The second season of Heroes was hobbled by the writers’ strike of 2007/08, which
led to the creative team making only eleven episodes before they had to shut
down production. Series creator Tim Kring had
actually issued a public apology to assuage loyal fans who were disgruntled at
the new storylines, which they felt just weren’t up to snuff to that of the
magnificent first season. To be fair, while the first
season of Heroes is a mighty hard act to follow, the second season deserved
kudos for at least attempting to build a new storyline that was vastly different
than the first. In other words, the creative folks could have simply rehashed
the ‘Save The World’ plot, but instead they tried to take a more original path,
and although we will never officially see what the true ending to this story
is--thanks to the DVD, we can get a hint of what might have been.
Picking up shortly after the ending of the first season, the second season finds
Peter inexplicably handcuffed to the inside of a cargo container, facing an
angry band of Irish thieves who were hoping to find a stash of Ipods--only to
find Peter, instead. Nathan, having lost the congressional seat that he’d won
just before the climatic events of the first season, is now a drunken mess who
has basically dropped out of life. Mohinder is raising Molly with Mat in New
York--and while Mat has become a detective for the NYPD, Mohinder is busy trying
to infiltrate The Company, the super secret organization that had been tracking
people with extraordinary powers. Noah Bennet, in addition to trying to keep his
family safe in hiding, is also helping Mohinder in his quest. The second season
quickly picks up steam as we discover that Sylar is alive and well,
and a pair of Central American refugees, siblings Maya and Alejandro, try to
cross into the United States. Maya possesses a scary power that causes her to kill everyone around her.
In addition to Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz as Maya and Alejandro, the new
cast additions for the second season also include Stephen Tobolowsky (Deadwood),
as Bob, the nebbish new leader of The Company who may--or may not--be on the
side of the angels. And Kristen Bell, who plays against her former Veronica Mars
role as Elle, a psychotic young woman with electrically charged powers. With
original Star Trek cast member George Takei (Lt. Sulu) playing Hiro’s father in
the first season (as well as in the second,) Nichelle Nichols, who’s best known
as Lt. Uhura from the original Star Trek, also appears this season as young
Micah’s grandmother. The eleven episode storyline may not be as epic as that of
first season’s, but it’s still extremely satisfying in how it uses the characters.
Of course, bear in mind that Powerless, the season ender, was originally only
intended to be the midway point of the second season. But since the writers’
strike put an early end to the season, the writers of Heroes had ingeniously
reworked the ending of this episode. The great thing about the DVD set is that
it presents not only the original ending of Powerless, but that it also provides
the viewer the option of watching scenes from the never-aired twelfth and
thirteenth episodes. Since the story had shifted so much, these scenes had been
abandoned--and so including them on the DVD gives Heroes fans a very nice look
inside the creative process of making a TV show.
--SF
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