A few corrections/add-ons I’d like to make: -Peter got his powers back because he injected himself with the power-giving serum. I totally missed that on a rewatch, my bad. -I didn’t mean to imply that streaming existed in 2006. What I was trying to point out was that this was a transition period between old school cable and streaming. Entire shows were easier to watch in order through things like video on demand, dvr, dvd box sets, and buying episodes on itunes. This is one reason why more serialized shows were successful at this time. -Tim Kring announced a revival series in April called Heroes Eclipsed. The video was already done by the time I heard about it, otherwise I would have mentioned it.
Why do you keep saying old school cable? This was on NBC. NBC is a broadcast television channel. Even to this day you can just put an antenna up and watch it.
I’m starting to realize that I don’t know the difference between network and cable tv. Growing up, I had a ‘cable box’ and I referred to anything I watched on it as ‘cable tv.’ I’ve also always heard ‘streaming’ and ‘cable’ described as the two opposing ways to watch tv in the modern day. I never knew that ‘network’ tv was its own distinct thing before all these comments started correcting me.
"heroes reborn? there was a reboot of heroes? How did I never hear about this?" > The first thing it does is kill off claire offscreen "oh. Nevermind."
You didn't miss much, it wasn't good. A few of the original actors came back but it felt like they pretty much came back for a paycheck (especially considering others left for better things like Claire and Sylar's actors). Most of the new characters were meh and the overall story was grasping for straws.
It does more then that, it makes her a central character so it feels like a giant piece is missing. If they couldn't get the actress back they should have given the role to some other character.
Showing my gen z roomate the vlassic 2000s tv shows. Dexter, heros etc and she asked me why they have a 1 minute recap of the story at the start of every episode and i said we werent uaed to continuous stories yet. 😂
Not true - maybe not for the first season but you could watch heroes episodes online iirc, and definitely through dvr and next day on demand through a cable box.
that was the original plan for the HEROES show as each season(Volume) was supposed to be self-contained but connected to the overall world of HEROES, but the season 1(Volume 1) cast became really popular and NBC didn't think that introducing a new cast every season(Volume) would be good for the show.
@@ShadowSonic2 its not very easy. "American Horror Story" was a different genre. Heroes was an international superhit with characters/actors from around the world. It gained a massive fan following. also season 2 heroes did introduce some new characters but they were all flop.
I'm pretty sure Peter took the serum in order to get abilities again. So that would explain a difference in powers but it always confused me that he just got a watered down version of what he already had.
I like to believe that he had his ability for years before he realized it, so his ability was able to evolve to what it was. Eventually it would evolve back. Not canon I know but I like to believe it.
It's really weird why Peter got a watered down version of his ability because the "Formula" was presented as a perfect well, formula to give abilities because Mohinder got it wrong and started to have a hideous mutation as a result but when he took the perfect formula it got rid of the mutation but he still had his enhanced Strength, agility and durability.
@@spyderbite8723 Yeah, that could make some sense considering that he seemed to have absorbed the dream walking version of telepathy from Charles Deveaux without realising. Though he didn't get his mother's powers until later in the show.
I know it gets so dumb near the end but it's still one of my favorite tv shows. I used to have the collectors editions of each season on dvd back in the day.
The eclipse was annoying because when it took the powers away, they strongly implied that the eclipse in the first episode was what gave them powers. Except they seemingly forgot that the first season had an episode set months before the first episode where they already had powers anyway.
Watched whole show on air. It's so strange how awesome it is and how much it lacks. It's like it trails you along, making you think it's going to get better... the atmosphere tricks you the entire time. I enjoyed it. And I wanted more. I was very said when *spoiler* dies and how they went into final season, but I loved it.
When Heroes first came out I downloaded 6 min long pieces of new episodes (8 videos per episode) at my work computer with a high speed Internet. Put them into a USB go home and watch it with my GF. When Hiro's timeline was revealed, I thought it was the coolest scene I have ever seen. I was 23. Great video! Thanks for putting it together! That does not change the fact that we are all idiots to watch the entire series at least twice over :))
The motto 'Save the cheerleader , save the world' was cool. 1st 4 episodes 3xplored who was super powered and were good. Biggest mistake was focusing on Silar. Loved Hiro and his buddy.
He means Sylar was better as lurking big bad/boogieman style villain. The show gave you too much of him down the line, making him less interesting . @chad63
I saw this when it aired and I watched it all, even the reboot fiasco. One thing they did that was fun was an interactive element. During each episode premiere, you would go to the site on your phone and it would have polls, behind the scenes information, plot hints, character backstories, stuff like that. Sometimes it would ask the audience to guess what would happen next and you'd get to see whether or not everyone was right. TV shows using the internet to get the audience to participate were so innovative during this time period. Lost was another one that really tried to be multimedia before social media was really a thing.
One huge mistake they made with Heroes was to reverse direction on not having sacred characters. When the show began no character was safe from being killed off, but unfortunately Hayden, Milo, and Zachary became so popular they reversed course. This was a huge mistake. There was no suspense knowing the show was no longer willing to truly kill off a character. The network chose to appease the type of fan who can't live without their favorites at the expense of the show.
Thank you for this video. Heroes is my all time favorite TV show because it felt like our story as opposed to X-Men with "mutations" like Beast or Toad...Heroes made it personal and relatable to anyone who ever felt like an outcast. None the less, it's my favorite for the way it made me feel about my real life. Thank you again for this guide; executed perfectly.
