...a top-notch box set and an excellent addition to anybody’s growing library of high definition offerings.
Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey): Micah is the son of Nikki and D.L. and is a child prodigy. Micah has an uncanny ability to rebuild and repair technology. His intelligence is exceptional and although his grades are desired by the private school he is initially enrolled in, his mother does not make enough money to keep him there. Micah´s parents believe that they were experimented on by Mr. Linderman and that Micah is perhaps the result of those experiments. Aside from a laptop, Micah is able to fix telephones and other mechanical devices. Although the show does not exhibit other abilities or aspects afforded to Micah by his intelligence, he may be capable of even greater things that what have been revealed. I have to give some credit to young actor Noah Gray-Cabey. Hopefully, the second season will make his character a little more interesting.
Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera): Isaac is an artist and a comic book writer that has the ability to detail the future through his works when he is under the influence of drugs. The comic book that leads Hiro on his quest came from Isaac. Paintings showing horrific events from around the world litter his studio. Isaac painted the picture of a New York City involved in a cataclysmic explosion and he painted a picture of Claire in peril. Isaac loves Simone, but his powers and drug addiction are troublesome. He views Peter as a rival for those affections, but works with the fellow hero to thwart the destruction of New York City and to save Claire from Sylar. Isaac is confronted by Hiro as well and eventually comes face-to-face with the villainous Sylar. Isaac was an intriguing character and I felt that Cabrera did a solid job of crafting a performance of a man with the torments and problems of Isaac.
Sylar (Zachary Quinto): Sylar begins his existence as Gabriel Gray, a talented watchmaker. He has lived a normal life, but has always strived to be something special. He is the first subject studied by DNA and Evolutionary scientist Chandra Suresh (Erick Avari). Suresh cannot find anything special with Sylar and gives up researching him. This angers Sylar and sends him on a spree where he kills those confirmed with powers from a stolen list and digests and masters their abilities. This reveals Sylar´s ´special´ ability and he continues to grow stronger and stronger as he kills more and more heroes. He is stopped by Peter Petrelli when he attempts to kill Claire. This sets in motion the events that make Sylar and Peter the good and evil rivals with similar abilities. Zachary Quinto is someone I feel will be a star. He has already secured a role as the next Mr. Spock in an upcoming "Star Trek" movie. His performance as Sylar is understated brilliance. After Matt Parker and Peter Petrelli, Sylar is perhaps my third favorite character of the show.
Video:
"Heroes" arrives in high definition and is only the second show I have had the privilege to watch on a high definition format. I have "Sopranos: Season Six: Part One" on Blu-ray, but this is my first show to be contained on HD-DVD. As television is slowly making the transition to HDTV, more and more shows are being formatted for 1080 friendly releases. "Heroes" is one of these shows and I must say that I was generally pleased with how the HD-DVD set looks. Disc-based high definition is an improvement over broadcast HD. You don´t get the pixilation and other bandwidth and noise based problems that you get with broadcast. At least, I find all types of motion artifacts and whatnot with Comcast Digital HDTV. Your results may vary, but I´m very pleased with how "Heroes" looks on the next-generation format.
Universal has released the show with a pristine 1.78:1/VC-1 transfer. The supplements and deleted scenes were not contained in high definition, but each episode and the show´s uncut pilot were all in glorious high definition. The show is a very nicely shot picture and although I don´t feel it is nearly as visually stunning as my beloved "Lost," it is among the better looking shows on television. About the only complaint with the visuals for the show is that high definition has a way of betraying budget-consciencous special effects shots. Regardless, "Heroes" is shot with enough detail and sufficient photography that the series can rival any number of more expensive Hollywood films and the show bests not just catalog releases on the HD-DVD format, but a few of the newer releases. I won´t point any fingers in this review, but the inferior HD-DVD releases know who they are. Don´t you "Norbit?"
