Spotlight on Fandoms: Heroes

[repeterpetrelli.livejournal.com]

In recent days, a seemingly random group of individuals has emerged with what can only be described as "special" abilities.

Although unaware of it now, these individuals will not only save the world, but change it forever. This transformation from ordinary to extraordinary will not occur overnight. Every story has a beginning.

Volume One of their epic tale begins here ...

So begins the totally Star Wars like opening scroll of Heroes, a show which proved that NBC could successfully greenlight a new show that did not rhyme with Schmeal or no Schmeal and yet people would still like it. Or maybe that's a "because." Suitcases! They open suitcases for an HOUR! WTF???

Anyhoo...

Heroes is a little tricky to do a recap of because part of the awesomeness of the show is the twists and turns of the storyline. Typically if your jaw hasn't dropped by the twist at end of the episode it's only because you were too shocked by the twist that happened ten minutes before it. So going into detail would ruin a good chunk of the experience for those who haven't seen s1 yet. On the other hand s2 is going to start soon and a detailed recap might be just the thing to get newbies up to speed. Therefore as a compromise there will be a non-spoilery recap and then a spoilerish one. Click whichever one you like.

First, the recap without spoilers:



Heroes is essentially a live-action comic book. It involves a cast of thousands a large group of people with different backgrounds, who all meet and intersect and find out that they each play a part in a need to save the world. No pressure or anything.

A good chunk of our protagonists have special abilities. Some are the usual superhero abilities: flying, teleportation, telepathy, and so on. Others seem obvious, but have a little twist (WHY HELO THAR NIKI'S STORYLINE). Mohinder, the show's resident explainer/scientist/narrator/hottie #3, likes to chalk these special abilities up to evolution. Which just goes to show that Mohinder possibly got into university via some kind of sports scholarship, and that if you wanted a show that in any way showcased scientific concepts in a realistic fashion you should not have picked the one that involves characters flying, and teleporting, and wearing cheerleader outfits that are apparently made of adamantium.

In spite of the comic book background (and the heavy X-Men influence), the show is not over the top comic booky. The characters do not wear costumes, nobody has a twee superhero name, and words like "BAM!" and "CRUNCH!" do not flash across the screen.

Which is not to say that the show completely ignores the genre that spawned it. Many shots are framed in a comic book style (the title shot of each ep is usually a gorgeous example of this), and a comic book made by one of the characters is a key part of the season-long storyline. There are also online graphic novels which delve into character backgrounds, missing scenes, and so on. And naturally the show's famous episode-ending cliffhangers are in line with way that comics will tend to end on a note that leaves you dying to get your hands on the next issue.

Essentially the show tries to take on the concept of what it's like for folks to become superheroes when previously they had thought of themselves and the world around them as being pretty normal. Which is why, in amongst all that world-saving, there are stories of friendship and family. And, like all good stories be they comic or otherwise, the emotions about friends and family are what drive the characters along.

Aaaaaaaaaaand that's about all I can say without getting into spoilers.

So now for spoilers. Though not tons of spoilers because A) A little mystery can't hurt and B) If I wrote out every single part of s1 I'd be writing this spotlight well into s3. The show is densely packed with storylines, yo.

Therefore I shall go for summing up as best I can. Since part of s1 involves introducing the characters in the first place, I shall take care of talking about s1 by doing the same.




Claire Bennet

If you know anything about Heroes you probably know that saving the cheerleader has something to do with saving the world. Meet the cheerleader. A 16 year old girl in Odessa, Texas, Claire has the ability to recover from darn near anything, including being dead. Claire wants to live a normal life, but at the same time she's fascinated by her power and what it could mean. She suspects that it might have something to do with her real parents, as Claire is adopted. Claire spends s1 testing the limits of her abilities, wishing that she wasn't a freak, trying to find her biological family, dealing with what her powers mean for her relationship with her adopted family, and trying to avoid having her brain being eaten.

... we'll get back to that.


Mr. Bennet

Claire's adopted father, referred to as HRG (Horn Rimmed Glasses) during most of s1 due to the glasses he wears and to the fact that we don't find out his first name until waaaaaaaaaaaaay into the season, Mr. Bennet stands out because his superpower is BEING MADE OF AWESOME.

*cough*

Or he doesn't actually have a superpower at all. He's actually a normal guy - such as it is - who just so happens to work for a nameless organization that just so happens to track, and occasionally capture and perform experiments on, folks who have super powers. Like Claire. His adopted daughter. Who he has become devoted to.

Yearly performance reviews? Awkward.

Claire is unaware of this due to HRG's cover as a manager at Primatech Paper Company, which itself a cover for the nameless organization that he actually works for. And due to how one of HRG's co-workers has the power of the mind-wipe. Which HRG takes advantage of. Often. Especially on folks like his wife. Which kinda gives her brain damage. Oops.

HRG is a perfect example of the kind of storytelling you get with Heroes because one minute you love him, then you hate him, then you fear him, then you're back to loving him again and every single moment is perfectly in character.


