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.
Maya and Alejandro Herrera (Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz): I am going to lump these two new characters together for the simple reason that I did not like them. They bored me. They terribly bored me. Maya is a character that could be a potent weapon for the forces of evil and she can kill everybody around her when she is in a bad mood. There are some easy inappropriate jokes there, but I´m not going to touch them. Alejandro is her brother and has the ability to stop her death inducing anger. They provide a ride to New York City for Sylar and he is eager to regain his powers and add Maya´s special gift to his deadly repertoire. Most of there conversations occur in subtitles and a lot of their scenes are in a car or around a car. Keeping Hiro and Ando apart for so long and having Hiro toil far too long in feudal Japan was the major mistake of season two. These two characters was easily the second major misstep. They remind me of Nikki and Pablo from "Lost" and those two were buried alive to appease the fan base.
Bob and Elle Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky and Kristen Bell): Bob is the financial backbone and one of the founders of ´The Company.´ He uses transmutation to create precious metals and an unlimited funding source. Tobolowsky is a good character actor and I love this new character and what he brings to the table. He is an old friend of Noah´s and a wonderful villain that is reminiscent of the character of Noah Bennet from season one. Kristen Bell is another new addition to the cast after rumors had her joining "Lost," but opting for "Heroes." She is another ambiguous character that is the Company´s assassin, but seemingly only because her overbearing father Bob orders her to do so. She wants to be loved and she wants friendship and may ultimately have a good heart that has been lost due to Bob. The Bishop family is a parallel to the Bennet family and the best addition to the show.
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 eleven episodes of "Heroes: Season Two" are delivered by DVD via a clean and solid looking 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. 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. However, the visuals of the second season were certainly improved and I felt that watching "Generations" on DVD was not too far off the quality of Season One on the high definition Blu-ray format. The image just seemed crisper, more detail and had a less constrained appeal to it.
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. I saw only minor instances of posterization, but saw absolutely no flaws from the print such as dirt. All-in-all, "Heroes" looked far better the second time around; even if the season itself was nowhere near as entertaining.
Audio:
The sound quality of "Heroes" is an improvement over the first season as well. The four disc set presents its audio in English Dolby Digital 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 not one single word is lost in translation to Dolby Digital. "Heroes" is far from being reference material, but it is a very good sounding television show on the DVD format.
Extras:
"Heroes: Season Two" spreads its bonus features across all four discs. The first disc contains the episodes "Four Months Later…," "Lizards" and "Kindred." Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew are provided for each of the three 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. I found the first commentary to be the more important of the three 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 informative 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.
The bonus materials include more Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew on Disc Two. "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. "Fight or Flight" 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 third and final commentary on the second disc s for "The Line" and 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.
The stand alone materials on the second DVD 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 two 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. Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint (23:48) 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 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.
The third DVD continues with more Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew. At this point in time I´ve opted against sampling the commentary as the second season of "Heroes" has now consumed me for the greater part of four days. The first episode, "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 DVDs providing a large number of cast and crew who took time to record a commentary track. The final episode of the disc, "Cautionary Tales" contains commentary with Episode Director Greg Yaitanes and Series Stars Kristen Bell & Ashley Crow.
A meaty making-of feature and more Deleted Scenes are provided on the third DVD of the four disc set. Deleted scenes are provided for all three episodes. "Out of Time" contains two deleted scenes (2:41). The second scene contains more Parkman. "Four Months Ago…" is a brief collection of three deleted scenes (3:42) and "Cautionary Tales" has two more deleted scenes (1:25) to complete those on the third disc. The chocolate milk scene was funny. The stand alone feature is titled Genetics of a Scene (23:13) and 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.
The fourth and final DVD contains some more entertaining, albeit short vignettes and the final two Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew tracks. "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 unfortunately for you, I have kept with my decision to no longer listen to the commentary tracks. The second and eleventh overall 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. I really need to sample these last two discs of commentary as I have found most of the interesting enough to listen to very large chunks of them. But, the madness needs to stop at some point to complete this review!
The last DVD has a large number of other offerings. The DVD begins with a Season 3 Sneak Peak (8:37) for the upcoming third chapter titled "Villains." Dania Ramirez hosts and I hope this is the last I see of her in "Heroes" ever again, but the sneak peek proves otherwise. There are a few spoilers in here, but it is mostly Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg and others ´talking up´ the upcoming season. The Generations: Alternate Ending (17:58) is the "Powerless" 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 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. The Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art (2:01) is a moving slideshow of some of the paintings by Tim Sale that were used in the second season. Finally, some Previews are included for a number of television shows from Universal.