They wrote themselves into a corner it happens way more often than you would think and kills probably over fifty percent of franchises movies and tv shows
I'm a completionist, when i start watching something, I have to watch it to the end. Heroes, by the end of the first season proved that it had no direction or plan. Everything about it was pointless. It was so bad, that it managed to break my completionist instincts. I was never able to finish this. I had such high hopes and it would be easy to make it an amazing show by better planning and interweaving the plots but no, it was like each episode writer was just told to continue the previous episode, with no other direction
I loved the show when it first started, and watched until like half-way through the season with the carnival. Then I tried rewatching years later, and stopped watching on the exact same episode. I have actually been meaning to rewatch it lately since I found the spin-off comics I bought a couple years ago.
I watched the whole thing. I was obsessed, watched all the commentary, extra stuff online, got the comics. To this day, I only have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. Everything else was worthless. Fun fact, in the huge DVD wall in Leave the World Behind, they also only have the first two seasons of Heroes.
I stopped watching Heroes because of Silar. He was a great villain, until he became a heroe...then a long lost brother, then NOT a long lost brother, and back to a villain. Also, fuck Peter for leaving Caitlin in the future and forgetting about her like the next episode.
Caitlin being forgotten was the exact reason I stopped watching the show when it was originally airing. It made no sense that Peter would do that and showed to me I was wasting my time trying to keep track of plot threads.
Ali Larter being a triplet was my red flag that the show has jumped the shark. And this isn't some "Hindsight is 20/20" thing, even back then when I really loved the show, the triplet thing had me concerned if the writers really had a plan.
I’m sorry, to everyone who is reading this comment, and who may read it in the future… I still, unironically, unashamedly, unabashedly and unconditionally *LOVE* both _'Heroes'_ and _'Heroes: Reborn'._ 🤷🏻♀️
Note: A huge plot hole with the eclipses is that in the show, they're visible and darken the sky all over the world. That's not how real solar eclipses work; they cover a relatively tiny area of the planet with shadow very briefly. No solar eclipse on modern Earth would darken the entire planet.
FYI NBC was broadcast tv and not cable. My friends and I loved the first season so much we would have monday night watch parties every week (not something I'd never done before or since).
Having thoroughly enjoyed season 1, I bounced after the mess that was season 2, and have heard nothing of the following seasons (other than they weren't good) till I watched your video. I 100% made the correct decision.
I owned this on dvd, i was... 17 in college, and i loved the show. I watched it all, i wasnt a critical tv consumer... ive never rewatched it, never will... but it has a special place in my heart
I am enjoying your various mystery box show recaps, thank you for all the effort and care you put into them. I'd love to see you cover Detionaire, another animated mystery box show.
36:25 Okay there’s an explanation for this. The power absorption is only one power at a time. The reason Arthur could absorb multiple is because Peter had multiple powers you see that in the pulses that are released. Tommy says he lost healing for time travel. The reason his time travel at first appeared different was because of mental blocks it’s why later he learned to not just mimic Hiros abilities but additionally may two different time phantom’s of himself. 37:41 We don’t need to infer she learns to do it in season 2
Great analysis of this show! If you really want a challenge try to make sense of Twin Peaks. I rewatch once a year and I still can't figure it out. Not only do I not understand some of the things that literally happen, I don't even understand what the metaphorical intent is behind it. Like literally what is David Lynch trying to say artistically? And I know I'm not the only person confused on that one. Heroes, at least you can figure out most of it if you pay attention. But I never noticed how much unexplained stuff they did ,how many plotlines just get dropped until I saw your work. Great job!
I watched the whole thing live. A major complaint at the time was that it always blew its budget early in a season and left nothing for season climaxes.
Love the video, but there is one thing to address; Peter had his original empathic mimicry powers taken away by his dad (because it was wayyy too op), and he got them back when taking one of the last remaining vials of the serum before Arthur’s building blew up. That’s why his new powers are slightly different. Edit: Hiro got his powers back because of Parkman jr. Which means that Arthur is taking the powers away, but since they’re genetic, if an outside force can kickstart the gene again, you’re all good.
I watched the original season on TV and enjoyed it. I watched a little of season two then gave up. It didn't seem that there was a real plot or plan and I didn't like all the focus on Sylar. At some point, I watched Reborn, which seemed OK at the time, but it was not memorable. I honestly recall almost nothing about it.
You're serious? It would likely be just as contrived with a bunch of shoe-horned narratives of "the message" and garbage avengers style tension breaking humor, just to get canceled after season one. Besides, people are tired of super hero crap. Just my opinion of course. Cheers!
Great analysis! Yeah, I loved season one of Heroes. Season two started OK, but I didn't like that it started a storyline and then stopped it without resolution.
I binged the whole show on Netflix years ago. Season 4 was really hard for me to get through. Season 1 is still amazing. I only saw 1 episode of Heroes Reborn and that was it. I've seen videos of what happened in Reborn and I am glad I gave up on it.
The saying save the cheer leader save the world is so iconic yet vague, that it can even be connected to heroes reborn if you think about it.. Cause Claire did give birth to those 2 kids that later saved the entire world 😂
I never got into the expanded universe, but after the summary of everything, I realize I really *did* watch all of the show, even Reborn! I had my timeline meeega messed up, though. For some reason, I thought that the circus guy storyline in season five happened in the middle of the show (and due to my family watching a lot of medical serials, I thought that the soundsight lady was also somehow part of House or maybe Grey’s Anatomy but with hallucinations as some sort of crossover/Easter egg. Ah, the mind of a child and the bullshit it’ll make up), and I thought Sylar remembered his identity and took his anger out on everyone/went back to being a villain. Honestly, that probably would’ve made more sense. If I were Sylar, I would be absolutely PISSSED! Thank you for cataloguing the whole lovely mess that is this show! It’s so awesome to see my scattered memories be threaded together again, and it’s even cooler to learn about stuff like the ARG that I’d never known existed
I actually got the complete series box set years ago. I loved the first season but I definitely felt the decline and it was definitely a fun ride until that very last season. I actually forgot that heroes reborn came out. I definitely kind of want to watch it even though it sounds bad.