The technical aspects of the release are solid. The colors are nicely saturated and come across effectively for each of the twenty three episodes. The reds of Claire´s cheerleader outfit nicely compare to the green grass under Hiro´s feet as he gazes into the sky and the show´s iconic solar eclipse. Each character exhibits natural skin coloring and this is holds up strongly regardless of the lighting Ali Larter is being shot in. The contrast and black levels of the show are strong as well. I did notice a few minor instances where the blacks could have been deeper, but I´m not going to get to fussy with a television show. Detail is very strong and a few of the exterior shots were especially nicely rendered in high definition. There are instances when the detail starts to revert back to looking like a DVD, but I chalk this up to the show being filmed for television and not the big screen. Every television show has these ´soft´ scenes and this one is no exception. When I sit down with "Lost" on Blu-ray, I expect to see much of the same behavior. For the time being, "Heroes" is the best looking show on high definition and easily bests the "Sopranos."
Sound:
One thing I never expect much out of is the soundtrack of a television show. Although "Heroes" has been delivered with a decent Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the show is not very groundbreaking or earth shattering in its sonic capabilities. Much of this is in the sound design elements of the show. For one, television tends to have a flatter range and vocals that are more in-line with the volume level of everything else that is happening. Most viewers watch a show through their television speakers and this doesn´t translate to a full Dolby Digital experience and shows need to be created to satisfy the general populace and not just those of us with capable and ready home theater setups.
That being said, "Heroes" is technically sound in the sound department. The show is primarily dialogue based and except for the finale, there is not a ton of action that takes place in the show. This is one of my gripes that I forgot to point out in my main review; "Heroes" is more drama than adventure. The "X-Files" had more action and "Lost" certainly has more action. However, aside from the random flight of a Petrelli brother or the sound of a subway car, there is not a lot of action to allow the Dolby Digital soundtrack of "Heroes" to possess much life. The show´s score is robust for a television production and very pleasing. The music spent more time in the rear channels than any of the sound effects. In general, the show´s sound is handled by the front three speakers. The center channel effectively contains and delivers the show´s all-important dialogue and it does it with aplomb. The rears do get used and there are a number of effects that populate them, but the surround channels seem to be used to get an audience´s attention and to not simply add to the listening experience. The .1 LFE channel is not used much at all. I heard a few rumbles, but the subwoofer had a relatively easy time during my watching of the show.
Extras:
Disc 1
"Genesis" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (6:42)
"Don´t Look Back" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (3:39)
Unaired Pilot: The Tim Kring Cut (75:40)
- Optional Commentary w/ Tim Kring
Disc 2
"One Giant Leap" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (4:17)
"Collision" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (:52)
"Hiros" - Artwork, Character, Scenes (2:34)
"Better Halves" - Artwork, Connections
Disc 3:
"Nothing to Hide" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (9:36)
"Seven Minutes to Midnight" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (2:53)
"Homecoming" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (:59)
"Six Months Ago" - Connections, Scenes (2:31)
Disc 4:
"Fallout" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (1:45)
"Godsend" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (1:53)
"The Fix" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (1:19)
"Distractions" - PiP, Artwork, Character Connections, Helix, Scenes (2:14)
Disc 5:
"Run!" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (3:25)
"Unexpected" - PiP, Artwork, Connections
"Company Man" - PiP, Connections, Helix, Scenes (1:47)
"Parasite" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix , Scenes (:46)
Disc 6:
".07%" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Deleted Scenes (:29)
"Five Years Gone" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Scenes (:42)
"The Hard Part" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix
"Landslide" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (:53)
Disc 7:
"How to Stop an Exploding Man" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix
Making Of (9:59)
Special Effects (8:44)
The Stunts (10:21)
Profile of Artist Tim Sale (11:25)
The Score (8:57)
The HD-DVD release of "Heroes" finds itself onto seven discs. The release is noteworthy because of its inclusion of web based content and its strong support of Universal´s I-HD functionality, U-Control. While "Heroes" may not be jam packed with a ton of extra content beyond the U-Control and the Deleted Scenes, the sheer amount of time it will take you to sit through all of the additional offerings is mindboggling. It takes long enough to sit through an entire show, but to do it again with different U-Control settings is another twenty four hours of value from this relatively pricey set. Universal deserves credit for getting the most out of the HD-DVD format and this release certainly delivers a nice jab towards Blu-ray, which is having great difficulty in finalizing their Java support.