Closing
After spending four days with the second season of "Heroes," my view has not changed much from where it was after I was disappointed with the early episodes of "Generations." The show lost a few steps since its Freshman year and a couple of missteps nearly derailed my faith in the Tim Kring creation entirely. However, 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 DVD set is nice with improved sight and sound over the first season. The bonus features are quite good and while Universal spoiled the surprise of the alternate ending, it is the rare must-watch supplement. Season two is still worth investing in for fans of the show, but I believe most other fans will share my hope that Season Three is better!
Bob and Elle Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky and Kristen Bell): Bob is the financial backbone and one of the founders of ´The Company.´ He uses transmutation to create precious metals and an unlimited funding source. Tobolowsky is a good character actor and I love this new character and what he brings to the table. He is an old friend of Noah´s and a wonderful villain that is reminiscent of the character of Noah Bennet from season one. Kristen Bell is another new addition to the cast after rumors had her joining "Lost," but opting for "Heroes." She is another ambiguous character that is the Company´s assassin, but seemingly only because her overbearing father Bob orders her to do so. She wants to be loved and she wants friendship and may ultimately have a good heart that has been lost due to Bob. The Bishop family is a parallel to the Bennet family and the best addition to the show.
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 eleven episodes of "Heroes: Season Two" are delivered by DVD via a clean and solid looking 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. 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. However, the visuals of the second season were certainly improved and I felt that watching "Generations" on DVD was not too far off the quality of Season One on the high definition Blu-ray format. The image just seemed crisper, more detail and had a less constrained appeal to it.
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. I saw only minor instances of posterization, but saw absolutely no flaws from the print such as dirt. All-in-all, "Heroes" looked far better the second time around; even if the season itself was nowhere near as entertaining.
Audio:
The sound quality of "Heroes" is an improvement over the first season as well. The four disc set presents its audio in English Dolby Digital 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 not one single word is lost in translation to Dolby Digital. "Heroes" is far from being reference material, but it is a very good sounding television show on the DVD format.
Extras:
"Heroes: Season Two" spreads its bonus features across all four discs. The first disc contains the episodes "Four Months Later…," "Lizards" and "Kindred." Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew are provided for each of the three 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. I found the first commentary to be the more important of the three 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 informative 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.
The bonus materials include more Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew on Disc Two. "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. "Fight or Flight" 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 third and final commentary on the second disc s for "The Line" and 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.
The stand alone materials on the second DVD 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 two 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. Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint (23:48) 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 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.
The third DVD continues with more Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew. At this point in time I´ve opted against sampling the commentary as the second season of "Heroes" has now consumed me for the greater part of four days. The first episode, "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 DVDs providing a large number of cast and crew who took time to record a commentary track. The final episode of the disc, "Cautionary Tales" contains commentary with Episode Director Greg Yaitanes and Series Stars Kristen Bell & Ashley Crow.
A meaty making-of feature and more Deleted Scenes are provided on the third DVD of the four disc set. Deleted scenes are provided for all three episodes. "Out of Time" contains two deleted scenes (2:41). The second scene contains more Parkman. "Four Months Ago…" is a brief collection of three deleted scenes (3:42) and "Cautionary Tales" has two more deleted scenes (1:25) to complete those on the third disc. The chocolate milk scene was funny. The stand alone feature is titled Genetics of a Scene (23:13) and 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.
The fourth and final DVD contains some more entertaining, albeit short vignettes and the final two Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew tracks. "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 unfortunately for you, I have kept with my decision to no longer listen to the commentary tracks. The second and eleventh overall 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. I really need to sample these last two discs of commentary as I have found most of the interesting enough to listen to very large chunks of them. But, the madness needs to stop at some point to complete this review!
The last DVD has a large number of other offerings. The DVD begins with a Season 3 Sneak Peak (8:37) for the upcoming third chapter titled "Villains." Dania Ramirez hosts and I hope this is the last I see of her in "Heroes" ever again, but the sneak peek proves otherwise. There are a few spoilers in here, but it is mostly Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg and others ´talking up´ the upcoming season. The Generations: Alternate Ending (17:58) is the "Powerless" 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 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. The Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art (2:01) is a moving slideshow of some of the paintings by Tim Sale that were used in the second season. Finally, some Previews are included for a number of television shows from Universal.
Closing
After spending four days with the second season of "Heroes," my view has not changed much from where it was after I was disappointed with the early episodes of "Generations." The show lost a few steps since its Freshman year and a couple of missteps nearly derailed my faith in the Tim Kring creation entirely. However, 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 DVD set is nice with improved sight and sound over the first season. The bonus features are quite good and while Universal spoiled the surprise of the alternate ending, it is the rare must-watch supplement. Season two is still worth investing in for fans of the show, but I believe most other fans will share my hope that Season Three is better!
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[release]23607[/release]