Big Picture Big Sound

Pay the writers. Save the season.

The Show

That should have been the tagline for the second season of Heroes; a series that exploded in its first season onto the scene with critical acclaim garnering a large audience of faithful viewers. Unfortunately, Season 2, though still maintaining high ratings, failed to deliver on the promise set forth by the series' initial season. Suffering from the dreaded "sophomore slump" made all the worse by a season cut down to 11 episodes from an original 24 due to the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) strike, Heroes: Season 2 meandered by with a seemingly directionless storyline and hurriedly thrown together resolution/cliffhanger for its season finale.

The season begins four months after the events of Kirby Plaza that ended Season 1, where the heroes saved the world by cutting down super villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto) and keeping Peter Petrelli (Milo Vetimiglia) from exploding in and destroying New York City.  The main characters including Peter Petrelli, Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) and Sylar have all survived the events that ended Season 1 and in Season 2.

The first half of the season serves more as a reintroduction to the characters and explanation of where they are at this point, rather than moving the story forward. Over the course of several episodes we see most of the characters trying to get back to leading a normal existence. Peter has developed amnesia and mysteriously awoken in a cargo container in Cork, Ireland, Sylar is trying to regain his powers and Hiro has traveled back in time to feudal Japan where he meets his childhood idol, the legendary Japanese samurai Takezo Kensei.

The problem is, however, that the season continues to plod along with each of these characters developing down their own disparate storylines. What made Season 1 so successful was that constant revelation that each of these individuals was somehow connected. In Season 2, there is a feeling that the creator's were struggling to figure out where exactly to go. The ever branching storylines were only thinly strung together by the season's story arc involving the investigation of the Shanti Virus, Noah Bennett's (Jack Coleman) and Mohinder Suresh's (Sendhil Ramamurthy) plan to take down the clandestine Company, and the eventual involvement of the rest of the "heroes" to stop the lethal virus from being released on the population.

In the set's supplemental materials it is revealed that the virus storyline was to take a completely different direction than the one subsequently taken through necessity due to the WGA strike. A new ending for he finale was hastily written and shot, thus putting an uneasy end to a weak season. Perhaps the strike will give the creators of Heroes the perfect opportunity to write off the second season and reboot the show entirely and then all will be forgiven.  It's difficult to completely tear down a season so obviously hampered by forces beyond its control and watching the extra footage that was filmed for the original storyline that would have been developed had the season continued for its complete 24 episodes it seems Season 2 may have resolved more satisfactorily. Unfortunately, that will all have to remain conjecture as we'll have to take this mildly entertaining but hardly great incomplete second season as-is.

The Picture

Appearing in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio in a VC-1 encoding on this Blu-ray release, Heroes: Season 2 is an odd transfer that is middling at best. Originally filmed on 35mm film, the transfer has a duly expected amount of grain, which is fine. The picture is sharp and detailed showing fine textures from clothing to skin to all manner of objects in both foreground and background shots. The series certainly looks much sharper than it does in its over-the-air 1080i broadcasts in my New York City area, where it is slightly soft and plagued with fast-motion macroblocking.

The problem lies in the inconsistencies that plague the picture. Noise in dark scenes often swarms the shadows and other times the dark scenes are completely clean. Color timings also vary wildly; flesh tones are sometimes accurate and completely natural and other times people look overly warm with abundant red push. Often, the color swings occur in the same scenes making for a very distracting viewing experience.

In most of the series' brightly lit scenes, colors are bold, but contrast is slightly  high.In darker scenes black crush is a prominent issue with shadow details getting lost. I didn't notice any compression artifacts or anything like edge enhancement, but one peeve that isn't a flaw of the transfer itself is the fact that the 1080/24p transfer exposes the green screen chroma effects making much of the series look rather artificial.

The Sound

Heroes: Season 2 comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that is adequate at best, but ultimately underwhelming. Dialogue is dry and, though always mixed at an intelligible level, never moves beyond the center channel, sometimes displaying harshness and distortion at the loudest moments. The surround channels are used almost exclusively for ambience -- which does give the overall mix a good spacious sound -- with occasional sound effects panned into the rear. The LFE is to put to good, if subtle, use that gives the mix enough heft when needed. Overall, however, it's a typically bland television 5.1 mix that is disappointing for a series of this nature.

The Extras

Heroes: Season 2 comes to Blu-ray in a package that pushes the boundaries of BD's interactive capabilities. Utilizing what the studio has branded "U-Control", each episode comes with picture-in-picture commentary by various members of the cast, episode writers and directors and show producers. In addition, on-screen pop-up character bios can be displayed. All U-Control features can be toggled on and off using the BD player's "red" button during playback or they can be turned on using the disc's menu. A BonusView (Profile 1.1) player is required for playback of U-Control features. Universal has also included a nifty feature that allows users to save their own clips from the episodes, once again using the remote's color buttons. In this instance, by pressing the remote's "green" button at any point you can begin to record a clip and the "blue" button selects the end point.

The picture-in-picture commentaries are all surprisingly informative and entertaining, particularly those that include actor Greg Grunberg and director Greg Beeman who both have a jovial and casual conversation style. The downside of the picture-in-picture feature is that it takes up a very large portion of the screen thus making it nearly impossible to focus on the actual episode when the commentary is engaged. Picture-in-picture functionality is a great feature in theory, but I personally find it distracting when trying to watch the actual feature.

This release also comes with its first disc noted as being "BD-Live enabled", but Universal has yet to launch their BD-Live network nor could I test the feature as my Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player has yet to receive its firmware update to enable BD-Live functionality. Each disc also comes with an interactive diagram charting the intricate connections between the series' characters entitled Hero Connections -- Network, though it seems a bit redundant to put the same chart on every disc.

