Was one of the first unequivocally good superhero tv shows worth revisiting after its time had come and gone?
Long ago when the concept of shared live action universes was a pipe dream at best but after “Smallville” and “Birds of Prey” tried and failed to bring about a quality superhero drama for the modern age, there was a little underdog show on NBC called “Heroes” that caught the country off guard.
“Heroes” told the story of a group of ordinary people eventually finding their way into a grander conspiracy surrounding the secret scientific discovery of the evolution of the human genome which manifests as extraordinary abilities evident in a few gifted people. These gifted humans come to terms with their powers while eventually becoming key figures in transpiring events that may change the course of history for better or worse.
Although not without its flaws, the first season of “Heroes” served as a powerful deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of the superhero genre, telling an intriguing mystery with unpredictable twists and turns grounded by fascinating cast of characters brimming with humanity, coming together in a powerful and organically paced plot with little to no fat to trim.
Unfortunately, every season to follow failed to take note of what worked about said season, resulting in what would ultimately feel like a bad soap opera ripping off even worse comic book ideas which would culminate in its ultimate cancellation.
“Heroes: Reborn” drops the convoluted and melodramatic character plotlines and goes right back to square one, featuring an entirely new cast, with a few familiar faces sprinkled about, and entirely new mystery building off of the status quo of where the show’s final season left off.
The result thus far has sadly become a case of new does not equal better, as it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes for “Heroes: Reborn” to become just as stupid and convoluted as its predecessor.
Admittedly, you can never truly judge a show by its pilot but at a time when superhero television program is on the rise with quality contenders across the spectrum of tones, is “Heroes: Reborn’s” worn out approach really acceptable today as its later seasons barely were several years ago?
The story this time around revolves around the fallout of “Heroes’” final season in which the existence of superhumans, referred to now as Evos, has been revealed to the world at large. After several years of initial friction, Humans and Evos hold a summit in Texas in order to collaborate with one another and finally achieve peace. Unfortunately, a terrorist bombing that wipes out the town results in Evos becoming even more distrusted and the decision by authorities to find and jail them all.
In this dangerous political climate, Noah Bennet discovers roughly one year later that the attack may not have exactly been as it seems and sets out to uncover the truth behind events that have led to the nightmarish reality that everybody now lives in, including Tommy, a teenage Evo that desperately wants to return to a normal life, a couple carrying out a genocide campaign against Evos to avenge the death of their child at the summit, a Japanese gamer that uncovers a link to real world events in his game, and Carlos Gutierrez, who seeks to give hope to the oppressed Evos by adopting the title of a costumed crime fighter.
While individual aspects of these story may sound promising in theory, they unfortunately fall flat in execution thanks to a single key difference that sets this apart from the lone great season of the franchise.
“Heroes: Reborn’s” is clearly attempting a back to basics approach, evident in the new status quo, fresh character cast, and an effort to shroud the endgame direction of the story in as much mystery as possible. On a conceptual level however, this approach is sadly unraveled by the new status quo.
The first season of “Heroes” was praised for its diverse cast of fully relatable characters that found themselves in situations that were way over their heads. Viewers were intrigued by what would unfold next because so much of the world and the way people interacted felt exceedingly real despite the exaggerations of the subject matter. In “Heroes: Reborn” however, the scenarios range from cliché and done to death to flat out unrelatable, simply because the set up of the world feels alien compared to the one that we live in today.
A case could have been made for Evos existing as a persecuted minority with limited rights in the same way that minorities of all sorts have been treated by a system of majority control, such as a Muslim’s expression of religion being repressed by a conservative community, or police violence enacted upon African Americans. In execution however, the communistic overtones of them being seized and jailed concentration camp style is so over the top and cartoonish with such little development that it would have looked out of place even in an X-Men comic of the 70s and 80s.
All sense of relatability is more or less tossed out of the window in favor of tried and worn comic book tropes desperately attempting to show off a comic book atmosphere but without the confidence modern shows such as “The Flash” or “Daredevil” carry, resulting in a show that seems to want to appeal to the superhero crowd but doesn’t have a healthy respect or love for the material that their genre is meant to work with. The results depict what the first season probably would have felt like were its development far less organic and featuring lesser talent.
And this is to say nothing of the execution of the actual stories themselves. Tommy’s cast of characters turn in performances so wooden you’d think they were auditioning for a high school drama club play and to call the Evo hunting couple of Luke and Joanne cartoonish would be insulting to a medium capable of delivering performances far more subtle and nuanced than the embarrassing direction that they are guided towards onscreen.
While the Japanese story is bizarrely conceived and left dangling with no resolution by episode’s end, the only thread that manages to escape unmarred by the contrived concept of the series is the Gutierrez plot line.
Ryan Guzman’s offers a solid performance as a man who only wants to use his abilities to make a better life for his family, who despite their ultimate love of him, ostracize him for his life choices. Carlos’ arc thus far has been gripping, relatable, gritty, fully functional within the boundaries of the setting itself, and injects the series with some more of the emotion and raw humanity that it so desperately needs. It easily puts the other stories to shame, comes the closest to recapturing the magic of that first season and could have been the focus of a show in and of itself.
I wish I could say that “Heroes: Reborn” deserves the benefit of the doubt for a few more episodes to see if things could develop a tad more, it is at this point that I must ask what the purpose of its existence must be beyond NBC’s attempt to cash in on television’s budding superhero trend?
The premiere demonstrates the same lack of understanding of its own genre tropes that sunk it the first time, proving that the showrunners have learned very little in the interim, yet is making an effort to compete with contemporary alternatives that have managed to not only play up their comic book roots but embrace them and even successfully sell the style to the mainstream. The painful attempts at comic book-esque pandering demonstrated here feels more like a throwback to shows like “Smallville,” which were barely acceptable when they were current.
Although the first season of “Heroes” continues to hold up solidly, it would appear at this point that the series is tragically destined to be a one hit wonder. Even if “Heroes: Reborn” held a lot of potential that it could have actualized on, the final result serves as the constant reminder of the fact that there are too many other shows doing what they are currently, and doing it at least 2 times better.
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