Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Greg Grunberg, Santiago Cabrera, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Jack Coleman
Series Creator: Tim Kring
Studio: Universal 61104963
Video: 1.78:1 widescreen, 1080p HD
Audio: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, English DD 2.0
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Commentary, Featurettes, U-Control and BD Live Exclusives
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Length: 1008 minutes
Rating: ****
Heroes, Season Two, Blu-ray 4-Disc Set (2008)
Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Greg Grunberg, Kristen Bell, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Jack Coleman
Series Creator: Tim Kring
Studio: Universal 61104964
Video: 1.78:1 widescreen, 1080 HD
Audio: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, English DD 2.0
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Commentary, Featurettes, U-Control and BD Live Exclusives
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Length: 482 minutes
Rating: ****
When the television series Heroes debuted in the 2006-2007 season, it created probably the most buzz of any new show for that year. Its cast of mostly unknowns became instant celebrities, especially Hayden Panettiere, who plays Claire Bennet, the indestructible cheerleader, and Masi Oka, who plays Hiro, the Japanese techno-geek who has the ability to manipulate the space-time continuum, and can also teleport himself just about anywhere. The show attracted steady audiences, not only based on its superb writing and above-average acting, but also on its visual style, which took the series beyond the usual, campy comic-book-superhero presentation and almost into the realm of mainstream drama. Some of the CGI special effects are a little less than state-of-the-art, but that can easily be excused by the often hasty production schedule of a weekly television series. The five discs contain the 73-minute pilot episode, plus the twenty-two episodes that comprised Season One.
Season One focuses heavily on exposition, where the various superheroes gain knowledge of their respective powers, and then slowly begin to gain an awareness of each other. Hayden Panettiere’s character, cheerleader Claire Bennet, begins to test the bounds of her indestructible nature, and also begins to use her special gift to help others in dire need, such as saving a firefighter trapped in a burning building. Masi Oka is also particularly entertaining as Hiro; he’s a fan of comic books, and often relates his experiences through comic book metaphors. When his best friend Ando asks him where he learned how to teleport himself through the space-time continuum, he retorts “X-Men No. 143, when Kitty Pryde time travels!” There’s also artist Isaac Mendez (played by Santiago Cabrera), whose paintings not only portend the future, but also illustrates a comic book, Ninth Wonders!, that seems to regularly reveal the powers of all the respective superheroes that populate the series.
And, of course, there’s a lot of rather sinister goings on by “The Company,” whose main contact, Noah Bennet, also happens to be cheerleader Claire’s dad! As the series progresses, we’re also introduced to Sylar (played by Zachary Quinto), a serial killer of sorts, whose game is tracking down the superheroes, then assuming their powers upon their demise. He’s quite possibly the scariest bad guy on network television in ages! The various heroes have become aware of Sylar and his plans, and as Season One reaches its cliffhanger ending, were left with a great deal of uncertainty as to the outcome of their skirmish with Sylar and fate of everyone involved.
Season Two was shortened by the 2007-2008 writers’ strike, and therefore only 11 episodes were in the can before the season abruptly ended. Season Two ties up many loose ends left by Season One regarding the various characters, and also introduces a new subplot. The mysterious “Company” is not only actively engaged in shadowing and researching the superheroes, but also with the production of a super virus, the “Shanti” virus, and the heroes of course band together to try to help avert a global pandemic. A striking new bad guy is also introduced, Elle Bishop (played by Kristen Bell), who is a daughter of one of the principals in “The Company,” and has devastatingly effective electrical powers.
Critically and commercially, Season Two fell victim to the all-too-common “sophomore slump,” with not nearly the critical praise and a serious lack of viewer interest, and the show’s slumping ratings reflected that. The writing was weaker than in the media-darling first season, and the characters just didn’t seem quite as compelling as they did the first time around. Of course, much of the blame can easily be placed at the feet of the Writer’s Guild, with the strike-shortened season contributing to much of the half-baked appearance of Season Two. There’s a significant buzz, however, about the upcoming Season Three, so it’ll be interesting to see if Heroes can pull itself up by its bootstraps and make us all take another look at Season Two in a more flattering light.
From a technical standpoint, both seasons deliver knockout presentations on Blu-ray, easily besting the already excellent HD presentation of the series on NBC television. Heroes is shot in HD, and as I mentioned before, the less comic-bookish artistic direction the series producers have taken gives the show some real dramatic heft, and the visual look of the show is quite impressive. And the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 provides a smashingly immersive audio experience; the Season One disc includes a bonus featurette with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman – yes, Wendy and Lisa of Prince fame – and they provide a lot of insight into the excellent music treatments that the series is given. And both seasons are crammed with extras – in addition to the usual array of commentary, featurettes and deleted scenes, there’s also BD Live and BD Profile 1.1 content. The picture-in-a-picture content (Universal calls this “U-Control”) provided an amazing array of viewing options (that should easily satisfy the most demanding fan); however, as of the release date, there wasn’t a whole lot available via the BD Live option – Universal says that content is on the way.
For the true fan, these packages are incredibly comprehensive, and offer a really interesting (if lengthy) viewing experience. And with the magnificent technical presentation taken into consideration, I have to give these sets four stars – now let’s just hope the upcoming Season Three can right the somewhat listing ship of Season Two! Still, very highly recommended!
— Tom Gibbs
