HIRO TAKES "HEROES" TO THE NEXT LEVEL

October 20, 2006

Knowing that I would write about NBC's new comic-book-come-to-life "Heroes" this week, my mind spent the past several days concocting the best way to tell you that, while the show carried a promising premise and featured a few neat characters, it ultimately didn't add up to much more than a rehashed superhero tale with a dark twist. Then I watched this past Monday's episode, saved comfortably in my DVR, and everything changed when Hiro from the future arrived in that subway car. Now, it's suddenly obvious that "Heroes" could be the network series that genre fans have waited for since "The X-Files" wilted and died.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.

"Heroes" (airing Mondays at 9 p.m.) is the story of a group of seemingly unrelated people who discover that they possess extraordinary powers. Each has a different gift. Policeman Matt Parkman reads minds. Politician Nathan Petrelli can fly. Cheerleader Claire Bennet regenerates damaged tissue and essentially can't get hurt. Internet stripper Niki Sanders has a second personality who lives in the mirror but has no problem brutally murdering people in the real world who have done her wrong. (Yeah, some of the powers are more vague than others.)

These special folk don't yet know their purpose, but it's obvious that they're soon going to have one. You see, Isaac Mendez has a gift, too - he can see into the future and then paint it. And many of his paintings feature a nuclear explosion decimating New York City. Early on, it becomes clear that this tragic future will come to pass unless the heroes of the show can seek out each other and prevent it. Not everyone blessed with a gift stands firmly on the side of righteousness, however. Petrelli is played by "Profit"'s Adrian Pasdar, so you just know he'll eventually be up to no good. And there's also a mysterious and super-powered figure named Sylar who scoops out the brains of the people he kills. Like I said, the show is more twisted than you'd think based on the concept and promos.

So far, most of the central characters have yet to meet, so each is embroiled in their own little dramas, which aren't exactly gripping. (Niki tries to be a better mother to her neglected son while avoiding mafia goons looking for her estranged husband. Nathan tries to cover up his family's dark secrets so they don't interfere with his current election.) Worst of all is Mohinder Suresh, a professor with no super powers who decides to carry on the life work of his murdered father. Suresh's father believed that certain humans were evolving into higher beings blessed with special powers and that a pattern of their existence could be detected. Every episode, Mohinder is saddled with tons of boring exposition explaining how and why these people might exist, and each time, you can feel any dramatic momentum literally grind to a stop.

Give thanks then for Hiro, the geeky Japanese office drone who giddily discovers that he has the ability to teleport through space and time. As played by Masi Oka, Hiro is easily the breakout character and the best reason to watch "Heroes." In the early episodes, while many of the characters were hiding from their powers or trying to rationalize them, Hiro was busy reveling in his abilities. Having grown up reading "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" comic books, Hiro knows exactly what to do with them -- help people and maybe save the world -- and goes about his mission cheerily.

In last Monday's episode, Hiro and his friend Ando end up in Las Vegas, where Ando convinces Hiro that, since he can freeze time, it might be fun to win a bunch of money in one of the casinos. Hey, it's easy when you can stop the clock, relocate the roulette ball wherever you want, and then start the rest of the world moving again. Hiro doesn't enjoy abusing his power, though, and the two end up getting tossed from the casino anyway. It seemed Hiro's storyline for that episode had ended.

But in the final scene, time slows to a stop while Peter Petrelli rides the subway. (Peter is Nathan's brother, a pleasant chap who briefly inherits the power of any other hero in his proximity.) Time is frozen still for all but Peter and another man who boards the subway. It's Hiro -- but not the dweeby, Japanese-speaking, glasses-wearing Hiro we already know and love. This Hiro is older, rougher, carries a Samurai sword, speaks perfect English, and comes with an important message from the future.

It's a brilliant scene, a terrific cliffhanger, and now has me convinced that "Heroes" doesn't just feature a promising premise -- it's bursting at the seams with magical possibility. And there's even hope that the writers will throw such daring left turns into some of the other characters' storylines as well. Who else gasped when Claire drove that car full-speed into the wall as a little payback for her passenger, a high school quarterback/serial date rapist? Claire has already survived her own autopsy, so you know she'll be fine. The quarterback? Not so much, I'm afraid.

Yes, ultimately, "Heroes" does owe much to those comic books of Hiro's youth, but with the show now busting out some truly inspired surprises, it's going to be difficult for anyone who watches to not tune in the next week just to see what comes next. Especially if future Hiro is involved.