HEROES REBORN / NBC
HEROES is back! HEROES… the show that’s full of… um, ‘Heroes.’ And villains? You see, there are these people and they have powers and they use them to do things… Yeah… Listen. I’m going to be very honest with you. I’m really phoning in this review. I usually take very detailed notes while watching premieres. I make sure to keep track of every character’s name and will even do a little research about what other moving picture stuff they’ve been in. If applicable, I will even go back and watch the original source material so that I can more accurately speak on what’s happening now. I didn’t do any of that for this review. Why, you make ask? For that answer, we’ll have to travel back to the distant year of 2010. Lets take a quick trip back in time, shall we? Hold on to your butts.
I just realized time travel isn’t possible. Shit. Fine.
In 2010, NBC released the original HEROES television show. It was sort of a big deal (Just like me in the karaoke community). This was way before the CW would create their ARROW/FLASH-averse. I think, at this point, all we had was 2 IRON MAN movies and a HULK movie. The SHIELD TV show wasn’t even a glimmer in Coulson’s pants (We also had 3 X-MEN movies, but, lets not get into that can of worms). Nerdy audiences were gagging for more super hero shenanigans on their small screens. After a few teaser trailers, NBC hit San Diego Comic Con and executed their exceptional marketing campaign with extreme prejudice. Everyone was excited to have a potential ‘RISING STARS’ type TV show hitting the airwaves (RISING STARS was a comic that had a very similar premise, written by J Michael Straczynski. The same dude who wrote Sense8 . I guess saying ‘a potential X-MEN type TV show’ would have been better). At first, the original HEROES was pretty amazing. Regular people were discovering that they had super powers. There was a shady organization that was rounding them up. There were mysteries that I was excited to watch be revealed. They had a super powered psychopath cutting into the brains of anyone with powers. We had time travel. We had a diverse selection of superpowers. Alternate realities. It was fun universe and it was all tied together with a simple premise: Save the Cheerleader, Save the World. Dope. The downfall of the original HEROES is that it got lost in the vague aimlessness of its own universe. Certain character’s abilities became too powerful and were then removed. Plot lines were picked, dropped and forgotten on a regular basis. The show was working towards an unknown destination and the lack of clear focus became way too apparent. The show that started with a massive nerd roar, ended with a hollow whimper. 5 years later, NBC is giving HEROES a second chance. Once bitten, twice shy, baby?
Now HEROES is back and stuff is happening. It’s been a few years since the existence of these super powered beings have gone public to the world. A lot of the old familiar characters are mentioned, but the new show seems to be focusing heavily on this next generation. Now, the super powered peeps are called ‘Evos.’ I guess that stands for ‘Evolved Human?’ Sounds like a Swedish lube company. The show starts off with some sort of celebration honoring the peaceful coexistence between regular humans and the Evos. Of course, a bomb goes off. Now, people seem to hate and fear anyone with powers, which forces the Evos to go back into hiding. Pretty much putting them back in the same status quo as the original cast. A difference is that this time they all know what they are and why they can do the things they can do. There’s a kid who can teleport things anywhere, who is having drama with his momma. The Mexican superhero, who dies in the first episode. The Asian girl who may be the physical manifestation of another Evo’s video game imagination. Who else? Oh, Zachary Levi and his wife are hunting down anyone with powers because their son died at the bombing and now he may have powers? Also, explain to be why a bombing at a celebration full of super powered folks would make people hate them? If anything, wouldn’t that make people more sympathetic to the plight of the Evo? I guess this is what sets up the feud between CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN? What else… oh, the Horn Rimmed Glasses (HRG) is back from the original show and he’s trying to figure out who’s behind this new shadow organization that is hunting down the Evos. Molly is back? I don’t really remember her but I guess she was in the first series and can find anyone in the world with her mind. There’s a girl at the North Pole creating aurora borealises. There’s ‘something’ coming… I dunno.
I really can’t tell you why I’m not ‘super’ excited about this new HEROES show. It’s obvious that the writers have done their comic book research and included a whole bunch of elements that were missing in the original series. The X-MEN comparisons are a bit too heavy handed. I can also imagine the meeting where someone stood up and said ‘Wait, does anyone else here thing that the mutants in X-MEN are allegories for homosexuals? Holy shit. We should subtly reference that throughout the show!’ Sigh. Yes. We all knew that. Not that I mind that inclusion, it’s just sort of represents my apprehension for this show. It’s standing heavily on concepts that have already been done and established and it’s not creating something original for itself. I really like all the different powers they are pulling out of their bag, that’s something. Even with all the different plot lines running throughout the show, It’s still hard to get excited when everything I see reminds me of something I’ve already seen. And yes, I am going to give it a shot because I’m optimistic that it will go off the rails into crazy town. A boy can dream.
Final Score: 6 out of 10