I watched the first season when it came out (in my middle school years??) and loved it so much! It left such an impression that every time I see an actor from that show I do the Leo DiCaprio point and am willing to watch more Even tho I only watched the first season 😅
Not sure if I finished the sequel series, I might have dropped off fairly shortly into it, but I guess I did watch all the OG and enjoyed it, but it doesn’t feel like it was complete. Great video covering the story
42:48 It takes away the powers of people that already had powers but gives those to those who’re dormant 44:00 We are its explicitly explained in the comics that Claire was dating an evo activist and got with him
This show had so much potential. The original no name superhero property that was popular in TV or Movies. Before Invincible, the Boys, Guardians of the Galaxy we had Heroes and the first season was awesome! Second was good and then it lost it's powers and fell off a cliff never to be good again.
I still think season 2 is the last season to the show. It had enough closure for me at the end of season 2 and enough play that I could imagine what I think could happen next.
The times were different. The most advanced thing about tv was Tivo. we used to have to wait a full week to watch it made the show last longer than streaming. I loved and still love Heros.
Idk if it was just the phase I was in at the time but Heroes Reborn reminded me so much of the Assassins Creed Isu lore. Also I first watched back when Netflix still had different seasons under different search results
Linderman failed to realize that tragedy alone doesn't unite people, but a person to blame the tragedy on. Hell, if you have a good bogeyman, then you don't even need a tragedy because their hype will make people want to prevent anything from happening. Cool that there's a story where the villain tries uniting the world and just makes things worse, since the only examples I can think of imply the villains get exactly what they aimed for. I remember trying this show back in the day but failing to keep up with it. After hearing this video, I lament that and wonder if this show can still be found anywhere. Each season being a different storyline without forgetting the past is a novel idea these days and sounds cool.
Watched to the end I I did enjoy the thing I liked more from the first season was in a way the cameos as people that have no connection to one another met like how Hiro met Nathan and how their story all intertwined.
I watched all the way through volume 5, when they did the impossible, Claire dying, I dropped it. You got Nikki wrong but other than that pretty spot on.
I remember hearing about this show back when it first aired on tv. I always wanted to get into it, but ten minutes into the video and I'm sooo confused. Turns out I didn't miss anything.
You forgot about Hannah's story being tied up in the comics where she basically becomes digitized. I read the comics as they came out so its been awhile, but I think it had something to do with a satellite? Also, yes the writers strike did cause a lot of issues in the show. The second season had its episodes cut in half pretty much and the plot lines were all screwed which messed up a lot of the storylines. That whole season got screwed, which hurt ratings and the popularity of the show. That caused more interference from the network to try and "fix" things. Tim wasn't a comic reader either and didn't know superheroes that well. He was the big reason it went bad afterwards when combining the network trying to get more involved. Characters with interesting powers were abandoned for ones with easier powers to show on a network show with declining ratings. That's why so many ended up using similar powers or just "He gets strong because of this". The character with magnetic powers was one of the most poorly used. Another reason was the popularity of characters like Sylar. He was supposed to die in season one, but since he was so popular they kept him on. Then it became the Sylar show and that really just got annoying after like the tenth twist with his character.
Great video man! I loved Heroes when it first came out. It was amazing how much the writers strike derailed the show. Such a shame. Its still a fun watch though, if you turn your brain off. Want to do an even more convoluted mystery show? Try Pretty Little Liars... It's insane.
Funny how Hero Academia more or less took plots/characters from this show. As soon as you said Arthur was trying to make it so he could take and give powers, I immediately thought of the villain from Academia.
Watched all of it in real time. It was such a shame, because as you're watching it you're not so aware of the decline in quality over time, but in retrospect it's very obvious. Peter erasing his girlfriend by leaving her in an alternate future will always be funny to me.
Unfortunately, Doomsday Clock would later say Ozy WAS right and since Linderman probably had some access to the future, he may have seen that story too and considered it a no-brainer.
I watched the show when it came out and followed all the way to the end and it really ended in a fart. There was lots of potential from this show but as the seasons went on, the steam really came to a screeching halt between seasons 2-3 and by the ending where they stop a massive earthquake powered guy from destroying everything and all of them being outed as powered people.
2nd Season was painful. On top of everything, there were breaks. It made the mysteries without payoff even worse. I felt the end of the last season was rerailing it and it could have been good again if it had another season immediately after AND Brian Fuller stayed onboard. The show's quality seems to mostly come and go with him being on the writing team.
Great show, enjoyed every bit of it! Sad that they changed the writer after the writers strike. Many shows lost in quality or lost the thread . I think it was mid season 2. If that did not happened oh my....
