap Sylar so he and Peter can be friends. And how did Matt get cleared of being in police custody after getting shot outside of the diner in Texas? Maybe he changed some minds about prosecuting him.
All in all, it was a nice way to wrap things up for the show. Better to go out on top then keep going and killing your fan base with crappy writing just to make more money like so many shows have done.