I think the main lesson I've learned from this season is to never judge something based off of reviews. This is rated way worse than both previous seasons, but I preferred it to S2 and I actually enjoyed this LOL. This season is actually split up into 2 different arcs, and I enjoyed both a lot. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be the second half. It just feels way more exciting, and I was very hooked to see how it would resolve. Man, Sylar really stepped the fuck up for this season. I mildly enjoyed him in S1, he was fine but nothing crazy special. And in S2 he basically did fuck all. But in S3 he's one of the shining stars, we get to see so much more of him and his past, and how he operates. I really loved him here and I can't wait to see how the Nathan/Sylar stuff resolves in S4. Speaking of improving characters, I thought Angela was great here. I didn't have a very strong opinion of her in the first two seasons, she doesn't appear that often and she didn't wow me. But she gets so much character stuff to work with and the actress is super talented. This is the most likable she's ever been. I really loved Daphne, I thought she was a great addition to the cast and could've been a main stay. I thought her and Maya were going to be permanent cast additions, but I think they're a bit afraid of adding even more characters to this show LOL. I thought it was a bit silly that all it took was a dream for Parkman to immediately just care for her like they've had a 20 year marriage or something, but it didn't bother me that much and I thought they were low-key cute. I always say this, but I'm genuinely curious on why the writers just decided to completely trash Niki's plotline. Like, did they just have too much on their plate? Were they looking to get rid of one of the main characters just to make more space for other stories? I keep bringing it up because it completely baffles me how characters are just so quickly discarded on this show. Ironically despite the name of the first arc "Villains", this season I think had the worst villains, for both arcs. No offense to Robert Forster, but Arthur Petrelli is such a complete charisma hole of a character, he just isn't likable at all, he doesn't have much personality beyond "I am bad". Danko is a little better, but he was unlikable in a "he's a fine villain but I REALLY want to see him perish" but that never came. Nathan as a character is also done so weirdly this season. For most of the season he just repeats what he learned in S1, and goes through the same arc. I actually loved him in S2 because he was clearly reeling from his mistakes in the first season and he felt responsible for it. But here he just, does the exact same thing? It's odd, but I'm curious what's gonna happen for "him" in S4. Also kind of sad we didn't see more of that future timeline, it was my favorite alternate future we've seen so far. I still headcanon what I said about Noah Jr. All in all this was way better than S2, and I'm intrigued with S4.