What’s the name of the show? Heroes Reborn
Didn’t Heroes just go off the air like three years ago? Close, it was five years ago.
Why the heck are they bringing it back? The common wisdom about Heroes is that it showed tremendous early promise (and huge early ratings) but flamed out creatively in its second season and never returned to form. This “13-episode event series” is a way to make up for the sins of the past.
“Thirteen episodes”. Please. How many times have we heard that and then if it’s a hit, it’s sure to come back for more. Exactly.
When does it premiere? The two-hour season premiere kicks off on Thursday 24 September at 8pm EST.
How is this different from the original? The first two hours are actually very similar. We meet a bunch of people around the globe who are just discovering their powers, and they have some sort of vague reason why they have to come together to save the world.
So you don’t need to know anything about the original to watch this? Creator Tim Kring (and surely NBC) thinks that people who didn’t watch Heroes the first time around could watch this cold, but he’s wrong. The story really belongs to Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), the man formerly known as Horn-Rimmed Glasses (or HRG). If you don’t know something about the mythology of where he worked and the people who hunted the super-powered individuals, you’re going to be a bit lost. They do a decent job filling in the blanks, but I bet a first-time viewer would be in over her head.
How does the story continue? At the end of the series, HRG’s daughter Claire told the world about the powered humans or “evos”. During a convention of the evos on 13 June at a facility in Texas there was a giant explosion, which not only killed all the evos in attendance (including Claire) but also turned the world against them. Now they have to hide their powers or they will be persecuted. The show starts a year after the explosion, and HRG is missing big chunks of his memory from around the time of the bombing.
I don’t know what is worse, that there is already amnesia in the first episode or that Claire died in an explosion when her power is that she’s invulnerable. At least one of those probably has something to do with Hayden Panettiere ’s contract with Nashville.
So who caused the explosion? We’re not entirely sure and that is what HRG is investigating, but it was blamed on Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy).
God, Mohinder. Right? No one wants him back.
Are a lot of the original cast returning? Not really. Time traveler Hiro (Masi Oka) will return as will telepathic Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and Angela Petrelli (Christine Rose), but that’s about it. The character of Molly Walker, the girl who can find anyone by thinking about them, is also back, but now she’s all grown up and played by Francesca Eastwood (Clint’s daughter and Scott’s half sister).
Who are the new characters? Midwest teen Tommy (Robbie Kay) is a teleporter who doesn’t entirely understand his powers. Luke (Zachary Levi) is an evo hunter whose powered son died on 13 June and is now exhibiting some sort of solar powers of his own. Carlos (Ryan Guzman) is an Iraq vet without powers who takes on the vigilante mask and identity of his brother once he dies. Miko (Kiki Sukezane) is a girl who can transport herself into a video game.
That’s kind of a weird/dumb power. I will not dispute that.
You said that this show is a lot like the original. Is it as good? Heroes Reborn is essentially trying to recreate the things that were great about the original. There’s a weird Japanese person (this time a girl), an innocent from the heartland (this time a boy), a sexy guy who wants to do the right thing who doesn’t have his powers yet (still a boy), and they’re all being followed around by shadowy people, dastardly corporations and secret organisations.
The narrative is already burdened with the leaden mythology that made Heroes such an incomprehensible slog in later seasons. Oblique references to past characters and events (like Mohinder and Hiro, who are discussed but not seen in the first three episodes) tie it far too much to the old episodes. All this makes it feel more like a tired retread than either a continuation of the previous narrative or a hard reboot.
Also, since the show went off the air, there has been a glut of superhero shows (for instance, see the CW’s entire lineup). What made Heroes seem so cool, fresh and original when it debuted has now been done a dozen times over in primetime. In the case of The Flash, Arrow and Gotham, it has also been done better.
Is there nothing to love here? Some of the new characters are interesting and having them have to save the world that hates and fears them (to paraphrase the X-Men) is a new twist. There clearly seems to be a plan in place for what will happen over these first 13 hours, so at least that is comforting.
Should you watch this show? Die-hard Heroes fans should give it a chance, of course. But I suspect that the convoluted storytelling is what turned casual fans off and that’s in abundance here. As for newbies looking for a new superhero show, Supergirl premieres next month on CBS and Jessica Jones premieres on Netflix in November. Both are a better bet than this.
