TV: Heroes: Season One - ultimately disappointing

It may be America's 'No1' show but I was left a little dissatisfied by the first season of 'Heroes'. It offered some great opportunities and interesting characters but ultimately squandered the most interesting story arcs.

Whilst it touched on interesting themes such as evolution, euthanasia, telekinesis, time travel, fate - all that good stuff. It never offered anything that hadn't already been seen. Basically, if you've seen Superman (original - not the dreadful remake), X-men, Back to the Future and the Dead Zone- move along folks, nothing to see here.

Had it chosen to concentrate on fewer characters it may have taken us to some genuinely challenging places. Instead it kept ethical debates at arms length showing a lack of depth that always left one longing for greater detail.

Another problem is that there was just too many 'Heroes'. I mean seriously - was there anyone in New York without a power of some sort? Cripes, they didn't need a 'special' girl to find them - throw a rock towards Manhattan and you'd hit ten of them!

On the positive side, there were some genuinely interesting characters and actors on show in this first season. The 'Hiro Nakamura' character (played by Masi Oka) was my personal favourite, whom I would have gladly seen more of. Similarly 'Claire Bennet', played by Hayden Panettiere shows promise as a leading lady of the future. Others characters however just felt like padding, never piquing interest or offering substantial impact to the overall story. The Jessica/Nicci character is a perfect example, a dull creation with few endearing qualities and ultimately, for season 1 at least, could have been left on the cutting room floor.

Spoiler Alert!

However, my biggest gripe with season 1 is the ending. What a let down! With so many of the season's threads having failed to pay off so far I was expecting some 'pulling together' of the disparate themes and characters at season finale. The creators had also engineered the tantalising possibility of a 'Empire Strikes Back' style (e.g. baddies win, goodies are cream-crackered) setup for season 2. This darker tone would have elevated proceedings and provided some genuine expectation of the next season. Instead, 'Super' Congressman Nathan Petrelli just comes along and flies his exploding brother up to the stars. And then? Well... nothing actually. Terrible. The only thing that made me consider watching Season 2 was the teaser of Hiro in feudal Japan. Always had a soft spot for Samurai's...

TV: Heroes - the jury is out...

I read a snippet about this US show a while back in a writing magazine so when I saw that the SCI-FI channel was showing the premiere this week I decided to check it out.

Now, the fact that it was on 'SCI-FI' was a little worrying. I assumed the only frequenters to that channel were Egg heads and trekkies etc. So I changed channel and drew the curtains...

The first two episodes showed promise and were in many ways a kind of amalgamation of all the recent super hero films of late (an indestructible girl, the boy who can fly, a man who gets visions of the future). Seperately no single story thread is remarkable but as a whole it potentially holds together. I say potentially as a lot will depend on how it develops from here.

By the end of the second episode there has been so much 'borrowing' from the heart of other ideas (the notion that these characters are evolutionary firsts is all too familiar for anyone who has seen an X-MEN film) my concern is that it has nothing much original to give.

It's a NO1 show in the US at present but I wonder if the slight lack of originality will cause it to plummet in time. Or, perhaps it has plenty more cards up its sleeve and things haven't got started in earnest yet. I hope the latter.

Catch 'Heroes' on SCI-FI, Mondays at 10pm. Read more about the show at the official site www.heroes-tv.com

By the way, the show creator, Tim Kring, was also the writer of 80's movie 'Teen Wolf Too'!