Masi Oka

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Heroes: Season 4’ Concludes Botched Sci-Fi Series

mattmovieman — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:24:06 -0400

CHICAGO – Here’s one of the saddest casualties of the recent writer’s strike. Tim Kring’s sci-fi series, “Heroes,” came on like gangbusters when it debuted in 2006. It intriguingly fused the formulas of “X-Men” and “Unbreakable,” as it followed a colorful assortment of earthlings who discover that they have powers unsettlingly akin to those seen comic books.

Viewer interest was initially high as the series continued to build its suspense, baiting the audience all the way to an anticlimactic season finale. Yet after the writer’s strike stalled production on the next season, slashing its episode count down to eleven, the series stumbled and never regained its footing. It became just another tedious television drama consisting entirely of phony ploys designed to keep the viewer watching. Like many popular franchises, from “Lost” to “Twilight,” “Heroes” consists entirely of procrastination, though at least in this case, most viewers were wise enough not to stick around.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0

Few people tuned in for Season 4, and I suppose even fewer will bother to check it out on Blu-Ray. It’s a melancholy experience to view a dying show struggling to reconnect with what made it special in the first place. Not coincidentally, the season begins with its central “heroes” struggling to return to their old lives. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is a paramedic, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is starting college, Matt (Greg Grunberg) is a cop, and Asian comic relief Hiro (Masi Oka) is stuck with a brain tumor, while the evil Sylar (Zachary Quinto) has been tricked into thinking he’s Peter’s brother, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar). There’s also a seductive schemer (Robert Knepper) planning to cause mischief with his carnival full of magical outcasts, who seem to have been teleported in from “Cirque du Freak” by way of “True Blood.”

The last thing this overstuffed series needs is more characters, since the show originally got derailed after an excess of subplots sidelined the stars, while bringing the dramatic momentum to a halt. The final season’s episodes awkwardly lurch from one genre to another, from broad comedy and weepy melodrama to uninspired fantasy and groan-inducing horror. Even Kring admits in an interview that he “incorporated the approaches of new directors into his vocabulary,” which clearly led to the show’s muddled tone. Kring’s team of writers had become so focused on stringing along their viewers that they forgot about planning their destination. In the words of Claire’s bitchy roomie, “How are you going to find your future without a map?” “Heroes” ultimately had nowhere to go but down, and its series finale landed with a literal thud.

Heroes: Season 4 was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on Aug. 3, 2010.
Photo credit: Universal Home Entertainment

“Heroes: Season 4” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio), and includes all eighteen episodes on four discs, accompanied by less-than-stellar special features. There’s the expected pocket BLU app, as well as interactive U-Control features, the best of which is a trivia track, “Hero Connections,” which enables character bios to pop up during episodes, assisting viewers in untangling the show’s various knotted plot threads. 45 minutes of deleted and extended scenes are included from this season, and mainly function as added beats to familiar scenes. It’s somewhat surprising that no additional scenes are included from the show’s finale (an alternate ending would’ve been most welcome). It’s also a shame that the cast and crew didn’t record audio commentaries in which they reflect on how their once promising series fell apart.

There’s a forced air of elation in the remaining extras, though it’s clear that few members of the “Heroes” team were ready to see their show come to an end, even as it was spiraling out of control. Kring and co-executive producer Adam Armus conduct a 20-minute discussion with Quinto about his character, and how it evolved from a hardened killer into a softened phantom seeking redemption. Fans may be surprised to learn that Sylar was originally going to be introduced as a priest in an Italian monastery. Ventimiglia reminisces about how his emotions got the best of him during his final day acting opposite Pasdar. There’s also extended footage and production stills centering on the circus freaks headed by Knepper and Ray Park (Darth Maul, himself). The final disc features 42 minutes of behind-the-scenes breakdowns exploring everything from in-camera effects (such as a car overflowing with icy water) and digital shots, to the metaphorical meaning of an exploding wall, nicely articulated by director Allan Arkush, who’s so appealing that he makes the silliness nearly seem credible. The final episode is preceded by an introduction from Kring, who praises his crew and thanks his fanbase, while barely acknowledging the various production hurdles that led to the show’s demise.

