Category Archives: Heroes

Heroes Reborn, Reflected

A year from now, this will all feel like a dream.

A dream Angela Petrelli didn’t think was important enough to share.

It will seem as if Heroes: Reborn, the 13-episode continuation of a show that saw its best days a decade ago, had never happened.

Weeks before Robert Greenblatt more or less announced the second death of Heroes, we should have known it was over.

And no amount of hashtags or other social media campaigns will save the day.

It was over the instant the promo following “11:53 to Odessa” announced the season’s final three episodes wouldn’t begin airing until a month later.

The final three episodes of a 13 episode “event series.”

It doesn’t matter what kind of show it is, “event” or not, you don’t go on hiatus before the final three episodes of season.

That is unless you cared more about “The Wiz: Live!” airing on Dec. 3.

When that episode awkwardly ended on a crane shot of CGI clones of a character with zero backstory swarming towards characters that hadn’t yet encountered ANY of the series’ main protagonists through 10 chapters and it was deemed a worthy enough moment to consider a cliffhanger, it was obvious.

NBC, and possibly the show’s brain trust, had lost interest in Heroes Reborn.

Sadly, so had I.

After 10 episodes, watching Heroes – a weekly activity I was considered a Godsend – had mutated into a chore. Outside four key episodes, it felt like I wrote about the same thing every week.

Not once was has there been a moment that transcended the show’s core fan base and lit up social media and launched a thousand think pieces.

I barely cared about characters, and when I did, they were the characters I had become invested in as a sophomore in high school 10 years ago. Even then, those characters never stayed for more than two episodes and their fates were ambiguously sealed off screen.

For a 13-episode season, anything rarely felt at stake.

Whether through writing, editing or a complete lack of an engaging score, nothing made me care about the awkwardly named “H.E.L.E..” It wasn’t until the final scene of “Send in the Clones” – an episode where its namesake was killed off by a character that didn’t actually exist – as three cars drove through the night toward Odessa with mileage totals placed on them that the show’s endgame had the slightest sense of genuine importance.

It’s a feeling Heroes hadn’t evoked properly since Sylar stood atop a building at the end of “Landslide,” the penultimate episode of Volume 1, and whispered “Boom.”

I don’t believe my attitude toward Heroes’ demise is because I’ve become cynical. The season’s first two episodes and the “June 13th” two-parter, directed by Matt Shakman and series veterans Greg Beeman and Allan Arkush respectively, had everything a great episode of Heroes could ask for.

But then there’s the rest.

While Noah Bennett, the absolute best choice to anchor the show’s rebirth around, carried the show, we found out that Tommy (AKA Nathan) was a far more interesting character before his mind was wiped.

Casper, the show’s only other interesting new creation, along with his pennies, was shot in the head before we learned anything of note about him. The same can be said about Harris, who lost his head.

We were given characters with powers that didn’t make any sense within the universe that had been presented to us through four previous seasons.

We were given a villain in Erica Kravid that with two episodes left we still don’t know what’s truly fueling her master plan.

Truthfully, there were too many characters to care about and depending on how the final two hours play out, more episodes than the story asked for.

But then I have to step back for a moment.

Heroes isn’t unique anymore. When it debuted in 2006, the only real competition it had was Smallville, which was in its sixth season on a smaller network and had already carved out the audience that would carry it through to its conclusion five years later.

When Heroes originally ended in 2010, all of its current competition: Arrow, The Flash, Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Gotham, Daredevil, Supergirl and Jessica Jones, were still years away. Marvel’s cinematic universe was only two movies old.

Now it’s 2016 and this feeling of finality we’ve been given is one I would have done a lot to have five years ago. We watched Claire Bennett jump off a Ferris wheel and out what we now call EVO’s to the world. Then the screen cut to black and its familiar “To Be Continued” graphic.

We waited to know if the story would continue for weeks. Then hope fizzled out.

There will be no toying with our emotions come next Thursday. I will be prepared and ready for “The End” to come on screen and declare Heroes over and done with.

I won’t be bitter. Hopefully, it will be sweet.

However, in a world where Netflix, Amazon or Hulu exist and regularly save once failed shows from extinction, finality, natural or not, is never a given.

But I’m still glad we were given Heroes Reborn.

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions of Daniel McFadin are his own and do not necessarily represent everyone involved with HeroSite.net.

Heroes Reborn Episode 12 Description: “Company Woman”

The title of the penultimate episode of Heroes Reborn evokes memories of the classic favorite “Company Man.”

“Company Woman” is the title, and it airs on Thursday, January 14. Here’s the description.

