Heroes - Season 1

It's really nice to see a comic book-style science-fiction show have some success on a major network. Heroes isn't perfect, but it's a very entertaining serial show that manages to build up storylines over time and still deliver closure once in a while. One of the main criticisms of Lost is that they present a lot of questions and don't give a lot of answers. I don't really mind, since it's always interesting despite this, although I may have been aided by watching the first three seasons over a couple months instead of an episode a week for three years. Heroes has a similar style, with a large, diverse, and interesting cast, extraordinary things that are supposed to be explainable scientifically (although I really don't buy the genetic justification for a lot of these powers), and lots of mysteries. There is a definite, discernable story arc though, and while it remains to be seen if all that they seemed to wrap up actually was, they do provide a bit more satisfaction in that regard. They're also not afraid to kill off minor characters, although there hasn't been that much death in the main cast. I understand the difference between film and television, where you need some consistency week to week, but it gets a little fishy when only guest stars seem to get bumped off.

The story, while intriguing, does have a few little problems with it. Whenever you introduce time travel to a story, you add a lot of potential for cool scenarios, but you also invite trouble. Heroes is always pretty vague about how changing destinies really affects the timeline, and some bits just don't match up. "Save the cheerleader, save the world" is a recurring idea, but when it's all resolved, it's hard to discern exactly why. They also introduce some causality loops just for fun, although some people wouldn't think about that as much. In the end, I wasn't fully happy with the way things resolved, but it's still pretty good, and better thanks to the cast. Everyone is right for their part, and mostly do their job well. There are occasional awkward line deliveries, but the work is pretty solid in general. The characters themselves are all developed well over the course of the show, and they go out of their way to add a human element to all the super powered craziness. It's always fun when a new power is introduced, and after that initial revelation, they usually do a good job of making that person more than a plot device, although a couple tend to stray into that territory. It's still early in the show, and there's plenty of time to mess things up, but right now they have a good thing going.