TV Series Review: Heroes

 

++WARNING, there will be some spoilers from throughout the series in my review.++

Heroes was a show that aired on NBC from 2007 to 2010 (during its original airing) and had a true ensemble cast. The cast was made up of relatively unknown actors (at least when the series started) and the series served as the launching pad for the careers of cast members like Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, and Zachary Quinto. It did have some recognizable, but not superstar actors and actresses such as Greg Grunberg and Ali Larter. There was no superstar actor that everyone would recognize in the cast so the writers had to balance the storylines to involve all of the main cast members. As a result, there were always multiple storylines going on, and it was truly a show that you had to watch from the beginning to really understand what was happening.

The first and second seasons were very very good. The first season was excellent, and like nothing that had been on TV. You knew from the first episode what the characters were going to try to prevent, but there was no way of knowing how it was going to get there. Because of the time travel aspect, the story came in bits and pieces and sometimes out of order. They did not reveal too much about each character too soon. We never got to see Sylar (the main antagonist) until midway through the season, and HRG's (or as we would come to know him Noah Bennet) past and motivations were kept hidden until almost the end of the first season.

I think the series had a clear goal of where it was going in the first and second seasons. You could tell that it was meticulously planned out. However the writer's strike ended the second season midway through, and it had to be cut short. After that, there were some stories from that season that were just abandoned entirely, and I thought those should have been wrapped up before proceeding how they did. It felt like after the strike the writers never had a clear plan for the show. I did not like how the third season made Nathan into a villain. He had always had a grey moral compass, but it seemed that had gone away at the end of the first season and with the second. But then he did a complete 180 (almost anyway) then they decided to try to make him likable again by giving the impression that he was just in over his head.

I think the 4th season actually wrapped the series up very well. While it was not intended to be the end of the show (it was not canceled until after the season had ended), it tied up everyone's stories and left a lot to your own imagination. The reason I think the show declined, is that while the main "big" storylines changed every season, the individual stories within that got very repetitive. They kept too many characters around for too long and kept the characters going through the same conflicts and experiences over and over. While this did change somewhat by the 4th season, I think too many people had abandoned the show by then.

I definitely think it is better to see the series all at once. The stories do tend to flow a little better than when there were months between seasons. Plus it is just easier to follow with all the time jumps, flash-backs, and character arcs. If you were a fan of the show, it is definitely worth adding to your collection. The series looks great on blu ray, and there are a lot of entertaining extras.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Heroes Reborn: Event Series

 

+++Warning, this contains spoiler's from the final season of the original run of Heroes, but no major spoilers from Reborn+++

Heroes Reborn is a thirteen-episode miniseries that aired in 2015. It was a continuation of the original series Heroes, which aired from 2006-2010. Heroes was always a cult show, even though it aired on NBC. It predated the Marvel Cinematic Universe of movies that, arguably, brought the superhero genre into the mainstream by a couple of years. The first season of Heroes was nearly flawless, but the subsequent seasons had a lot of ups and downs and could not recapture the magic of the first season.

While the season is a continuation of the original series, it is not really a season 5. The series picks up after the real-world five-year time period between the end of season 4, in which Claire Bennett (played by Hayden Panettiere) exposed the Heroes, now known as "Evolved Humans" or "Evos" to the world, and a year after a terrorist attack at an event meant to bring Evos and humans together in Odessa, Texas. As in the original series, there are a bunch of individual storylines that cross over with each other at different points. The major storyline involves the shift in Earth's magnetic poles, and a plot to use the fact that Earth is vulnerable to solar radiation during that time. One of the best storylines involves Zachary Levi (from the great series Chuck) whose life was altered by the terrorist attack and who is hunting Evos. The show is mostly made up of new cast members, however, members of the original cast do appear throughout the series, including Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), The Haitian René (Jimmy Jean-Louis), Angela Petrelli (Christine Rose), Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey), and Molly Walker (recast by Francesca Eastwood). The only main original series character who was a main character in this series is Noah Bennett, played by Jack Coleman. Notably, original series cast members like Milo Anthony Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Ali Larter, and Adrian Pasdar did not return for the series, and Hayden Panettiere (who was starring in the series Nashville) was only shown in flashback clips.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the series looks and sounds great in HD, and the special effects are very well done and are seamlessly integrated with the practical shots. The extras include deleted scenes, a 10-minute long making-of featurette, and 42 minutes worth of prequel webisodes which bridges some of the gap in time between the original series and the event series. While the series event does provide the show with a bit better ending than the original run of the series got, it still suffered with some of what plagued the original series' later seasons. Specifically, trying to be clever with the twists and turns and just having one or two big twists. And, of course, introducing a bunch of new characters into an established world is always hard, but that was made easier by the fact that Noah Bennett was front and center of almost everything. So, even though it is not as great as the first season of the original show was, it is definitely worth watching and will probably give you a more satisfying end since it was not written with the expectation that there might be another season, as the ending of season four was.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Heroes: Season 4

