Heroes (Series, The) (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

"Heroes" is among my five favorite television shows that I routinely follow. The problem is that I don´t routinely watch any of them other than "Lost" where I set my schedule to catch every episode on its air date. There has been stretches of time where I do sit down and watch the latest "Heroes" episode, but the magic of digital recording and web streaming and the eventual video releases has been my primary outlet of following the Tim Kring created show. The first season kept my attention for roughly half its run. Once the HD-DVD arrived, I caught up and filled in the holes for the episodes I missed. I started off strong with the second season, titled "Volume Two: Generations" and watched four out of the first five episodes. However, they would be the only ones I would watch until the strike shortened season made its way to home video.

Catching up on the seven episodes I had missed was enough to hold my interest for the pending third season, but I never felt remorse for missing the episodes when they originally aired on NBC. The season was intended to contain twenty four episodes, but the writer´s strike capped that number at eleven and a hastily created finale was broadcast that was horribly underwhelming and has me questioning whether or not I will follow the show much longer if "Volume 3: Villains" doesn´t recapture some of the fun that was present during the very first season where Hiro captivated the world and everybody hoped the cheerleader would be saved. Looking back on the second season, there was nothing nearly as memorable as the ninth episode of "Volume 1: Genesis" and the scope and depth of the overall story arc for "Generations" was quite lacking.

The overall storyline for the second season occurs roughly four months after the Peter was prevented from destroying all of New York City by exploding. In the second season, Peter, Nathan, Hiro, Parkman, Sylar, Bennet, Suresh, Claire and a new character named Kensei are the center stage. They have all survived the events that transpired in the first season´s finale, but everybody has changed in one way or another. Hiro is in feudal Japan fighting the good fight with an Englishman who was known to him as Kensei. Peter is fighting amnesia and Nathan is a drunk that is unsure his brother is still alive. Bennet has moved the family and he and Claire struggle to keep their identities secret. Parkman has developed new skills and is working with Suresh to protect the little girl, Molly, from the first season. Finally, Sylar has lost all of his powers and is traveling to New York with two new characters in hopes that Suresh could help him.

"Generations" was intended to consist of two volumes. The first was to end with a viral outbreak and Matt, Peter and Nathan caught in containment in Odessa, Texas during the deadly outbreak. However, the writer´s strike forced the writers to re-write the show and come up with a conclusion that they deemed appropriate given the fact that the third volume as they had intended would never see light of day. The season started out horribly slow with Hiro spending entirely too much time in ancient Japan and the rest of the focus on either Peter´s amnesia or two new annoying characters that just seemed to slow everything down. Towards the end of "Generations," it seemed the writers had finally caught on to their mistakes and were trying to salvage the season. However, the climax presented as hardly climactic and "Season Two: Generations" ended in boring fashion.

I personally felt that "Generations´ recycled too many elements that were familiar from the first season and failed to take the show in a new and grand direction. Both seasons found Peter Petrelli in a position where his ultimate powers were heading in a path to lead mankind to destruction. Both seasons found the amicable Hiro on a mission to change the course of fate and stop events from occurring that would allow the horrific outcomes to occur. There were many other similarities as well and aside from painting a picture that the previous generation was also equipped with superpowers, there was hardly anything fresh or interesting thrown the audience´s way during "Generations." The repetitive nature of the second season was only compounded with the other missteps made.

As "Generations" wrapped up and I finally had the opportunity to watch all eleven episodes again in continuous fashion, I still felt deprived of the quality entertainment I had expected for the second season. Sylar and Hiro were horribly mishandled and I found myself both underwhelmed and bored by much of the storyline. Whatever happened to Caitlin? That was one of the unresolved plot lines that appear to have been thrown away, while other less entertaining subplots were taken to full fruition. While I found myself a fan of the first season, "Generations" left me quizzing as to whether or not I wanted to invest my time in a third season. Hopefully, "Heroes" is only suffering from a really bad sophomore slump and with the Writer´s Strike now behind us, I am hoping things turn around. If not, the third season will surely be the last I watch of this show.

