Héroes

Season One was excellent, but the writer's strike Mid-Season Two made for a clumsy unanticipated finale. Unfortunately, the series suffered as a result and never fully recovered with many writing inconsistencies that followed. My rating reflects the goodwill and potential based on the first season and took -1 per season that followed.

Heroes was a superhero show before all the Marvel and DC shows took over. While it's not as good as the shows we get now (at least most of them that is), it was still a solid series...especially the first 2 seasons. After that the quality went down drastically but was still watchable. It was about ordinary people all over the world discovering they developed super powers. There are a bunch of separate stories that all come together to prevent a catastrophic future. The show was really popular when it first came out, so much so they tried to bring it back years after it went off the air with Heroes: Reborn. Do yourself a favor and avoid the reboot at all costs because it was awful. This original Heroes though is absolutely watchable.

Nice premise, modern-family oriented with just enough edge to keep it interesting. For prime-time network its an ambitious undertaking and very entertaining. For a while..... Sure, the premise is pure fantasy and whimsical, but after a while, it become commonplace so they had to stretch it beyond acceptance.

We get so many back stories and flashbacks, time-jumping with endless new characters thrown in, it gets muddy fast.

Everything that needed to be said should have ended by season-2, but you know the story, NBC enjoys its ad-revenues so they beat this one to death, heavily over-played and labored."Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" was great premise and it was all this series needed.

In season-3 things start to get darker and mean-spirited, the characters become more unlikable, and if I have to hear Claire's father say one more time" I was doing it to protect the family" I was going to throw a brick into my set. Everybody betrays each others trust, yet they constantly say: "trust me." In equal annoyance was the character Hiro. His wimpish-ways were cute for a little while, but they started to get on my nerves, and the music Wendy and Lisa (of Prince fame) composed/implemented was kind of cliche'd Japanese soundbites that played every time Hiro and Ando had a scene (until season 4). The writer(s) made Hiro's character one big Asian cliche. By the end of the 4th season I was just waiting to see who would be killed(written)-off to put me out my misery. Recap: 1st-2 seasons YES, seasons 3 &4- NO! The series gets yanked before the story resolves,so be warned, before you invest all of this time.

I'm writing this review now even though I haven't seen an episode since it got canceled almost 15 years ago. My brother and I were recently talking about this show and it drudged up some old memories I've had for this show, both good and bad. The good: the first season was brilliant. I remember early reviews and word of mouth talking how about how this show was going to be a classic. And it might have if the quality box the first season carried over to the rest. I didn't hate the other seasons, it just wasn't as good as the first. It has an original feel for a superhero show. It didn't have any costumes or anything like that, it was ordinary people reacting like real people who were getting super powers. Some good and some bad. If you're a fan of this genre then give this a try because it's worth a watch.

I am writing after a mere 4 episodes in season one and I probably have nothing to say that has not been said by others in terms of praise and admiration. Still, writing this review 13 or so years after it ended, I am aware of the various doom and gloom disappointments in the show as it progressed. And I am here to either defend this or to heap additional blame. For years if not decades, the Hollywood habit has been to destroy beauty. I am not talking about sucking franchises dry with woke agendae, although that certainly is one of the symptoms. I am talking about the deliberate or accidental process of adding needless complexity, darkness, conflict, and unhappiness of all kinds. This even happens, remarkably, with sitcoms. It happens in every genre. But Heroes was destined for this destruction from its inception, because Hollywood hates virtue. What is most interesting about this process is that Hollywood will actually break its own craftsmanship rules, ie, continuity, in order to pursue the goal. Whether this is laziness, stupidity, or contempt for the consumer probably doesn't matter. From Young Sheldon to Game of Thrones, from New Girl to House to House of Cards to Cheers to Friends, this mechanism runs from fairly subtle to brutally obvious. I don't know when this started but I don't think, for instance, that Bonanza pulled this crap. In more recent times, Big Bang may have actually reversed the formula, moving from sad selfish characters to radically improved versions of themselves.

Anyway, most say that Heroes started well and couldn't maintain. Some say it pulled out of the nosedive in later seasons.

I shall see.