The U-Control support is the real meat and potatoes of this release. Four different flavors are supporting with this release. The first three discs only contain support for the "Artwork Presentation," "Character Connections" and "Helix Revealed" aspects of the interactive experience. The "Artwork Presentation" was very interesting and pushed HD-DVD´s capabilities by allowing the viewer to take an up close and personal look at Isaac´s paintings. The "Character Connections" feature built a chart detailing how each character related to each other. The "Lost" DVDs had something not quite as interesting on their discs, and I give this usage of HD-DVD technology the thumbs up. The "Helix Revealed" feature was very ho-hum and the weakest of the offerings through U-Control. This allowed the viewer to simply have the Helix symbol pointed out whenever it was on screen. I had found nearly every one of them on my own and this didn´t offer much. The fourth disc begins the fourth portion of the U-Control. Universal has consistently done a very good job with the picture-in-picture video commentaries and "Heroes" is easily among the best they´ve done yet. I found this informative and interesting and none of this information seemed to be repeated on disc seven.
The interactive and online content is relatively sparse after a few days of release of the "Heroes" Season One box set. As of the time of this review, downloads existed for "Heroes Volume 2: Sneak Peak", "Evan Almighty," "Knocked Up," "Talk To Me," and "White Noise 2." This is a nice feature and brings the Internet to your HD-DVD player, but even after registering online via a PC, I still had to re-enter all of my information on the HD-A1 player through its slow and cumbersome remote support. Granted, I ditched using the factory remote quite some time ago in favor of a Logitech Harmony remote, but this was still painful. Sadly, the HD-A1 does not have a lot of solid state memory and I nearly filled it up by downloading everything available. The supplied Genetic Abilities Test uploads a user profile to the NBC.com web site. Some special content does unlock on the NBC site after taking the test, but it was nothing overwhelming. Everything works as advertised, although I should have tested the USB connectors and a keyboard on my HD-A1 unit.
After the U-Control and interactive features, a few other items are spread across the various platters that make up the "Heroes" box set. The most noteworthy of these pieces of value added content is the unaired pilot for the show. This longer vision of the show´s beginning finds a few new characters and one of my favorites, Matt Parkman, introduced much earlier. Matt had a different wife in this unaired pilot and he hoped to be a SWAT officer and not a detective. A different ´Hero´ was introduced, one very similar to a character later introduced in the series. A few other minor subplots were also included, as well as some further fleshing out of Claire. I enjoyed the unaired pilot and felt it was a great supplement. The second HD-30 disc features the access portal to the "Download Center," as well as the "Genetic Abilities Test." This is essentially the online content of the set. One disc, but still nice. The fifth disc features a fairly lame little game where Matt Parkman guesses a number and a hero you picked. While cute for about three tries, it quickly tired. I love the Parkman character, but didn´t enjoy this feature. Each of the discs contains a number of deleted scenes. Not every episode contains a deleted scene, but there are roughly fifty of them and it takes some amount of time if you were to sit down and try to watch them after viewing the entire series. Some of these scenes were very nice and I didn´t think I saw more than one that was forgettable.
The final disc contains the show´s season finale and the ´Making Of´ video features. The five video features contained on this disc ran for about fifty minutes total. The first detailed a quick overview on the making of the show. This was a ten thousand foot view, but did contain a few nice nuggets of information. The second feature was on the special effects and looked at the cataclysmic scene from the finale, as well as some other character based effects created for the show. This was perhaps the best of the materials on the final disc. A feature looks at the stunts and how the various characters handled their stunts. Tim Sale, who painted the artwork associated with the character Isaac discusses his work on the show and a quartet of persons talks about the show´s score. I have to admit that I was hoping for a little more on disc seven, but this was a nice little collection of features to detail the makings of the show. After I completed watching these fairly short videos, I was relieved that it was over. A week of my time was dedicated to this box set after my usual forty hour job.
