WRITER: Tim Kring DIRECTOR: David Semel
CAST: Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), more...
As the Heroes continue to develop their powers, a new threat is revealed in a killer called Sylar and Hiro makes a nightmarish discovery in New York...Just to recap; I reviewed the first episode of Heroes (in a rough-and-ready format) a few months ago here, and much of what I said at the time is still true. Some problems were ironed out by the time it premiered on NBC, such as a more plausible rescue from a fire-ravaged building, but the scattershot pacing and characterisation remained. Overall, I gave the Pilot a rating of 2/5, but the finished product was a more solid 3/5.
Don't Look Back finds Peter in hospital following his leap from a building... Hiro discovers a comic-book that has predicted his arrival in New York... Claire averts celebrity status for her heroism... Mohinder finds an ally to help him trace his father... and Niki discovers a frightening side to her power...
The amazing thing about Don't Look Back is how it hits the ground running and introduces a number of new elements that immediately make Heroes one of the most interesting shows on television, if still the most unoriginal and thinly written.
Ali Larter continues her impressive work as Niki's power goes from being the most ludicrous to the most original and intriguing. Of all the characters she undoubtedly has the strangest ability, and her character's struggle is the most dramatic aspect to the show at the moment.
Masi Oka could so easily become the most annoying character on TV (and if they don't reign in his cute sci-fi references, that could still be the case), but right now Oka's made Hiro a very watchable bundle of energy. It helps that Hiro's powers are perhaps the most impressive in the show, and his storyline the best thing about Heroes at the moment.
I'm not going to needlessly churn over the rest of the cast's actions this week, needless to say that some characters are still underused -- Isaac the precognitive painter is effectively a walking plot device at the moment! Mohinder is the lynchpin to the series, and there are signs his investigation into his father's death could evolve into something more interesting than first thought.
The main interest this week is the arrival of another hero, namely Greg Grunberg as a cop called Matt Parkman who discovers he has the ability to read minds. This comes in useful at a crime scene where FBI Agent Audrey Hanson (Clea Duvall) is investigating a serial-killer known as Sylar. It's with the mysterious Sylar that another new component to Heroes is introduced, as Sylar is clearly gifted with strange abilities himself (a family he murdered were frozen stiff and had their brains removed!)
The new additions to the show introduced in Don't Look Back go a long way to making it compulsive viewing already, despite only a few characters being written with any depth, and the dialogue being a little weak. There's also the vague sense that writer/creator Tim Kring just has a list of cool moments and revelations to throw into the story whenever the script runs out of steam. If true, Kring clearly can't keep that trick up forever, but for now he's done a decent job of introducing the many characters and plot-threads.
The final scene with Hiro is such a spine-tingling moment it surely ranks as one of the best climaxes to any sci-fi show of the past few years. For the moment, Heroes is on a roll I didn't expect based on the competent, but worrying, first episode.
My only concern is that once everyone's powers are explained and developed fully, the characters will remain relatively empty and the series will struggle to keep its momentum. However, with so many characters, a growing mix of personal and global perils, not to mention the overall mystery, Heroes should make for great entertainment in its first season at the very least.
