Heroes Reborn Trailer

Heroes has a special place in my heart and actually a special place in this blog. Back in 2013, I did a pretty expansive review of all the seasons of Heroes and pointed out where exactly the show went wrong and where exactly it failed to capture my attention, something it had done so very well when it first aired in 2006. One of the first posts on this blog was a comparison between Heroes and Alphas and seeing why one was better than the other.

Though I have built up this blog as mainly a movie blog, a lot of the posts that built this blog were based off of TV shows and more specifically, based off Heroes.

So now, after three seasons that just let me down worse and worse as the show went on, the show si finally returning to NBC to redeem itself.

The show doesn't start till September, but they did release this trailer to give an idea of what audiences will be looking for in the coming season.

...Hmm

I've watched this trailer a couple times now and I'm still not totally sure how I feel about it. On one hand, when I heard they were bringing back Heroes, the first thing I said was... why?!?

I mean I get it. The new thing these days is to revamp shows that were popular back in the 2000s and give them one more go at being popular. I mean it happened with 24 and I would say it was decently well done. Its unfortunately going to happen with Prison Break in the next few years, and I imagine there have been other shows that have come back because hey, they made money right?

But that's the issue I have with it. These shows shouldn't be coming back because networks feel like they can squeeze out some extra money from something that's not quite nostalgic quite yet, but was popular. It should be bringing these shows back because there actually is more to bring to the story, there's untold stories, more areas they could go. But the weird thing is, these shows ended on notes that seemed like well done conclusions. I mean there's a pretty good chance the shows didn't end by choice but they knew ratings were down, they knew the end was near, they ended in a pretty good way. I've already done my thoughts on the 8th season of 24.

Heroes, while not the most conclusive ending, did give a final arch to our heroes and did end the final episode with some sort of finality. To me, it didn't really seem like the kind of show that needed to come back.

And yet, here it is. For one reason or another, Heroes is being "Reborn" and brought back as a mini series.

So what is the story.

From what I have gathered from this trailer, the synopsis, the trailers for the webisodes that are coming out prior to the shows release, this is a little bit of a continuation of what happened at the end of the 4th season. Claire reveals herself as someone with abilities, disappears from the plot and suddenly we're introduced to new heroes. New people with special abilities. However, in the years since, people with abilities have been hunted down by the government and been discriminated against. I'm not totally sure which one, if one or the other is exclusive, however, they are now being called EVOs (in reference to evolved humans) and are subject of controversy in US policy. A lot of these new people are dealing with the idea of just being different and exposed. Exposed to people that have different beliefs, different ideals, and different thoughts of who is acceptable and who is not.

This to me is interesting. Whereas the first season of Heroes took themes and ideas from the first X-men movie, this one seems to be taking ideas from Man of Steel, making them question what the response will be if someone comes out and reveals that they have these abilities.

This is something that I like.

At the same time, following in that Man of Steel train of thought, many people are calling out for these people to come forth and bring out the best in humanity. Save it from the ultimate destruction. What that destruction is, I'm not totally sure, but I get it, you just wanted to have a bunch of things that said, where are the heroes? Its a good marketing campaign, I get it.

But its good, because there are people who would have those differing views and that's a great cause of tension and confusion for the characters and in turn the audience.

So while its confusing, this is also something that I like.

On top of that, you get the extremes, people thinking that these evolved humans are a complete danger to humanity, thinking that they are terrorists, like the show of Mohinder as an EVO terrorist (we'll get into my thoughts on Mohinder being back). And what's better is the response to that.

Zachary Levi (or Chuck) playing what seems like a bad guy, or at least a vigilante going after people with abilities is a very interesting idea.

And I like him as an actor. I like the idea of giving somebody traditionally known for a more comedic role a darker and more serious role is something that can be really great if he does it right. I mean it could be bad, but i like Levi enough to believe that he could do it.

On top of that, that scene in the trailer just looks cool. I really like the way its set up and I like the idea of having somebody follow his own rules and hunting individuals like that who's not a government goon. Unfortunately this does lend itself to stupid lines like, "I'm the hero here" which I'm not really looking forward to if its going to be dead on the nose like that, but from where it stands right now, Zachary Levi's part in all of this looks pretty good.

This, was also something that I liked.

Now when doing a rebooted mini series like this, it seems like what has worked has been revamping the series into something new but still having a touch of the old to keep the returning fans familiar and liking the series. For 24 its obviously the return of Jack Bauer, and connecting Audrey back into the story to give some kind of connection back to previous seasons.

Now the problem with Heroes is that there were A LOT of characters. Not enough of them died (read my review to figure out how I feel about that) and there's not one person that really captures the heart of the show totally.

On top of that, a lot of these actors and actresses got their break from Heroes, they're moving on to bigger and better things, they don't really have time to go back to the past.

So who do you bring in to get that familiarity?

There are a lot of choices. But I think probably the best choice and the one that they made was bringing back Noah Bennet, or the guy in the horn rimmed glasses. He doesn't have an ability so we're not tied down by seeing exactly the same person doing the exact same powers we saw before, and he's supporting enough of a character to tie it all together, but not take away from the new people.