Closing Comments:
"Heroes" did not interest me when it debuted on NBC. Then, after the cheerleader was saved and the world was secure, the show grew on me a bit and I powerwatched the first eleven episodes. I followed the show for about two months, but then lost touch again. I caught back up, but missed the final number of episodes. With the HD-DVD release of "Heroes," I´ve been pulled back into the fancase. I still hold "Lost" close to my heart and consider this an admirable runner up to pass my time until Jack and Locke return next year. For me, "Heroes" is to "Lost" as Creed is to Pearl Jam. I liked Creed, but they kept me busy between releases from Eddie Vedder and company. The show is entertaining and its comic book style allows its audience to have answers on a weekly basis. That helps and hinders the show, as I explained in the main portion of this review. The show could use some improvement to become an absolutely amazing show, but for now it borders between being good and great. From somebody who generally loathes television, I suppose this is a huge compliment.
The HD-DVD release is groundbreaking. First of all, Universal has made use of the little CAT-5 cable that is connected to the rear of m HD-A1 player. I had previously used my network connection to upgrade my firmware, but now I have another use for it. Granted, the usage is somewhat minimal, but I will be following the download section for this release and see if it gets a little support in the coming months. Warner Bros. did beat out Universal with "300" and its online features, which included a shopping site and whatnot, but I´ve yet to secure a copy of that title. For a television show to be one of the first titles with online support, that is pretty damn spiffy. The release also uses Universal´s U-Control extensively and in new and interesting ways. I had expected to pound out this review in about five nights, but the U-Control added another three days to my time to sit down and just enjoy the feature. The remaining supplements are also nice and the inclusion of a longer version of the pilot is definitely commendable. The video of this high definition release is as good as I´ve yet to see a television show, but the sound is limited because of the nature of the production. All-in-all, this is the classiest box set of a television show I have yet to see. It is a shame that "Lost" won´t be on Blu-ray. I´d love to see what a "U-Control" type of supplement could do for that release. In a quick sentence: "Heroes" is a top-notch box set and an excellent addition to anybody´s growing library of high definition offerings.
Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera): Isaac is an artist and a comic book writer that has the ability to detail the future through his works when he is under the influence of drugs. The comic book that leads Hiro on his quest came from Isaac. Paintings showing horrific events from around the world litter his studio. Isaac painted the picture of a New York City involved in a cataclysmic explosion and he painted a picture of Claire in peril. Isaac loves Simone, but his powers and drug addiction are troublesome. He views Peter as a rival for those affections, but works with the fellow hero to thwart the destruction of New York City and to save Claire from Sylar. Isaac is confronted by Hiro as well and eventually comes face-to-face with the villainous Sylar. Isaac was an intriguing character and I felt that Cabrera did a solid job of crafting a performance of a man with the torments and problems of Isaac.
Sylar (Zachary Quinto): Sylar begins his existence as Gabriel Gray, a talented watchmaker. He has lived a normal life, but has always strived to be something special. He is the first subject studied by DNA and Evolutionary scientist Chandra Suresh (Erick Avari). Suresh cannot find anything special with Sylar and gives up researching him. This angers Sylar and sends him on a spree where he kills those confirmed with powers from a stolen list and digests and masters their abilities. This reveals Sylar´s ´special´ ability and he continues to grow stronger and stronger as he kills more and more heroes. He is stopped by Peter Petrelli when he attempts to kill Claire. This sets in motion the events that make Sylar and Peter the good and evil rivals with similar abilities. Zachary Quinto is someone I feel will be a star. He has already secured a role as the next Mr. Spock in an upcoming "Star Trek" movie. His performance as Sylar is understated brilliance. After Matt Parker and Peter Petrelli, Sylar is perhaps my third favorite character of the show.
