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Who can forget that intriguing tagline – “Save the cherleader, save the world”?
It’s been nine years since NBC’s Heroes burst onto the scene and quickly flamed out, over-extending its stay by about two years (granted, Season Two was badly hindered by the writers strike of 2007 from which it never really recovered). The show bled viewers and went off the air after a 19-episode fourth season in 2010, so many who were still fans of the show were quite stunned when NBC surprised everyone by teasing a new series, Heroes Reborn, during last year’s Super Bowl with very little information.
We eventually learned the show would be a 13-episode “event series” with a beginning, middle and end (although should ratings hold for the rest of the series close to what the premiere brought in, we can expect a follow-up at some point, perhaps taking the anthology series approach with different characters each season … as long as they keep HRG around). We learned that Jack Coleman would reprise his role as Noah Bennett, aka HRG (Horn-rimmed Glasses Guy). Zachary Levi was announced as a new cast member, followed by many returnees from the original. Except that cheerleader, who was played by Hayden Panetierre, now tied up on ABC’s Nashville.
And that seems to be the jumping off point for the new series which has aired three episodes thus far (the two-hour premiere was actually two episodes back-to-back). In Heroes, the cheerleader Claire Bennett discovered she had amazing powers — she could heal herself from any injury, rendering her indestructible. But, since she’s not available for the new series, we learn right from the start that she’s dead. The lingering question is … how did she die? On June 13th one year ago (in the Heroes universe), a gathering was taking place in Claire’s hometown of Odessa, Texas. Evos (Evolved Humans) and regular folk were coming together to celebrate society’s acceptance of the Evos. Of the thousands in attendance, Noah is seen as is Luke and Joanne Collins (Levi and Judith Shekoni) and their son, who is also an Evo. A dark shadow from something above creeps up on the event and there is an explosion, killing almost everyone … except Noah, Luke and Joanne.
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A year later, Noah is leading a new life under an assumed name, still mourning and questioning how is indestructible daughter died, but no real memory of what really happened that day or soon afterwards. Luke and Joanne have forged a different path in life, turning themselves into assassins vowing to kill every Evo on the planet as revenge for their son’s death. But, Noah is contacted by a jittery man named Quentin Frady (Henry Zebrowski) who worked for the Renautus Corporation, the company that bought Primatech, which Bennett worked for in the original series (a paper company which was a front for an organization rounding up the special humans). Quentin has information which jogs Noah’s memory enough that he goes on a mission to find out the truth about his daughter, and why all of the Evos are suddenly disappearing.
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Luke and Joanne are leaving a trail of bodies behind them, first taking out a clandestine meeting of Evos which resulted in them being teleported to a strange room with no doors, windows or light switches. Teenager, Tommy Clarke (Robbie Kay), an Evo himself who left the meeting before the murder spree, was nearly killed as well but sent them away with his power. Tommy, however, has no idea where things or people go when he sends them away. He learns later that whatever he is thinking of at the time is where the objects go, so the Collinses ended up back at the old Primatech facility where Tommy was once a subject. They eventually figure a way out, kill more people in the process (the facility isn’t as dormant as it seems), but Luke begins to question their mission. Haven’t they done enough at this point? Where do they go from here, and does Luke have his own secret?
The first episode, “Brave New World,” was a bit of a slog to get through. A lot of expository information had to be delivered and a ton of new characters had to be introduced, including Evos and humans alike: Casper Abraham (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a man who is protecting Tommy by erasing him from the memories of those he encounters; Miko Otomo (Kiki Sukezane), a videogame character come to life; Carlos Gutierrez (Ryan Guzman), a military hero with his own problems and a brother who, he learns, has been helping Evos escape to Canada in the guise of a masked hero (think Mexican wrestler); Erika Kravid (Rya Kihlstedt), head of Renautus, who is about to unveil a new gadget called E.P.I.C. which can locate Evos anywhere in the world; Molly Walker (Francesca Eastwood), an Evo who holds the key to Noah’s lost memory and is also the key to making E.P.I.C. work; and returning favorite The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis), who wiped Noah’s memory at his request, and then also attempted to kill Noah – again at his request – if he came around snooping for answers. We’ll also see a few more originals including Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), and Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) before the series ends. And it could be entirely possible that Claire isn’t dead and Hayden Panetierre could make a cameo, say , in the final episode (though this is just speculation on my part).
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The second episode, “Odessa,” finally got the ball rolling a bit, focusing more on Tommy trying to adjust to life in a new town and trying to learn who he can and cannot trust when his powers are discovered, while Noah and Quentin venture back to Odesssa to retrieve the information Noah believes will help him remember what happened. By episode three, “Under the Mask,” things were coming to a head as we meet Molly Walker, trying to scam a scam artist out of his gambling winnings so she can get away and go into hiding. Noah and Quentin learn that something is about to go down in Midian, Colorado at the Renautus headquarters, and they end up there at just about the same time Molly is bring brought in. She refuses to help Noah and tries to run, but the Renautus goons take her down and attach her to a machine, as she is the power source for E.P.I.C.
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The third hour cliffhanger leaves us with a lot of questions, which is good because you always want something to make you want to come back for another hour. Can Noah and Quentin save Molly, or will E.P.I.C. be the downfall of the Evos? What exactly happened to Luke, first at the diner when he cauterized a rare steak he was cutting and then outside the hotel afterwards? Will Carlos adopt his brother’s persona and carry on with his Evo Underground Railroad? Who is Miko’s father, the man who gave her the samurai sword? Could it be Hiro? What was going on in the bowels of the ruins of the old Primatech building? Is Tommy the key to saving the world? Is Claire really dead? Will the series answer all of our questions by the end, or will it fall apart again?
Hopefully, the answer to the last question is yes, we will get a resolution. That’s the point of making a limited-run series. And while the show itself is very well put together, some of the actors leave much to be desired. Zebrowski is playing Quentin so broadly in the first few episodes that it seems he thinks he’s doing a Heroes parody. There is something about Shekoni that just rubs me the wrong way, but perhaps I can chalk that up to good acting because I don’t think we’re supposed to have any sympathy for her ruthless character. It’s just a very mixed bag as far as the acting goes, and that could be a problem over the course of the next ten episodes. But, so far I’m intrigued and interested to see how this all plays out. Hopefully they don’t screw it all up.
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