Special thanks to all of you willing to re-watch Heroes with me. I’m excited as I came to Heroes late and never got to have the fun of discussing it with all the killer minds of GWC.
Here’s where it all starts: Episode One. We meet some of the players and the story starts to unfold.
You can count on my hanging around this thread for discussion anytime. 
Are we going to do one episode per week? My DVDs are coming tomorrow, so I’ll jump on the bandwagon then.
Woah, what great timing! You may have heard me say on threads past that I was eventually going to get around to watching Heroes. My friends have told me it’s the kinda show I’d like. I finally watched Episode One: Genesis a couple weeks ago before leaving for vacation, and watched a little bit of Episode Two on portable DVD player while on vacation. Now I’m back home, and all geared up to watch Season one at a Chuck-like zeal and pace.
I’m loving Heroes so far, as I predicted I would.-Thot
This one was a freebie on iTunes a while ago, so I grabbed it. It’s a really great pilot, which is tough to do in itself, doubly so in the sort of ensemble show this promised to be. If it wasn’t for my oddball schedule at the time I’d have followed up on it. Need to search for cheap DVDs now.
Excited Dave:
i’m on board! been a while since i rewatched the first season…
No-time Dave:
argh, now I have even less time!
Great series, looking forward to watching with everyone.
Might I suggest Netflix? A good way to get something like Heroes that isn’t available seemingly anywhere else (aside from purchasing the DVDs). It’s odd. Usually something that is available on Netflix (as Heroes season 1 is) is also available at the video store for rent. But no so with Heroes.
I re-watched the pilot today, the longer version on the season 1 dvd (netflix’d it).
Anyone else seen the 1:11 hours pilot yet? Because I didn’t remember the plotline about the Arabic terrorist from the original pilot, so that was definitely an addition, wasn’t it?
Woah, that’s a little weird, Galaxy Ranger. I just watched the longer unaired pilot today too. Or to be precise, I watced it last night, and then watched it again today with the commentary on.
What are you, some kind of mirror image of me, like Nikki on Heroes? And if so, which of us has the superhuman strength?
That is actually a tricky question. Who’d you rather be, the nice stripper or the bad-ass chick stuck in the mirror?
Personally, I think I’d wanna be Ando. I love the idea that they wanted to point out that you don’t have to have super-powers to be a hero (like Batman!), but they could have done way more with that character or the idea itself.
Which brings me to my first point:
Why is the show called HEROES ? Which characters are actually heroes and which ones “just” have superpowers? What constitutes a hero/a heroine ? I think that’s one of the most basic questions raised in the show.
Secondly, “In His Own Image” is clearly a quote from the Bible, the Book Genesis, etc. that God created man in his own image - now, this being a Christian reference, does the show have a Christian message or any religious message at all? Does it answer the question of “why” with mysticism or cold science?
This is my first time watching Heroes, so it is WAY WAY too soon for me to contemplate those questions in any depth. So far I’ve only seen ep. 1 and 2 and the unaired pilot. But as I watch I will keep the “What is true hero?” question in mind.
I’m a Christian, so I’ll take a stab at whether “Heroes” has any Christian message. My answer would be no, although I think its theme about the importance of love (sounded in the pilot and followed right through to the end of season 1) dovetails nicely with Christian theology. “God is love,” says 1 John, “and everyone who loves is born of God.” And while there are plenty of biblical allusions and names, the Bible is not the exclusive property of Christians (Genesis and the idea that we are created in the imago Dei, the image of God, all held in common with Judaism, for example), and I don’t think the show has any “coded” Christian content.
As for whether “why” is answered with mysticism or cold science – I think “Heroes” tries (and to some extent succeeds) to have it both ways. The “science” of course is nothing more than the sci-fi pseudo-science of the X-gene, basically; but there is a lot of talk about “meant for something more,” and the image of the eclipse seems connected somehow to the appearance of the specials (although this has not even now been explained, has it?) – so I think “Heroes” uses (what little) science there is to evoke a sense of wonder, to appeal to humanity’s spiritual dimension. Even though it is written nearly in cliches, I still really like that conversation between Peter and Mohinder in the cab in the pilot episode. “You ever feel like you were meant for something more?”
Now, I suppose a danger in carrying that to an extreme is that only those who have the “x-gene” (not “Heroes” term, of course, but Marvel Comics’ <g>) can be extraordinary – but, as pointed out above, Ando proves otherwise in the context of “Heroes.”
As far as who is heroic and who is not, I like that the show really gives very few clear-cut examples of “good guys” and “bad guys.” Nathan Petrelli, for instance, is one of the most multi-faceted protagonists on sci-fi TV right now (nowhere near the complexity of our BSG characters, but still, pretty good!).
Two last questions:
Is this thread spoiler-free or can we assume “re-watch” means we’ve seen these before?
Anyone else notice that Mohinder’s line about “God as a cockroach” is missing from the orginal version of the pilot and was added in later? (Even though the cockroach itself appears in both versions). It’s a lame joke, the scene works much better without it – I wonder what the thinking there was.
I can only speak for myself, but as far as I’m concerned I’m fine with an open discussion with spoilers permitted on this Heroes rewatch thread. If I see something posted that I want to avoid reading to keep suspense for myself, I’ll do so. But I don’t want the rest of you rewatchers to feel you have to restrain your comments.
How excellent that you guys are doing this… I’ve just watched the first three episodes, but things are so small on my ipod that sometimes I miss details… I didn’t catch who the cheerleaders adapted dad is…
— Dismal reaching for his glasses everytime the two Japanese guys start talking in subtitles
I’ve been watching Heroes since the pilot. I remember being annoyed with this ep. the first time I saw it, It thought Peter whined too much and nothing really happened. After buying the S1 DVD when it was released I re-watched the first ep. its actually a lot better the second time around - very powerful actually - now knowing what is to come.
I’ve only seen a couple of episodes, and when season 2 was playing on TV I wasn’t able to see all of the episodes in order :(. Season 3 is coming up though, and I’ve been watching the first 2 seasons over again at http://www.heroesfreeonline.com.
It’s tough watching one of these shows in random order, then trying to figure out what in the hell is going on. I like that they do an episode recap at the start of every new one, though. You guys all ready for ‘Villians’?