Video:
"Heroes" arrives in high definition and is only the second show I have had the privilege to watch on a high definition format. I have "Sopranos: Season Six: Part One" on Blu-ray, but this is my first show to be contained on HD-DVD. As television is slowly making the transition to HDTV, more and more shows are being formatted for 1080 friendly releases. "Heroes" is one of these shows and I must say that I was generally pleased with how the HD-DVD set looks. Disc-based high definition is an improvement over broadcast HD. You don´t get the pixilation and other bandwidth and noise based problems that you get with broadcast. At least, I find all types of motion artifacts and whatnot with Comcast Digital HDTV. Your results may vary, but I´m very pleased with how "Heroes" looks on the next-generation format.
Universal has released the show with a pristine 1.78:1/VC-1 transfer. The supplements and deleted scenes were not contained in high definition, but each episode and the show´s uncut pilot were all in glorious high definition. The show is a very nicely shot picture and although I don´t feel it is nearly as visually stunning as my beloved "Lost," it is among the better looking shows on television. About the only complaint with the visuals for the show is that high definition has a way of betraying budget-consciencous special effects shots. Regardless, "Heroes" is shot with enough detail and sufficient photography that the series can rival any number of more expensive Hollywood films and the show bests not just catalog releases on the HD-DVD format, but a few of the newer releases. I won´t point any fingers in this review, but the inferior HD-DVD releases know who they are. Don´t you "Norbit?"
The technical aspects of the release are solid. The colors are nicely saturated and come across effectively for each of the twenty three episodes. The reds of Claire´s cheerleader outfit nicely compare to the green grass under Hiro´s feet as he gazes into the sky and the show´s iconic solar eclipse. Each character exhibits natural skin coloring and this is holds up strongly regardless of the lighting Ali Larter is being shot in. The contrast and black levels of the show are strong as well. I did notice a few minor instances where the blacks could have been deeper, but I´m not going to get to fussy with a television show. Detail is very strong and a few of the exterior shots were especially nicely rendered in high definition. There are instances when the detail starts to revert back to looking like a DVD, but I chalk this up to the show being filmed for television and not the big screen. Every television show has these ´soft´ scenes and this one is no exception. When I sit down with "Lost" on Blu-ray, I expect to see much of the same behavior. For the time being, "Heroes" is the best looking show on high definition and easily bests the "Sopranos."
Sound:
One thing I never expect much out of is the soundtrack of a television show. Although "Heroes" has been delivered with a decent Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the show is not very groundbreaking or earth shattering in its sonic capabilities. Much of this is in the sound design elements of the show. For one, television tends to have a flatter range and vocals that are more in-line with the volume level of everything else that is happening. Most viewers watch a show through their television speakers and this doesn´t translate to a full Dolby Digital experience and shows need to be created to satisfy the general populace and not just those of us with capable and ready home theater setups.
That being said, "Heroes" is technically sound in the sound department. The show is primarily dialogue based and except for the finale, there is not a ton of action that takes place in the show. This is one of my gripes that I forgot to point out in my main review; "Heroes" is more drama than adventure. The "X-Files" had more action and "Lost" certainly has more action. However, aside from the random flight of a Petrelli brother or the sound of a subway car, there is not a lot of action to allow the Dolby Digital soundtrack of "Heroes" to possess much life. The show´s score is robust for a television production and very pleasing. The music spent more time in the rear channels than any of the sound effects. In general, the show´s sound is handled by the front three speakers. The center channel effectively contains and delivers the show´s all-important dialogue and it does it with aplomb. The rears do get used and there are a number of effects that populate them, but the surround channels seem to be used to get an audience´s attention and to not simply add to the listening experience. The .1 LFE channel is not used much at all. I heard a few rumbles, but the subwoofer had a relatively easy time during my watching of the show.
