Heroes : Season 2 [Blu-Ray]

By Clint Morris

Now you can be confused – in high-definition!

I’ve got to be honest here. As much as I feel like I should be bowing to its ingenuity and boldness – and at times, I do – and as much as I expected to be sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for each episode to come around, I haven’t fallen head over heels for “Heroes” like I thought I would’ve. Quite frankly, I could easily miss an episode and not care less.

And it is surprising that I say that. Why? “Heroes” has all the ingredients of a good, gripping weekly drama… but more so, it’s a superhero series! What could be better?! Well, it seems something with a little more gusto, and something that moves a bit quicker.

“Heroes” is a bit like a metropolitan train – it speeds up, then slows down, then speeds up, then slows down, then comes to a complete stop… before leisurely getting going again.

The show kicked off rather intriguingly, setting up some great storylines and characters, but then got bogged down in waffle and inane sub-plots (did anyone else find the whole thing with rather dull?) that might’ve worked… in season 9, once we’ve gotten to know everyone more and there’s nothing much left to explore. It just seems that there’s a lot of missed opportunity with the show – I assume they don’t want to follow the “X-Men” template too closely, but they could probably afford to follow it a little closer than what they have been. At this stage, I still don’t care about many of the characters – something that can’t be said for Marvel’s “X-Men” series. And for the most part, it feels like we’ve stumbled upon an open Webcam for a bunch of people we don’t really know yet – and as a consequence, don’t care so much for what they’re doing.

Maybe I feel this way because season 2 was just so slow and all-over-the-place – which isn’t a good thing for an infant series. Season 2 is the important season, the one where struggling shows usually find their feet, attract new fans, and start generating some major ratings points. “Heroes” obviously didn’t get that memo – it undid a lot of the good of Season 1 by serving up a rather ho-hum bunch of episodes that felt more like those uninteresting webisodes networks put on the internet to hold fans over until a broadcast. (It’s possible that the writer’s strike is to blame for the 11 ho-hum episodes, the show was hurt pretty badly by the work stoppage – as evidenced by the rather short season).

Granted, the water treading does seem to die down a bit towards the end of the season and the show does start to find its footing again. Is it due to the introduction of the fab Stephen Tobolowsky? Is it because they’ve given Kristen Bell’s fiery femme fatale more than a few lines of dialogue? Or is it because has finally finished with his “Trek” commitments and appears in more scenes? Probably a combination of all those things.

The main plot line of the season has to do with ‘The Company’ (Tobolowsky’s character plays the evil head honcho, Bell’s character is his mutant daughter) and their efforts to control the ‘Heroes’. Not nearly as interesting as the whole ‘Save the Cheerleader, Save the World’ plot of the first season.

Maybe next season things’ll get better..?

Look, it’s still worth watching, and there are some good episodes among the rather average bunch, it’s just not what it should be. Not yet anyway.

Blu-Ray Details and Extras

Extras – of which there are many – include commentaries, numerous featurettes, an alternate ending (with optional commentary), and a sneak peek at season 3. Best of all are the video commentaries – cast and crew talking through some of their favourite episodes. Truly an orgasmic extras package for fans of the series.

The episodes, presented in a 1080p resolution picture via a VC-1 codec, look good – but not as amazing as perhaps they could have. Quality fades in and out – sometimes it looks as sharp and vibrant as any premium Blu-Ray offering, but at other times there’s noticeable grain. Strange that the boys at Universal didn’t tinker a little more with the video transfer before unleashing it onto the market.

Though the audio – a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in English with a 48 kHz sampling rate – is a step-up from broadcast sound it still leaves a lot to be desired. There was something flat about it… with some noise definitely present here and there… it lacked, well, punch. But again, it’s still one better than the SD DVD Version – and Broadcast TV – so I’d go this over the ‘plain ol’ DVD any day.