Discover the phenomenon that is sweeping audiences everywhere as Heroes: Season 1 comes to DVD! Experience the suspense, mystery, and electrifying twists as this astonishing series follows seemingly unconnected, ordinary people around the globe who discover they have extraordinary powers. As they come to terms with their unique abilities, their risky decisions will affect the futures of everyone around them... and the world. Join their epic journey in this seven-disc set packed with hours of fascinating and revealing bonus features, including the never-before-aired series premiere from show creator Tim Kring.
July 21, 2006 - that's the day I became a fan of Heroes. I heard good things about the show from a friend, Brian Fold Sullivan at TheFutonCritic.com, so I decided to sit through the Star Trek panel before Heroes premiered at Comic Con. The Star Trek panel had tons of empty seats, leading Brian to wonder why we came early. "Trust me," I said, "When those doors open this room will be packed." The panel ended, the doors opened, and hundreds of people ran to get seats; ours were perfect. Jeph Loeb and the cast came out to say hi, then retreated to the backstage area while we watched the pilot (the unaired version which appears on the set). The vibe in the room was amazing; I had never sat and watched TV with that many people before. The pilot ended and I was left with a tingly feeling that went down my spine. This was going to be a hit! The cast came out, answered some questions, and then we left the room.
I found Jeph Loeb walking around the convention floor and I said, "Jeph, please, start working on the DVDs. You have a hit on your hands, and you have to start now!" I wish Heroes had the same foresight that Lost had; they had cameras rolling on preproduction of the pilot for Lost, and that resulted in some extremely entertaining bonus material for the season 1 set. Oh well, you can't go back in time now...wait...Hiro...
The show premiered in September, and it drew huge ratings. People discovered what I already knew; this was a hit, hit, hit! Now you can own all 23 episodes from the first season, plus some great bonus material, in this 7 disc set from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Disc 5 (2:53:40)
Chapter Fifteen: Run! (43:25)
Chapter Sixteen: Unexpected (43:23)
Chapter Seventeen: Company Man (43:26)
Chapter Eighteen: Parasite (43:26)
Disc 6 (2:53:13)
Chapter Ninteen: .07% (43:13)
Chapter Twenty: Five Years Gone (43:10)
Chapter Twenty-One: The Hard Part (43:25)
Chapter Twenty-Two: Landslide (43:25)
Disc 7 (44:48)
Chapter Twenty-Three: How to Stop an Exploding Man (44:48)
Video
I was a bit spoiled when I watched Heroes because I saw it in HD. Unfortunately the DVD set doesn't stack up to the HD broadcast, which isn't much of a surprise. I found the DVDs slightly dark, and the colors weren't as vibrant as the HD broadcast. The picture quality is good though; I didn't notice any major defects in the picture. Each disc contains a play all, and there's a chapter after the very short show opening, but there isn't a chapter after the "previously on..." segment that opens the episode.
Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio for Heroes is very good; I loved the deep bass, and the directional effects which were used to suck me into the series. I don't really have any complaints when it comes to the audio; the dialog is easy to understand, the sound effects are great, and the music is awesome. There are subtitles in English, French and Spanish.
Tim Kring Unaired Pilot (1:13:46)
You'll be very surprised when you watch this unaired pilot because there are some very different scenes from what aired, including a different direction for the series. I saw this at Comic Con last July, and I was very surprised when I watched the pilot on TV. Time Kring provides commentary on the unaired pilot, and it's GREAT!
Commentary Tracks
There are commentaries for episodes 12-23, initially recorded so they could be streamed on NBC.com. They've since been removed from NBC.com, but they're here for you to own on the DVD set.
