‘Heroes Reborn,’ maybe better for it
NBC reboot looks to be cleaner and less tangled than the original
September 24, 2015
As the cliché has it, the definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In Hollywood, that’s the definition of “reboot.”
A 13-episode “event series,” NBC’s “Heroes Reborn” is technically a sequel to the network’s 2006-2010 series “Heroes,” about a scattered group of people with superhuman abilities who were persecuted by a mysterious corporate entity.
That series roared out of the gate with fresh characters and eye-catching visuals, but it eventually succumbed to the grind of trying to keep its long-arc plots going while keeping its huge ensemble interesting. By the time it folded, viewers had grown frustrated and mostly moved on.
“Heroes Reborn” opens with less energy and novelty but, given its limited time frame and simpler setup, seems to have a better chance at providing a satisfying beginning, middle and end.
Hardcore fans of the original will take what they can get; newcomers will have little trouble catching up. The sequel won’t raise expectations as high, but it probably won’t sink as low.
Premiering with two episodes tonight at 8, “Reborn” starts at a gathering hosted by Primatech, the bad corporation from the original series. Intended to build relations between “evolved humans” — also known as evos — and regular folks, the gathering has the opposite effect when a explosion occurs, killing thousands.
A scientist turned evo named Mohinder Suresh (played by Sendhil Ramamurthy in the original) supposedly claims credit for the attack, and the evos become public enemy No. 1.
Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman), the morally ambiguous character also known as H.R.G., believes that his daughter, Claire, the invulnerable cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere in the original, was killed in the explosion.
Now living under an assumed name, he’s drawn back into the human-evo struggle when a conspiracy-minded guy named Quentin (Henry Zebrowski) tells him that Renautas, the tech company that owned Primatech, pinned the disaster on Mohinder and is planning something nefarious involving the evos.
Meanwhile, a shy teenager named Tommy (Robbie Kay) is trying to hide his power — he can make people or objects vanish — from the other kids at his new school. And a Japanese girl named Miko learns that her father, who is either missing or dead, left her a sword that transforms her into a ninja warrior both in the real world and in a video game called Evernow.
Tommy is being pursued by a married couple, Luke (Zachary Levi) and Joanne (Judi Shekoni), who blame the evos for the death of their son. Miko tangles with the staff at the Tokyo office of Renautas.
Created, like the original, by Tim Kring, “Reborn” features a sprinkling of characters with whom the intended audience — males either in or stuck in adolescence — could identify: Besides Quentin and Tommy, there’s Ren (Toro Uchikado), a gamer whose expertise at Evernow leads Miko to her magic sword.
Kring also offers his fanboys some wish fulfillment: A cute schoolmate, Emily (Gatlin Green), befriends Tommy, even though she has a bullying jock boyfriend, and Ren gets to play along with Miko’s avatar in Evernow.
Some favorite characters from the original series will be returning, although those of us who gave up on the original before it ended will have some trouble linking the new story to the old.
The three episodes that were provided for review keep the various plotlines moving efficiently. One gets the feeling that the lines will eventually converge, which is not always the case in these large-ensemble dramas.
The scripts take advantage of the opportunity for satire and social commentary.
At the Primatech event, a protester holds a sign saying, “God Hates Evos.” In a dig at the supposedly altruistic tech world, Renautas’ slogan is “Doing good is good business.”
The new heroes have some cool powers, but no one is as memorable as Claire or the villainous Sylar.
On the other hand, Sylar became an infuriatingly self-contradictory character as the original series dragged on and the creators had to keep finding new things for him to do.
“Heroes Reborn” has less time to do good, but it also has less time to go bad.
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