I always found Sylar's power acquisition the most interesting thing about the show. Since we know that abilities deal with the brain, since Sylar always had to open someone's head and any immortal's healing stops when the brain is punctured or even when Claire didn't start healing until after Sylar put the top of her skull back on, I always saw Sylar's ability as rewiring his own brain to gain the power he learned. Another reason I think this is because when Sylar learned how to passively copy abilities, like Peter, he didn't have the control that he'd normally have, like when Peter couldn't control the nuking power but we see Sylar playing with it right after he killed Ted. If I'm not mistaken, I think Sylar said something about him and Claire being the only people left after a while, knowing Peter had similar powers to his. Might have just been during the time he wanted to kill Peter though, so it might not have meant that he knew that the specific immortality they had was different. Rene, who blocks people's powers, began to get a nose bleed when trying to hold back Arthur, who was way stronger and trying to force his abilities to work, so I'm guessing even power negation just affects the brain.
I came to the party super late, the last video rental place in my town, a 3 story local place that had been a local landmark for like 20 years. Anyway, they would sell loose discs from incomplete returns or whatever for super cheap and I managed to piece together an entire Heroes set that way for like $20. I binged it blind and after season 1 it felt like constantly waiting for the payoff that would turn out never to happen.
Tbh this show has exactly the kind of plot points that happen in actual comics. I think people disliked it because most people aren’t into comics. I loved all the goofy outlandish plot points because it’s pretty run of the mill stuff when you have a world of super heroes and have to keep that world going but also somehow keep changing things up
That's a truly brilliant observation. For instance, imagine if DC Comics was a TV or movie series and then Identity Crisis or Heroes in Crisis happens... the masses would (rightfully) revolt while us comic nerds *do* get irritated but know with patience they'll undo the dumb stories and pretend they never happened.
That's why I love this show. It's literally like a comic🤟🏻Does the writing get weak? I've heard that. I'm on Season 1 still going through the show. But I love it already😂😂.
I don't remember completely but I think I saw a behind the scenes on s2 possibly on the dvd and before the writers strike the plan was the virus actually fell in the last scene with Adam then the 2nd half of the season was about quarantining the area and dealing with it. And Peter would go back and rescue the girl strandard in the other timeline. But yeah then the writers strike happened amd everything had to be wrapped up immediately.
I watched every episode...read every comic...and watched the reboot. There was a writer strike after one of the early seasons. It went on hiatus as a result. And when it came back, there was a distinct decline in the plots coherency. They also added a ton of new characters randomly while loosing early show runners.
Maybe another interesting tidbit: Tim Kring announced a sequel show Heroes: Eclipsed (which he announced during the eclipse.) Its going to be very interesting imo to see how it will handle the whole superhero thing given that we now live in a pots MCU era. The original show played it mostly straight. "We have to save the world!" Without a hint of irony or quibs. Now it seems that there cant be a live action superhero thing without irony and quibs. Dont get me wrong, I like the MCU. But all those quibs and sarcastic comments from the characters do get annoying at some point. Especially since its seeping into other movies and shows as well. I found Heroes surpisingly refreshing in that regard when I first watched it a few months ago. So I'm interested to see if the new show leans more into the ironic side or still plays it straight.
The Nathan and Peter goodbye seen got me the worst. When they are hanging of the building and Nathan is about to be lost to Syler taking his body and mind back. Their relationship reminded me of my brother and I balled like a baby. 😂😂
A few corrections/add-ons I’d like to make:
-Peter got his powers back because he injected himself with the power-giving serum. I totally missed that on a rewatch, my bad.
-I didn’t mean to imply that streaming existed in 2006. What I was trying to point out was that this was a transition period between old school cable and streaming. Entire shows were easier to watch in order through things like video on demand, dvr, dvd box sets, and buying episodes on itunes. This is one reason why more serialized shows were successful at this time.
-Tim Kring announced a revival series in April called Heroes Eclipsed. The video was already done by the time I heard about it, otherwise I would have mentioned it.
Also i think you might’ve missed the heroes video game
Why do you keep saying old school cable? This was on NBC. NBC is a broadcast television channel. Even to this day you can just put an antenna up and watch it.
I’m starting to realize that I don’t know the difference between network and cable tv. Growing up, I had a ‘cable box’ and I referred to anything I watched on it as ‘cable tv.’ I’ve also always heard ‘streaming’ and ‘cable’ described as the two opposing ways to watch tv in the modern day. I never knew that ‘network’ tv was its own distinct thing before all these comments started correcting me.
"On demand" was a thing that Comcast offered back then where you could rewatch tv and movies.
@@MahkyVmedia1 Yep as a backlog cable package
"heroes reborn? there was a reboot of heroes? How did I never hear about this?"
> The first thing it does is kill off claire offscreen
"oh. Nevermind."
You didn't miss much, it wasn't good. A few of the original actors came back but it felt like they pretty much came back for a paycheck (especially considering others left for better things like Claire and Sylar's actors). Most of the new characters were meh and the overall story was grasping for straws.
@@tedturtle5032Exactly why I stopped, got a few episodes into the sequel and just couldn't tango with what I was given.
The webisodes leading up to its release were better than the actual show.
That's the best decision it could make though lol.
It does more then that, it makes her a central character so it feels like a giant piece is missing. If they couldn't get the actress back they should have given the role to some other character.
Nobody knew what streaming was when this show came out. My roommate and I got DVDs through Netflix through the mail.
that's how my family did it, and Lost
rip dvd netflix
Showing my gen z roomate the vlassic 2000s tv shows. Dexter, heros etc and she asked me why they have a 1 minute recap of the story at the start of every episode and i said we werent uaed to continuous stories yet. 😂
Not true - maybe not for the first season but you could watch heroes episodes online iirc, and definitely through dvr and next day on demand through a cable box.