Chapter Twelve: Godsend - Jack Colman, Leonard Roberts and Sendhil Ramamurthy
Chapter Thirteen: The Fix - Greg Grunberg, Hayden Panettiere and Natalie Chaidez (episode writer and co-executive producer)
Chapter Fourteen: Distractions - Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Greg Grunberg, Jeanot Szwarc (episode director), Jack COleman and Michael Green (episode writer and co-executive producer)
Chapter Fifteen: Run! - Greg Grunberg, Kevin Chamberlain, Adam Armus and Kay Foster (episode writers and supervising producers)
Chapter Sixteen: Unexpected - Greg Beeman (episode director and co-executive producer), Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Jeph Loeb (episode writer and co-executive producer)
Chapter Seventeen: Company Man - Jack Colman, Allan Arkush (episode director and executive producer), and Bryan Fuller (co-executive producer and episode writer)
Chapter Eighteen: Parasite - Allan Arkush (executive producer), Jimmy Jean-Louis and Christopher Zatta (episode writer)
Chapter Ninteen: .07% - Chuck Kim (episode writer), Andrew Chambliss (assistant to Tim Kring) and Timm Keppler (assistant to Dennis Hammer)
Chapter Twenty: Five Years Gone - Greg Grunberg, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Jack Coleman
Chapter Twenty-One: The Hard Part - James Kyson Lee, Noah Gray-Cabey and Ian Quinn (stunt coordinator)
Chapter Twenty-Two: Landslide - Masi Oka, George Takei and Matthew Armstrong
Chapter Twenty-Three: How to Stop an Exploding Man - Tim Kring (creator/executive producer & episode writer), Dennis Hammer (executive producer) and Allan Arkush (executive producer and episode director)
Mind Reader
Test Matt's ability to read your mind - he's amazing! Actually, it'll always be the same hero... there's no way around it.
Making of (10:00)
Tim Kring talks about the creation of the series, with comments from Masi Oka, Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Greg Grunberg and Leonard Roberts. It was nice to see shots from Comic Con 06 in the featurette.
Special Effects (8:45)
Mark Kolpack, visual effects supervisor, Tony Ocampo and Ryan Wieber talk about some of the visual effects that appear in the first season. Masi Oka, a former ILM employee, comments on some of his scenes, and working with Mark Kolpack.
The Stunts (10:22)
Ian Quinn (stunt coordinator), and some of the cast members talk about the stunts in the show.
Profile of Tim Sale (11:26)
Tim Sale, the artist for Heroes is profiled in this featurette. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim at Comic Con 07, and I enjoyed hearing more about his work.
The Score (8:58)
Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman (composers), and Michael Perfitt (audio engineer) discuss the score, and the musical influences. I love the music for this show, and I'd buy a CD collection if they released it (HINT, HINT, HINT!!).
Sneak Peeks (6:11)
Sneak peeks at some of the other upcoming Universal TV shows and movies.
Summary
In case you couldn't tell before, I love this show. I thought the season was excellent, and I can't wait for season 2 to air in September. I didn't feel jerked around by the show, though the loooong wait during the break was almost unbearable, and it reminded me why I prefer watching shows on DVD. In fact, this was the ONLY network scripted series I watched. Enough about the show, what did I think about the set?
I thought the set was good, but it didn't have a big, stand-out feature that would have made it awesome. Remember the amazing documentary on the second season of 24, the 1 hour and 20 min "Breaking Episode 315" from The Shield, or the 33 minute "Making of the Pilot" for Lost season 1? Heroes needed a piece like that, plus the featurettes they've already included. The package is good, don't get me wrong, but it lacks that big, awesome feature that gets everyone excited. The unaired-pilot is a great feature, but it's not a kickass documentary. There's a companion series that airs on BBC called Heroes Unmasked, and from what I've heard it would make an excellent companion to the DVD set. It's done by the same people who work on Dr. Who Confidential, and is narrated by Anthony Head (Giles, from Buffy). I have no idea what the rights issues would involve getting it released, but I'd love to see it in stores over here. The HD DVD release has more material, though I haven't seen the set yet.
It was nice to see the cast members return to Comic Con this year, though the room they were in this time was much, much larger. I was able to get backstage, though I didn't chat with any of the actors (it was an insane zoo back there, as you can imagine). I did have one thrill though; they announced the first director for the spin-off series Heroes: Origins, and an NBC press person started calling for "Kevin." The door opened, and Kevin Smith burst through (he was smoking outside in the hallway). Everyone backstage gasped, and then one of the cast members said, "NO WAY!!" as Kevin ran onto the stage. That's right, I knew Kevin Smith was the director about 2 seconds before the cast, and 4 seconds before the room full of people. Do I feel amazingly special? Not really, but it was a "Dear Diary..." moment... or maybe not. I ran into Zachary Quinto at a party later that night and we chatted briefly. He seems really excited to play Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie, and had just finished talking to Brian Burke, producer of the movie, and Lost.
I have a strong feeling this set will be one of the top TV-DVD sellers this year, if not #1. It has broad appeal, hard-core fans, and it's the "buzz" show right now, so that'll translate into some strong sales.
