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TV review: So, maybe ‘Heroes Reborn’ deserves a second chance

Kiki Sukezane in Heroes Reborn. It was convoluted and spent more time trying to be the mysterious cool kid of television than crafting one strong plot with interesting characters.

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In discussing the premiere with a friend, he admitted he was utterly baffled as to what was going on. “We were just there”.

Although it closely pays homage to its parent show, “Reborn” however started with a notion that the superpowered beings are now peacefully co-habiting with the normal people. No. You’d change it so it didn’t look like superman.

Someone asked if we thought this show was redemption.

Say what you will about early Heroes. Coupled with Kring’s dialogue, their partnership is reminiscent of the slow-burn tour-de-force by Malcolm McDowell as Linderman back when the original “Heroes” was in its heyday. Some feel like real people while others have over-the-top, dry dialogue thatll leave you wondering if youre even watching the same show.

As the show moves forward it attempts to funnel itself down to a few main characters: evos and hunter/haters of evos. It moved the story forward nearly recklessly. Perhaps “save the cheerleader, save the world”, is still in play to some extent. Its forgivable for now, but I do hope the series gets to the point quicker than its predecessor did.

Why the heck are they bringing it back?

2) Don’t make the sole motivation be filling in blanks

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In crafting the story, Kring admits that he and the writers employed some interesting tactics. Noah initially dismisses his claims as nonsense, but after looking into things on his own, finds out that his memories of what happened on the day of the attack were wiped clean by another old series character named Renae (who is also unceremoniously killed off rather quickly which kind of sucks) and decides to seek out some answers of his own by going to back to the remains of Primatech and discovers that not only is Claire actually alive (which, if you followed the original series and knew what her power was, seemed like a really dumb thing to doubt in the first place) but that an organization called Renatus is planning to use another old series Evo named Molly Walker to help in the creation of a weapon that could endanger the world. This isn’t a bad idea. The video game sequences, though creative, unfortunately fall flat due to corny graphics.

That’s a compelling notion for a mystery, probably, but there’s nothing driving the character beyond filling in those blanks. “And then? As with any series, it’s comes down to casting, the Zeitgeist and fairy dust – if you can capture all of those, then you have success”. That’s not a great thing for the central character in a story. Learning the circumstances that transformed a character into a hero or a villain will naturally make an audience more invested in that character – but because the formula’s so engrained.

3) Don’t open with several different flashbacks set at different points in the past timeline

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4) Don’t assume the viewers are up to date on the entirety of the past series

. “So, that would be my drug of choice”, Levi explained.

Yes, you can watch and enjoy “Heroes Reborn” without doing all that homework, or constructing flow charts linking the events of the original show to the new one.

Kring himself has told reporters he regrets the slower pace, farflung introduction of new characters and drawn-out storylines such as Hiro’s stint in Japan. Sure, he might have been an English teacher in Upstate New York before jumping in for Andrews, but Niederman would go on to write “The Devil’s Advocate”, which was made into a pretty darn good movie in 1997 with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. Whether or not the series will be graced with more seasons to come remains to be seen. “It’s coming”, the Haitian adds just before he dies. No, so keep the video game traveling out of it! She’s apparently important to the plot, so hopefully it turns into something more than Heroes Reborn’s version of Nikki and Paulo.

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Still, there are other shows that do comics well, and with better-loved franchises. (Usually studios insisted that each week’s episode be fairly accessible to new viewers.) Now, shows like the CW’s Arrow and The Flash deploy those kinds of storytelling tricks every week and have whole universes of interconnected spinoffs built around them. But I know that had these suggestions been taken by the original show, it would have cut by at least 40 percent the number of times I screamed “KRIINNNNGG!” to the heavens as a crude, futile prayer to have the time I wasted on Heroes returned to me by a forgiving god.

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