Warning: Spoiler Alert
Regular readers of these pages, are well aware of our staff’s penchant for the science-fiction/fantasy genres, as many of the shows we recap on a weekly basis, fall into those categories. So, naturally we became very excited when NBC announced a few months ago, that they decided to reboot, their former hit series “Heroes,” as “Heroes Reborn,” airing later this year.
How excited you ask? Watching the Super Bowl in February, as a fan of the New England Patriots, I derived more joy from the spot NBC aired for the upcoming series, during the contest, than Pete Carroll’s last second mind-cramp, giving the victory to the Patriots.
If you missed the show in its original airing, the premise revolved around a group of ordinary individuals from across the planet, who suddenly gained extraordinary abilities, for seemingly no particular reason. They all eventually met and joined together in a mission to save the planet from a nuclear holocaust, while dealing with Noah Bennett, the difficult to read representative of “The Company“. The first season of Heroes, ranks up there with some of the best programs in the history of Television. An incredible story, tightly written and well acted, that at times evoked memories of Greek Myths and legendary characters such as Robin Hood.
Unfortunately the show got hit with the Hollywood Writers Strike in its second season, cutting the amount of episodes that aired and preventing show-runner Tim Kring, from telling a cohesive story. Although the series had some great moments, during the rest of its run, it failed to come close to the magic the show displayed in the first season, culminating with a nearly unwatchable final season. However, the reboot starts off with a clean slate and will become a success or failure on its own merits.
Our first discussions, once finding out that Heroes Reborn would air, centered around the character Noah Bennett aka HRG, (Horned-Rimmed Glasses) played by veteran actor Jack Coleman. Bennett started out the series as a man whose job consisted of finding people with abilities and capturing them. Some of the enabled individuals, got turned and became assets for “The Company,” while others suffered imprisonment and sometimes, their destruction. However Bennett, became an ally of those with abilities during the run of the series, including his step-daughter Claire, who could regenerate anytime she got injured.
The new series would need a central and familiar character for the returning fans and HRG seemed like the logical choice and the network agreed, signing Coleman to anchor the series. Many observers believed that Coleman’s character would remain the one holdover from the original series, but that turned out to be incorrect.
Friday, “Deadline.com,” broke the story that one of the series most beloved characters would also return for the reboot, as the network signed Masi Oka to portray “Master Of Time And Space,” Hiro Nakamura, former Japanese office drone, who always had visions of greatness and obsessed with Science Fiction. In the pilot, Nakamura teleported himself from a subway car in Tokyo, to the middle of Times Square in New York City, what he didn’t realize was that he also broke the time barrier, landing in the Big Apple, several months later. Getting questioned by police officers about the murder of a stranger, Hiro managed to leap back to the subway car, before getting killed by a nuclear blast.
Of all those who gained abilities, Hiro clearly enjoyed it the most, living the life of a comic-book hero, unaware that in New York City, an artist with abilities, chronicled his adventures in a hit comic-book in the States. That artist, Isaac Mendez, was the murder victim that Hiro saw when he teleported, though it took Nakamura a while to realize that
With a limited grasp of English, but filled with optimism and enthusiasm and a lovable pup’s demeanor, Hiro became one of the breakout characters in that first season. By the end of the original series run, his English had improved vastly, but he got his heartbroken as the love of his life got taken from him twice, in a cruel twist of fate.
NBC seems to have gained more confidence in the series over the last few months, originally announced as a summer-replacement series, the article states that the Network’s delayed the premiere of the 13-episode event until the start of the 2015-2016 campaign in the fall. The network’s yet to announce, whether the reboot will end with episode 13, or will become an annual event, likely NBC’s waiting to see Kring’s creation and the response it receives, before extending their commitment to the new show.
If Kring can evoke that feel of an epic tale, as he did in the first series of Heroes, the fans will receive a treat this fall. At this point, a strong 13-episode stand-alone event, with a well-written, well-acted, cohesive story-arc would satisfy this viewer, finally replacing the memories of that terrible final season with a great new chapter.
NBC, has yet to announce a premiere date for Heroes Reborn, however we’ll keep you up to date with information as it arrives.