ERICA KRAVID’S HAUNTING PAST IS REVEALED AS THE EXTINCTION OF HUMANITY LOOMS CLOSER — GREG GRUNBERG AND NOAH GRAY-CABEY GUEST STAR – As the end of civilization quickly approaches, Erica (Rya Khilstedt) sets her startling survival plan in motion with the help of Tommy (Robbie Kay). Malina (Danika Yarosh) races to unite with Tommy and is joined by Luke (Zachary Levi) while Quentin (Henry Zebrowski) and Phoebe (guest star Aislinn Paul) plot against them. Meanwhile, Matt Parkman (guest star Greg Grunberg) has plans of his own to ensure the safety of his family that might put Taylor (guest star Eve Harlow) in mortal danger. Ryan Guzman, Judi Shekoni and Gatlin Green also star. Lucius Hoyos, Nazneen Contractor, Krista Bridges, Toru Uchikado and Hiro Kanagawa also guest star.

Heroes Reborn Episode 11 Spoilers: “Send In The Clones”

NBC has released an official description for the January 7 return episode of Heroes Reborn.

Find it below, complete with new spoilers

TENSIONS ARE HIGH AS THE EXTINCTION OF HUMANITY APPROACHES — GREG GRUNBERG, JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS AND NOAH GRAY-CABEY GUEST STAR — Following Noah’s mysterious disappearance, Luke (Zachary Levi) and Malina (Danika Yarosh) unite to rescue Tommy (Robbie Kay) and save mankind. At the mysterious Sunstone Manor, Carlos (Ryan Guzman) and Farah (guest star Nazneen Contractor) fight alongside The Haitian (guest star Jimmy Jean Louis) to take down Matt Parkman (guest star Greg Grunberg) and free the prisoners under his control. Meanwhile, Tommy and Miko (Kiki Sukezane) join forces against Erica (Rya Khilstedt) and her brutal plan for the future. Judi Shekoni, Henry Zebrowski and Gatlin Green also star.

Heroes Reborn #1.9 Review: “Sundae, Bloody Sundae”

When the universe gives you something, it (or a writing staff) won’t hesitate to pull the rug out from beneath you in another aspect of your life.

The time travel shenanigans of the “June 13th” saga set in motion events that ensured The Haitian, a friendly and familiar face on Heroes would more or less be brought back to life.

In his place, the universe took away Casper, someone we barely knew and I desperately want to find out more about.

Noah Bennet has experienced both sides of this universal practice three times in as many episodes.

He learned his daughter died while giving birth to twins. He’s then reunited with one of them in the present as a teenager. Nathan is then kidnapped by Quentin “butterfly” Frady, before being reunited with the other twin, Melina.

The Quentin reveal to Noah took me off guard. I was expecting the subterfuge to last one more episode, at least to get a feel for how this version of Quentin kept Noah fooled for so long. Because in every scene with Quentin in “Sundae, Bloody Sundae,” he couldn’t have been more sinister.

Speaking of sinister, I wasn’t expecting it, but Joanne connecting with Harris makes almost complete sense. I say almost because Joanne’s storyline never indicated it would ever merge fully with the Renautas story arc.

And now that I’m thinking about it, imagine what Joanne will do if she were to find out that it was Renautas, with Harris and his clones, that was responsible for the bombing in Odessa? I’d like to see one scene before the end of the season where both Harris and Joanne get their comeuppance. Harris for helping hunt down his own kind – like what happened to Dearing thanks to Matt Parkman – and Joanne for obvious reasons.

She’s killed a lot of people, but putting a bullet between Casper’s eyes was the last straw.

As a whole, I liked “Sundae, Bloody Sundae.” But anything less than a masterpiece was going to feel like a letdown in comparison to “June 13th.”

It was a highlight to see Greg Grunberg play a Matt Parkman reminiscent of the one we saw all the way back in “5 Years Gone.”

As a result we got to experience some heightened “mind games,” which felt right at home in an episode that also featured time being stopped.

These mind games were played on Carlos, who has STILL not interacted with a main character on the show. That seriously has to happen soon. And with Matt working for Renautas, I expect some sort of face-to-face with Erica.

The episode’s conclusion, which shows Miko somehow walking around the desert almost 5,000 years in the future, is slightly off putting in how it’s executed.

The moment felt like a preview for next season (if there is one). There was no natural transition into it and it played out like the Volume previews we got at the end of each season on the original show.

It looked great and the presence of Miko raises a bunch of questions, but it seemed tacked on, even though the possibility of the story taking us into the future was introduced in “Game Over.”

The episode would have benefited from ending on the visual of Nathan sitting across from Erica as she tries to court him to her side.