Hiro Nakamura

Resident geek and total fanboy, Hiro stands out because he is one of the few who is happy to discover his superpowers, and who looks upon them as a gift. He has the ability to manipulate time and space, which makes for scenes with very cool special effects, and also for difficulty in Hiro's life since while he has the ability he does not yet have the finesse.

Hiro also bears a great responsibility since he finds out that he is a key figure in saving the world (his future-self is the one who gives the "Save the cheerleader..." warning) and he takes this personal quest very seriously.

Other bits of Hiro that are worthy of note: for most of the show he speaks nothing but (subtitled) Japanese, he's the one person most often pushing for the greater good, he's one of the few people Nathan Petrelli actually seems to like, and his dad is played by George Effin' Takei. 'nuff said.


Ando Masahashi

Hiro's BFF, Ando gets sucked into the world of superpowers when Hiro not only reveals the whole controlling time and space thing, but that he and Ando have to travel over to the US to keep New York City from going nuclear. At first Ando is skeptical, but eventually Hiro's determination and enthusiasm win him over.

Ando doesn't have any powers himself, though his ability to drive and to speak English come in handy. Also he is the best wingman a guy could ever ask for. (And if you don't pay attention to his reactions in the backgrounds of scenes, you are missing out on one of the real treasures of the show, IMO.)


Mohinder Suresh

The aforementioned narrator/scientist/hottie, Mohinder is drawn into the storyline when he finds out that his father, who believed in the idea of people evolving to have superpowers, was killed. Mohinder comes to New York for his father's ashes and stays for the attempt to find out more about these superbeings and the hope that he can keep their brains from being eaten by the guy who killed his dad. As of yet it is unknown whether Mohinder has any powers himself other than the ability to put people to sleep via voice overs but it would seem that powers are genetic, and Mohinder's sister had abilities, so who knows?


Niki Sanders

Speaking of hotties, there's Niki. Niki's got a hard life due to trying to stay on the wagon, trying to get her genius son a good education in spite of a lack of money, turning to online stripping because of said lack of money, being essentially a single mom since her husband is in jail, and this pesky issue where she keeps finding herself amongst horrifically mutilated dead bodies. Also her reflection seems to be alive. Yanno, normal stuff.

Niki's actual power is that of superstrength, but the problem is that Niki's body is not entirely her own. She shares it with Jessica, who may be Niki's dead sister, may be Niki's alternate personality, or maybe it's some of column A and some of column B. Either way you really don't want to make Jessica angry. It gets... messy.


D.L. Hawkins

Again with speaking of hotties, D.L. is Niki's husband. He's a criminal with some unfortunate ties to one Mr. Linderman, due to how Linderman thinks D.L. robbed him of a large chunk of cash only.... well, I won't ruin it for you. Suffice it to say a life of crime is not an easy one, even when you happen to have the ability to phase through walls. On the one hand: easy way to get yourself out of jail, on the other: are you really that eager to be home when you find out that half of your wife is a superpowered psychopath? Decisions, decisions...


Micah Sanders

Niki and D.L.'s son, Micah is easily the smartest person on the show though arguably some folks *coughMohindercough* don't give him huge amounts of competition. Niki, D.L., and Micah are all devoted to one another, but with the superpowers and the split personalities and the stealing and the mobsters and the murder it does get hard to sit down for a nice family dinner.


Matt Parkman

Matt is played by Greg Grunberg, which for some folks is reason enough to adore him. On the show he's a cop who can read people's minds. This has some pluses and minuses when it comes to his failing marriage, but professionally it gives him quite the edge in helping the FBI try to track down this psycho serial killer who seems to be into eating people's brains. (See how all this starts to tie together?)


Isaac Mendez

Isaac is a painter and a comic book artist who discovers that he has the ability to paint the future. Unfortunately he can only do so when he's high on heroin. Everything you need to know about Isaac can be summed up by his actions in the pilot episode when he locks himself up in an attempt to detox, then ends up nearly overdosing so he could complete the painting that revealed that Manhattan was doomed. (In the unaired pilot, Isaac chains himself up for the detox, then cuts off his hand so that he can escape and do the painting.)

Isaac's comics also reveal the future, which is how Hiro discovered that he and Ando were destined to go to America to try to save the world. Micah is another fan of Isaac's 9th Wonders comics, as is D.L. And, because I like to think I'm funny, this is why Fandom's own Peter Petrelli is sometimes seen reading the comics and commenting that they're good, but for some reason they have a tendency to spoil the outcomes of his favorite TV shows whenever they happen to be mentioned.

Speaking of which...


Peter Petrelli

Since you've met Peter via Fandom that means you've already had one of the best twists of the pilot ruined for you: namely the hour-long buildup that makes you believe that by God, this dreamer woobie of a younger brother will overcome his afterthought status and his emo bangs and fly.

