HEROES (a review by David Hontiveros)
***WARNING : REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

It’s the Friday before Heroes’ return to the airwaves and I am stoked.

What can I say? As a comic geek, it was only natural that I was gonna give Heroes a look-see when it popped up, and what I got from the pilot was a brilliant surprise.

Here was a very human show about characters who were quite a bit more than human. This wasn’t a show about codenames and powers (just one of the sins—in a long list—of X-Men: The Last Stand), but about people who suddenly realize they’re no longer as ordinary as they once presumed they were.

As much as I’m loving Heroes though, I will cop to the fact that I do feel there are too many characters running around (any ensemble show always runs the risk of overpopulating the screen), so much so that the ones I really like, I love, and the ones I’m less than interested about, I pretty much think are a waste of good air time.

I’ll try and stay on the positives, shall I?

Yeah, Hiro’s the breakout character of the show, and we all know why, right? He’s readily identifiable to any comic geek out there, and is the one person who has been the most enthusiastic about the discovery of his powers. There is a certain infectious positivity to Hiro that is a joy to watch, and Masi Oka is doing an excellent job of giving the role so much more humanity than mere comedy relief (which, let’s face it, is a major function of Hiro’s character).
Then there’s Claire, who has, over the course of 11 episodes, become one of my favorites. And those moments when Hayden Panettiere displays an uncanny maturity in her performance and I need to forcibly remind myself that she isn’t even 18…. Well, those moments make me love the character of Claire even more…

And yeah, Mohinder’s clearly the Prof. X figure, but he’s the character who is at once on the outside (for being the non-powered human), and at the center of the story (thanks to his father’s research). Mohinder is history’s (and humanity’s) witness to this singular moment in our race’s evolution.

I should also point out that I loved Eden . (And yeah, I was immediately hooked on her because Nora Zehetner did such an amazing job on Rian Johnson’s fantastic Brick, but Eden the character quickly became a point of fascination for me as well, with a power that had so much possibilities, and a past I was hungry to uncover.) So, seeing her die (presumably she’s dead) in ep11 (“Fallout”) was a great big bummer. (And the way she died seemed to be one of those “decisions-so-stupid-you-know-the-character-only-made-them-so-the-writers-could-bump-them-off” actions, it just really niggles at me like nobody’s business…)

But hey, I’m trying to stay on the positives…

So… just a few more days to go…

And yes, Peter’s discovery that he could very well be the cause of the impending nuclear explosion was a good cliffhanger, but hey, hearing the Haitian speak (and what exactly he said to Claire) has to go down as one of the great Heroes moments thus far…

Till next time, save the cheerleader, save the world