I was never a huge fan of Noah Bennett, I thought that he had some pretty lame story lines, even in the earlier seasons of Heroes, but a lot of that was tied down to the fact that he was connected to Claire and a lot of his motivation was due to the fact that he just wanted to protect her. Noah was a lot more interesting when he wasn't bitching about how being a father to Claire was so hard.

So now that Hayden Panettiere is not in the series and is not planned to make an appearance in the series, I think Noah Bennett will be more interesting. He'll probably have a quick scene showing how he misses Claire and all that BS, but for the most part, he'll be doing his best in whatever he does and I'm actually kind of excited for it.

This was also something that I liked.

Now, before I go on, I should mention that Noah Bennett was not my first choice of a character they should have brought back. If it had been up to me, I would have had someone like Peter Petrelli, or an evil Sylar. Not to say Bennett is a bad choice, in fact he's probably the best choice like I said. But I didn't like him enough for him to be my first choice.

Furthermore, if they were going to bring any characters back, the only way I think I would have wanted them back is in a function where they are changed or more evolved then they were before, like have them be the more powerful evolved human and help along the new generation.

That's why, when I saw Hiro Nakumura, I got a little bit excited because he didn't look like the derpy nerd he has always been, he looked like he looked in the future, that badass future that we never got to see, something, again, I talked about in my overview of the series.

I'll talk more about the characters they brought back next, but surprisingly, even though I thought I was going to just sigh when I saw Hiro, I actually didn't hate the capacity he showed up in. He looked like he did in the future, he looks like he could be a more powerful evolved human and really kick some ass. On top of that, he's actually using his katana. That was something incredibly missing from the series, Hiro using his katana in a way that wasn't like cutting through bread or just to make him look cool. It only worked for about half a season and then he just kept on not using it.

So yeah... this was something that I kind of liked.

And that does kind of tie into the last thing I liked. There was a certain feeling to this trailer that I did like. It didn't feel one hundred percent like the original show. The entire atmosphere felt like it changed a little bit and I liked that.

I actually felt like this was going to be people using their powers like their suppose to. Yeah there's going to be development, there's going to be those who figure out how to use their abilities, but its going to be more the implementation of those powers, rather than the discovery, something that was incredibly well done in the first season, overdone in the later seasons and eventually just got old. I think it will be quick establishment of these character's abilities then an actual utilization of them leading to awesome super hero shit going on. Could I be wrong? Well yeah, but I think they've seen enough Marvel and DC movies to realize that this can be done.

So that was something that I also liked.

But as you can see, we're getting into things that I wasn't as enthusiastic about and while we're on the subject, it might be a good time to talk about one of the things I really didn't like at all from the trailer, the amount of returning heroes.

Like I said, when you do a continuation of a series like this, you do need a couple characters form the original to get the old fans interested and nostalgic for what they once enjoyed.

However, the way this trailer made it look, it really made it seem like the only people that came back were the ones who don't really get that much work these days.

I mean Heroes started a lot of careers. Some better than others, but nobody would have known Zachary Quinto's name prior to the show and now he's a big star in movies like Star Trek. Kirsten Bell didn't even have a huge role that lasted that long but she did well for herself. Not a lot of them had rocketing careers, but there are definitely those who didn't seem as successful and they all seemed to show up in this trailer.

This is not to say these are bad actors. I actually like a lot of them. Greg Grunberg shows up every once in a while and its fun. Sendhil Ramamurthy is not a bad actor, I just think his character had a bad arch in later seasons. These are not horrible actors, they just haven't gotten work, and it kind of seems like Heroes was a good fall back.

And then... there's the awful people coming back. Cristine Rose is not necessarily a bad actor, but Angela Petrelli is a worn out character and I just sighed when she showed up. While i liked how they handled him in the trailer Hiro Nakumura is a worn out character and really didn't need to come back.

And then there was Micah...

If there was anything consistent about Heroes, (which there really wasn't) it was that Noah Gray-Cabey was always going to show up randomly and just look like a dumbass. Well they brought him back because, hell he's not making money anywhere else.

And that was a constant whenever old characters were brought back, I just thought they brought these characters back because they weren't really making money elsewhere, not because they loved the series, but because its a familiar role with familiar money, and to me it seems kind of lazy. Now that's not necessarily the case, its a pretty cynical look, but I want more from Heroes and I'm not totally sure all these returning people is an incredibly stroke of confidence for the show, at least in my book.

So yeah, that was something I didn't like.

The caveat with the returning cast is that with the exception of Noah Bennett, all the returning cast members are listed as Special Guests. Whether or not they will only be special guests and not recurring guests, we'll have to wait and see.

Now one of the things that I didn't necessarily not like, but I wasn't wild about was the new cast.

To be fair, I do like Zachary Levi. I am actually pretty excited to see him in what seems to be a little bit of a bad guy role. He's not an actor I follow very much, but I'm interested in seeing what he can do and if he can make me fall in love with Heroes again.

Unfortunately, Zachary Levi is really the only character they develop into a way that I think will be interesting.

