Heroes Reborn: Episode 1

The webisodes bridge the gap between the time that Heroes went off the air and now. Clair Bennett has revealed to the world that the Evos(or evolved) exist and many others came forward telling of their powers as well. This had the predictable results. People were scared, but the show doesn’t just assume that people are awful. It presents a real explanation of the fear in the form of a terrorist attack by Evos.

And that’s where the series basically starts. Due to the attack the mutant registration act has been passed and the Evos are being discriminated against. What is worse for them they are being hunted by Chuck and his partner who are intent on killing them. There are also some bigger things hinted at in the first episodes but beyond the Evos being needed for something we don’t get much information on it.

I really enjoyed the first episodes. They did a fairly good job of mixing real life and superpowers which was also one of the draws of Heroes. They also did a far better job of giving the main characters abilities that don’t immediatly break the show. So far as I could tell there was no one able to stop time, gather everyone else’s abilities, become immortal, or the other absurdly powerful things that certain characters in earlier seasons did. This is important because as the show went on that was one of its major problems. It’s hard to keep a show grounded while you have people who can do almost anything. Instead it largely focuses on the best character in any season of heroes Noah Bennett who has no abilities but is more capable than almost anyone.

That isn’t to say that the powers in the show aren’t impressive or useful. We see a number of cool abilities. The two that are best explored are teleportation and the ability to enter a massively multi-player online game. There are also others that will likely show up more and be explained better in the future. But so far as I can see they all have limit and won’t solve every problem. All of the new characters also seemed well thought out and interesting which is important because that was one of the major problems before.

I won’t say I’m hooked on Heroes Reborn, or even completely convinced that it will be good. But if it can continue to take what was good from Heroes and leave behind some of the weaknesses, and weave in a few more of the old characters just for fun, then I think it has the potential to do what’s written on the tin and help heroes to be reborn.

I was as big a fan of heroes as anyone. I didn’t give up in the second or third season and I would have kept watching if it had kept going then. But when I heard it was coming back, while excited, I was a bit unsure. Some of the biggest draws of the best parts of heroes were unlikely to be returning at all and the show had always had some problems. But having watched the webisodes and now the first episode(s) it seems like they recognized some of the problems in the show and addressed them.
The webisodes bridge the gap between the time that Heroes went off the air and now. Clair Bennett has revealed to the world that the Evos(or evolved) exist and many others came forward telling of their powers as well. This had the predictable results. People were scared, but the show doesn’t just assume that people are awful. It presents a real explanation of the fear in the form of a terrorist attack by Evos.
And that’s where the series basically starts. Due to the attack the mutant registration act has been passed and the Evos are being discriminated against. What is worse for them they are being hunted by Chuck and his partner who are intent on killing them. There are also some bigger things hinted at in the first episodes but beyond the Evos being needed for something we don’t get much information on it.
I really enjoyed the first episodes. They did a fairly good job of mixing real life and superpowers which was also one of the draws of Heroes. They also did a far better job of giving the main characters abilities that don’t immediatly break the show. So far as I could tell there was no one able to stop time, gather everyone else’s abilities, become immortal, or the other absurdly powerful things that certain characters in earlier seasons did. This is important because as the show went on that was one of its major problems. It’s hard to keep a show grounded while you have people who can do almost anything. Instead it largely focuses on the best character in any season of heroes Noah Bennett who has no abilities but is more capable than almost anyone.
That isn’t to say that the powers in the show aren’t impressive or useful. We see a number of cool abilities. The two that are best explored are teleportation and the ability to enter a massively multi-player online game. There are also others that will likely show up more and be explained better in the future. But so far as I can see they all have limit and won’t solve every problem. All of the new characters also seemed well thought out and interesting which is important because that was one of the major problems before.

That isn't to say that there are no problems. A couple of the characters need serious development and I felt like the Katana Girl not only had nothing to do with the rest of the episode but was generally just not all that interesting and some of the characters felt a bit too much like comic relief. But these are minor problems that can easily be fixed in future episodes.

Elton GahrSeptember 25, 2015Superhero, heroesComment