'Heroes' Season 2 is Better than Season 1
Don't believe what people are telling you...
This is part one of my Blu-ray review for both "Heroes" Season One and Season Two, both of which hit stores on August 26, 2008. In this part I will discuss my opinion of the story and leave the specs and feature commentary for part two, while touching on a little bit of the special features on the DVD and Blu-ray copies of season two in this part.
From everything I heard concerning the second season of "Heroes" I expected a slow paced and boring return to the world I first found with the DVD/HD DVD release last year. However, don't believe what you have heard. Anyone that says the second season of "Heroes" is no good has it dead wrong. The second season is so much more progressive in terms of character involvement and time spent developing characters. Whereas the first season was more concerned with the end goal of saving the world, the second season has already established the characters and now we just get to sit back and watch them exist in the world that has been created and deal with what results from being "special".
When we last left our heroes Peter Petrelli had just exploded. Luckily he was flown into the atmosphere by his brother, Nathan, in time to save New York. Nathan gets pretty badly banged up and Peter is presumed dead, but is he? Sylar has lost his powers. Claire and her family have moved and are trying to stay below the radar and out of the eye of The Company. Parkman and Suresh are watching after Molly while at the same time trying to infiltrate and take down The Company. Molly is getting frequent visits from the Nightmare Man. Hiro is in 17th century Japan. Niki commits herself to try and get "help" handing off Micah to relatives. Hiro's father Kaito receives an ominous message and so the story begins…
You all caught up? Well guess what, that's just the tip of the iceberg. That may be where we left off, but by the end of the second season you will meet Maya, Alejandro, Adam, Bob, West, Elle and a fleet of other people for you to keep track of. The best thing is how well the writers balance the whole story and gives each character a properly proportioned amount of time.
Where this season gains traction over the previous much loved season is in the exploration of the characters and the resulting use of their powers. That said, this is a more character driven story as opposed to a power driven story. The first season had the singular goal of saving the world whereas now you get the distinct feeling it is more of a philosophical exploration of the roots of the powers seen in the show and the consequences of their existence and use. It's fascinating, but this isn't to say there aren't a few problems.
Claire is increasingly annoying as is her father who really needs to just go away and Hiro appears to be set up to play an increasingly larger role in the story on a whole so I think he is going to be around for some time despite the fact that he too is quite annoying. However, Peter's exploration of his new powers is extremely interesting as is the journey of Sylar and his return to power. These two characters alone typify good vs. evil and their exploration to understand and obtain whether it be power or information is enough to show both sides of the spectrum even if neither one of them is the constant focus of the story.
As Sylar goes about his way to understand why/how he lost his power Peter is trying to figure out how to use his arsenal of powers and to what purpose. Sylar's search to return to who he was is human nature as his Peter's behavior to understand who he is. At the same time Suresh is trying to figure out the scientific end of it all, creating one massive triangle of interest.
Even though Sylar seeks to destroy and cause harm his personal journey of understanding is something audiences can connect with and his lack of concern for others in the process is the trigger that separates him from the show's true hero, Peter. Sure, Sylar has very little screen time, but that only makes his appearances that much more interesting when he shows up. The writers of "Heroes" have figured out the "less-is-more" philosophy and I only hope they stick with it.
Another bonus in season two is the Kristen Bell character Elle. Working for her father at The Company and only interested in pleasing him, Elle has no real identity. In love with her power to control electricity, she first appears as something of a villain, but by the end of the second season you get the feeling she is building up to a climactic change in the third season that could be extremely entertaining and create a shift one way or another giving either good or evil a leg up.
In terms of how the second season found greatness, one of the major benefits was the unintentional circumstance that forced the show to end the season after only 11 episodes. The writers' strike threw a kink in everyone's schedule and "Heroes" got hit hard as they had to completely change the trajectory of the show as it was building to one ultimate ending and had to go with another.
Both the Blu-ray and DVD editions of the second season carry an alternate ending to the eleventh and final episode of the second season called "Powerless". I won't ruin anything that happens, but I will tell you that if you have seen the final episode of the second season the exact opposite of what you have seen is what happens. I am thankful for the writers' strike as I am far interested in the direction the show is going now as opposed to where it would have gone, even if it seems they would have ended up at this point sooner or later as the direction they were going only seemed to be something of a diversion from the actual path of the show. This is why the 13-episodes-a-season shows such as FX's "The Shield" and "Damages" are so well managed. They don't have to fill 24 episodes with fluff in order to get to where they could have gotten in only 13. Perhaps one day the networks will adopt this theory, but I doubt it considering the fact that money rules and 13 episodes of commercials can't make up for what 24 would offer.
Photo: Universal Home Entertainment
Along with the alternate ending you will get a variety of scenes that were filmed for episodes twelve and thirteen, but seeing how the episodes were never completed they serve no purpose… yet. First off, I was surprised at how interesting the scenes were and I also wouldn't be shocked to see the Sylar scenes somehow reused since they don't really play into any kind of actual storyline outside of Sylar getting some more power. One such example is when he comes across someone with impenetrable skin. Obviously he can't slice his head open as he has been known to do. So he improvises, and gets to the guy's brain through his mouth. Gruesome to be sure, and very enjoyable.
This is a show that does a very good job of allowing its viewers to presume what may or may not be going on and the best part of it all is that you actually believe you may have it figured out, at least to one point or another. As secretive as the show is it invites its viewers to figure things out and allows you to play along. I appreciate that and think this show has been made better for it and I can't wait to see what the third season has to offer.
This ends the first part of my Season 2 DVD/Blu-ray review. I will be back tomorrow with Part Two in which I will go over the specs and features of the Blu-ray versions of both Season 1 and Season 2 and the comparative DVD features of Season 2.
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One of the problems I had with season 2 is the feeble attempt to introduce love interests for Peter, Hiro and Claire. While nothing wrong with it, it was just boring.
MINOR SPOILER
Except Hiro's part because he had to turn away from his love, thus fulfilling his role as a hero. He is more concerned about other people, the world then his own happiness.
END
Claire is just bitching all the time and Milo Ventimiglia is very weak actor and after four episodes of him looking at the camera like a confused goldfish it gets boring. But I don't exactly dislike him.
The biggest problem in this season is that while they use more then half of the season to build up the individual characters and stories, they have to end the season in a hurry and disposes of the most interesting new character Adam Monroe. He is a compelling character and they way they end his part is just hurried and lazy. I know the strike had a lot to do with it, but it hurt the season.
Sylar on his quest to get his powers back is interesting as he and Hiro are my favorite characters in the series but Maya, oh God I hate her! She is the most annoying character ever concieved. And here is also a problem with the series. They are introducing to many characters. For every Elle and Adam (good adds) there are Maya, Alejandro and Monica. It's nothing wrong with new characters but there should be good characters.
But it is still a good season, its just comparing to the first one it suffers a litte. The characters are still compelling, the tone and quality is good and while he first half of the season was weak, it really picks it self up at the end and I am really looking forward to the third season.
You bring up good points and I was actually going to mention this in the article, but then I decided not to because I felt I would be making too big an assumption.
I have a feeling the reason some of it began to feel boring was because audiences had to wait a week in between each episode as opposed to watching them back-to-back. I never got bored with any of it and it all moved really quick, but I managed to watch the complete season in only two days instead of over the course of 11 weeks.
This is why I think fans may have a different opinion after watching the season on DVD.
Just a thought.
That might be a reason. I am going to buy both season of Heroes soon and going to see them all again. But back to back viewing is always a much better watch.