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HEROES |
Series Overview
Peter Petrelli - Milo Venitmiglia Hiro Nakamura - Masi Oka Claire Bennett - Hayden Panettiere Mr Bennett - Jack Coleman Nathan Petrelli - Adrian Pasdar Niki Sanders - Ali Larter Matt Parkman - Greg Grunberg Mohinder Suresh - Sendhil Ramamurthy Sylar - Zachary Quinto Micah Sanders - Noah Gray-Cabey 
OTHER HEROES SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 OTHER SUPERHERO SHOWS Birds of Prey No Heroics 
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Season OverviewThe first season of The writers's strike in Hollywood led to a shortened series that starts off the way the first one did with all of the characters scattered and their stories taking them all in apparently different directions, but slowly converging towards a common enemy. Unfortunately, the arrival of a whole load more new characters doesn't help matters when you consider how many heroes there are hanging around from the first one. This diffuses the story once again and the fact that there is no explanation as to what has happened to everyone in the months since the finale of Season 1 until Chapter 8 - Four Months Ago is more confusing than mystery-inducing. It also doesn't help that Hiro, one of the most popular characters, has a story taking place in feudal Japan, completely disconnected from everyone else (although it later proves to be more linked than we thought). There are, however, enough clever twists, nice performances and outstanding shock moments to make up for the weak new characters, disjointed stories and some poor scripting. HEROES Season 2 is definitely a step down from the first series, but it is still an entertaining ride. Top4 Months LaterSuresh Mohinder is a genetics professor who is trying to raise money for a project all about saving the lives of people who are gifted with amazing powers. One such person, Clare, is trying to act normal in a new school despite the fact that any wound she sustains heals immediately and her father is a ruthless manipulator determined to bring down the 'company' that forms the main threat to his daughter. One time senatorial candidate Nathan Petrelli is now a drunk following the loss of his brother, Peter, who has just shown up in Cork without his memory. Matt Parkman is a telepathic cop who is also guardian to Molly, a far seeing child who senses an approaching terror. Hiro has travelled back in time to 17th century Japan to find that his childhood hero is far less than he imagined him to be. Hiro's father and Nathan's mother have apparently been targeted for death. Alejandro and Maya are wanted for murder and are trying to get from Latin America into the States to track down Mohinder. If you didn't see Season 1 then that is a whole lot of information to take in in one episode and that doesn't take in a good amny of the other characters that were left dangling following the the apocalyptic (but somewhat underwhelming) climax of that last episode. There is a lot of mystery going on here and if you did see Season 1 you will be used to this leisurely build up style. There are hints and glimpses and nothing that can even remotely be described as an explanation, but that's OK because it's the opening episode. What isn't OK is the silliness of Hiro's story. That he's gone back in time to feudal Japan is OK, but finding that his hero is somewhat lacking and that other than expected and that he is going to have to find away to make him into that hero is an old and overused story that even Masi Oka's trademark chirpy performance can't overcome. Aside from that, however, things are looking good. The threat to the older generation is immediate and made real with the kind of sudden, understated brutality that makes the show so real. The same applies to events south of the US border. What transpires in the jungle is completely predictable, but plays out well enough to make the grade. Molly's foreshadowing of the future promises darkness ahead and Noah Bennett seems surprisingly subdued for the most part, but then shows that it's all a front and he's the character that we so loved last time around. HEROES Season 2 has come to the UK on a wave of bad reviews and derision, but there isn't a lot in this episode to justify that. We wait and hope for the best. TopLizardsHiro in feudal Japan takes his hero's clothes and sets about creating a legend, but the hero has a surprise of his own. Peter, trapped by criminals in Ireland, uses his powers to save a young woman only to find himself caught up in a gangland war. Peter's mother is brutally assaulted inside a police station by an invisible something. Mohinder is given his first assignment by the Company, to save the life of and gain the services of an Haitian memory controller. Clare decides to test out whether her healing capabilities extend to regrowing lost tissue. Alejandro and Maya continue in their struggle to find access to the US. There's a whole lot of incident in this second series, but very little of it is adding up into a cohesive narrative. This is something familiar from the early episodes of Season 1. At times we wondered then whether the disparate stories were ever going to come together then. They did and so we have to expect that they will here. It's the early stages of a chess game, the pieces being moved around the board, each move not yet part of a recognisable