@@matthewhowell7335 They didn’t call that streaming they called it “on demand.” That’s not streaming and that term wasn’t even used yet.
that was the original plan for the HEROES show as each season(Volume) was supposed to be self-contained but connected to the overall world of HEROES, but the season 1(Volume 1) cast became really popular and NBC didn't think that introducing a new cast every season(Volume) would be good for the show.
It's funny how Ryan Murphy was able to do that with American Horror Story and it worked
@@ShadowSonic2 it wasn't that the Showrunner couldn't do it I think that it was mostly NBC/Universal not having faith in the showrunner to do it
to be fair its really hard to pull off correctly. Look at how badly Altered Carbon flopped during its second season.
@@ShadowSonic2 its not very easy. "American Horror Story" was a different genre. Heroes was an international superhit with characters/actors from around the world. It gained a massive fan following.
also season 2 heroes did introduce some new characters but they were all flop.
I'm pretty sure Peter took the serum in order to get abilities again. So that would explain a difference in powers but it always confused me that he just got a watered down version of what he already had.
Damn dude I’m sorry I couldn’t even finish watching ur recap video 😅
I like to believe that he had his ability for years before he realized it, so his ability was able to evolve to what it was. Eventually it would evolve back. Not canon I know but I like to believe it.
It's really weird why Peter got a watered down version of his ability because the "Formula" was presented as a perfect well, formula to give abilities because Mohinder got it wrong and started to have a hideous mutation as a result but when he took the perfect formula it got rid of the mutation but he still had his enhanced Strength, agility and durability.
@@fastvalkary725 i agree completely. I feel like he either should have gotten back the same power or another completely different one.
@@spyderbite8723 Yeah, that could make some sense considering that he seemed to have absorbed the dream walking version of telepathy from Charles Deveaux without realising. Though he didn't get his mother's powers until later in the show.
I know it gets so dumb near the end but it's still one of my favorite tv shows. I used to have the collectors editions of each season on dvd back in the day.
The eclipse was annoying because when it took the powers away, they strongly implied that the eclipse in the first episode was what gave them powers. Except they seemingly forgot that the first season had an episode set months before the first episode where they already had powers anyway.
Watched whole show on air.
It's so strange how awesome it is and how much it lacks. It's like it trails you along, making you think it's going to get better... the atmosphere tricks you the entire time.
I enjoyed it. And I wanted more. I was very said when *spoiler* dies and how they went into final season, but I loved it.
When Heroes first came out I downloaded 6 min long pieces of new episodes (8 videos per episode) at my work computer with a high speed Internet. Put them into a USB go home and watch it with my GF. When Hiro's timeline was revealed, I thought it was the coolest scene I have ever seen. I was 23. Great video! Thanks for putting it together!
That does not change the fact that we are all idiots to watch the entire series at least twice over :))
The motto 'Save the cheerleader , save the world' was cool. 1st 4 episodes 3xplored who was super powered and were good. Biggest mistake was focusing on Silar. Loved Hiro and his buddy.
what you mean? sylar made the show good. defo one of the menacing villains in tv
He means Sylar was better as lurking big bad/boogieman style villain. The show gave you too much of him down the line, making him less interesting . @chad63
Definitely wasn't cool. It was corny af
Correct. The show got HIGHLY ANNOYING once they focused on him too much. He should have been a 2 season character max
Zachary Quinto was awesome though
I saw this when it aired and I watched it all, even the reboot fiasco. One thing they did that was fun was an interactive element. During each episode premiere, you would go to the site on your phone and it would have polls, behind the scenes information, plot hints, character backstories, stuff like that. Sometimes it would ask the audience to guess what would happen next and you'd get to see whether or not everyone was right. TV shows using the internet to get the audience to participate were so innovative during this time period. Lost was another one that really tried to be multimedia before social media was really a thing.
One huge mistake they made with Heroes was to reverse direction on not having sacred characters. When the show began no character was safe from being killed off, but unfortunately Hayden, Milo, and Zachary became so popular they reversed course. This was a huge mistake. There was no suspense knowing the show was no longer willing to truly kill off a character. The network chose to appease the type of fan who can't live without their favorites at the expense of the show.
I have seen the whole series and the reboot series multiple times... I loved it despite the clear setbacks
Thank you for this video. Heroes is my all time favorite TV show because it felt like our story as opposed to X-Men with "mutations" like Beast or Toad...Heroes made it personal and relatable to anyone who ever felt like an outcast. None the less, it's my favorite for the way it made me feel about my real life. Thank you again for this guide; executed perfectly.
The writing got worse with each season.
The writing got worse each episode.
They wrote themselves into a corner it happens way more often than you would think and kills probably over fifty percent of franchises movies and tv shows
Agree
After season 3 everything went side ways but I stuck with it because of the character arcs
It pissed 8-13 years old with me off with every season. Until i eventually gave up on the show.
Peter gained his “new” power when he takes the formula at the end of that season. It gives him a muted version of his original power.
Great retrospective. I’m not sure I even made it to season 3 when it aired live, so I appreciate your summarizing
I'm a completionist, when i start watching something, I have to watch it to the end. Heroes, by the end of the first season proved that it had no direction or plan. Everything about it was pointless. It was so bad, that it managed to break my completionist instincts. I was never able to finish this. I had such high hopes and it would be easy to make it an amazing show by better planning and interweaving the plots but no, it was like each episode writer was just told to continue the previous episode, with no other direction
I loved the show when it first started, and watched until like half-way through the season with the carnival. Then I tried rewatching years later, and stopped watching on the exact same episode. I have actually been meaning to rewatch it lately since I found the spin-off comics I bought a couple years ago.
