HEROES - SEASON ONE (2006)

Heroes - Season One (2006)

Actors: Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Digital Sound, NTSC
Language: English, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 7
Studio: Universal
Run Time: 1035 minutes

 

Movie: * * * *
Disc: * * * 

Heroes is one of those TV shows that was met by both critical acclaim and instant audience acceptance — the premiere episode on NBC attracted 14.3 million viewers, receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama in the past five years!

The hype is easy to understand. Obviously green lit after the success of Lost, it too boasts a huge, fresh-faced cast but with the occasional genre actor such as George Takei (Mr Sulu of the original Star Trek) and Christopher Ecclestone (Dr Who) thrown in for geek cred. The plot takes more than just a page from Alan Moore’s epic Watchmen graphic novel and is somewhat reminiscent of the recent Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, The Lost Room. Heroes is a huge sprawling page turner of a graphic novel come to glorious life even though it follows the early Smallville dictum of no tights and capes (flying is however allowed).

A diverse group of people spread across the globe slowly become aware of the fact that they possess superpowers. A Japanese salary man for instance can teleport by bending time and space itself. In Texas a cheerleader discovers that she simply cannot die despite whatever injuries she may undergo (in one scene she repeatedly hurls herself from a tall structure). An aspiring congress man finds that he can fly, an LAPD cop that he can read minds, and so on. The plot for the series is kicked off when comic book artist in New York discovers that his paintings actually depict the future — and one of the paintings is that of New York being destroyed in a nuclear explosion. In the background is a super-powered serial killer named Sylar who is killing off other super-powered persons in a particularly gruesome fashion and a shadowy U.S. government agency lacking in moral scruples.

What makes the series appealing is its clever plotting, slowly peeling away layers of story episode by episode to reveal new characters and twists as it goes along. Miss one episode and you might end up missing whole plot points. This single narrative — popularised by shows such as 24 and the new Battlestar Galactica — makes Heroes particularly suited for DVD viewing at home. There’s no waiting for next week’s episode, merely select the next episode from the menu. Also appealing is that Heroes manages to remain compulsive viewing even though it has no X-Files background “mythos” or Lost-style plot obscurity. This is actually strength: unlike Lost viewers never feel frustrated by onscreen proceedings, feeling that the scriptwriters are never going to going to resolve anything.

Like the recent Battlestar Galactica, there is a moral ambiguity to many of the show’s characters. Few of the characters are outright “good” or “bad” and guessing at their motives make for entertaining viewing.

THE DISC: Extras include interviews, mini documentaries and extensive profiles, including:

WORTH IT? Oh yes.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy it.