Heroes: Revisiting the Characters

When I reviewed the first season of "Heroes," I looked at the plot by summarizing the characters and their involvement in the show. Since that time I have taken a little well-deserved flak for spoiling some major plot lines during my review of the third season of "Lost." Part of the fun of shows such as "Heroes" and "Lost" is that of discovery. Nobody really wants to know too much of what happens before experiencing it firsthand. Yes, there are plenty of those out there that flock to spoiler sites and love to know each detail before it happens, but I´ve come to better understand that my audience is a mixture of those who have seen every episode of "Volume 2: Generations" and want to know if I feel the discs are worth purchasing and those that have not seen every episode, but still want to know if it is worth watching to pay their hard earned cash to purchase. To try and appeal to both audiences, a few beans need spilled, but this year I´m going to must retouch on the characters and my thoughts towards them in "Generations."

My review of season one included short synopsis for the characters of Simone Devereaux (Tawny Cypruss), D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts) and Isaac Mendez (Santaiago Cabrera). In "Volume 2: Generations," Simone and Isaac are no longer characters. Mendez is mentioned a few times in regards to his talent or his studio, but the actor no longer gets a paycheck for playing the role and I don´t think Simone was even mentioned. D.L. has a series of cameos throughout the season and does have a supporting performance in two episodes, but he is far from being a major character. A few new characters have been introduced and Molly Walker (Adair Tishler) has a largely expanded role. A cousin to Micah, Monica Dawson (Dana Davis) is introduced and has a large supporting role in the show, but I´m not sure she is important enough to discuss in any detail. I will add a few paragraphs to talk about a handful of new characters and they will appear after Sylar in this review.

Hiro Nakumura (Masi Oka): Hiro was my absolute favorite character during the first season and a point of disappointment for me during "Generations." Hiro spent all of his time during the first seven episodes in ancient Japan trying to convince Takezo Kensei (David Anders) that he was a hero and have history remain exactly as it was in the stories that Hiro read as a child. The good chemistry between Hiro and his friend Ando (James Kyson Lee) is completely lost as the two are kept apart for most of the season and Ando´s role is greatly limited in the second season. Hiro is a love-struck time traveler in "Generations" and his powers and embracing the role of being a hero have been ignored. Hiro does have a pivotal purpose in the finale, but I was very disappointed with the use of the character in "Generations."

Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg): The character that is my second favorite on "Heroes" is Matt Parkman. Out of all of the returning actors from the first season, it is Grunberg that benefits the most from a larger piece of the pie in "Generations" and I was more than thrilled that Parkman´s place in the "Heroes" universe has been greatly expanded and the actor is now one of the primary characters. In "Generations" he has lost his wife, but has used his powers to earn a place as a detective. He now lives with Suresh and they are now the surrogate parents of young Molly Walker. After meeting his father, Matt discovers that his powers are far greater than just reading the minds of others and the best reason, in my humble opinion, to watch these eleven episodes is the emerging powers of Parkman. I´m betting he has a huge role in season three as well.

Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere): Everybody´s favorite little blonde cheerleader is back and this year she has discovered boys. Her blood and her hormones for young West Rosen (Nicholas D´Agosto) are the purposes for her involvement in the second season and Claire is not as important as she was when the show´s tagline was "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" She is still an important character, but the actress gets plenty of time to portray a spoiled brat teenager who is still curious about her powers, but also questions her father´s decisions to keep her safe. There were some episodes where I quickly grew tired of Claire´s antics and I can recollect back to season one where my preference was to her character over that of her father Noah Bennet, but in season two I preferred to see Noah in action as the rogue Company man who just wants to protect his family.

Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman): A kick-ass secret agent man with a lot of mysterious and horn rimmed glasses is always a good thing to have in any show and for "Heroes" there is Noah Bennet. For a large part of season one it was unknown as to whether or not Noah was a good guy or a complete villain. While there is still some ambiguity towards his motivations, Noah is the good guy who worked for a bad corporation and is now fully determined to use his superior skills (as he lacks super powers) to do good and cripple the evildoers. He has no reservations about killing those that were once his friends and will die to protect his adopted daughter Claire. Jack Coleman is again awesome as Noah Bennet and is my third favorite character on the show. I absolutely love how he has become as dangerous as the heroes sans any powers. Bennet is perhaps the second most improved character in "Generations."

Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia): Pete returns as the most powerful of all the heroes in "Generations," but sports a new Tom Cruise-inspired haircut and a horribly bad case of amnesia. This time around he is found handcuffed to a storage container and ends up in Ireland where he falls in love with the spunky and very pretty Caitlin (Katie Carr). As Peter begins to remember that who he is and what powers he has, he once again becomes the primary character of the show who holds the entire balance of the world´s future in his hands. Sadly, while I like the character of Peter Petrelli, I felt his arc was only a rehash of that in "Genesis" and that the writers copped out with having Peter again (re)discover his powers and eventually be the pivotal character in the finale where he had to be stopped before unintentionally killing a large population of innocents. Let´s hope the reunite him with Caitlin in "Villains."

Nathan Petrelli: The other Petrelli brother was not painted in the kindest light during the first season of "Heroes" and instead of being played out like a complete jerk as he was last year, he is shown as a martyr for his powers. In "Generations," Nathan has had his family taken away from him as a result of his ability to fly and does not know if he beloved little brother Peter is even alive. He has grown a beard and became a complete drunk, but Nathan no longer wants to ignore his powers and he becomes a partner for Parkman as they try to unravel what is going on around them. While I do enjoy the new character arc for Nathan, I am unsure of where things are going to go in the coming weeks when "Heroes" returns to the airwaves.

Nikki Sanders (Ali Larter): I firmly believed that the primary reason Nikki Sanders was even a character in "Heroes" was to provide a gorgeous blonde for the male audience to salivate over. Her character wasn´t great and she frustrated me more than entertained me. Things haven´t changed much, but the producers of "Heroes" have taken to steps to further cement my belief that she exists solely as eye candy. First, they killed off the character that was her husband in "Genesis." She´s single now and that just makes her hotter. Secondly, Jessica is joined by a second split personality and this one is that of a sexy and horny girl who wants to go clubbing in the big cities and partake in all types of sinning. It this isn´t a sure sign that she is the show´s sex element then I don´t know what is. Her character moves between personalities and I am still not a fan of the role(s), but Ali Larter is stunning to look at.

Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey): The producers need a reason to keep Ali Larter´s character alive and the son of her character is that reason. Micah showcases some expanded abilities to have technology work for him and unless the shortened season did not provide any great reason for him to exist, Micah´s primary reason to exist seemed to be to introduce a cousin with super powers and to steal pay-per-view wrestling. I didn´t feel that Micah was overly interesting during the first season of "Heroes" and they didn´t do much to improve upon this and fulfill my hopes that he would become more interesting. I guess I can convey the same hope that his character will have something more interesting to do during season three, but I´m ready to feel bad that the talented Noah Gray-Cabey is stuck in a boring role.

Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy): I didn´t give Suresh his own summary during the first season, although he was a solid second tier character. His role is slightly expanded during the second season as his relationships between characters have expanded and he acts as a double agent between Bob and Noah. Suresh is not sure of who to believe or trust and while he intends to only do what is for the greater good, his kind heart and unknowing of what is right and wrong places him in a very perilous position. Mohinder serves as a friend to Parkman and a surrogate parent to young Molly. I enjoyed Mohinder as a character in "Generations" more than I did in "Genesis" and feel that perhaps Mohinder may have a secret ability that has yet to be unlocked.

Sylar (Zachary Quinto): He may not be cast as a young Spock in the upcoming "Star Trek" film, but poor Zachary Quinto was only left to commiserate as a character in season two. After the big season one finale, Sylar is found on a tropical beach enjoying the company of a striking young woman. It´s all illusion and he finds himself needing to heal and completely without any of his powers. Sylar hooks up with two new characters that provide a trip across the Mexican border and towards the location of Dr. Suresh and a cure for their conditions. Finally, in the eleventh and final episode of the season Sylar regains his problems and I feel safe in assuming that the worker´s strike completely neutered his character until season three. He was the perfect flip side to Peter, and relegated to a passenger this time around. I still enjoy the acting of Zachary Quinto and I hope he regains his total badness in the next couple weeks for "Villains."