I watched the whole thing. I was obsessed, watched all the commentary, extra stuff online, got the comics.
To this day, I only have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. Everything else was worthless.
Fun fact, in the huge DVD wall in Leave the World Behind, they also only have the first two seasons of Heroes.
I used to be obsessed with this show
love how your tangential format kinda matches the chaos of the show's plot progression
You deserve a lot more views for this quality of content! Keep pushing man you are going to blow up.
I stopped watching Heroes because of Silar. He was a great villain, until he became a heroe...then a long lost brother, then NOT a long lost brother, and back to a villain.
Also, fuck Peter for leaving Caitlin in the future and forgetting about her like the next episode.
Agreed IDIOTIC writing
Caitlin being forgotten was the exact reason I stopped watching the show when it was originally airing. It made no sense that Peter would do that and showed to me I was wasting my time trying to keep track of plot threads.
Ali Larter being a triplet was my red flag that the show has jumped the shark. And this isn't some "Hindsight is 20/20" thing, even back then when I really loved the show, the triplet thing had me concerned if the writers really had a plan.
I’m sorry, to everyone who is reading this comment, and who may read it in the future…
I still, unironically, unashamedly, unabashedly and unconditionally *LOVE* both _'Heroes'_ and _'Heroes: Reborn'._ 🤷🏻♀️
Note: A huge plot hole with the eclipses is that in the show, they're visible and darken the sky all over the world. That's not how real solar eclipses work; they cover a relatively tiny area of the planet with shadow very briefly. No solar eclipse on modern Earth would darken the entire planet.
Wow. This was incredibly thorough. Good work.
FYI NBC was broadcast tv and not cable. My friends and I loved the first season so much we would have monday night watch parties every week (not something I'd never done before or since).
Just because!!! great work at putting this together… thank you so much
I watched Heroes to the end! i loved it!!!!
Love the video🔥 as soon as you started talking about season three my mind went out the window. I was so lost😭😭😭😭
Having thoroughly enjoyed season 1, I bounced after the mess that was season 2, and have heard nothing of the following seasons (other than they weren't good) till I watched your video.
I 100% made the correct decision.
Man i really needed this 8 years ago😂
😂😂 same..
I owned this on dvd, i was... 17 in college, and i loved the show. I watched it all, i wasnt a critical tv consumer... ive never rewatched it, never will... but it has a special place in my heart
I am enjoying your various mystery box show recaps, thank you for all the effort and care you put into them. I'd love to see you cover Detionaire, another animated mystery box show.
36:25 Okay there’s an explanation for this. The power absorption is only one power at a time. The reason Arthur could absorb multiple is because Peter had multiple powers you see that in the pulses that are released. Tommy says he lost healing for time travel. The reason his time travel at first appeared different was because of mental blocks it’s why later he learned to not just mimic Hiros abilities but additionally may two different time phantom’s of himself. 37:41 We don’t need to infer she learns to do it in season 2
I've stopped watching o half of season three.
Just got fed up.
Good to see your work saved me time.
Good I made the right decision back than
Great analysis of this show! If you really want a challenge try to make sense of Twin Peaks. I rewatch once a year and I still can't figure it out. Not only do I not understand some of the things that literally happen, I don't even understand what the metaphorical intent is behind it. Like literally what is David Lynch trying to say artistically? And I know I'm not the only person confused on that one. Heroes, at least you can figure out most of it if you pay attention. But I never noticed how much unexplained stuff they did ,how many plotlines just get dropped until I saw your work. Great job!
I watched the whole thing live. A major complaint at the time was that it always blew its budget early in a season and left nothing for season climaxes.
Love the video, but there is one thing to address; Peter had his original empathic mimicry powers taken away by his dad (because it was wayyy too op), and he got them back when taking one of the last remaining vials of the serum before Arthur’s building blew up. That’s why his new powers are slightly different.
Edit: Hiro got his powers back because of Parkman jr. Which means that Arthur is taking the powers away, but since they’re genetic, if an outside force can kickstart the gene again, you’re all good.
I saw the whole show, and I was bummed out when it ended without tying up loose ends.
I watched the original season on TV and enjoyed it. I watched a little of season two then gave up. It didn't seem that there was a real plot or plan and I didn't like all the focus on Sylar. At some point, I watched Reborn, which seemed OK at the time, but it was not memorable. I honestly recall almost nothing about it.
1st season is masterpiece
I watched the ENTIRE series run❤
I think we can reboot this series with the great writers we have now.
You're serious? It would likely be just as contrived with a bunch of shoe-horned narratives of "the message" and garbage avengers style tension breaking humor, just to get canceled after season one.
Besides, people are tired of super hero crap.
Just my opinion of course. Cheers!
I'd love to see Jonathan Majors come back as a character in a Heroes reboot.
Great analysis! Yeah, I loved season one of Heroes. Season two started OK, but I didn't like that it started a storyline and then stopped it without resolution.
I binged the whole show on Netflix years ago. Season 4 was really hard for me to get through. Season 1 is still amazing. I only saw 1 episode of Heroes Reborn and that was it. I've seen videos of what happened in Reborn and I am glad I gave up on it.
The saying save the cheer leader save the world is so iconic yet vague, that it can even be connected to heroes reborn if you think about it.. Cause Claire did give birth to those 2 kids that later saved the entire world 😂
I never got into the expanded universe, but after the summary of everything, I realize I really *did* watch all of the show, even Reborn! I had my timeline meeega messed up, though. For some reason, I thought that the circus guy storyline in season five happened in the middle of the show (and due to my family watching a lot of medical serials, I thought that the soundsight lady was also somehow part of House or maybe Grey’s Anatomy but with hallucinations as some sort of crossover/Easter egg. Ah, the mind of a child and the bullshit it’ll make up), and I thought Sylar remembered his identity and took his anger out on everyone/went back to being a villain. Honestly, that probably would’ve made more sense. If I were Sylar, I would be absolutely PISSSED!
