There seem to be a lot of Heroes fans in this forum. I’ve never seen an episode, can someone briefly in just a couple paragraphs (or less) give me the skinny and why you think it’s so good.
It’s an updated ‘Watchmen’. And that’s not a bad thing.
MiM
The Alan Moore comic? Or is this a different Watchmen?
I don’t think it’s much like Watchmen.
It’s like the X-men set in the real world. People start to develop superpowers. They DON’T dress up in silly costumes and have secret identities. Mostly they try to maintain ordinary lives, as far as they can. There’s really only one that wants to be a hero.
The whole season has been a single story, very complex with several intertwined threads. You can’t watch a single episode and expect to see a story. You would see one chapter in a long story
One of the things that makes it good is a lot of in-jokes. For example, Stan Lee makes a brief appearence playing a bus driver in one episode. Lots of things like that.
I would say two. Peter Petrelli (the younger brother if i got the name wrong) has been actively heroic as well.
You could always go to nbc.com and watch all the episodes yourself. The quality isn’t so hot, but it’s passable and you won’t notice it once you get into the show.
Yes, he acts as a hero, but that’s because he gets caught up in matters against his will. And then he has no choice but try to stop you-know-what from happening. There were a number of people similar, they did brave or heroic things when the situation called for them. But really, each of them just wants a normal life.
Hiro is the only one that actually went looking for adventure.
you know what isn’t fully resolved for me yet, we are a few episodes behind in the UK. The arc i was thinking of was “Save the cheerleader save the world”
My theory on “Save the cheerleader, save the world” is not what has been implied in the story, which was:
“If you save teh cheerleader, you will be saving the world” but “First you must save the cheerleader, and then later you must save the world.”
I haven’t watched the finale yet.
Well, it ain’t the careful plotting, that’s for sure.
But they did a great job from the get-go imagining what everyday people would act like if they suddenly found themselves with superhuman abilities. And in their definition of everyday people, they include self-absorbed jerks, the mentally unstable, and comic-book addicted total dorks.
Which probably explains why it’s such a popular show on these boards. 
In a nutshell…
A relatively small number of people around the world - adults, teenagers and even children - begin unexpectedly and inexplicably developing superpowers. Virtually everyone’s is different. For some this is a good thing; for others a very, very bad thing. The characters struggle with how to control their superpowers, who to tell, how to apply their power(s) for either selfish or altruistic purposes, and how to maintain some semblance of a normal life. Some people and groups are pulling strings behind the scenes, but we don’t fully know how or why.
As the first season unfolded, Sylar, a psycho superpowered villain, killed others who had superpowers, taking those powers for himself. Still others gradually became aware of the threat he posed, and tried to stop him. Toward the end of the season, a time-travel storyline revealed that someone was going to explode in NYC with the force of a nuclear weapon, killing many millions and changing the U.S. much for the worse. The good guys, without a clear understanding of how it would happen, did what they could to stop it.
The second season will probably reveal Sylar’s fate and perhaps introduce an even nastier villain.
I came to the show relatively late, but I’ve enjoyed it. Good acting, smart and knotty storylines (mostly), occasional humor, and a mix of wonderment and horror as the powers manifest themselves.
I have more time to explain what I meant now. But this may include spoiling some aspects of both ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Heroes’.
‘Watchmen’ has ‘heroes’ being eliminated by one of their own in a convoluted plan to blow up half of New York in order to wake the world from it’s torpor. The plan includes the distraction of a former watchmaker who has supernatural powers after an accident made him an exploding man. This man has the ability to stop time; telekinesis; teleportation etc. There are two generations of ‘heroes’ with different expectations.
‘Heroes’ has all of the above - but not by means of an accident; by birth.
This is certainly not meant as a criticism of ‘Heroes’ - which I have loved - but an acknowledgment of it’s debt to ‘Watchmen’ (which I also loved).
I think this is perhaps as good an adaptation as I could wish for; Watchmen filmed as per the book would look kind of ridiculous IMO.
MiM