When reviewing the last season of Heroes, it makes one
wish one had the powers of the character Hiro Nakamura and travel back
in time. As the series fans know all too well, this series was savagely
truncated by last year’s TV writers strike, reducing the number of
episodes to 11 instead of the standard 24 to 26.
This is compounded by a comment made by creator Tim Kring. He notes
that the show’s first season was about ordinary people finding out they
had extraordinary powers. The second season was going to be about these
now extraordinary people trying to fit in with the ordinary world.
Naturally, there would have been some twists to this simplified
formula, like the first season ender of Nakamura being in 17th Century
Japan, but that would have been half the fun.
To be honest, what hurts is this second season had a lot going for it.
First, it had the momentum of finding out just how the Petrelli
Brothers managed to still be around after their particular way of
saving the world? There was the question of what were they going to do
with Syler? What about Mahinder Suresh’s ongoing research? What cool
sci-fi/fantasy actor to make a guest cameo?
All said, even after the gutting the strike forced on the series, Heroes Season 2 held up pretty well.
One can now see that Kring has an innate ability to pull the absolutely
unexpected out of his hat. Who would have thought Nakamura (Masi Oka)
travel back to the time of his hero Takezo Kensei would have major
implications in the present? More importantly, who’d have thought how
it effected the modern world? The way Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventmiglia)
is run through the paces, and even tied to Nakamura and Kensei (David
Anders) is also pretty sweet. Yes, one would have loved to have learned
how an gaijin wound up becoming the legendary sword saint, but one can
only assume that was one of the casualties of writers strike.
What never ceases to amaze is not just the plotting, but the casting.
One character that really grew was Matt Parkman. As portrayed by Greg
Grunberg, this initially not-too-bright character wises up in an
extremely naturalistic way (considering his circumstances). The
situations Kring dropped Grunberg’s character in could have been
seriously mangled in lesser hands. If this continues, one can see
Parkman becoming the every-viewer hero compared to Oka becoming the
uber-geek’s most relate-able character.
Another stellar performance was provided by Zachary Quinto as Sylar. In
the first season, he was the ultimate boogie man; truly creepy,
seriously dangerous and magnificently evil. During part of the this
second season, when he’s under the thrall of the The Company, he
actually has moments where he’s surprisingly sympathetic. It makes one
wonder what will happen to Sylar when he takes on the role of Spock in
JJ Abram’s retconned Star Trek.
Still, it’s the extra content that makes this box. Besides the expected
“making of” mini-docs and mandatory commentary tracks, this set comes
with some sweet add-ons.
Probably the most important is five or so sequences that might have
been included if not for the strike. Another is an alternative ending
to the episode “Generations,” that would have been quite intriguing in
its own way. If that isn’t enough, there’s a nice fabrication of the
history of Kensei and a quick sneak peak of the upcoming third season
most fans should be already quite aware of.
Still, the big question is what this set would have looked like if the
writers strike hadn’t happened. Fans are anxiously waiting to see what
Kring has come up with for this upcoming season. One can’t help but
think this is due to the incredible work he did with what he had with
this season.