Extras:
Disc 1
"Genesis" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (6:42)
"Don´t Look Back" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (3:39)
Unaired Pilot: The Tim Kring Cut (75:40)
- Optional Commentary w/ Tim Kring
Disc 2
"One Giant Leap" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (4:17)
"Collision" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (:52)
"Hiros" - Artwork, Character, Scenes (2:34)
"Better Halves" - Artwork, Connections
Disc 3:
"Nothing to Hide" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (9:36)
"Seven Minutes to Midnight" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (2:53)
"Homecoming" - Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (:59)
"Six Months Ago" - Connections, Scenes (2:31)
Disc 4:
"Fallout" - Artwork, Connections, Scenes (1:45)
"Godsend" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix, Scenes (1:53)
"The Fix" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (1:19)
"Distractions" - PiP, Artwork, Character Connections, Helix, Scenes (2:14)
Disc 5:
"Run!" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (3:25)
"Unexpected" - PiP, Artwork, Connections
"Company Man" - PiP, Connections, Helix, Scenes (1:47)
"Parasite" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix , Scenes (:46)
Disc 6:
".07%" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Deleted Scenes (:29)
"Five Years Gone" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Scenes (:42)
"The Hard Part" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix
"Landslide" - PiP, Connections, Scenes (:53)
Disc 7:
"How to Stop an Exploding Man" - PiP, Artwork, Connections, Helix
Making Of (9:59)
Special Effects (8:44)
The Stunts (10:21)
Profile of Artist Tim Sale (11:25)
The Score (8:57)
The HD-DVD release of "Heroes" finds itself onto seven discs. The release is noteworthy because of its inclusion of web based content and its strong support of Universal´s I-HD functionality, U-Control. While "Heroes" may not be jam packed with a ton of extra content beyond the U-Control and the Deleted Scenes, the sheer amount of time it will take you to sit through all of the additional offerings is mindboggling. It takes long enough to sit through an entire show, but to do it again with different U-Control settings is another twenty four hours of value from this relatively pricey set. Universal deserves credit for getting the most out of the HD-DVD format and this release certainly delivers a nice jab towards Blu-ray, which is having great difficulty in finalizing their Java support.
The U-Control support is the real meat and potatoes of this release. Four different flavors are supporting with this release. The first three discs only contain support for the "Artwork Presentation," "Character Connections" and "Helix Revealed" aspects of the interactive experience. The "Artwork Presentation" was very interesting and pushed HD-DVD´s capabilities by allowing the viewer to take an up close and personal look at Isaac´s paintings. The "Character Connections" feature built a chart detailing how each character related to each other. The "Lost" DVDs had something not quite as interesting on their discs, and I give this usage of HD-DVD technology the thumbs up. The "Helix Revealed" feature was very ho-hum and the weakest of the offerings through U-Control. This allowed the viewer to simply have the Helix symbol pointed out whenever it was on screen. I had found nearly every one of them on my own and this didn´t offer much. The fourth disc begins the fourth portion of the U-Control. Universal has consistently done a very good job with the picture-in-picture video commentaries and "Heroes" is easily among the best they´ve done yet. I found this informative and interesting and none of this information seemed to be repeated on disc seven.
The interactive and online content is relatively sparse after a few days of release of the "Heroes" Season One box set. As of the time of this review, downloads existed for "Heroes Volume 2: Sneak Peak", "Evan Almighty," "Knocked Up," "Talk To Me," and "White Noise 2." This is a nice feature and brings the Internet to your HD-DVD player, but even after registering online via a PC, I still had to re-enter all of my information on the HD-A1 player through its slow and cumbersome remote support. Granted, I ditched using the factory remote quite some time ago in favor of a Logitech Harmony remote, but this was still painful. Sadly, the HD-A1 does not have a lot of solid state memory and I nearly filled it up by downloading everything available. The supplied Genetic Abilities Test uploads a user profile to the NBC.com web site. Some special content does unlock on the NBC site after taking the test, but it was nothing overwhelming. Everything works as advertised, although I should have tested the USB connectors and a keyboard on my HD-A1 unit.