Extras available on this release are:

Disc 1:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Two deleted scenes from the episode "Four Months Later":
  • "I Too Have a Special Ability" -- An interesting scene where Hiro's father reveals his ability to Ando
  • "Petrellis Don't Deserve to Be Saved"
• Heroes: Season 2 - A New Beginning (1.78:1 high definition) -- In this featurette cast members discuss the new directions their characters take in season two
• Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint (1.78:1/standard definition) -- A mock documentary on the life of the fictional Japanese legend who plays a central role in this second season of Heroes.

Disc 2:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition)-- Deleted scenes from the episodes "Fight or Flight", "The Line", "Out of Time" and "Four Months Ago…"
• "Fight or Flight":
  • "Look, Yaeko -- He Had it All Along"
  • "And She Hits Me Hard"
  • "I'm the Only Normal Person in This Family"
  • "You Think I Don't Know You, Hiro"
  • "Don't Thank Me Yet"
• "The Line":
  • "So It Does Run in the Family"
  • "To Fight Alongside the Great Takezo Kensei"
  • "No More Tazer Kidnapping?"
• "Out of Time":
  • "Get Down from There"
  • "She Can Find Peter"
  • "Four Months Ago…":
  • "Happy Birthday Micah"
  • "There is No Need to Cry, Child"
  • "I'm Not O.K., Do I Look O.K.?"
• Genetics of a Scene -- In this series of brief behind-the-scenes featurettes three scenes are discussed by that episode's particular director explaining how they filmed the scene and what sort of artistic outcome they were hoping to achieve. Scenes include:
  • Maya and Alejandro Run from the Police (1.78:1/high definition) -- with director Greg Beeman
  • The Anatomy of the Cherry Blossom/Swordfight Scenes (1.78:1/high definition) -- With director Allan Arkush
  • Exploding Man (1.78:1/high definition) -- with director Greg Beeman
  • The Loft (1.78:1/high definition) -- with director Allan Arkush.
• The Drucker Files (1.78:1/standard definition) -- A faux news story on the life of Richard Drucker, an "evolved human" being tracked by The Company in NBC.com's online Heroes Evolutions universe. Like Lost, Heroes has built up a vast online world of fictional websites related to the series that explore the series' mythology, such as Primatechpaper.com.
  

Disc 3:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Two deleted scenes from the episode "Cautionary Tales":
  •  "I Will Bring Him to Justice"
  • "I Cried So Hard Milk Came Out of my Nose"
• Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art (1.78:1/high definition) -- A slideshow of comic book artist Tim Sale's sketches for the series, which feature prominently in the series' storylines.

Disc 4:

• Generations Alternate Ending (1.78:1/high definition) -- An alternate ending for what would eventually become the season finale due to the writers' strike. The final episode was originally intended to end with a completely different outcome taking the series in a different direction over the course of another seven or eight episodes.
• Inside the Alternate Ending of Generations (1.78:1/high definition) -- The show's producers discuss the original plans they had for the second season's development, which were ultimately changed when the WGA strike occurred.
• Untold Stories (1.78:1/high definition) -- In this extra footage that was filmed before production on Season 2 was shut down, the original plans for the direction of the series are revealed including something entirely different occurring with the super virus that was so central to the season's story arc.
• NBC.com Featurettes (1.35:1/standard definition) -- These "featurettes" are more YouTube-style video clips meant to blur the line between the fictional world of Heroes and the real world.
• Hotel Corinthian Explosion -- A video clip showing the demolition of Mr. Linderman's hotel. Mr. Linderman was one of the primary figures in Season 1 and a founder of the Company.
• Maya y Alejandro Viral Video -- A group of people with a video camera apparently stumble upon the aftermath of Maya's abilities going out of control.
• Nathan and Peter Brooklyn Cam -- Another faux video camera capture showing the Petrelli brothers taking off from Kirby Plaza supposedly taken from Brooklyn.

Final Thoughts

Heroes: Season 2 is an example of what could have been. Certainly it doesn't feel like the second season would have matched the first in the level of quality, but perhaps it could have come a bit closer had it not been cut so short and had its storyline completely changed due to the writer's strike.  Still, if one watches the series with that caveat in mind it can be enjoyable. Unfortunately, even with its plethora of supplemental materials and interactive features, Heroes: Season 2 on Blu-ray doesn't feel worth more than a rental for what is essentially a half-season with a rushed ending and only average picture quality with an unexciting sound mix.

Where to Buy

• Heroes: Season 2 on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Jack Coleman, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Masi Oka, James Kyson Lee, Milo Ventimiglia
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Audio/Language: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Region: ABC (All Regions)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 4 (2xBD-50/2xBD-25)
  
• Rating: Not Rated
  
• Studio: Universal Studios
• Blu-ray Disc Date: August 26, 2008
• Run Time: 482 minutes
• List Price: $69.98
• Extras:
  • Blu-ray Exclusive U-Control -- Go beyond the show and customize your own hi-def experience. Enjoy interactive features while you watch the show.
    • Hero Connections -- Follow your favorite heroes with the interactive Hero Connections
    • Picture in Picture -- With just one click, access interactive cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage using the Picture in Picture feature while you watch the episodes.
    • BD Live Ready -- Disc One is BD Live ready. Look for announcements at www.UniversalHiDef.com when Universal launches BD-Live.
  • Hi-Def Features:
    • Heroes: Season2 -- "A New Beginning"
    • Takezo Kensei: Sword Saint
    • Genetics of a Scene
    • The Drucker Files
    • Tim Sale Gallery of Screen Art
    • "Generations" Alternate Ending
    • Inside the Alternate Ending of "Generations"
    • Untold Stories"
  • Additional Features:
    • Deleted Scenes
    • NBC.com Featurettes