HEROES REBORN, episode 13 - 'Project Reborn'

Below is the last of my weekly HEROES REBORN vidcap'd recaps, looking at the finale "Project Reborn"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 12 - 'Company Woman'

Below is my weekly HEROES REBORN vidcap'd recap, looking at penultimate episode "Company Woman"...

HEROES: REBORN, episode 11 - 'Send in the Clones'

After one of those excruciating and damaging "winter hiatuses" U.S TV often has, below is the first continuation of my weekly HEROES REBORN vidcap'd recaps, looking at "Send in the Clones"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 10 - '11:53 to Odessa'

My weekly vidcap'd recap'd coverage of HEROES REBORN continues with episode 10, "11:53 to Odessa"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 9 - 'Sundae, Bloody Sundae'

My weekly vidcap'd recap'd coverage of HEROES REBORN continues with episode 9, "Sundae, Bloody Sundae"...

Autumn 2015 TV - Part One

We're a few months into the 2015/16 television season, so I just wanted to run down all the shows I'm watching, how I think they're getting on, and my degrees of continued interest in them.

'Agents of SHIELD' (season 3) - ABC.
Season 1 became good halfway through. Season 2 turned bad halfway through. Season 3's proving to be a real bore from the start. It seems someone decided what we really want from AoS is lots of people with superpowers, so they're going big on the whole Inhumans angle. I just wish the show didn't feel like a live-action X-Men more than a spy-fi show that could tackle a lot of different subjects and ideas. Unsurprisingly, the best episode (so far) concerned an hourlong flashback to Simmons stranded on an alien planet, having to survive until rescue arrived. While it was probably inspired by The Martian novel, or knowledge of the film adaptation, it was something you don't see TV do very often.

HEROES REBORN, episode 8 – 'June 13th Part Two'

My weekly vidcap'd recap'd coverage of HEROES REBORN continues with episode 8, "June 13th Part Two"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 7 - 'June 13th Part One'

My weekly vidcap'd recap'd coverage of HEROES REBORN continues with episode 7, "June 13th Part One"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 6 – 'Game Over'

My weekly vidcap'd recap'd coverage of HEROES REBORN continues with episode 6, "Game Over"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 5 - 'The Lion's Den'

My weekly vidcap recaps of Heroes Reborn continues below, with a look at halfway mark "The Lion's Den"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 4 - 'The Needs of the Many'

As announced last week, I'm going to be covering NBC's Heroes Reborn weekly, but via the medium of extensive vidcap. Click through to see what happened on "The Needs of the Many"...

HEROES REBORN, episode 3 - 'Under the Mask'

I'll be covering Heroes Reborn weekly at DMD, but in more of a visual manner. The material isn't substantial enough to feel like it deserves a huge amount of effort spent on it, so for the duration of this miniseries I'll be commenting below a dozen or so vidcaps, which will illustrate my lighthearted thoughts as the show develops.

Review: HEROES REBORN – 'Awakening' & 'Odessa'

★★★☆☆

What's the premise? It's Heroes, dummy. You remember. NBC's hugely successful superhero drama from 2006 which flamed out spectacularly with audiences thanks to a crappy second season (not helped by meddling network interference, it must be said). Only truly dedicated fans continued to watch until NBC finally axed it in 2010 after four seasons.

Trailer: HEROES REBORN

Where do you begin with Heroes? It was undoubtedly a game-changing show for NBC, albeit one heavily influenced by the success ABC was having with Lost—having confidence to utilise a very large ensemble and write interconnected storylines. It also borrowed heavily from comic-book mythology (often stealing ideas from Watchmen wholesale), to produce a first season that became an immediate phenomenon. And then it flushed the goodwill away with one of the worst second season slumps ever; although an industry-wide Writers' Strike and NBC's greediness didn't help (as they had to retain characters intended to die, who'd outstayed their usefulness, and kept being asked to produce more episodes than they had enough story for). Somehow, Heroes struggled on until season 4, before NBC were forced to end its misery.

Teaser: HEROES – REBORN

During the Super Bowl, NBC released a better teaser for this summer's event series, HEROES: REBORN—featuring the return of Jack Coleman and the first glimpse of Chuck's Zachary Levi. Who's the dude with the ability to create aurora borealis? Find out later this year, if you care!

HEROES REBORN casts CHUCK

Zachary Levi (Chuck, Thor: The Dark World) has signed up for this summer's HEROES REBORN; a 13-part miniseries follow-up to the superhero drama from 2006-10. He will join the previously announced original cast member Jack Coleman, reprising his role as Mr Bennett. Nothing is known about what the new show will entail, but expect Levi to be a leading figure. Most likely another unassuming man who gains superpowers, which won't be a stretch from his role as Chuck Bartowski on NBC's spy-comedy.

Which HEROES should return?

Has a television show ever soared so high, only to fall so hard? NBC superhero drama HEROES had a phenomenal first season (spoiled by a fudged finale people disliked), before a creatively disastrous second season alienated the mainstream. Only die-hard fans kept watching its prolonged death throes, before the life-support machine was turned off after season 4. But someone at NBC remembers when Heroes was The Biggest Show on the Planet... so it's coming back next year as thirteen-episode miniseries HEROES: REBORN. But which of the original, leading actors should return?

NBC order HEROES REBORN

NBC have announced the return of their superhero drama Heroes, which was cancelled in 2010 after four seasons. Creator Tim Kring will return to produce HEROES REBORN; a 13-episode "event miniseries" scheduled to air in 2015.

Will Microsoft reboot HEROES?

There are reports suggesting MSN may revive axed NBC superhero drama Heroes, to help launch its Xbox entertainment studio with original content. A new series would likely focus on new characters, with the potential for original stars like Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka to guest-star or make cameos.

Will this happen? I somehow doubt it, but that probably means it will be officially announced as happening by the weekend. Heroes' creator Tim Kring is now working on Fox's Touch, but that show's days appear to be numbered, which would allow him to revive his biggest hit after a three or four year absence.

Obviously Microsoft are a wealthy company, so it's not unfathomable they could finance a fullblown season of Heroes that doesn't cut any corners. Netflix spent around $100m on House of Cards, and that would cover the cost of a Heroes season back in the days when it was going over budget at $4m per episode. But would Microsoft spend that amount of money on a show that even fans admit struggled creatively after season 1, and is perhaps seen as a tarnished property by the wider public? I'd expect them to spend more in the region of $30-50m for a 10-episode run.

Is anyone clamouring for more Heroes?

NBC axe the Heroes; will you miss them?

You can read my piece about NBC's decision to axe Heroes at OWF, but I thought it was also worth a mention here because I've reviewed it from beginning to end, through thick and thin. I'm not going to shed any tears over its passing, because it was creatively dead a few years ago and deserved to be cancelled, but it's definitely a shame Tim Kring and his team never found a way to capitalize on that heady debut year. I guess part of its legacy will be as a warning to showrunners that you're only one half-season away from a slow, lingering death, no matter how successful your show was to begin with.