Heroes: Reborn premiered last night and while we already gave our first impressions, it’s time to fully review the episode for all that it’s worth.
When people first found out that Heroes was being rebooted in the form of Heroes: Reborn, some were skeptical while others were just overjoyed. Some worried that the show would carry on in its fourth season momentum, which severely lacked a good story line. Others were just excited to have their favorite characters back for another go. Now that the show has finally aired, you can understand the skepticism — some of it was valid, and some was not. Check out the premiere’s strongest and weakest points.
The Good
The great thing about the Heroes: Reborn premiere is the sheer amount of greatness that came out of it. The easter eggs were easily one of the best parts about the premiere, teasing us with goodness from the first season like the Yo (Godsend) symbol in Noah’s car. It let us know that creator Tim Kring wanted to make sure this series stayed connected to its origins.
The powers were also one of our favorite things about this episode. Tommy’s ability to make things disappear confused and amazed us, and when it was explained that the things he touches go to where he wants them to, we gave a heavy sigh of relief. It took us too long to find out how Sylar and Peter’s powers worked, and so to have a character’s power explained in the premiere was so refreshing. Now we can spend the time less focused on the power and more focused on developing Tommy (and likely Emily alongside him).
The mission this year is also so much stronger than Heroes season 1. When we first heard the phrase “save the cheerleader, save the world,” we were immediately transfixed by how saving one girl could possibly save the world. But now that we’ve been introduced to the idea of powers and Evos and all that, saving the world seems less like a crazy thing to do. But the reason the world needs to be saved? That’s this season’s mystery and that alone has us wanting to watch the rest of the series! Combine that with the fact that it looks like we’re going to need more than one Evo to do that and we’re so ready for the ride.
The Bad
With every pilot and/or premiere, there is going to be a few things you wish didn’t happen or happened differently, and Heroes: Reborn is no exception.
One of the issues with having such a strong ensemble cast with diverse characters and stories to tell is you get into the risky area of plot overload. There are so many new characters introduced that it’s hard to get their names straight! Even after watching the premiere a second time we’re having trouble distinguishing the characters in Los Angeles from the ones in Chicago, and vise versa. Luckily, this is an issue that will pretty much solve itself after we get to know the characters better, but it may have been wiser to introduce fewer characters as quickly as the premiere did.
One of the other things we strongly disliked was the use of CGI for the video game power that Miko possesses. We absolutely love the idea of a sword transforming her into this badass warrior, but to send her into a video game seems so completely unreal. Okay, yes, this is a show about superheroes with powers, but there’s a distinct difference between having a super power/ability and traveling through worlds of fiction. Is this Once Upon a Time? No, so keep the video game traveling out of it!
The Unfortunate
And finally we come to one of the things we feel was definitely the most unfortunate about the show. When Zachary Levi was announced as being a part of this season as the villain, we grew as excited as he was about playing a character so opposite from the titular character in Chuck. He’s touted as this badass murderer who can really do anything in order to protect his family, but by the end of the premiere he’s already gone soft.
It’s clear that Luke struggles with the idea of going after Tommy since he’s just a kid. And it’s even more clear that he and his wife don’t exactly agree about their tactics when it comes to revenge. While we absolutely love the fact that his character isn’t just hellbent on revenge and is actually much deeper than that, we’re saddened that Luke isn’t this season’s Sylar.
But hey, it’s just the first episode. Perhaps Luke’s softness will harden as the series continues, and we’re overthinking it. All we know is that this series needs a serious new villain to keep the stakes up, and until we find out what that solar eclipse means, Luke and Joanne will have to step up to the plate.