After the U-Control and interactive features, a few other items are spread across the various platters that make up the "Heroes" box set. The most noteworthy of these pieces of value added content is the unaired pilot for the show. This longer vision of the show´s beginning finds a few new characters and one of my favorites, Matt Parkman, introduced much earlier. Matt had a different wife in this unaired pilot and he hoped to be a SWAT officer and not a detective. A different ´Hero´ was introduced, one very similar to a character later introduced in the series. A few other minor subplots were also included, as well as some further fleshing out of Claire. I enjoyed the unaired pilot and felt it was a great supplement. The second HD-30 disc features the access portal to the "Download Center," as well as the "Genetic Abilities Test." This is essentially the online content of the set. One disc, but still nice. The fifth disc features a fairly lame little game where Matt Parkman guesses a number and a hero you picked. While cute for about three tries, it quickly tired. I love the Parkman character, but didn´t enjoy this feature. Each of the discs contains a number of deleted scenes. Not every episode contains a deleted scene, but there are roughly fifty of them and it takes some amount of time if you were to sit down and try to watch them after viewing the entire series. Some of these scenes were very nice and I didn´t think I saw more than one that was forgettable.
The final disc contains the show´s season finale and the ´Making Of´ video features. The five video features contained on this disc ran for about fifty minutes total. The first detailed a quick overview on the making of the show. This was a ten thousand foot view, but did contain a few nice nuggets of information. The second feature was on the special effects and looked at the cataclysmic scene from the finale, as well as some other character based effects created for the show. This was perhaps the best of the materials on the final disc. A feature looks at the stunts and how the various characters handled their stunts. Tim Sale, who painted the artwork associated with the character Isaac discusses his work on the show and a quartet of persons talks about the show´s score. I have to admit that I was hoping for a little more on disc seven, but this was a nice little collection of features to detail the makings of the show. After I completed watching these fairly short videos, I was relieved that it was over. A week of my time was dedicated to this box set after my usual forty hour job.
Closing Comments:
"Heroes" did not interest me when it debuted on NBC. Then, after the cheerleader was saved and the world was secure, the show grew on me a bit and I powerwatched the first eleven episodes. I followed the show for about two months, but then lost touch again. I caught back up, but missed the final number of episodes. With the HD-DVD release of "Heroes," I´ve been pulled back into the fancase. I still hold "Lost" close to my heart and consider this an admirable runner up to pass my time until Jack and Locke return next year. For me, "Heroes" is to "Lost" as Creed is to Pearl Jam. I liked Creed, but they kept me busy between releases from Eddie Vedder and company. The show is entertaining and its comic book style allows its audience to have answers on a weekly basis. That helps and hinders the show, as I explained in the main portion of this review. The show could use some improvement to become an absolutely amazing show, but for now it borders between being good and great. From somebody who generally loathes television, I suppose this is a huge compliment.
The HD-DVD release is groundbreaking. First of all, Universal has made use of the little CAT-5 cable that is connected to the rear of m HD-A1 player. I had previously used my network connection to upgrade my firmware, but now I have another use for it. Granted, the usage is somewhat minimal, but I will be following the download section for this release and see if it gets a little support in the coming months. Warner Bros. did beat out Universal with "300" and its online features, which included a shopping site and whatnot, but I´ve yet to secure a copy of that title. For a television show to be one of the first titles with online support, that is pretty damn spiffy. The release also uses Universal´s U-Control extensively and in new and interesting ways. I had expected to pound out this review in about five nights, but the U-Control added another three days to my time to sit down and just enjoy the feature. The remaining supplements are also nice and the inclusion of a longer version of the pilot is definitely commendable. The video of this high definition release is as good as I´ve yet to see a television show, but the sound is limited because of the nature of the production. All-in-all, this is the classiest box set of a television show I have yet to see. It is a shame that "Lost" won´t be on Blu-ray. I´d love to see what a "U-Control" type of supplement could do for that release. In a quick sentence: "Heroes" is a top-notch box set and an excellent addition to anybody´s growing library of high definition offerings.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]21284[/release]