 

Heroes started out great, with an almost perfect first season that seemed like it was planned from beginning to end. It did have a few missteps along the way, but they were covered up by all it did right. Unfortunately, the show was never able to recapture that success and each season just went downhill, partly because I think the showrunners were always trying to hedge for a new season instead of just telling a solid story and letting everything else play out.

Try as it might to blend the separate storylines successfully as it did in season one, the show never managed to do that this season never really did that. There was a"big bad", played very well by the brilliant Robert Knepper, and the show tried to set up the sense of a big team up to take him down, but it just did not work as well as in the first season. And, the show still could not get the is Sylar a good guy or a bad guy thing straight. I think it would have been much better if the writers had picked one and stuck with it. Also, doing a hard reset at the beginning of every season and just kind of brushing off what happened in the prior season does not work any better this season than it did in seasons 2-3. And, the writers seem to have a harder time juggling the ensemble cast as characters have little or nothing to do for large chunks of time. That said, there are some good elements to the stories this season, the big one being Noah (Jack Coleman) facing consequences for his past actions

The Blu-Ray set has a good amount of extras, but not as much as there had been in the prior season releases. They include about 45 minutes of deleted scenes, a short series retrospective with the series creator, Tim Kring, a twenty-minute featurette on the character of Sylar, a feature on how some of the more effects-heavy scenes were made, and then a few behind-the-scenes featurettes. There are also video commentaries on select episodes and every episode allows for u-control integration of the Heroes Connections feature that will pop up character bios and explain how various characters are connected.

Overall, the season is okay, but seasons 2 and 3, did not replicate the greatness of season one. It does set up the possibility of another season in the finale, however, the show was canceled after the fourth season, and so the ramifications of the finale would not play out until the limited event series, Heroes Reborn, was made six years later with only part of the cast returning.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Heroes: Season 3

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season 2, but no major season three giveaways+++

The third season of Heroes returns the show to a full season after the writer's strike ended the mess that was season 2 early. The season is split into two volumes, one titled Villians and the other titled Fugitives. The first half of the season involves the fallout from the assassination attempt on Nathan. We find out who tried to kill him, and why, and much of the first half of the season revolves around that plot. The other major plot point of the first half of the season is a bunch of villains escaping from the company, and joining up to try and give everyone powers. The second half of the season involves a government effort, spearheaded by Nathan to round up people with powers.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, there are a ton of extras. All 25 episodes get picture-in-picture commentary tracks that have members of the production team and/or members of the cast providing the commentary. There are just under 40-minutes of deleted scenes, and six behind-the-scenes featurettes that cover multiple elements of the season, and range from 6-minutes to 20-minutes in length. Finally, there are a series of alternate stories that involve some of the more minor characters from the season. They are basically three webisodes that run a combined 46 minutes in length. Then there are character bios and a couple of small promo items. So, if you like bonus material, there is a lot there for you.