strategy. Hiro's rather silly story continues to undermine the grittiness that the rest of the show is trying to create and some of the 'oirish' accents on display in Peter's story are laughable, but Clare's little science experiment with her toe is squirm-inducing and Alejandro and Maya's journey continues to be as dark as their power. HEROES Season 2 continues to have both the qualities that we loved and the flaws that really annoyed us from the first season. TopKindredAndo in Japan finds a secret compartment in Hiro's sword handle full of messages from his friend in 1671. Clare learns a suprising secret about her new friend whilst Sylar is revealed as still alive. He may not be the force he was, but he's not above going back to his brain-stealing ways. Inside the company, though, Mohinder locates the last painting made by seer of the future Isaac Mendez and it isn't good news for Clare's dad. The threads continue to twist slowly around in search of each other. Apart from Hiro who is stranded in the past and Peter who is taking part in robberies in the land of 'Oirland', there are hints of shadows that might be heading for some sort of story, but as before nothing is being revealed with any great speed That's OK, we can wait, but our patience with the slow burn almost ran out last time around and there's no novelty factor to bolster up against it any longer. It's also welcome back to Zachary Quinto as Sylar, just as murderous as ever he was, but rather stranded in the jungle. Also Nichelle Nichols, one arriving STAR TREK star to make up for the one we lost last week. Sadly, we're not saying goodbye to the Hiro story and Alejandro and Maya's story just repeats itself again with hardly any variation. Flawed then, but still with enough going on to keep us interested. TopThe Kindness of StrangersClare starts lying to her dad in order to keep seeing her new boyfriend. Matt learns that his father might be involved in the recent deaths and might even be the nightmare man of Molly's dreams. Sylar comes into contact with Alejandro and Maya. Wow, a whole episode in which absolutely nothing happens. A few links are revealed, mainly around Matt's father, but not one single plotline moves forwards at all. There is even the introduction of a new character in Micah's cousin who seems on the cusp of finding her new power as if we really needed any new characters to get a handle on. The episodes to date have been better than the general reviews from the US would have us believe, but this episode is most definitely a step down in terms of storytelling quality. TopFight or FlightWith Molly left in a coma after her encounter with the Nightmare Man, Matt goes in search of his father in order to get him to put right what he has done. Nathan Petrelli insists on going along as well. Micah's cousin learns that she has the power of copying anything she sees and is contacted by Suresh. Peter is being stalked by a girl who controls electricity and Nikki breaks into the company in the hope that they can help her. The focus of this episode is on Matt and Nathan's search for Matt's father, the Nightmare Man. Matt's been scarred by abandonment issues ever since his dad walked out on him as a teen and the showdown was never going to be easy, but it proves to be even more traumatic than expected. This story strand works well, as does that of Micah and his cousin, but the rest are just flapping in the wind. Hiro's story continues to be an annoyance, with Ando having to find new ways of bringing the completely irrelevant narration into the modern day. Mr Bennett and the Haitian are up to something, but who knows what? The rest of the cast are noticeable by their absence. The episode isn't bad in the same way that these early stages of Season 2 haven't been bad, they've just been not very good. The stories are disconnected, moving in fits and starts and not seeming to have a purpose. It is to be hoped that this will emerge over time as it did last time around. TopThe LineSuresh is asked to betray his conscience by taking away a new talent's powers with an experimental drug. In Russia, Mr Bennett is in pursuit of the series of paintings that leads to his death. Claire takes revenge on a cheerleader whilst Sylar makes a bid for Maya's trust and Nikki becomes the Company's means of enforcing Suresh's. As ever, the plot strands are continuing to snake along their own merry way, going nowhere apparently quickly. That's not to say that there isn't any incident, because there's plenty of that, but not much of it seems to have any purpose at present. Peter is back on the trail of what happened to him and Mr Bennett is in search of what is going to happen to him. His encounter with an old 'friend' in Russia is the strongest sequence in the show this season. Claire's run-in with the school bitch seems less than irrelevant, however, and Hiro's time in Japan is becoming increasingly annoying. The moral greys and the sense of threat, though, are the things that are keeping the interest going. Mr Bennett is always at the heart of darkness and any time Jack Coleman's on the screen the show is worth watching. Nikki's arrival as Suresh's minder is also a veiled threat and Sylar's manipulation of Maya is sinister of course. TopOut of TimePeter accidentally transports himself and Caitlin into the future where he again finds New York in trouble. In this case, there has been a deadly