"You Look Badass!"

That's the line. That's the one that put the Heroes season finale over the top. It wasn't a perfect finale, and sometimes it seemed like it wasn't even a very good one, but when Ando (James Kyson Lee) said those words to Hiro (Masi Oka), I laughed out loud. It was a good laugh, a laugh of appreciation and identification and it kind of summed up the appeal of Heroes.

The show was a hit from the first episode and it deserved it. From the introduction of Hiro, a Japanese cubicle slave who is convinced that he can control time and space, Heroes introduced a set of well-delineated characters and put them in a well-paced story that papered over weak moments with momentum and showcased a handful of very effective stand-alone episodes that introduced and illuminated a burgeoning mythology.

Special effects played a part in this. Heroes is a beneficiary of the improvement in CGI. Earlier attempts to translate comics to the television screen (think The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man) suffered due to their inability to convincingly protray certain powers. Heroes had very little of those problems. Even the Niki/Jessica character split was the beneficiary of improvements in split-screen technology. A superhero show needs to be as seamless as possible; Heroes is fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.

That's not enough to make a show a hit, though. Heroes introduced us to some compelling characters. Hiro was a breath of fresh air in the way he not only believed he had powers, but embraced them when his belief was confirmed. He was no dark, brooding protagonist. I think Oka's portrayal of Hiro's joy in his specialness was a big part of the show's early appeal. He was a meta-comment on the show's geek-love. Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), and Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) were all strong characters, capable of carrying an entire episode. And the character who kicked the plot up to another level, HRG (Jack Coleman), Heroes Cigarette-Smoking Man and Special Agent Skinner rolled into one. Zachary Quinto did really good work as Sylar, the season arc's major villain. Hey, the show's guest stars were better than most casts. Clea Duvall as an FBI agent, Christopher Eccleston and Eric Roberts as figures from HRG's past, George Takei as Hiro's father... hey, the show even got Malcom McDowell to drop by as Linderman. One thing I really like about the season was that the writers seemed to enjoy writing for the actual heroes. Too many writers get attached to charismatic villains. I understand why. It's actually easier to write a vivid bad guy; you can write him as conflicted, turned evil by a bad past, or just make him the funniest, wittiest bastard in the room. Writing for good is harder, and Heroes was able to do it.

The show also knew that for us to believe that characters are in jeopardy, you have to kill one every now and then. At least six characters who were in multiple episodes bit the dust during the season. Every time one of them died, the stakes were raised for the others. There's no such thing as a compelling drama where everyone is safe.

The show wasn't perfect. One of the main characters, Peter Petrelli, was played by Milo Ventimiglia, an actor who makes my skin crawl every time I see him. The subplot about Matt Parkman (the awesome Greg Grunberg) and his wife was cliched and went nowhere. At least it tailed off fast. Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) wasn't much more than multi-cultural eye candy. The finale was poorly paced and the resolution of Peter's storyline was unsatisfying to say the least.

But I watched and I enjoyed, and my daughter watched it with me and we shared the experience. Heroes wasn't perfect, but it was a whole lot of fun, and I'll be watching next fall.