Heroes (TV Series) (Blu-ray)

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Adam Monroe (David Anders): The character of Adam Monroe is first introduced in feudal Japan to Hiro as samurai Takezo Kensei. He is an English mercenary for hire that stages raids in order to capitalize on the fear of villagers and make a living from their accepting of him as a warrior. Hiro is first surprised to find out that the man that originally owned his sword is not Japanese, but further surprised when it is revealed that Takezo has the same healing powers as Claire Bennet and that his blood is able to heal the mortally wounded. After Hiro and Takezo split ways from ancient Japan, they are reunited in the future where Takezo is known as Adam Monroe and one of the twelve founders of the Company. He has a prominent role in the finale and has supplanted Sylar as the primary villain who could lead Peter down a deadly path. Anders himself is entertaining, but he is left in a very tight spot that may spell the end of the character.

Video:

The release of the second season of "Heroes" marks the debut of the second season on high definition after the first season had appeared on HD-DVD and DVD before its Blu-ray debut. This time around there is no HD-DVD release to compare against, but "Heroes: Season Two" is an upgrade over the first season in clarity and detail of image. The eleven episodes just look better all the way around. I noticed during a comparison of the DVD to the Blu-ray release that the second season of "Heroes" looked more theatrical than the first season and moved away from having that ´television look.´ This is just one of those things that is hard to pinpoint exactly, but when I watched the first season on disc, I felt as if I was watching something shot for the small screen. With the improved visuals of the second season I felt the Blu-ray release was far superior to both the first season on any format and easily trumped the DVD release.

The image quality itself when not compared to the first season shows that "Heroes" is both detailed and colorful. Mohinder´s facial scruff comes across very clearly with the higher level of detail of this second season and other miniscule details appear very crisp and clean. No edge enhancement is visible and detail is strong during even the darkest moments. Coloring is quite strong as well with the entire range of the rainbow rendered strongly. Flesh tones are natural looking and color saturation is spot on. The source materials and digital transfer are strong as well. "Heroes" is filmed with a minor amount of film grain present from scene to scene, but it is never an annoyance. The Blu-ray transfer is very stable with no visible flaws from the digital transfer or the source materials. This is a pristine looking release that trumps the first season in visuals, but not in quality of the individual episodes in storytelling.

Audio:

The sound quality of "Heroes" is an improvement over the first season as well. All episodes have been upgraded for the Blu-ray release with English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound. Subtitles are included in English, French and Spanish. The show uses all six speakers when the source material allows. Parkman´s ability creates a nice effect and is one example of how sound pans nicely between each of the channels. The large battles in feudal Japan sound quite good and the rare instances of gunfire and explosions are quality in effect and push the .1 LFE channel. Former Prince musicians Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin provide an effective score that is carried through each of the channels and adds depth to the show. Dialogue is ever-so-important for this prime time super hero soap opera and every spoken word is crystal clear. The DTS-HD format allows for some incredible clarity of sound and the Blu-ray release is a slight upgrade over the DVD release, but the show doesn´t have the power to fully push the technology.

Extras:

"Heroes: Season Two" spreads its bonus features across all four discs. Episodes have been shuffled between discs when compared to the DVD release. Instead of three episodes per disc, there are now four. Additionally, the Blu-ray release includes the familiar Universal interactive U-Control content. The two features supported for this release includes Hero Connections – Bios and Picture-in-Picture video commentary that is identical content to the DVD commentary tracks, but with those taking part in the commentary now appearing on-screen. This is a really nice upgrade over the DVD releases and easily makes the Blu-ray a far more valuable purchase. The Hero Connections feature provides pop up graphical windows with additional information on-screen about the heroes shown in the episode. This information is echoed in a stand-alone feature on each disc. The PiP features require Profile 1.1 to function.

The first disc contains the episodes "Four Months Later…," "Lizards," "Kindred" and "The Kindness of Strangers." Video commentaries are provided for each of the four episodes. The first episode features a commentary with Creator/Executive Producer Tim Kring, Co-Executive Producer Jeph Loeb and Series Star Jack Coleman. The second episode contains commentary with Executive Producer Allan Arkush, Series Star Greg Grunberg and Co-Executive Producer Michael Green. Finally, the third episode on the first disc features commentary with Episode Director Paul Edwards, Co-Executive Producer J.J. Philbin and Series Star Zachary Quinto. "The Kindness of Strangers" features Creator/Executive Director Tim Kring and Series Stars Dana Davis and Adrian Pasdar. Kring dominated the discussion and this track was not quite as good as the one he participated in on the first disc. I found the first commentary to be the more important of those with Kring and the man who wears horn rimmed glasses sharing their thoughts on the show and also enjoyed Mr. Grunberg taking part in the second commentary. Fans should enjoy these picture-in-picture tracks immensely.

