Few shows in the history of network television have been as highly acclaimed and subsequently ridiculed by nerds as the Heroes the original series. Without going into too much detail, it started off as a phenomenon and declined quickly into the abyss of murky plot devices, disappointing story lines, and seesaw character development.
Many have questioned creator Tim Kring’s ability to bring the show back from the dead, and make it an overwhelming success once more. Having watched the first two episodes, I’m a firm believer that he is on the right track but I am doing my absolute best to reserve any serious judgement at this point. Heroes Reborn is still in it’s infancy being only two shows into it’s 13 episode mini-series run, but to say I’m excited to see how it unfolds would be an understatement.
There are many new faces this time around, gone (at least for now) are many of those who’s character development faltered in the later seasons of the original series. In their stead we are given new and interesting individuals who are clean slates for Kring to etch on.
Tommy Clarke (Robbie Kay) is my favorite so far, a young impressionable teen who has already spent years of his life either imprisoned and being researched, or on the run because of his abilities. He is still figuring out his powers, and maybe more importantly who he is, or wants to be, as a person. His motivations are simple, he wants to be a normal kid, and protect his mother, but the implications of those wishes for a child who can teleport anything anywhere are anything by simple.
We are also given new characters who either have no powers, or are just finding out they have them. Luke Collins (the venerable Zachery Levi), and his wife Joanne (Judith Shekoni) are among my least favorite characters. Their back story is a rehashing of Noah Bennet’s with some slight changes. They had a son, who was an Evo (evolved human with powers) whom died in a terrorist attack on a human/evo summit. The attack is being blamed on a familiar face, Mohinder Suresh, but that is already widely contested. Rather than dealing with the grief in any type of constructive way, they decided to go on a killing spree to eliminate evo’s from the world. So because their son died, they begin killing everyone like their son … makes perfect sense </sarcasm>.
Their back story isn’t the only problem, Luke and Joanne are extremely conflicted from the get go. Luke is noticeably disturbed by the gruesome things they have done, while Joanne is clearly ok with being a murdering psychopath, even going so far as to attempt the murder of non-evo children to cover her tracks. Each seem unwilling to address these issues with each other, opting to sit in awkward silence brooding and crying inside like childish emo teenagers. It makes for terribly predictable and painfully obvious events unfolding, their segments are tough for me to watch honestly.
Luckily for all of us, the main story line makes up for two underwhelming characters. Noah Bennet (jack Coleman) is back and again is the central focal point. He has created a plan to save the world from impending danger, but his memory has been wiped so he must attempt to pick up the pieces before it is too late. And that ladies and gents is what you call a compliment sandwich. Here is hoping Heroes Reborn continues down the path it is on and lives up to it’s origins from season one of the original series.