The most enlightening featurette is “Heroes Revolution,” which attempts to portray the show’s multifaceted online marketing campaign as a landmark evolution in the history of television. It highlights all the alternate ways the show could be “found” online, through Facebook, Twitter, websiodes and graphic novels. Though this form of “new media storytelling” may hold potential, “Heroes” is a prime example of how this approach can render an already overcomplicated plot incomprehensible. The producers constantly monitored online fan responses, thus allowing an excess of cooks to spoil their creative broth. When particular actors were unavailable, their characters’ stories continued in the graphic novel, which also served as a stage for action sequences too elaborate to film. Between commercial breaks, there were advertisements for webisodes which gave particular scenes from that night’s episode “added subtext.” None of these alleged “storytelling” methods serve any purpose other than to desperately connect with viewers who spend the bulk of their time online. Interactivity is a poor substitute for quality.

‘Heroes: Season 4’ is released by Universal Home Entertainment and stars Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Sendhil Ramamurthy, James Kyson-Lee, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter and Robert Knepper. It was created by Tim Kring. It was released on Aug. 3rd, 2010. It is not rated.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-Ray Review: Season Three of ‘Heroes’ Designed to Please Fans

BrianTT — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:19:53 -0400

CHICAGO – I’m one of many fans burned by the fizzling out of “Heroes,” a show that started incredibly strong and went from “must-see” to “meh” in just a few seasons. Despite the show’s overall dip in quality, the Blu-Ray releases have been heralded as leaders in the format, filled with special features designed to please hardcore fans. But special features are only one part of a Blu-Ray set and “Heroes: Season Three” falls short in all others.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

The Universal-produced set includes all 25 episodes from the season three volumes of “Heroes,” “Villains” and “Fugitives”. After the disappointing second season of “Heroes,” fans were excited to see how the once-clever show could return to form with a reportedly reinvigorated writing crew who publicly acknowledged the failures of season two. To this viewer, season three is just more of the same with cluttered storytelling, characters that we stopped caring about years ago, and ridiculous twists.

Having said that, I can still step back and tell the hardcore “Heroes” fans out there that the special features on the third season Blu-Ray are undeniably great. It’s nice to see a studio design a Blu-Ray release to honestly please a show’s devoted fans. Universal could have simply included the episodes and nothing more and most “Heroes” nuts would have bought the third season set. They went above and beyond.

Heroes: Season Three was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on September 1st, 2009.
Photo credit: Universal Home Video

How so? The third season set includes hours of special features, many of them presented using Universal’s spectacular U-Control, a functionality that allows viewers to see behind-the-scenes details while the show plays. U-Control is used in two ways on “Heroes,” allowing for people to view cast & crew commentaries on an episode or to see bios of the characters as they appear on-screen in a function called “Hero Connections”. Both the commentaries and bios are the kind of special features that enhance an episode of a show like “Heroes” instead of just serving as filler.

But they’re just the beginning. All five discs include deleted scenes and “Hero Connections - Network” with other special features, disc by disc:

Disc One: “The Super Powers of “Heroes””
Disc Two: “Completing the Scene,” “Alternate Stories,” and “Pinehearst Commercial”
Disc Three: “The Prop Box” and “Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art”
Disc Four: “Genetics of a Scene”
Disc Five: “The Writers’ Forum” and “Building Coyote Sands”

As for the episodes themselves, they certainly sound great but the HD transfer is undeniably disappointing when compared to other TV on Blu-Ray or the show’s original HD broadcast on NBC. Daylight scenes look great but the more darkly-lit scenes have come out murky, grainy, and with a noticeable loss of detail. Some of the grain is clearly intentional, but I’ve seen a majority of the episodes when they originally aired and the show looked more well-defined in its original HD broadcast.

A lot of viewers may have jumped ship (the average ratings for season three - 7.6 million viewers - were nearly half that of season one - 13.86 million viewers) but there are clearly still loyal, devoted “Heroes” fans. Enough that NBC saw fit to renew the show and bring it back for season four starting Monday, September 21st, 2009. Maybe there’s still enough fire burning in the world of “Heroes” that the show could be the water-cooler hit it was in season one once again and the care put into releases like this one is helping to keep the flame from going out.

‘Heroes: Season Three’ is released by Universal Home Video and stars Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, Adrian Pasdar, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Milo Ventimgilia. It was created by Tim Kring. The third season was released on September 1st, 2009. It is not rated and runs 1,072 minutes.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com