The first disc also contains some stand along material that does not require additional viewings of the episodes. A pair of Deleted Scenes (4:35) are included for "Four Months Later." The first concerns Ando and Hiro´s father, while the second is titled "Petrellis Don´t Deserve to be Saved." They are interesting to watch. Heroes: Season 2 – A New Beginning (14:40) finds Tim Kring discussing the second season of the popular show and how the first season effected the storyline and production of the second show. My favorite actor on the show, Masi Oka, talks some about his involvement in the show and the tone and finds Hayden Panettiere, Jack Coleman, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Ali Larter, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Zachary Quinto, Milo Ventimiglia, David Anders, Dania Ramirez, Shalim Ortiz, Kristen Bell, Nicholas D´Agosto, Dana Davis and Allan Arkush sharing a brief amount of time each discussing the plot and help promote the second series. While it was interesting, there was far too much information crammed into this short feature to be truly worthwhile.

Moved from the second disc of the DVD release, the first Blu-ray platter also includes Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint (23:48). This is a mock documentary that gives a good amount of backstory to the character of Takezo Kensei and a little samurai history. This was quite fun to watch and should be watched in conjunction with Season Two as White Beard and other characters discussed in the show are detailed here. The first Blu-ray disc a new feature titled Hero Connections – Network. This is an interactive map that has Polaroid pictures of sixteen cast members and shows whether they are connected as family, or have past or present relationships. Additional information is given for each character and this is a nice primer for those not familiar with the first season or the complicated web of relationships between the various characters prominently featured on the show.

The video commentaries on disc two begins with "Fight or Flight" and finds Series Star Greg Grunberg and Executive Producer Greg Beeman chatting about the episode and Grunberg is easily one of my favorite actors on the show and I enjoyed much of what he had to say. "The Line" has Co-Executive Producers Adam Armus & Kay Foster and Series Star Jack Coleman talking about their experiences in making the sixth episode of the shortened season. "Out of Time" tempted me with a listen with the involvement of Episode Director Daniel Attias and Series Star Masi Oka. Perhaps I´ll check out what Hiro has to say at a later date. "Four Months Ago…" features commentary with Series Star Milo Ventimiglia and Executive Producer Greg Beeman. While nobody takes part in more than a couple commentary tracks, I must applaud the Blu-ray releases with providing a large number of cast and crew who took time to record the video commentary tracks.

The stand alone materials on the second Blu-ray are not only longer than those from the first disc, but I found them to be a little more entertaining. The Deleted Scenes are culled from all four episodes, whereas disc one featured excised material from just one episode. "Fight or Flight" has five deleted scenes (6:45). "The Line" finds three deleted scenes (5:06) that were removed from the episode. "Out of Time" contains two deleted scenes (2:41). The second scene contains more Parkman and "Four Months Ago…" is a brief collection of three deleted scenes (3:42). The Drucker Files (8:32) is another mock feature from "Global News Interactive" that discusses a man named Richard Drucker who has some claim of creating the Internet. This was odd, but interesting.

Aside from the different episodes and their deleted scenes, the second disc differs from the DVD in containing the Genetics of a Scene (23:13) feature originally found on the third DVD. This finds Allan Arkush talking about some of the episodes and looking at the making of scenes and providing a little insight from other members of the cast and crew. This was far better than the making-of feature on the first disc and started off with a bang right away as Arkush talked about his Kurosawa influences for the second season as Hiro was in feudal Japan. Hero Connections – Network returns and now updates the information with new characters and nineteen profiles are now shown on the interactive board with Polaroids.

The third Blu-ray continues with more Picture-in-Picture based video commentary tracks. However, unlike the first two platters which each contained four episodes, the third disc possesses just the episodes "Cautionary Tales" and "Truth & Consequences." While reviewing the DVD release I had ceased in listening to all of the commentary tracks, but took the opportunity with the Blu-ray release to revisit the missed tracks and watch them in Picture-in-Picture. "Cautionary Tales" contains commentary with Episode Director Greg Yaitanes and Series Stars Kristen Bell & Ashley Crow. Kristen Bell is a lovely lady and with three participants I was surprised to find this track as one of the harder to sit through, but Kristen Bell is a very lovely lady. "Truth and Consequences" features commentary with Episode Director Adam Kane and Series Star Stephen Tobolowsky. For all those fans out there of Bob, this is the only commentary with the actor and he provides an excellent video commentary.