GRADE: B

Other Judgements

  • “Is it safe for you to go back to the hospital?” I don’t know, is it safe for Nathan to be walking down Main Street in broad daylight with his girlfriend who probably hasn’t officially broken up with her original boyfriend? Don’t be that kind of girl Emily.
  • Casper sounded like an old Baptist preacher in the moments before his death and not in a cheesy way. Casper seems like a character that has a lot of guilt and who took pleasure in helping others lose theirs when the opportunity arose.
  • When Taylor is snatched by The Haitian’s friends, I loved the decoration of the underpass. Faces of people who have been “detained,” “abducted” or are “deceased” line the wall.
  • What in the world is Erica’s chef working on in her kitchen?
  • Carlos’ nephew returns! And I still don’t care about him.

Heroes Reborn #1.8 Review: “June 13th, Part Two”

Remember the classic episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “Cause and Effect?”

In it the Enterprise and her crew are caught in an endless causality loop, where it repeats the same day over and over. The day always ends with the ship being destroyed in an accident with the U.S.S. Bozeman, which had come from decades in the past via a time portal.

Long story short, the crew eventually realizes what was happening and finds a way to break out of the loop.

(It’s such a good episode.)

For the story in Heroes Reborn, “June 13th, Part 2” was the closing of such a loop.

There’s no telling how many times the loop of Noah going back in time, attempting to stop the bombs, failing, sending Hiro/Angela/Nathan/Malina to 1999 and returning to 2015 had taken place without any significant changes.

But in the loop we witness, Noah gets it in his head to shoot Erica Kravid. Then he has Casper wipe 2014 Noah’s memory instead of The Haitian.

When it comes to Heroes Reborn and time travel we’re literally in uncharted territory.

In years past, time travel as a plot device was used either as a gateway to passive flashback episodes or to give a peek at a devastating future our ensemble cast had to prevent.

With the “June 13th” two-parter, it’s been used to create a very active flashback episode that potentially makes the “present” of the show even worse.

I say potentially because we have no idea what all Noah changed on his visit to 2014. Anything’s on the table. Let your minds go crazy thinking about the possibilities!

OK, maybe not too crazy.

The only thing that slowed the natural flow of both episodes is what slowed a majority of the season prior: Carlos and Miko.

As I said last week, we don’t need to see how Miko came to exist. That was made clear to us in “Game Over” through dialogue. The only new angle added is Erica lied to Hachiro Otomo, something she does to everyone.

Even though Carlos’ storyline is finally connect to the main body of the story, albeit minimally through Farah, a character that’s more than likely dead in 2015, his presence in “Part 2” just reinforces how insignificant – or at least underwhelming – he’s been to this point.

But that wasn’t enough to take away from the thrill of seeing Hiro Nakamura, family man. Seeing a much older and wise Hiro in a father role with a confident Nathan ready to embrace his destiny and then having to forget it will have an even bigger impact once you rewatch the season from the beginning.

And that’s really the biggest accomplishment of “June 13th,” time travel loops and all.

Grade: A-

Other judgements

  • This might have been Jack Coleman’s best outing at Noah in a long time. His performance as 2014 Noah reacting to the news of Claire’s death is by far his most gut wrenching. His downplayed reaction when Molly says she’d rather die than give up Nathan and Malina hurts even more.
  • When Hiro gives Nathan the first issue of 9th Wonders from the first season, I about lost it.
  • Good thing we’re getting Matt Parkman for another episode. It would have been awkward to get less than 3 minutes of screentime from him.
  • The last two episodes make Angela’s absence in the first six episodes even more glaring. She ups the show’s game and gives it much needed gravitas.
  • “I’m Hiro Nakamura. Former master of time and space.”
  • Anyone else geek out over “11:53 to Odessa” being a direct reference to “Seven minute to Midnight” from season 1?

Heroes Reborn Spoilers: June 13th – Part One

NBC has released an official description for the November 29 episode of Heroes Reborn, which brings back more favorites from the original show.

The title of the episode is “June 13th – Part One.”

HEROES FROM THE PAST COME TOGETHER TO SAVE THE FUTURE – MASI OKA, SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY AND CRISTINE ROSE REPRISE THEIR ROLES – FRANCESCA EASTWOOD, CLE BENNETT, AISLINN PAUL AND PRUITT TAYLOR VINCE ALSO GUEST STAR – In an effort to get answers, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) joins forces with Hiro Nakamura (guest star Masi Oka) to return to the day of the tragic events of June 13, 2014 that set everything in motion. On the verge of delivering a speech to commemorate the event, Mohinder Suresh (guest star Sendhill Ramamurthy) receives a dire message from Angela Petrelli (guest star Cristine Rose) about Erica Kravid’s (Rya Khilstedt) true motives. In Japan, Hachiro Otomo (guest star Hiro Kanagawa) makes a calculated move against Hiro Nakamura. Meanwhile, a much happier Luke (Zachary Levi) and Joanne (Judi Shekoni) come to Odessa in hopes of finding a cure to their son’s ailment. Robbie Kay also stars.