Except he jumps off a building and it's his older brother Nathan who catches him. If you weren't into the show yet, this is usually the moment that made people go "Ho. Lee. CRAP." and then add it to their Season Pass. The other moment is finding out who Clarie's adopted dad is. So... sorry about spoiling you for that. 8)

Anyway - you get the drill with Peter. Younger brother, emo bangs, all about the touchy-feely and loving folks like crazy. He's also like Hiro in that he feels that having powers is a special gift, and that you can't turn your back on your destiny to help those who need it. But unlike Hiro he emos about it more. Probably because of those bangs.

Peter's power is that he copies other people's powers. But you knew that already.


Nathan Petrelli

Peter's older brother, Nathan is first-born, type A to the max. A self-described shark, Nathan's a lawyer and a politician and to all appearances is the kinda guy who makes it easy to understand why 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean is what you'd call a good start. Except Nathan isn't all bad. Much like HRG he's cutthroat when he needs to be, but it's for what he feels are good reasons. Even if nobody else might agree with him.

You can see why it's noteworthy that Hiro, of all people, could get Nathan to be friendly with him. Beyond that Nathan also cares about his little brother Peter. And Peter cares about him. To the point where the Winchester boys have a little company if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

AHEM.

In addition to ALL OF THESE PEOPLE, there's Angela Petrelli (Peter and Nathan's mom who can totally fuck your shit up with the quirk of an eyebrow), Mr. Linderman (the mobster Magneto to Mohinder's Prof. Xavier), Simone "Shut your mouth! I'm only talking 'bout Dad!" Deveaux, Ted "Not the Geico Caveman" Sprauge, Candice "DIE DIE DIE" Wilmer, Hana "I just cybered myself" Gitleman, Eden "SHUT UP" McCain, Zach "I'm not a homophobe but my manager is" BFF of Claire, Molly "More important than you'd think" Walker, Claude "Dr. Who" Rains, The Haitian Sensation that's Sweeping the Nation, and a few BILLION other characters who are all neat and fascinating, really, except I would like to actually end this spotlight sometime in my own mortal life. So suffice it to say they're all there, and we'll wrap this up with none other than:


Sylar

Born Gabriel Gray, Sylar was but a humble watchmaker until he found out from Chandra Suresh - aka Mohinder's dad - that it was possible that he had powers. Only said powers did not kick in until good ol' Gabriel... well... borrowed them. From another superpowered person. And then realized he could keep on borrowing said powers if by "borrowing" you mean "never giving them back" and also "by telekinetically sawing the tops of people's heads off and then EATING THEIR BRAINS."

Much like Hiro and Peter, Sylar thinks having powers is a special gift, which is to say that he's the one who's special and everyone else can make with the giving. It would be bad news if he somehow gained the ability to heal, especially since he's fascinated by this idea of having the ability to go nuclear, because it turns out that it's not a bomb that blows up Manhattan but a person, only said person might not actually be one of the bad guys, and maybe the explosion is actually for the best, only the future can NOT be that lame, except Nathan would be president and he's one of the good guys and it all comes down to saving the future or saving the ones you love and how DO you stop an exploding man and...

...and that would be Heroes season one.

But wait! There's more!

If all that's not enough to get you interested in the show, there's also the way the show gets fans. The NBC website for the show lets you watch episodes, read the graphic novels which tie in to the show's canon (you don't have to read the novels to understand the show, it just adds layers), get behind the scenes footage and even watch eps with DVD-style commentary from the cast. (And to give you an idea of how fun the cast is, some commentary highlights include snarking on the hills of Odessa, pretending that they, like the audience at first, can't tell the difference between D.L. and The Haitian either, calling The Haitian The Haitian Sensation That's Sweeping The Nation, and pointing out how, in various scenes, they thought Peter and Nathan were going to make out too.)

There's also the blog of one of the producer/directors, and the show's Official Unofficial Fan Site.

In other words, as fans we've certainly met plenty of PTB who either get us or try to shut us down. The PTB of Heroes totally get us, and for that they rule.

Sadly, it would seem that NBC has taken down the s1 episodes since the DVDs will be coming out soon (ABOUT DAMN TIME). But while the season plays they put eps up there.

In the meanwhile, here's some clips:

Claire may be a hero, but she's still got little brother issues. (The cheesy flippy cut between scenes is not from the show btw.)

Super powers are better than AAA.

Nathan is shirtless. There's also HRG and the Hatian Sensation That's Sweeping The Nation. Like that's important.

When Nathan met Hiro. (Of note, some of the dialogue in the later scenes in Isaac's studio was improvised by Adrian and Masi).

Peter meets Dr. Who.

Dr. Who teaches Peter how to use a power other than his emo bangs.

And, if you're really into being spoiled, well:

THIS is how you stop an exploding man.

And that's all I've got. Massive thanks to savedfornow for help on the multimedia end.

Questions? Comments? Other?

ETA: Spoilerish stuff for s2 in the comments.