With the third Blu-ray disc containing just two episodes, Deleted Scenes are provided only for the episode "Cautionary Tales." For this episode there are two deleted scenes (1:25). The chocolate milk scene was funny and the better of the two slim pickings for this disc. The stand alone feature on this third platter is the Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art (2:01). This minor feature is a moving slideshow of some of the paintings by Tim Sale that were used in the second season. Comparing the third disc to the first two is very disappointing, but Hero Connections – Network returns with furious vengeance and ups the number to twenty one total Polaroids on the virtual cork board. There are a lot of yellow strings on this one (which are past relationships).

The fourth and final Blu-ray platter contains just the chapter "Flawless," but the disc makes up for the limited number of chapters with some very nice bonus materials. The final PiP video commentary features Executive Producer Allan Arkush and Composers Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin. Some may remember Wendy and Lisa as part of Prince´s band Revolution back in the "Purple Rain" days. Wendy and Lisa look very different these days, but they give a very nice commentary with a view at how much work is required to create the musical score for each episode of "Heroes" and the work that went into the season finale. I found this one to be a very entertaining video commentary and it seemed like Wendy and Arkush commanded the time with Lisa throwing in a little color commentary. I had missed this track while reviewing the DVD, but was happy to finally sit down and enjoy it with the Blu-ray release.

The bonus features of the final Blu-ray disc begins with the Generations: Alternate Ending (17:58). The alternate ending is the "Powerless" finale´s alternate ending and this is well worth watching! It is an excellent bit of value added content. In this ending, the virus manages to escape and I´m not spoiling anything you won´t find on the box packaging. Inside the Alternate Ending of Generations (10:57) is a discussion regarding the changes from this alternate ending and my opinion is that this was a far more entertaining way of wrapping up the second volume, but the writer´s strike kept the original volume three from us. The DVD had contained a sneak peak of the new season and this is absent from the Blu-ray, but the materials on the Alternate Ending are still the best part of the stand-alone features and even if you watched them on the DVD, they are worth sitting down to a second time.

The features continue after the sorrowful reveal of what could have been had the writer´s strike not shortened the season. Untold Stories (12:13) contains a preview and five acts that show characters which would have been contained in the second half of the second season had it been filmed. Robert Keep survived a sky diving fall without injury and has impenetrable skin. There is a chameleon girl and a very intriguing scene with dead heroes and plenty of blood splatter, including a decapitated Claire. After watching the supplemental material I am more in belief that the writers had a plan to save the series after the slow start, but they were hindered greatly by the strike.

The remaining features are not quite as entertaining as the alternate ending and untold stories. The NBC.com Featurettes (3:46) are three very short vignettes that give alternate views of events from the "Heroes" universe. "Hotel Corinthian Explosion" is a look at the demolition of the hotel from season one. The "Maya Y Alejandro Viral Video" is the longest and shows some nighttime photography and bodies killed by Maya. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles to figure out what is being said. "Nathan and Peter Brooklyn Cam" shows a wide angle view of the finale from the first season as Nathan flies Peter to his explosion. This was a neat scene. Finally, the beloved Hero Connections – Network stops by for a final visit with the same twenty one Polaroids as before, but a little different information surrounding the relationships between the characters.

Closing

I had spent four days reviewing the DVD release of the second season of "Heroes" and now an additional three nights sampling the video commentaries, watching a few episodes and typing up the review for the four disc Blu-ray release. And during this time I missed the first episode of season three and will need to travel to NBC.com to hopefully catch what I missed. Hopefully, the third season will rekindle my enjoyment of the show, but I was disappointed with the second season. I´m reserving hope that the Writer´s Strike and a bout of the Sophomore slump were the primary reasons that "Heroes: Season Two" was the disappointment that I perceive it to be. They expanded Matt Parkman´s role in the show and I enjoy that tremendously and Kristin Bell was a nice addition. After that, "Generations" didn´t really have a lot of positives going for it.

The Blu-ray release contains as many discs as the DVD release and crams eight of the eleven episodes onto the first two discs with the third disc being vary sparse in content. The fourth and final platter is dedicated entirely to the season finale and also contains the best supplements. The Blu-ray packaging makes the same mistake in spoiling the alternate ending, but it is still the best bonus materials of the release. The Blu-ray upgrades the DVD by including video commentary tracks in place of the audio commentary tracks and the "Hero Connections" pop-ups and interactive cork board. Video quality is improved over the DVD release and shows that "Generations" clearly was a visual upgrade over the first season. The sound is improved as well, but only marginally over the DVD release. While the season three preview is missing, the Blu-ray release is the superior box set for fans of the show looking to own the second season.

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