Heroes

This show started with an incredible premise. Everyday people starts to have superpowers. Each one discover their power and try to deal with it. There is also serial killer Sylar who discovers a way to kill these special people and take their powers.

Like the brightest of stars, they burn hottest but don't last. This show fizzled as the story got more and more complicated. The vast number of characters with unique superpowers gets out of hand. There are too many to maintain. Like a truck overloaded, it just couldn't continue and rolled over. By the 2nd or 3rd season, this show gets increasingly convoluted and becoming almost unwatchable. They try to reboot the 4th season by adding a whole new set of people and a circus. Of course, it didn't work and the show was canceled. The first season is a 9 or even 10 but it's a long slide into 4 territory at the end.

Heroes was a superhero show before all the Marvel and DC shows took over. While it's not as good as the shows we get now (at least most of them that is), it was still a solid series...especially the first 2 seasons. After that the quality went down drastically but was still watchable. It was about ordinary people all over the world discovering they developed super powers. There are a bunch of separate stories that all come together to prevent a catastrophic future. The show was really popular when it first came out, so much so they tried to bring it back years after it went off the air with Heroes: Reborn. Do yourself a favor and avoid the reboot at all costs because it was awful. This original Heroes though is absolutely watchable.

I'm writing this review now even though I haven't seen an episode since it got canceled almost 15 years ago. My brother and I were recently talking about this show and it drudged up some old memories I've had for this show, both good and bad. The good: the first season was brilliant. I remember early reviews and word of mouth talking how about how this show was going to be a classic. And it might have if the quality box the first season carried over to the rest. I didn't hate the other seasons, it just wasn't as good as the first. It has an original feel for a superhero show. It didn't have any costumes or anything like that, it was ordinary people reacting like real people who were getting super powers. Some good and some bad. If you're a fan of this genre then give this a try because it's worth a watch.

Nice premise, modern-family oriented with just enough edge to keep it interesting. For prime-time network its an ambitious undertaking and very entertaining. For a while..... Sure, the premise is pure fantasy and whimsical, but after a while, it become commonplace so they had to stretch it beyond acceptance.

We get so many back stories and flashbacks, time-jumping with endless new characters thrown in, it gets muddy fast.

Everything that needed to be said should have ended by season-2, but you know the story, NBC enjoys its ad-revenues so they beat this one to death, heavily over-played and labored."Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" was great premise and it was all this series needed.

In season-3 things start to get darker and mean-spirited, the characters become more unlikable, and if I have to hear Claire's father say one more time" I was doing it to protect the family" I was going to throw a brick into my set. Everybody betrays each others trust, yet they constantly say: "trust me." In equal annoyance was the character Hiro. His wimpish-ways were cute for a little while, but they started to get on my nerves, and the music Wendy and Lisa (of Prince fame) composed/implemented was kind of cliche'd Japanese soundbites that played every time Hiro and Ando had a scene (until season 4). The writer(s) made Hiro's character one big Asian cliche. By the end of the 4th season I was just waiting to see who would be killed(written)-off to put me out my misery. Recap: 1st-2 seasons YES, seasons 3 &4- NO! The series gets yanked before the story resolves,so be warned, before you invest all of this time.

Season One was excellent, but the writer's strike Mid-Season Two made for a clumsy unanticipated finale. Unfortunately, the series suffered as a result and never fully recovered with many writing inconsistencies that followed. My rating reflects the goodwill and potential based on the first season and took -1 per season that followed.