Thank you for cataloguing the whole lovely mess that is this show! It’s so awesome to see my scattered memories be threaded together again, and it’s even cooler to learn about stuff like the ARG that I’d never known existed
Great show....Just one correction for the narrator- the first season of Heroes was on NBC- not cable TV....
I actually got the complete series box set years ago. I loved the first season but I definitely felt the decline and it was definitely a fun ride until that very last season.
I actually forgot that heroes reborn came out. I definitely kind of want to watch it even though it sounds bad.
Season 1 is a great season of television watching weekly.
I watched the first season when it came out (in my middle school years??) and loved it so much! It left such an impression that every time I see an actor from that show I do the Leo DiCaprio point and am willing to watch more
Even tho I only watched the first season 😅
Not sure if I finished the sequel series, I might have dropped off fairly shortly into it, but I guess I did watch all the OG and enjoyed it, but it doesn’t feel like it was complete. Great video covering the story
Hana Gittlemans story is fully fleshed out in the comics. The comics are basically what was happening behind the scenes and in-between episodes.
I watched the whole series plus the Heroes Reborn that came out a few years later. I had hoped it would continue because i actually enjoyed it.
42:48 It takes away the powers of people that already had powers but gives those to those who’re dormant 44:00 We are its explicitly explained in the comics that Claire was dating an evo activist and got with him
This show had so much potential. The original no name superhero property that was popular in TV or Movies. Before Invincible, the Boys, Guardians of the Galaxy we had Heroes and the first season was awesome! Second was good and then it lost it's powers and fell off a cliff never to be good again.
Loved the first season, but then after that it went downhill. Didn't feel like they had a real direction after season 1.
I still think season 2 is the last season to the show. It had enough closure for me at the end of season 2 and enough play that I could imagine what I think could happen next.
Thank you for this.
You either die a Heroes Season One or live long enough to see yourself become the Heroes Season Four
The times were different. The most advanced thing about tv was Tivo. we used to have to wait a full week to watch it made the show last longer than streaming. I loved and still love Heros.
Heroes had one season and that was it.
(I watched all of it, saw the webisodes ,did the arg, and read the comics)
I watched every episode live desperately hoping it would go back to its former glory
Idk if it was just the phase I was in at the time but Heroes Reborn reminded me so much of the Assassins Creed Isu lore. Also I first watched back when Netflix still had different seasons under different search results
I've seen all seasons. But I barely remember anything after the first season. 😅 -"Save the cheerleader! Save the world!" ❤
Linderman failed to realize that tragedy alone doesn't unite people, but a person to blame the tragedy on. Hell, if you have a good bogeyman, then you don't even need a tragedy because their hype will make people want to prevent anything from happening. Cool that there's a story where the villain tries uniting the world and just makes things worse, since the only examples I can think of imply the villains get exactly what they aimed for.
I remember trying this show back in the day but failing to keep up with it. After hearing this video, I lament that and wonder if this show can still be found anywhere. Each season being a different storyline without forgetting the past is a novel idea these days and sounds cool.
Watched to the end I I did enjoy the thing I liked more from the first season was in a way the cameos as people that have no connection to one another met like how Hiro met Nathan and how their story all intertwined.
I watched all the way through volume 5, when they did the impossible, Claire dying, I dropped it. You got Nikki wrong but other than that pretty spot on.
I remember hearing about this show back when it first aired on tv. I always wanted to get into it, but ten minutes into the video and I'm sooo confused. Turns out I didn't miss anything.
You forgot about Hannah's story being tied up in the comics where she basically becomes digitized. I read the comics as they came out so its been awhile, but I think it had something to do with a satellite?
Also, yes the writers strike did cause a lot of issues in the show. The second season had its episodes cut in half pretty much and the plot lines were all screwed which messed up a lot of the storylines. That whole season got screwed, which hurt ratings and the popularity of the show. That caused more interference from the network to try and "fix" things.
Tim wasn't a comic reader either and didn't know superheroes that well. He was the big reason it went bad afterwards when combining the network trying to get more involved. Characters with interesting powers were abandoned for ones with easier powers to show on a network show with declining ratings. That's why so many ended up using similar powers or just "He gets strong because of this". The character with magnetic powers was one of the most poorly used.
Another reason was the popularity of characters like Sylar. He was supposed to die in season one, but since he was so popular they kept him on. Then it became the Sylar show and that really just got annoying after like the tenth twist with his character.
@2:35 Heroes wasn't cable TV....... It was network TV
Wow really? What's the difference?
@@Hammerheadcomedy one was free and the other was a paid subscription...... Big difference
@phillyvoodoo oh dude that's crazy, so which one was this one? The free or the paid?
Great video man! I loved Heroes when it first came out. It was amazing how much the writers strike derailed the show. Such a shame. Its still a fun watch though, if you turn your brain off.
Want to do an even more convoluted mystery show? Try Pretty Little Liars... It's insane.
Funny how Hero Academia more or less took plots/characters from this show. As soon as you said Arthur was trying to make it so he could take and give powers, I immediately thought of the villain from Academia.
I watched the whole show start to finish. You're right season one was the best.
