Heroes Achieves ‘Redemption’
This review contains major spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of Heroes season 4.
In early Summer it appeared that there would be a muted Heroes presence at the industry’s pep rally Comic Con International. For some this was no surprise, after all, Heroes had seen some pretty dire ratings, the much touted third season still failed to win back the love the show found in season one, and then lost in season two, despite a late flourish.
In the event, NBC and Heroes came out swinging at SDCC. The green space on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. was taken over by a Heroes carnival to promote the show; the official fanclub plied their members with signings and freebies and the panel boasted six series regulars as well as all four new characters for the new season, and creator Tim Kring. The extended sizzle reel was greeted with rapturous applause and suddenly, it seemed Heroes was off the critical list.
Of course there is the small matter of the actual show. On Monday night NBC aired a two hour premiere introducing Volume Five : Redemption. At the end of the last series the nefarious Building 26 was brought down, Nathan Petrelli was killed off by Sylar and Angela had Matt Parkman force Nathan’s memories and visage onto the villain as a doppelganger was burned. ‘Redemption’ is supposed to answer three major questions posed by season three : will Sylar emerge from the prison of Nathan’s body and wreak a bloody revenge? Will the new Company work and where do the heroes fit in? Will Hiro’s terminal illness lead to him having anything interesting to do? The premiere begins to answer these questions, and eases us back in whilst also introducing new characters.
‘Orientation’ and ‘Jump, Push, Fall’, the two episodes which make up the premiere do a great job of combining the new and the familiar. So how do you relive the glory of Season One on the third attempt?
1. Clear up the loose ends and get to the stories fast
Luckily, episode one achieves this pretty quickly. ‘Nathan’ is already starting to realise that he’s different in some way – there’s the fact that he can shoot electricity from his hands for a start, not to mention the fact that he NO LONGER LIKES SUSHI! (I know, brace yourselves for the denouement of that plot point). Claire, Peter, Noah and Tracey are adjusting to their new lives as college student, paramedic, crazy divorced guy and vengeful ice queen. Hiro is dying, but he realises he can go back and fix all of his worst mistakes before he kicks the bucket, therefore giving his life purpose again.
As if to underline the fact that this is NOT season three, Danko is immediately killed off by an awesome new character, the super fast Edgar who likes to battle with knives. Seems Danko is responsible for the death of the patriarch of a group of super powered carnival folk including Samuel, an earth mover, Lydia whose tattoos tell the future , and an ailing timebender who Samuel is looking to replace with our Hiro.
2. Make new characters interesting and watchable
The new characters slot in beautifully – they don’t have to be shoe-horned into the existing stories because Danko has unwittingly moved them to act by killing the man who has kept them isolated and transient. Robert Knepper is superb as the creepy Samuel and Ray Park immediately makes his mark in a fantastically rendered super-speed knife fight with Peter Petrelli. Over on campus, Claire’s new friend Gretchen has just the right mix of nerd and rebel to spark the cheerleader’s interest, and anyone who saw the sizzle reel for season four knows that these two are going to grow especially close over the course of the season.
Robert Knepper (Samuel), Ray Park (Edgar), and Dawn Oliveri (Lydia) are three of the Heroes newbies
3. Concentrate on emotion over spectacle
Too many times in previous seasons Heroes has sacrificed character development for Big Events. Sure the plane crash of last season was a great moment, but with so many characters involved there was no real emotional depth to be had. Far and away the best guest star of the season was Andre Royo as Steven Canfield, the man who could create black holes. His separation from his family and his growing sense of isolation and loss of identity because of his incarceration in Level Five were moving and real, as was his eventual suicide. When the Heroes writers allow their characters to tell us how they feel, they strike gold, because at its heart Heroes is about people, not powers.
One of the best scenes of the premiere was Noah Bennet failing to adapt to bachelorhood. He burns his instant meal for one and ends up eating cereal for dinner as his fridge only contains mustard and milk. He calls his ex-wife Sandra and a strange man answers the phone. We feel for him, and so when he’s found later on by Peter, bleeding out from knife wounds, we’re engaged. Likewise when Matt Parkman succumbs to the ghost of Sylar telling him to break his cold turkey and use his power to get rid of a young love rival, our shoulders drop along with his.
Those who may have abandoned Heroes after season two will find it possible to come back, forgive and forget. And those fans who stuck with the show can feel vindicated. Heroes has re-discovered its heart, and as long as it continues to see its characters as living, breathing humans, the spectacle will not distract from the storytelling.
