Powerless S:01 E:04

Episode Title: Emily Dates a Henchman
Original Airdate: 2-23-17

While I’m still not entirely sold on either the continued reliance on Batman or the overall chemistry of the cast, I will say right here at the start that this has been my favorite episode of this show so far. It had the right mix of absurdity, comic book references, and self-deprecating humor that totally worked for me. The episode itself is pretty self-explanatory after reading the title as Emily inadvertently starts dating a henchman. Of course, not just any henchman, but one played by Robert Buckley of iZombie fame.
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Powerless S:01 E:01

Episode Title: Wayne or Lose
Original Airdate: 2-2-17

It feels like I’ve been away from this site for way too long despite the fact that when I stopped watching the shows I was covering, I was fully enjoying them. But the concept of Powerless, and the fact that it’s a half hour comedy has brought me back. I hadn’t watched any of the trailers and barely knew who was in it, but when I saw that it was premiering yesterday, I decided to check it out and see what it had to offer. While there wasn’t a whole lot to it, and it stuck with random superheroes and villains plus a couple Batman references, it was funny and I mostly enjoyed it, despite having some concerns over the directions when reading up on the differences between the original pilot and this one that actually went to air. Notably the fact that they dropped a large number of general DC universe references in favor of sticking Batman in yet another DC property because they just can’t get away from Batman.
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Heroes Reborn S:01 E:04

Episode Title: The Needs of the Many
Original Airdate: 10-8-15

Before starting to watch Heroes Reborn, I intended to go through most of the first season of Heroes again in order to prepare. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it nearly as far as I originally thought I would be able to, but there were a few things that I have noticed even just from refreshing myself with those first few episodes. And one of those elements of the show I had already forgotten about until I re-read my recent review of the original first episode. It’s a little disappointing to see that the ratings for this show haven’t been as strong as they were when this show was still new, as I’m quite fond of this show compared to, say Gotham. But this episode continues to develop some of the mysteries while dangling several others just out of reach.
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Heroes Reborn S:01 E:03

Episode Title: Under the Mask
Original Airdate: 10-1-15

It’s time to take another look into the return to Tim Kring’s Heroes universe that combines the old cast in with a new generation of heroes. As far as the ratings on the show goes, it’s tough to say whether or not it’s doing what they expected, it’s doing significantly better than Constantine did last season, but it’s doing a bit better than the last season of Heroes did, especially when you add in one of the largest time-shifted viewership for any network shows this year. I’m still very much into the mystery aspect of the show that leaves many unanswered questions alongside all of the interconnected characters and new powers.
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Heroes Reborn S:01 E:01 & 02

Episode Title: Brave New World & Odessa
Original Airdate: 9-24-15

The Heroes have been reborn, both as a new generation of Heroes but also as a new series on NBC. I think it’s interesting that in several places this is considered a “mini-series” at 13 episodes, which is the same as a full season for cable shows and for any show that starts out in the mid-season without the added nomenclature. For my own part, I watched the first two seasons of Heroes when they aired, or at least the first season and a half, and came back to watch the final half of the fourth season which I did enjoy. And I have gone back to re-watch the first season again, and while I didn’t actually make it very far into the season, what I did manage to watch helped refresh some of the early moments of the show and revealed a similar structure to the great first season. This new season introduced a lot of new heroes and saved many of the returning faces for later in the series.
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Webseries: Heroes Reborn: Dark Matters

Heroes Reborn: Dark Matters Season 1
Original Airdate: 8-10-15

I’m a little bit behind on this, but before the premier of Heroes Reborn I wanted to talk a little bit about this webseries that intends to bridge the gap between the original run of Heroes and the new series. I did watch it a couple weeks back but hadn’t gotten around to writing about it until now. The series mainly focuses on a single character Phoebe and her journey of exploring her powers before getting caught up in some of the conspiracy that will likely be explored in more detail in the series proper. I did enjoy it, especially since it does take a look at a couple more normal characters, and when I say normal I mean that they aren’t movie star level attractive, the actors in the two main roles are much more like average people. It’s just that one of them happens to be able to control light and shadow. This was a six episode webseries and while it has been uploaded on YouTube, I will just be embedding the first episode in this review, the rest can be watched on YouTube or on NBC.com.
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Heroes S:01 E:06

Episode Title: Better Halves
Original Airdate: 10-30-2006

After several episodes of dancing around it, we finally get one that more or less reveals what is really going on with Niki and her alter ego, along with the real introduction of D.L. and his powers. Meanwhile, there’s also a bit of connections floating around that reveal more than they were initially letting on. One of my remembered story twists were also revealed in this episode, though not exactly the way I had originally remembered. The biggest issue that I had with this episode is that the focus is on Niki for most of the run time, and she is honestly the least interesting character out of the entire first season group.
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Heroes S:01 E:05

Episode Title: Hiros
Original Airdate: 10-23-06

Onto the fifth episode in the first season and this is the one where things really start to feel like they’re finally coming together. There’s a sense of purpose and a sense of wonder that really shines through in this episode more than some of the other episodes aside from possibly the pilot. There’s also something that I noticed in this episode that either wasn’t in the earlier episodes, or I just hadn’t really noticed and that’s the strong color palette with a focus on the primary colors red, yellow, and blue. There’s also a handful of moments where more characters start embracing their powers besides Hiro who has accepted his power from day one. In fact, Hiro is just about the only character who doesn’t use his powers in this episode.
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Heroes S:01 E:03

Episode Title: One Giant Leap
Original Airdate: 10-9-06

After a couple episodes of build up, the show teases the main villain of this season Sylar just a little bit more as people seemingly start closing in on him from various different angles, and yet he remains ever elusive. Meanwhile all of the characters start growing a little bit more bold in pursuing their destinies, especially Hiro, Ando, and Peter. And once again it accomplishes something that few other shows tended to do before this one and that was to often end on a mini cliffhanger which was often used more for soap operas rather than prime time dramas.
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Heroes S:01 E:02

Episode Title: Don’t Look Back
Original Airdate: 10-2-06

More than the pilot episode, re-watching this second episode of the series really helped solidify what it was about this show that really helped make it resonate with me and likely with many of its other viewers. It certainly had an air of mystery to it and compelling characters, but there was something more to it than that. There was an air of deep mythology associated within itself, something that it was able to develop a shorthand for within the span of just two episodes it made if feel like there was a much deeper world to this show and we were only getting to see a brief glimpse into what was a very deep pool. This episode introduced the concept of what was internally referred to as the helix, and it was something that I don’t remember much about from my first viewing, but this time I definitely noticed it pop up in a few places and caught myself looking more closely for it everywhere once I saw it.
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