Heroes had an iconic trajectory beginning nearly a decade ago on NBC. Punching through the sky not only with someone who could fly, but people endowed with all kinds of intriguing and amazing powers, the series in its first season provided a much needed smash hit for NBC, and pushed Lost of its place as must-see television for those who love science fiction (and that included me). And then the series faltered. Creator Tim Kring famously apologized to fans of Heroes for a season that "sucked". He promised to do better, but the series although it had some excellent moments by and large got worse. And ... well, the last thing we need is another autopsy on what went wrong in Heroes.But as of last night, it turns out that any autopsy would be premature. Heroes lives - it's been "reborn". Will it reach the heights of that fabled first season?
That would be a very difficult task, maybe even requiring someone with truly science fictional heroic powers. The innocence of that first season, of the characters and the audience alike first discovering the challenges and mysteries and joys and dangers and pain of heroic powers can never be recaptured. But, that said, Heroes Reborn has a freshness which I don't recall in the last few seasons of the original series.
There's an excellent stand-alone (at this point) story in Tokyo, featuring Miko and Ren. Miko has some connection to Hiro, in many ways the most important character in the original series - at very least, she has the sword that we last saw in Hiro's possession. Back in the USA, Noah Bennett, at this point the only character from the original series with a leading role in the sequel, is literally thrown into action by an explosion that nearly kills him and apparently (but likely not really) kills Claire, just as the father and daughter were about the reunite after years of separation. This is a piece of the central plot of Heroes Reborn (so far), the attempt by nefarious non-heroic forces (though some of them have superhuman powers) to kill everyone with heroic powers - a continuation of much of what was going on in the concluding seasons of the original series.
But Heroes Reborn is bringing some new heroes onto the stage and into the action. The most appealing, so far, is Tommy, who has a crush on Emily - my favorite of the new characters, because they recapture a lot of the wistful innocence which was so winning in that first, remarkable season of Heroes. Molly - a child in the original series, with the capacity to know where everyone is, a sort of a global GPS in the brain - is back as a young woman (played by a different actress), and promises some good story lines. There's a heavy, bald guy who makes people forget, after saying "a penny for your thoughts" (nice touch) - wait, wasn't that guy also in the original series? - I forget.
Lots of attractive pieces on the table in the two-hour debut of this mini-series last night. I'm glad it's back, and I'm looking forward to more.
See also Heroes Season 4 Premiere: Metaphysics, University, Carnival ...Heroes Meets The L Word in 4.5 ... Heroes 4 Mid-Season Finale ... Heroes Season 4 Resumes ... Heroes 4.15: The Chess Game Continues ... 4.16: The Trial of Hiro ... 4.18: Penultimate ... Heroes Forever
See also reviews of Season 3 Heroes Gets Lost ... Heroes 3 Begins: Best Yet, Riddled with Time Travel and Paradox ... Sylar's Redemption and other Heroes and Villains Mergers ... Costa Nuclear ... Hearts of Gold and the Debased ... Seeing the Future Trumps Time Travel ... Superpowered Chess with Shifting Pieces ... Villains and Backstories ... The Redemption of Sylar ... Thoughts on the Eclipse, Part I ... The Lore of the Comic Book Store ... Hiro's Time Traveling Closure ... Augmented ... Shades of Recalibration ... Baby, Rebel, and Last Fantasy ... All that Shape Changes Remains the Same? ... Season 3 Finale: Hopeful Deceptions
Reviews of Season 2 Heroes: Episode 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7. Heroes Meets 12 Monkeys ... 9. How Immutable Are Fate and Isaac's Futures? ... 10. Penultimate for the Fall ... Heroes 2 Finale: Heroes Who Didn't Survive
And from Season 1: Heroes in Focus ... Heroes Five Years Gone: Triumph of Time Travel and Comics ... Heroes the Hard Part: Only the Pictures Not the Words ... Heroes Landslide: Winnowing and Convergence ... Heroes Volume One Finale
no heroes, but pretty strange
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