virus that has wiped out most of the world's population, including his brother. In ancient Japan, Hiro Nakamura takes the steps he needs to put history back on track and returns to the present. The nightmare man attacks the company facility and almost succeeds in killing Bob, but Nikki injects herself with the virus that's supposed to cure talents. All of a sudden, all of the plot strands seem to be colliding into what might possibly become a coherent storyline. Peter's sight of the future is clearly the result of the virus that the company has created and Nikki has just injected herself with. The nightmare man's attack is dealt with, but it gives Matt the push he needs to learn more about what he can do with his talent and even save Molly from her bad dreams. Most significant of all, though, is the lovely twist at the end of the episode that finally makes Hiro's sojourn into the past make some sort of sense. HEROES Season 2 just hit form again. TopFour Months AgoAdam causes Peter to remember everything that happened since the climactic end of the first season. Thus we learn that he did explode, nearly destroyed his brother Nathan and found the means by which he could be healed. We learn that Nikki's husband didn't die on the Plaza, but later when her mind fractured again and took her to LA. Allejandro and Maya's story begins in Venezuela. It's nice to see what happened to at least some of our heroes in the missing four months between Season 1 and season 2, filling in the blanks and giving more backstory to the current plot, but some of those stories are more successful than others. Peter's story is the strongest and ties up the end of the apocalyptic battle that was the climax of Season 1. This story was definitely worth telling. Nikki's story is much more contrived and doesn't really add anything other than giving us a reason for why she came to work for the Company and the Allejandro and Maya story is exactly like every other episode they have been in except that it is the first time it happens. HEROES Season 2 just hit form again. TopCautionary TalesAs Hiro refuses to let his father die and gains one last insight into what it means to be a true hero, Matt Parkman is faced with a moral dilemma over his newfound power of persuasion and Mohinder and Mr Bennett face off in the scene that Isaac Mendez painted as ending with Bennett's death. The central, in fact only, plot here is the story about how the Bennetts go up against the company. How Bob and Mr Bennett face off with both their daughters as the victims and Mohinder as the central pawn. This is fast-moving and exciting and makes up for the total lack of anything else happening elsewhere. Matt's moral dilemma over his new power is interesting but understated and Hiro's bouncing back and forth in time in order to learn that sometimes being a hero means having to do what you least want to is just an overlong spelling out of the theme of the week's show. Still, we have a scene where a flying boy, unkillable cheerleader and electricity girl all face off, the death of a major character and a twist in the tail to die for. TopTruth and ConsequencesClaire and her family are forced to come to terms with her father's death and she determines how best to make the company pay for what they have done. Both Hiro and Peter Petrelli learn the truth about the Shanti virus that will destroy the world, but their truths are different, leading them into conflict with each other over Adam. Sylar comes home, killing Maya's brother along the way. There's a sense of convergence over the storylines in this episode, but it's only a partial one. Some of the stories are colliding quite quickly and strongly now whilst others seem to have no connection at all to date. That said, the two main threads with Hiro and Peter learning different things are the most interesting at the moment and so it's good that they form the core of the episode. Sylar's murderous nature takes centre stage again, acts taking the place of ridiculous posturing and Mohinder continues to bounce around the moral compass like a ball in a lottery machine. It's not perfect, but bits of it are damn good. TopPowerlessAdam takes Peter into Primatech Paper, duping him into believing that the intention is to destroy the virus rather than to use it. Hiro faces off against them and loses, but the arrival of Nathan and Matt balances the sides up again. Meanwhile, Sylar demands help from Mohinder, using Molly as leverage. The company forces Mr Bennett to make a deal for his daughter's life and another's attempt to go public with the truth leads to tragedy. The slow build up of the story to this point is thrown into the dustbin as one episode attempts to wrap up most of the stories neatly whilst setting up cliffhangers with some others. That makes for a jarring amount of action forced into a space that isn't big enough for it. Once again the big finale is fluffed, the battle between Peter and the other heroes being a big letdown. On top of that, the solution to dealing with the unkillable villain is one that has been used before in both ANGEL and more recently TORCHWOOD The truncated series is as a result of the writers' strike and the stories that are tied up prematurely are the less effective whilst the cliffhangers are great enough to make sure that we'll be back for Season 3. Top |
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