We do get a little bit of a look into three other characters that are new. One is Levi's partner (Judith Shekoni), we don't know too much about her. The other is the Japanese woman (played by Kiki Sukezane) from the picture above. That woman isn't given any dialogue in the trailer so I can't really say that much about her. She does kind of represent the Japanese flair that the show has always had in the past and I guess its a decent way to throw back to the old atmosphere of the show while still introducing new characters.

The show does also kind of introduce another guy (played by Ryan Guzman) but he shows up for a little bit and doesn't do anything, in the synopsis they say he's a veteran or something like that, but we'll wait and see.

And then there's this kid...

I never got to review the third season of Once Upon a Time, mainly because I never finished the third season, and I'm going to be totally honest, it kind of had to do with this kid.

The kids name is Robbie Kay, and I don't know what it is, but I'm not a huge fan of his work. He played this weird evil version of Peter Pan in Once Upon a Time which baffled me to no end, and now he's playing a kid struggling with his powers in high school.

The thing is, every time we've had a character who has been dealing with the woes of high school along with his or her powers in Heroes, its really been the low point of the season. It happened with Claire and I'm kind of thinking its going to happen with this kid.

Furthermore, this kid steals a line from Peter Petrelli, "You ever get the feeling you're suppose to do something extraordinary?" Yeah I wasn't a fan of that, especially with how much I liked Peter Petrelli. Its probably just a send back to the original season but it bothered me.

Now, I'm not totally sure what this kid's powers are, they seem to have something to do with teleportation or something and he does have a few interactions with Zachary Levi which could be interesting.

Unfortunately, he just doesn't really do much for me. I'll of course wait and see for when the show finally does air, I don't want to get on his case too much, but I was not impressed by this kid in the trailer.

Another thing that I wasn't wild about was this guy

The thing about this is that Heroes has never been about these people actually going out and fighting crime as masked superheroes. And whenever the show tried, it looked silly and ridiculous.

This guy in the mask looks silly and ridiculous.

Especially in a season where the secret is out, there are people with super human abilities, I'm kind of confused on the use of masks and trying to make this all superhero-y.

Then there's this chick...

Now this girl kind of worries me. At first when all the teasers came out, she was just the one who could put on aurora borealis and hey... I guess that's a cool power...

But in this she looks back at the camera and says, "It's happening faster than we thought, I don't think I can control it much longer"...

What?

I mean... what does that even mean?

Are they really going to pull in some kind of natural disaster that is going to make the problems between these people irrelevant?

I'm gonna be honest, I really don't like when shows do that.

The point of a drama is to enjoy the conflict and tension between characters. When those conflicts and tensions are relieved or made very small in comparison by a natural disaster or another plotline, I get a little angry.

And while I love the show, the best example of this in Game of Thrones.

I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as I can, but Game of Thrones does this thing where they push everything aside and say, all the squabbling going on in Westeros, all the fighting for the Iron Throne is pointless, because the White Walkers and the army of the dead are coming, that or Daenarys and her dragons are coming.

And I'm not a huge fan of that. As interesting as the white walkers and Daenarys and her dragons are, the show is called Game of Thrones, half the point of the show is this squabble between these people fighting for the Iron Throne, that's why I got interested in the show in the first place. You want somebody to win and if its the White Walkers, I feel a little bit cheated.

The same goes for Heroes.

This show is a drama about people with super human abilities and the drama and conflict that comes with that. If all that is thrown out the window because some weird aurora borealis black hole thing. I'm gonna be a little pissed.

Its kind of like that episode in the third season when they all lost their powers for the stupidest reasons on the planet... it was dumb.

And this isn't the first time Heroes has done this sort of natural disaster world destruction thing and it didn't work then, why would it work now.

The first season was so simple, there's a bomb that's going to go off in New York City, let's go stop it.

But when you start making this about the world ending because of... magic or something, I'm gonna kind of lose my shit.

But we'll see I guess.

This has been a pretty long post, I hope its pretty apparent that I have some pretty mixed reactions to the new miniseries of Heroes. I'm definitely going to check out this mini series, see if its any good.

Heroes is one of the shows that I watched from start to end when I was younger. It was this, 24 and Prison Break, all of which have either gotten a rebooted miniseries, or is going to get one.

Its been shown that it can work with Live Another Day, but I just must ask, why go back to these properties so quickly when you can always come back to them later when its been more than 5 years since the show was cancelled. I guess original thoughts are hard to come by these days... We will see if going back to the familiar is really the best way to go.

But those are my (long) thoughts on the Heroes Reborn trailer. Let me know what you think of the trailer. Let me know whether or not you're excited for the new miniseries. Comment and Discuss in the comment section below. You can also send me your thoughts to me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your thoughts for movies and TV shows I can review in the future. Follow me on Twitter to get future updates on movie (and TV) reviews, and news.

I'll leave you with this. Its a trailer for the pilot episode of Heroes. Now its an extended trailer so it gives a lot of stuff away, but its really reminiscent of a time when Heroes was really damn good. I want to go back to that time. Enjoy!