Heroes – Season One

Heroes – Season One

OK, first of all I don’t have HD yet and probably will be one of the last to do so. It’s just a question of waiting until the technology is right. (Hey, at least I have an ipod.) Point is I cannot review the HD version of “Heroes” which apparently has some different bonus features. But, then again … I didn’t really watch the bonus features. Lately I’ve come to think a lot of bonus features are kind of lame. Actually, I hate several things about DVDs … the first one is menus … hate menus … the second is non-anamorphic behind the scenes featurettes that last about 4 minutes and talk about nothing … the third thing is … well, let’s face it, we already know where going to buy this crap again.

So, really let’s talk content. The series “Heroes” turned out to be quite a crazy, albeit intermittent ride this last year. I think it off the air more than it was actually on the air, but in the Tivo age that means you can catch up during baseball playoffs or whatever. Re-watching the series in its entirety I was afraid that it wouldn’t hold up as an overall story. Its patchwork attitude seemed to be a bit too much “make it up as you go” but I was impressed that, overall, the series does hold up well. Sure, there are a few massive plot problems that don’t make sense (like what the “company” actually does, did do, who runs it, and why?) and there are many times during the series when a big cliffhanger is set-up only to be put off for a week while we wonder around endlessly with Nicky and Mica or Claire. But, again, it’s all part of a larger picture. When viewed as a whole, the season seems to work. It makes a kind of sense.

Again, as usual, I’ll skip a lot of the plot. You can look that up anywhere. My favorite moments of the series where generally the Hiro and Ando segments – especially “Five Years Gone” and “Landslide.” If someone had said to me ten years ago that there would two major characters on a primetime network show speaking almost exclusively in Japanese, I’d have said they were crazy.



George Takai as Hiro’s father (showing up in the same episode Christopher Eccleston pops up in) was a laugh out loud, “oh, look at his license plate” moment (the plate was the Enterprise registration.) Christopher Eccleston’s appearance seems to elicit the same fan gene response (he says “fantastic” and the word regenerate is used and an episode is called “Run!”) However, both characters become their own after the “geek” homage moment seems to pass. Takai especially redeems himself in “Landslide” during Hiro’s Kensei masters session.

In fact, there isn’t a single character that doesn’t undergo some sort of change. What is a question, however, is how the next season will even … work. It appears some of the cast are dead and the mystery is certainly out of the bag … Can Heroes survive a second season?