As my headline says, the season is better than the second but not as good as the first. Some of the new cast additions like Brea Grant and Željko Ivanek were great. Some of the plot points like Sylar trying to figure out if he wanted to be a good guy or a bad guy did get a bit tedious. Also, there are definitely recycled plot points that just get eye roll-inducing because of being a bit too predictable. Personally, I think the show would have been better served to stick with one "big bad" that must be brought down rather than trying to reboot the series with each volume. So, overall, while it is not perfect, I do think the season is worth watching and the blu-ray is a great pick-up for those who love a lot of bonus content.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Heroes: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season one, but no major season two giveawyas+++

The second season of Heroes ended up being a bit of a mess, in large part because of the writer's strike that occurred that season, causing many of the planned storylines to be thrown out and never followed up on (in large part because of negative fan response). As a result, the season ended up being just 11 episodes, and kind of bounced all over the place in terms of the story. The season picks up four months after the battle with Sylar, stopping him from killing the cheerleader and saving the world. The story bounces between feudal Japan, the present, and the future, but unlike the first season storylines, it never felt, really until the very end, that any common theme or purpose was tying them together. And, by the time that started to be fleshed out, the season ended because of the strike. Hence, the series started to lose viewers, which continued until its cancellation after season four.

Even though the storylines were not as good as in the first season, which was, in my opinion, one of the best seasons of a tv series ever, the acting continued to be strong. The main cast, including Milo Ventimiglia, Jack Coleman, Masi Oka, Greg Grunberg, Adrian Pasdar, Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, and Sendhil Ramamurthy all returned. As does Zachary Quinto, and some of the season one recurring characters. The main additions to the cast this season are David Anders (from Alias), Kristen Bell, and Dania Ramirez. Christine Rose also came on as Nathan and Peter's mother Angela and pretty much stole every scene she was in. Her involvement was not huge in season two, but it would be increased in the subsequent seasons.

For extras, there are commentary tracks on each episode, a bunch of u-control features that allow for PiP viewing, and getting summaries of character arcs. There are deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes featurettes on each of the four discs. So, there is a lot of material if you want to watch it. The commentaries generally rotate members of the cast and crew and some include the series creator Tim Kring. They range in quality and tone but are generally good if you like listening to them.

Overall, the season is not as bad as it gets hammered for being, but not as good as the first season. Some of the problems with the season stories were within the writer's control and some most definitely were not. That said, I do believe that it is worth watching if you temper your expectations.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Heroes: Season 1

 

In 2006 the phrase "Save the Cheerleader" was as popular as the question "Who Killed Laura Palmer" was in 1990. That phrase basically kicked off what was one of the best, and most iconic shows in recent history. You could really consider it to be an "it" show of the season, meaning it was the show that everyone talked about after every episode. The plot of the series boils down to ordinary people discovering extraordinary superpowers after a solar eclipse reveals them, and how these abilities affect the characters' daily lives.

While not itself a comic book adaptation, the series was basically written like a comic book, with each season having one or more volumes in which part of the story plays out, and there are several main storylines in each volume. As the main plots develop, smaller sub-stories are told within them. Each main character's story is developed separately and as time passes their paths cross and it is explained how their stories are intertwined and connected.

The series starred Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli, Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet, Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura, Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli, Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh, Ali Larter as Nikki Sanders, Jack Coleman, who was initially a mysterious recurring character whom many called HRG because he wore horn-rimmed glasses and then midway through the season we find out exactly who he is.

The large story that gets intertwined was around saving the Cheerleader, played by Panettiere from a shadowy character known as Sylar who has been going across the country finding and killing superpowered people. The show builds up that story slowly throughout the season and reveals more elements of the overall story with each episode. The plot jumps back and forth between the present, the past, and the future (since one of the characters has the ability to travel through time) and so even within single episodes the show can take drastic turns in style and tone.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the show looks and sounds great. Obviously, it is an effects-laden show and you can tell it had a substantial effects budget. The A/V quality is wonderful and the effects look as good as they do in any movie. There are a ton of extras including commentary tracks, which include picture-in-picture pop-ups, deleted scenes, artwork, and several making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes. So if you like bonus materials, there is a ton of stuff (multiple hours) here to keep you occupied.

While the quality of the show did go down in subsequent seasons, this season was nearly perfect. The writing and acting were top-notch, the pacing of the story was perfect and the show intertwined the various storylines in a way that all members of the large ensemble cast were given great material. The show had a lot of twists and turns and they all worked (which is rare). The show also had a very strong recurring and guest cast including James Kyson Lee, Zachary Quinto, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Christopher Eccleston, Clea DuVall, Missy Peregrym, Eric Roberts, Rena Sofer, and Malcolm McDowell. Overall, if you are a fan of the sci-fi genre, this is definitely one you want to check out.