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STUDIO: Universal
MSRP: $39.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 482 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Deleted Scenes
Alternate Ending
Featurettes
Commentaries on Every Episode
Web Featurettes
Season Three Preview
The Pitch
It’s like when the annoying hipsters discovered Alan Moore and then tried to explain why they knew more than him.
The Humans
Hayden Panettiere, Jack Coleman, Zachary Quinto, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, Dania Ramirez, Milo Ventimiglia, David Anders, Kristin Bell, George Takei and Ali Larter
The Nutshell
Four months after the explosive showdown at Kirby Plaza, our heroes are coming together. Hiro (Masi Oka) is in Feudal Japan living the stories that his father told him as a child. Claire is hiding from her father and his employers. Sylar is plotting and waiting. Then, there’s the Petrellis and a super virus that threatens humanity and superhumans. What does this all mean? It means that Kristin Bell shows up in a bikini.
Yes, I know! I look like what’s left after Scott Bakula and David Lee Roth have gay sex.
The Lowdown
Heroes: Season 2 is a truncated chapter in the series that tries to redefine superheroics for the ADHD generation. The problem with the story-telling that series Tim Kring is engaging in is that it needs time to unfold. The WGA Strike of 2007-2008 hurt the series by causing it drop subplots that would later end up in Season Three. The Shanti Virus storyline felt rushed, the same goes for Sylar’s search to have his powers returned. Rushing things doesn’t work well when you’re world-building.
It’s like The Last Samurai, but with teleportation. So, it’s just a smidge more historically accurate than The Last Samurai.
This season was about the generational ties between the characters. Primatech Paper served as the launching point for the various happenings that brought our motley band together. We learn who Claire’s real parents are, while we get to see Claire branch out into a mature relationship. Hiro’s adventures in the past brought this all home, as he learned about how his struggles in the modern era are nothing compared to those fought with steel and wit. I wish that more of the season could’ve been dedicated to these fundamentals that Hiro’s arc contained. That’s what the sophomore push is meant to do with genre characters. The audience needs to see that they are growing into their stations and are finding purpose in their lives.
Ladies go crazy for a Horn-Rimmed Glasses man.
What kills this season is the fact that it was so horribly hit by the Writers’ Strike. Too many new characters, too many dangling plotlines and too many forces choices to meet a forced deadline killed any forward development. Pardon the pun, but it’s a lost season. Half-finished thoughts and ideas that never panned out forced the better ideas to the backburner. It must be hard to be a fan of a series that aims for the stars, but merely gets to the back of the room.
Hiro-San, I have your nose. Now, we begin a plotline that stretches out for three episodes too long. In it, we will learn that Sylar had two noses in the past. You will also find out that your nose can travel through time. Stop me, if this seems familiar.
I didn’t come here to slam the show, but I do have something to say. Special care needs to be taken with the grandiose. Too often it is easy to dream big and fall on your face. What I want to see is a series learn and grow from the mistakes made here and build upon what we learned. Hopefully, Hiro’s trip to Feudal Japan will continue to have more reprecussions than just a new sword inscription. If not, then maybe I’ll have to come back in a year’s time and re-adjust my score.
Tim Sale represent!
The Package
The show comes to DVD for its second major release. The episodes seem to be spread out better than the first DVD release. I had many problems with discs becoming dislodged during the first package. The smallest inconveniences can add up to ruining an entertaining show. So, it was nice to see that Universal addressed such issues.
The A/V Quality has also been stepped up. I’ve had the chance to review this season on DVD and Blu-Ray. What impresses me is the extra level of clarity that the standard definition version of Heroes: Season 2 had over its first season. The special features are fun and they help to fill the novice fan in on where the show’s going. Hell, the extended preview of Season 3 got me even more excited to where the show goes with its new villains.
Heroes isn’t perfect, but it was never intended to be. I’m just glad that it’s out there showing the mainstream that comicdom is a lot more than Adam West and Tim Burton. It’s about damn time that the medium I love got equal representation on other mediums. I just wish that it didn’t come via the Honduran Wonder Twins. Rent it for first-timers, long-time fans will want to make the purchase.