Heroes (Season One) Review

Heroes is horrendously popular and as result of this I missed it's original TV run. You see, I have an odd tendency to avoid popular television whenever possible, even if I like the idea behind a show. This is partially the result of my misanthropic nature, which invariably leads me to conclude that the vast majority of people are one hundred percent pants on head retarded, and partially due to the fact that I never have time to schedule around television. Which seems odd for someone so interested in the media.

In an attempt to break the mould and conform (shut up! I know it's an oxymoron) I picked up a copy of Heroes Season One, decided that my social life and education have already taken up enough of my time and watched the entire thing in as little time as possible. One thought stuck out in my mind upon the completion of disk 7: “Damnit, people other than me are right sometimes!”

Now that my overly long and utterly pointless introduction is out of the way we can begin. Heroes' storyline revolves around the lives of a bizarrely high amount of seemingly unrelated characters who discover that they posses immense power which manifests itself in various different abilities. As the plot progress the characters are slowly drawn together by a serious of cataclysmic events which helps them understand their powers, the nature of humanity and themselves a lot better and whilst this plot may seem overly clichéd and generic, I assure you, it is far from it.

My first worry was that with so many characters it's often exceptionally easy for writers to provide certain characters with less intriguing plot lines and less intelligent character development than other characters and whilst Heroes occasionally falls into this trap, by the the end of the series each of the characters' is equally interesting and believable being. In fact Heroes somehow manages to make the inclusion of so many characters a blessing, as with each character there is often an accompanying visual style and a different tone, so if you don't like a certain character, a certain visual style or a certain tone Heroes should manage to satisfy you with a different character, visual style and tone in the next scene.

The acting is superb across the board, with everyone doing their best to compliment each other's talents and compensate for each other's flaws. The music and art direction in Heroes are also outstanding, with both the music and visual style for each sequence or character suiting the moment perfectly.

All in all. I was wrong. Heroes is, whilst by no means a masterpiece, an excellently put together and enthralling ensemble of all forms of talent. I still hate popular culture though, if only for the continuation of my own narcissistic ego, or the preservation of my misanthopically fuelled existence.

I need a life.

9/10