I'm not going to lie mate. I was lost the moment he started explaining the body switches LOL. And how many times x character died then came back.
Watched all of it in real time. It was such a shame, because as you're watching it you're not so aware of the decline in quality over time, but in retrospect it's very obvious. Peter erasing his girlfriend by leaving her in an alternate future will always be funny to me.
What about the villains season? That showed normal people getting powers Ando included????
I was so hype for evil Claire only for them to completely undo it after 1 episode
Lindermen clearly read The Watchmen and thought Ozimandius was right lol
Unfortunately, Doomsday Clock would later say Ozy WAS right and since Linderman probably had some access to the future, he may have seen that story too and considered it a no-brainer.
5:09 wait are you telling me the superhero cop in this show is the psychic cop in sens8?!
I watched the show when it came out and followed all the way to the end and it really ended in a fart. There was lots of potential from this show but as the seasons went on, the steam really came to a screeching halt between seasons 2-3 and by the ending where they stop a massive earthquake powered guy from destroying everything and all of them being outed as powered people.
This nearly prepared me for the ultimate betrayal that was Game of Thrones
About the HRG bit if you look at the first season it's well into it before you find out that he is Claire's father or even what his name is.
I love heroes and watched every episode since day one including the one offs and the re release.
I love this show so much man 😭
2nd Season was painful. On top of everything, there were breaks. It made the mysteries without payoff even worse. I felt the end of the last season was rerailing it and it could have been good again if it had another season immediately after AND Brian Fuller stayed onboard. The show's quality seems to mostly come and go with him being on the writing team.
Great show, enjoyed every bit of it! Sad that they changed the writer after the writers strike. Many shows lost in quality or lost the thread . I think it was mid season 2. If that did not happened oh my....
I always found Sylar's power acquisition the most interesting thing about the show. Since we know that abilities deal with the brain, since Sylar always had to open someone's head and any immortal's healing stops when the brain is punctured or even when Claire didn't start healing until after Sylar put the top of her skull back on, I always saw Sylar's ability as rewiring his own brain to gain the power he learned. Another reason I think this is because when Sylar learned how to passively copy abilities, like Peter, he didn't have the control that he'd normally have, like when Peter couldn't control the nuking power but we see Sylar playing with it right after he killed Ted. If I'm not mistaken, I think Sylar said something about him and Claire being the only people left after a while, knowing Peter had similar powers to his. Might have just been during the time he wanted to kill Peter though, so it might not have meant that he knew that the specific immortality they had was different. Rene, who blocks people's powers, began to get a nose bleed when trying to hold back Arthur, who was way stronger and trying to force his abilities to work, so I'm guessing even power negation just affects the brain.
I came to the party super late, the last video rental place in my town, a 3 story local place that had been a local landmark for like 20 years. Anyway, they would sell loose discs from incomplete returns or whatever for super cheap and I managed to piece together an entire Heroes set that way for like $20. I binged it blind and after season 1 it felt like constantly waiting for the payoff that would turn out never to happen.
Tbh this show has exactly the kind of plot points that happen in actual comics. I think people disliked it because most people aren’t into comics.
I loved all the goofy outlandish plot points because it’s pretty run of the mill stuff when you have a world of super heroes and have to keep that world going but also somehow keep changing things up
That's a truly brilliant observation. For instance, imagine if DC Comics was a TV or movie series and then Identity Crisis or Heroes in Crisis happens... the masses would (rightfully) revolt while us comic nerds *do* get irritated but know with patience they'll undo the dumb stories and pretend they never happened.
That's why I love this show. It's literally like a comic🤟🏻Does the writing get weak? I've heard that. I'm on Season 1 still going through the show. But I love it already😂😂.
I don't remember completely but I think I saw a behind the scenes on s2 possibly on the dvd and before the writers strike the plan was the virus actually fell in the last scene with Adam then the 2nd half of the season was about quarantining the area and dealing with it. And Peter would go back and rescue the girl strandard in the other timeline.
But yeah then the writers strike happened amd everything had to be wrapped up immediately.
I watched it all as a tween. I had garbage taste to begin with. And Hayden P was the only reason I cared. And Syler.
I watched every episode...read every comic...and watched the reboot. There was a writer strike after one of the early seasons. It went on hiatus as a result. And when it came back, there was a distinct decline in the plots coherency. They also added a ton of new characters randomly while loosing early show runners.
Maybe another interesting tidbit: Tim Kring announced a sequel show Heroes: Eclipsed (which he announced during the eclipse.)
Its going to be very interesting imo to see how it will handle the whole superhero thing given that we now live in a pots MCU era.
The original show played it mostly straight. "We have to save the world!" Without a hint of irony or quibs. Now it seems that there cant be a live action superhero thing without irony and quibs. Dont get me wrong, I like the MCU. But all those quibs and sarcastic comments from the characters do get annoying at some point. Especially since its seeping into other movies and shows as well. I found Heroes surpisingly refreshing in that regard when I first watched it a few months ago. So I'm interested to see if the new show leans more into the ironic side or still plays it straight.
Loved season 1 and 2 and this was before all the green arrow n flash type shows it did drop off but i still love it ❤
The Nathan and Peter goodbye seen got me the worst. When they are hanging of the building and Nathan is about to be lost to Syler taking his body and mind back. Their relationship reminded me of my brother and I balled like a baby. 😂😂
Angela explained that every time the heroes rewrite the future, a greater apocalypse will happen.
nunca han notado que, algunas veces los ojos de algunos actores, el izquierdo casi siempre, se cierra solo por alguna razon 12:26