Mania Grade: B-
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- DVD: Heroes Season Four DVD
- Rating: Unrated
- Starring: Milo Ventimiglia, Jack Coleman, Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere, Gren Gunberg, Masi Oka
- Written By: Various
- Directed By: Various
- Distributor: NBC/Universal Studio Home Entertainment
- Original Year of Release: 2009-2010
- Extras: See Below
- Series: Heroes
Heroes Season Four DVD Review
The Final Season of Heroes By
Tim Janson
August 22, 2010
Heroes Final Season on DVD
© Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
When Heroes premiered in 2006, it quickly became NBC’s highest rated drama. The show was not only a ratings success but a critical success, earning numerous Emmy, Golden Globe, and People’s Choice Award nominations. But as hot as the show started, it cooled just as quickly. With the exception of the season premiere, every episode of season two was rated lower than every season one episode. Likewise, every season three episode was rated lower than every season two episode and so on with the fourth season. In the face of this very sharp downward spiral, NBC canceled the show in May despite the last episode of season four proclaiming “To be continued…” Maybe, but not with a regular series.
With the release of the fourth an final season on DVD it’s a good time to wonder what could have been and how it went wrong so quickly. Season four tried to fix many of the problems of seasons two and three. The show had become ponderous with too many characters and too many plotlines to follow and no purposeful direction. Season four scaled the cast back to the primary members: Clair Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman), Hiro (Masi Oka), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), and Sylar (Zachary Quinto). Other mainstays were limited to bit roles or completely eliminated. It all helped season four be more focused that the previous two seasons but it was clearly too little too late.
The main antagonist was Samuel Sullivan, the owner of a carnival that has become a haven for oppressed people with abilities. Samuel has the power to control the Earth itself and create earthquakes. Samuel is trying to recruit as many people with abilities to join his carnival as he can as the more followers he has, the more powerful he becomes. He plans to use his vast power to produce an earthquake of devastating proportions. He lures a new character, Emma, into the fold. Emma has the power to use her music to almost hypnotic effect. Samuel plans to use her power to draw in as many innocent people as possible to kill them.
Samuel was an interesting character…certainly far more of an appealing villain than Arthur Petrelli in season three. Still, while Carny workers are scary, its usually do to the lack of dental hygiene than any true threat. It was Sylar and Peter who eventually team together to try and stop Samuel (despite the fact that Sylar killed Nathan Petrelli). The issue of Sylar becomes one of the vexing issues of the show’s run…he’s a villain, then a hero, then a villain, then a hero…Sylar always seemed better has a villain but his emotional issues never allowed for him to grow into a true force of evil. At the conclusion we’re left wondering about Sylar’s true nature.
While not strong enough to save the show, and perhaps at that point, nothing could, season four was the best since the first season. Fewer characters and less wandering subplots made it watchable. Heroes greatest legacy may be how it utilized so many outside mediums to expand the show…using the internet for webisodes and interactive functions, comics, graphic novels…Heroes was a multi-media titan and forged a new way for TV shows to be expanded.
DVD Extras
The Five disc set features the following bonus material:
Audio commentary with select cast and crew on four episodes including the series finale, “Brave New World”
Deleted/expanded Scenes (47:00)
Deconstructing Sylar (20:40) Zachary Quinto and producers Ardam Armus and Tim Kring discuss the evolution of Sylar’s character over the series. Originally they had planned for the character to have been a priest whose powers turned him evil.
Heroes Revolution (10:43) Tim Kring talks about how the show utilized webisodes, graphic novels, twitter and more to expand the show and create new, original content.
Genetics of a Scene (43:00). This looks at seven key scenes from season four and shows how they were developed from initial script and storyboards to shooting the scene
Milo Speaks (5:30) Milo Ventimiglia talks about growing up as a comic book and Star Wars fan as well as his various artistic influences.
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A B rating for a C- series. I hope the dvd's are made of gold:)
All kidding aside, its too bad they didnt bother risking to fix it, instead of cancel it.