Big Picture Big Sound

The Show

When Heroes premiered in September of 2006 on the NBC network, I'm quite certain many people were not sure what to expect. There had already been many attempts over the years at bringing "superhero" fiction to television and most had failed miserably, ending up as ridiculously campy or just plain ridiculous. We've seen The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spiderman, Captain America, and the ubiquitous Superman (now moonlighting as the young Clark Kent on the CW series Smallville).

Heroes cast aside the intolerable tackiness and unapproachable distances of near godlike superheroes and brought them down to Earth, so to speak, in a comic book inspired story about ordinary people who discover they have extraordinary abilities. Drawing the viewers in with a nearly voyeuristic approach to these people's lives as they cope with the problems that their newfound abilities create, Heroes spins a suspenseful tale allowing you to truly care about each character.

As the season progresses, it is slowly revealed that each character is somehow connected and that they must all come together to stop an explosion from going off in New York City. All the while they are being hunted down by a supervillain named Sylar (Zachary Quinto) who kills them to attain their powers and people from a clandestine group known simply as The Company who want to bring them under their control.  As the "heroes" are driven by the paintings of one artist, Isaac Mendez, whose ability is to create paintings that foretell the future, more connections are revealed between each character and how they must accomplish their goal of saving the world; all leading to an ultimate showdown that could decide humanity's fate.

If one character from the show is a standout it would have to be Hiro (Masi Oka) whose ability is to stop time and time travel. Masi Oka brilliantly goes back and forth between speaking Japanese and English -- even using different voices -- playing the wide-eyed optimist who wants to be the honorable superhero and the jaded "future Hiro" who utters the now famous catch phrase "Save the cheerleader. Save the world." to Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), who along with his brother Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) will play a pivotal role in the outcome of events.

The Picture

Heroes: Season 1 is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio in a 1080/24p VC-1 encoding that averages around ~12Mbps, sometimes dropping as low as ~6Mbps. The woes of this video transfer cannot be solely the result of this low bitrate VC-1 encoding, but it must play some part in the inherent softness the picture suffers from. Originally filmed on 35mm, one would expect to see a certain amount of grain in Heroes on Blu-ray Disc. The Season 2 Blu-ray release was quite sharp and, although inconsistent, presented a fine level of detail and film grain. Season 1, on the contrary, is different. The detail is missing and, though some level of grain is apparent, it is soft and somewhat smoothed over. There are also some instances where smearing is apparent and the grain is "stuck" in position.

The picture also suffers from poor detail delineation in dark scenes, with rampant black crush and has an overall dull, flat, murky look.  Flesh tones are only slightly more accurate than on the Season 2 set, but skin textures sometimes look abnormally waxy. Heroes: Season 1 is, unfortunately, one of the worst looking television shows I've seen on Blu-ray.

The Sound

Heroes comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that may as well be lossy DTS or Dolby Digital, because it is so underwhelming and lacking in clarity.  This may be one of the few times that lossless is truly unnecessary. Dialogue, always kept to the center channel as is expected for most TV shows, is thin, dull, and distorted when the dialogue gets loud. Ambience in the surrounds is barely audible, but there are occasionally sound effects panned to the rears or sides in a jarring manner; even the series' score feels squeezed into a narrow soundstage.  The sound is mostly front-heavy and mixed very narrowly across the front three channels. About the only thing this mix does well is use the lower frequencies to give it weight. A series like Heroes deserves much better than this lackluster 5.1 mix.

The Extras

Heroes: Season 1 comes with a heavy dose of supplemental materials anchored by Universal's "U-Control" branded BonusView features accessible during every episode through the red button on the remote control.  Unlike the Season 2 set, however, not every episode has picture-in-picture commentary.  What is available varies from episode to episode, but includes some or all of the following "U-Control" features:

• Artwork Presentation -- Presents the prominently featured Tim Sale artwork in a pop-up window for certain scenes
• Hero Connections -- Pop-up character bios
• Picture-in-Picture -- Commentaries by various members of the cast, directors, writers, and producers.

