"Heroes" Review: Back On My List?

You guys know I’ve dumped “Heroes” twice. But all the talk lately about the show getting back to basics and the way it was in season one got me feeling a little nostalgic.

So, I requested a screener of Monday’s episode from NBC. The episode begins the new volume, “Fugitives.”

Accompanying the screener was a letter from “Heroes” creator Tim Kring explaining that this episode starts the show “pretty much from scratch. There is almost nothing that the audience needs to know from the previous volume to follow [the] storyline.” And considering the mess that was “Villains,” that’s a good thing.

But does that mess get cleaned up?

Honestly, yeah, it does. But whether things will stay clean remains to be seen…

When the episode begins, the heroes are trying to get back to normal. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is a paramedic./ Matt (Greg Grunberg) is a security guard trying to have a normal life with Daphne (Brea Grant), who is working as a delivery person. Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is once again a taxi driver and a powerless Hiro (Masi Oka) is trying to turn Ando (James Kyson Lee) into a superhero. Claire (Hayden Panettiere) has moved in with Angela (Cristine Rose) and is considering going to college.

But the normalcy doesn’t last long as a mysterious individual (Emmy Winner Zeljko Ivanek) begins capturing the heroes. I’m not going to reveal who’s behind the plot, but I will say it’s actually kind of cool.

And my two favorite characters are back to the way I like them. HRG (Jack Coleman) is shifty and mysterious and we have no idea whose side he’s on. And Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is back to being a man on a mission as he begins the search for his real parents.

By giving Chloe her GED, the show has eliminated one of the more annoying subplots of Claire in high school. And returning everyone to the real and present world does give the show more of a season one feel. But they push that a little too far by giving one of the heroes a new power that belonged to a season one hero (Maybe that will serve an important purpose later.).

Still, by the end of the episode, the whole gang is back together and everything ends in a classic “Heroes” cliffhanger. So much of a classic cliffhanger I plan to record the second episode.

That’s right. “Heroes” is back on my list. But if the second episode doesn’t sustain the momentum of the premiere, it will be the show’s third strike.

And you know what that means…

“Heroes” returns Monday, February 2nd at 9 p.m. on NBC…

Photos Credit: Trae Patton/NBC