TV To Watch: ‘Heroes’

Plot: As an eclipse blocks out the sun, a few ordinary people begin to discover they have extrodinary powers. While they begin to experiment with these new powers, and a genetic professor’s son begins to search for them, they discover they are also being hunted, both by a government-type…and a killer that goes by the name of Sylar. As these new heroes come together, they discover their purpose: to save the world.

This show looked good in the commercials, but since it was on Monday night, we figured we would never see it. After all, our Monday night’s are already booked, with CSI: Miami, 24 and WWE RAW.

However, a commercial on the Sci-Fi channel led us to it’s showing of Heroes, on Fridays. Thankfully, a Sci-Fi Heroes marathon helped catch us up on most of the episodes we had missed, and NBC’s website was able to catch us up on the rest - as they put all of the episodes online.

Once we started watching, we were instantly hooked. The storytelling is totally not what you’d first expect on hearing the plot. Instead of making the events incredibly fantastical, Heroes is able to merge these events with reality in such a way that they become more real to the viewer than most other tries at big-screen superheroism. Heroes merges superhero-abilities and a compelling storyline into this season’s biggest hit.

Of course, what would any show be without good characters? Heroes‘ characters are what help make the show so enjoyable, and they are as big a part of the show as the storyline. The main characters include:

Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera) is able to paint the future - but only when he’s on heroin
Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), mother of Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey), discovers the image she sees in the mirror isn’t her
Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) is able to bend the space-time continuum, allowing him to both stop time and to time travel
Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) is an indestructible cheerleader
Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) is a cop who can hear people’s thoughts
Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) is able to take on the power of a person close to him
Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) is a politician who can fly
Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), is the son of the genetics professor who discovered the Heroes’ abilities, and is now tracking them down to tell them

With only half of it’s first season finished, Heroes has already hooked tons of viewers, and garnered 2 Golden Globe nominations and is the only TV show listed on TIME Magazine’s “27 People Who Mattered In 2006″. With such an auspicious start, this show could just rest on it’s laurels. But, we think this is one show that has just begun to impress.

Updates:

10.30.07 - The Heroes: Origins mini-series has been pushed back at least until Fall 2008.
09.24.07 - Season 2 begins today.
06.16.07 - A 6-part mini-series, titled Heroes: Origins is set to air sometime during the 2nd season of Heroes. This mini-series will showcase 6 new heroes, and fan voting on nbc.com will decide who makes it into season 3.
06.15.07 - Season 1 is coming to DVD August 28, 2007.
06.01.07 - Season 1 is finished - but the last episode, “How To Stop An Exploding Man” left us with a disappearing act by Sylar and 2 possible hero deaths, so fans are waiting anxiously for Season 2 to begin. Unfortunately, no update yet on when Season 2 will start - most likely September 2007.