U-Control features for each episode are as follows:

Disc 1:

• "Genesis" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Don't Look Back" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "One Giant Leap" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections

Disc 2:

• "Collision" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Hiros" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Nothing to Hide" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Seven Minutes to Midnight" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections

Disc 3:

• "Homecoming" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Six Months Ago" -- Hero Connections
• "Fallout" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections
• "Godsend" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Jack Coleman, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Leonard Roberts)
• "The Fix" -- Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Greg Grunberg and Hayden Panettierre)

Disc 4:

• "Distractions" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Zachary Quinto and Milo Ventimiglia)
• "Run" -- Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Greg Grunberg and Kevin Chamberlain)
• "Unexpected" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and episode director Greg Beeman)
• "Company Man" -- Artwork Presentation, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with episode director/executive prodicer Allan Arkush, episode writer Bryan Fuller, and actor Jack Coleman)
• "Parasite" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with executive producer Allan Arkush, episode writer Chris Zatta, and actor Jimmy Jean-Louis)

Disc 5:

• "07%" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (Andrew Chambliss, assistant to Tim Kring, episode writer Chuck Kim, and Timm Keppler, assistant to Dennis Hammer)
• "Five Years Gone" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections", Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Jack Coleman, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Greg Grunberg)
• "The Hard Part" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors James Kyson Lee, Noah Gray-Cabey and stunt coordinator Ian Quinn)
• "Landslide" -- Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with actors Masi Oka, George Takei, and Matthew Armstrong)
• "How to Stop an Exploding Man" -- Artwork Presentation, Hero Connections, Picture-in-Picture Commentary (with executive producer and creator Tim Kring and executive producers Dennis Hammer and Allan Arkush)

In addition to the U-Control features, Heroes: Season 1 also comes packed with an abundance of deleted scenes, a few less than informative featurettes and what is sure to be a pleasing treat for fans -- the 73-minute premiere episode first premiered at ComicCon in 2006. The additional extras are:

Disc 1:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- deleted scenes from the episodes "Genesis", "Don't Look Back" and "One Giant Leap"
• 73-minute Premiere Episode -- This is the original 73-minute pilot episode which first had its premiere at ComicCon in 2006. Interestingly, there was an entire terrorist storyline in this original pilot that was later excised due to fears from the network. As a consequence, the Matt Parkman character's introduction into the series was altered as well.
  
• Making-of  (1.35:1/windowboxed/standard definition) --This featurette in which the series' creator Tim Kring and the actors are interviewed plays more like a promotional spot the way the actors and producers gush over each other and is not very informative about how the series is actually made.
• Special Effects (1.35:1/windowboxed/standard definition) -- This featurette puts the focus on the visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpak as he discusses the use of computer generated visual effects so critical to the look of the series.
• The Stunts (1.35:1/windowboxed/standard definition) -- Stunt coordinator Ian Quinn discusses working on the physical stunts for the series.
• Profile of Artist Tim Sale (1.35:1/windowboxed/standard definition) -- Comic book artist Tom Sale, who's artwork is used extensively in the series, discusses his work in comic books and for the series. Of note is his connection to one of the series' writers, Jeff Loeb, with whom Sale worked on certain comic books with. Loeb is a longtime friend of series creator Tim Kring and recommended Sale when the show needed someone to do the artwork for the character of Isaac Mendez.
• The Score (1.35:1/windowboxed/standard definition) -- In this featurette Wendy & Lisa discuss scoring the series them and individual episodes along with audio engineer Michael Perfitt.

Disc 2:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Deleted scenes from the episodes "Collision", "Hiros", "Nothing to Hide", and "Seven Minutes to Midnight".

Disc 3:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Deleted scenes from the episodes "Homecoming", "Six Months Ago", "Fallout", "Godsend", and "The Fix".

Disc 4:

• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Deleted scenes from the episodes "Distractions", "Run!", "Company Man", and "Parasite".

Disc 5:

• Deleted Scenes -- Deleted scenes from the episodes ".07%", "Five Years Gone", "Landslide".

Final Thoughts

Season 1 of Heroes set a high standard for this series to have to follow. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that the second season was hampered by a writers' strike as any disappointments can be easily discounted and forgiven. Season 1 successfully draws the viewer in to the complications that can arise when everyday people develop exceptional powers and creator Tim Kring should be applauded for bringing a superhero story to television that doesn't rely on funny costumes to make its point. The BD release comes loaded with extras that fans of the show are sure to find pleasing, but the overall quality is hardly reference material. It will still be a worthwhile purchase for anyone who loves this show.

Where to Buy

• Heroes: Season 1 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, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Audio/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Region: ABC (All Regions)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Universal Studios
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: August 26, 2008
• Run Time: 1008 minutes
• List Price: $99.98
• Extras:
  • Blu-ray Exclusive U-Control -- Go Beyond the Show and Customize Your Own Hi-Def Experience. Enjoy Interactive Features While You Watch The Episodes
    • Artwork Presentation -- View the details of Isaac's paintings and comics as you watch the episodes.
    • 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:
    • 73 Minute Premiere Episode with Audio Commenatary by Show Creator Tim Kring.
  • Additional Features:
    • The Making of Heroes
    • The Special Effects
    • The Stunts
    • Profile of Artist Tim Sale
    • The Score
    • 50 Deleted Scenes