After watching the final few episodes of Heroes it began to dawn on me that the series might actually be a satire of America's infamous Neoconservatives. The plot involves an incredibly powerful mobster called Linderman (the wonderfully cast Malcolm Mcdowell), who believes that society is so broken that only some form of apocalyptic event - in this case a nuclear explosion in New York - can unite America to work towards a common good.

In his brilliant series The Power Of Nightmares, Adam Curtis presents a similar theory about Neocon thinking in Bush Jr. America. They believe that society needs a bogey man in order to function properly, in order to behave itself and not descend into chaos. The fall of the Soviet Union had robbed America of its previous Darth Vader, so when Al-Qaeda came along the Neocons were only too pleased to sign up for the fight. Thus, 9/11 becomes a force for good in their thinking, something to save society from itself and to refocus it on fighting an foreign foe, a new boogy man.

To begin with, I had written Heroes off as simply a wonderfully entertaining blockbuster of a TV show. Now, it seems to have developed much more interesting powers and I await the second series with much anticipation.