I was never really serious about not watching this show ever again, but it is a testament that the show is almost ten episodes in and I have just now watched the first this season. This was not an active boycott, but more of a passive one; indeed, there is a crazy quality of shows out there that deserve to be seen priority over Heroes.
But, the time must come. You know, I know: Heroes really sucks. Does it? The first season, without more detail, was great fun. The second was abysmal, and the third was just painful to watch, a roller coaster of acceptableness. The most offensive offense of the show is how aggravating it is: powers don't do what they should do, and powers are generally stupid. They don't know how to act; they've been given these great gifts and lack the imagination to use them properly, or at least, in any kind of entertaining way. I have no problem with a dial-back tone with the display of powers, but at least make the characters believable...make them...human.
So the first episode of the fourth season was good, and perhaps it gets a biased good because I haven't seen the show in quite a few months. It's great to see Peter using his powers as a provider of emergency services. Fantastic. Parkman struggling not to use his powers...ok, fine. Paranoid about his wife cheating on him? Fine, but I feel like his character is getting tired anyway, UNTIL Sylar pops into his mind and starts screwing with him. These were my favourite scenes of the show so far. The rest? I wish they would write Claire out of the series, although the addition of the hotness from Califnornication is welcome, and the strange behaviour she brings with her should be good fun.
In all though, it was a good episode because it wasn't aggravating. These characters were somewhat interesting again. So the show gets a pass, and I will follow up with some more episodes soon.