Heroes Reborn 1×01/02
Heroes was one of the first shows I honestly got into that engulfed me and had me hooked. It was unfortunate that the series had to end the way it did because it started off so strong. Almost 10 years since it first aired, the show I loved is back with some new bells and whistles. For scheduling purposes or whatever other reasons there may be, not all the original characters are coming back this time around. The main one that’s been the focus of the premiere is none other than Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman). It makes sense considering we were introduced to this world through his eyes; and now we get to see these stories with him again. Fair warning should be had that spoilers will follow. Noah survived the attack on Primatech that caused the divide between evos and humans. He seemingly can’t remember much of what happened after the explosion and older Heroes fans will instantly think of the Haitian. This is only confirmed when he meets a man named Quentin who says he knows the truth of what happens and is wondering why Noah doesn’t know any better. This pushes Noah to dig and he does find his old friend working some dummy company. However, things go south real quick as the Haitian tries to kill Noah under his orders! A fight ensues and we then get an ominous message before the Haitian breathes his last.This does the job of raising more questions than answers considering the history these two had. Needless to say Noah goes on trying to figure why he would have his own memory wiped. This leads him back to Odessa and ultimately, Primatech; I’ll get to that in a bit since some other characters tie up to that. Insert Luke and Joanne Collins (Zachary Levi and Judith Shekoni) who lost a child during the attack and blame all evos for it; so they go on a mission to wipe them from the planet. By the end of the premiere Luke had the better writing/development while Joanne just felt like something they threw in there. There wasn’t much to them this episode besides that they were introduced as evo hunters then one evo used his powers to transport them somewhere. That somewhere was Primatech and they almost run into Noah once they escape from there. Turns out Primatech was still functioning after the blast and the pair of them were able to still files on all known evos. As they were leaving it seemed like Luke had second thoughts about why they were doing what they were. Other characters were introduced as well but they didn’t have enough screen time to establish their purpose; it was more probably to show who’s gonna be important later on this season. Tommy (Robbie Kay) was the kid who teleported Luke and Joanne to the room in Primatech. He’s been on the run with his mom for years, but there’s a chance that he can live normally in this town for now; due in part to this mystery penny man. There are two other humans who know what Tommy can do but it seems like they’ll be his confidants for now. Next we have Carlos Gutierrez (Ryan Guzman) who might just be human who had family that was evo. Due to a death in the family he inherited his cousins vigilantism to help evos escape to a better life. It’s gonna be interesting to see if he takes up the mantle of his cousin and help the evos as much as possible. Then to round out the main crew so far we have Miko and Ren (Kiki Sukezane and Toru Uchikado). Initially Ren was some ultra creepy dude who thought he stumbled upon some secret in a game. However, they redeemed him fairly well and the partnership of the two reminds me of Hiro and Ando; with Ren being the latter. Miko is the main person who has the most potential I think. Mostly because I think the father she’s trying to save is none other than Hiro himself. I’m not even sure if she has a power because her main deal was that when she grabbed a sword given to her, she gets teleported to a game world. So it could be the sword that has the power and it’s whoever wields it that it transports. However, when she sheaths the sword or dies in the game, she gets transported back to the real world that corresponds to the game world. This is the basic gist that they crammed into the first two episodes. It felt sloppy at times or rushed in some areas and drawn out in others, but I’m willing to look past those as growing pains until the show hits its stride. As far as acting and other technical aspects I felt like most everyone did their jobs well and were written well. Some acting felt forced or one dimensional, but I’m willing to forgive for now. In order for this iteration of Heroes to succeed they can’t afford to jump around between storylines for too long; they also can’t appear to rush things. There’s that perfect balance that this has to strike for a project this ambitious to be deemed a success. I’m hoping the 13 episode arc will help it stay focused.