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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Heroes - Episode 1 (pilot)

Heroes
Airs Mondays at 8PM (Central) on NBC

I have to admit I was skeptical about Heroes, a new television show from Tim Kring, a creative force behind "Crossing Jordan." Although I�ll watch Crossing Jordan, it isn�t a great television show and the plot tends to go from one silly episode to the next. And the beginning of the pilot was not auspicious. Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor teaching in India, learns of his father�s death. In heavy-handed dialogue with a colleague, we learn that:

1. Mohinder�s father was a geneticist with unconventional theories.
2. Because of his theories, he left or was asked to leave academic life.
3. He eventually moved to New York City and became a cab driver.
4. Mohinder believes in his father�s research and is willing to throw away his own career to continue in his footsteps.

This is a pretty standard SciFi convention: a son or daughter of a brilliant but insane and/or radical scientist takes up his or her parent�s (usually a father) research and pursuit of �Forbidden Knowledge.� I realize it�s not original, but it certainly is expedient and gets the viewer immediately into the story.

As an aside, the theory deals with genetics, specifically in evolution. There are theories about evolution that it actually happens in huge leaps, rather than slowly over time. Individuals of a species mutate so significantly that they are fundamentally different from their counterparts. Those with beneficial mutations survive to pass on their genes to their offspring, thus radically altering the evolution of a species. Sound familiar to you comic book geeks? Yes, it�s the same premise used in the X-Men comics.

The story thus far:

Mohinder goes to his father�s apartment and discovers someone has torn it apart looking for his research. He gathers up what he can find, but hears a cellphone ring. A man is still the next room; Mohinder quietly takes what is most important and flees to New York. There he finds his father�s apartment and takes up his occupation of cab driver.

Peter Petrelli is a nurse who is currently taking care of a dying man. Peter has been having dreams that he can fly. He tries to explain this to his brother, Nathan, a politician running for Congress. Nathan is self-centered and egotistical and brushes Peter off as a dreamer. Later Nathan receives a call that their mother has been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan scolds her, but Peter defends her, saying she is lonely and lost since their father died. In spite of Nathan�s coldness towards her, she makes it clear that Nathan is favorite son and berates Peter for his choice of career. Both Nathan and she remind him that Nathan�s shadow is very large, meaning that Peter will always be overshadowed by his more charismatic brother. Peter, however, hero-worships his brother and believes they have some deeper connection.

Peter has fallen for the dying man�s beautiful daughter, Simone, but she is involved with a painter with a drug habit. She visits her boyfriend, Isaac, and finds him distraught and destroying his paintings. She tries to stop him, but he is too agitated and says that they are evil. He shows her one of a bus in flames and tells her he painted it three weeks ago. On the news that day, he saw a picture of the same bus, the target of a bombing in Israel. There are other disturbing pictures, including one of the solar eclipse that will happen later that day. Simone realizes he is going through withdrawal and needs something to calm him and goes to her father�s house to get morphine. She persuades Peter to come with her and they find Isaac unconscious. Peter gives him emergency aid while Simone calls an ambulance. Peter notices that one of the paintings is of a fire being shown on the news right that moment.

Claire Bennet is a popular cheerleader who asks a friend to videotape her falling from an 80 foot drop. Though he is thrilled at her ability to heal nearly instantaneously, she feels like a freak and asks him not to tell anyone. Later, they stumble on a burning factory and she impetuously runs inside (it seems like Claire is determined to destroy herself). She finds a man trapped inside and she rescues him.

Meanwhile a single mother, Niki, works as an online stripper to support her young, gifted son. She notices something that disturbs her, that her reflection in the mirror seems to be a fraction slower or makes faces at her. She has borrowed $25,000 from a loan shark to make a donation to a special school, but is unable to pay the tuition and he is rejected. Niki takes her son to a friend�s house for safety, then goes back to her house to get her things. Unable to get the donation back or make payments on the loan, the shark sends thugs to her house. In a rather horrible scene, the men ask Niki to strip for them and then become violent when she doesn�t perform to their satisfaction. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes, the house is full of blood. The thugs are dead. In a broken mirror, her reflection puts a finger to its lips, signing to her not to tell anyone.

Hiro, an office worker in Japan, longs to be different. He sits at his desk and wills a clock to stop. It does for 1 second. Hiro rejoices and runs to tell his co-worker the good news. A geek through and through, Hiro talks to his coworker using Star Trek references and explains that he also made the train 14 seconds late this morning. With practice, he hopes to use his power to teleport. His friend is not just skeptical, but also dismisses Hiro as a geek and hopelessly weird. That night over beers, he taunts Hiro and before leaving for the restroom himself, he tells Hiro to use the power to teleport into the women�s washroom. When he gets back, Hiro is being removed by bouncers. As they walk away from the bar, he tells Hiro to be normal.

Mohinder encounters the Man with the Glasses who had been searching his father�s apartment when he gets into Mohinder�s cab. He so spooked by the meeting that Mohinder stops the car and runs away.

Hiro decides one morning to try to teleport. He closes his eyes and concentrates and when opens them, he�s in Times Square in New York.

Peter asks his brother to meet him in an alley. He climbs to the top of the building. Sure he will fly, he jumps. He falls. Suddenly, Nathan rises, flying up to catch his brother and bring him safely to the ground.

After surviving and healing completely from several alarming accidents, Claire asks her mother to tell her who her real parents are. The Man with the Glasses enters their house; he is Claire�s (adoptive?) father.

My thoughts: A good opening episode. All of this would sound trite except that it is actually done well. After the initial dialogue problems, the characters start to sound like real humans, not plot expositions. There are real moments of tension, fear and wonder: Claire resetting her bones after a fall, Niki being menaced by a loan shark�s thugs, Hiro successfully teleporting himself from Tokyo to New York. Sure, the special effects look good, but there are elements to the story that are intriguing. What is the significance of the eclipse? What is the catastrophe Isaac has painted? And how does a comic book called 9th Wonders have to do with all of this?

One prediction � Peter�s power is actually his belief in his brother; that is, his belief and love for his brother gives his brother the ability to fly or other superpowers.

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