Heroes Reborn: Fifth Season review

The fifth season of the superhero TV show wrapped up with the final show airing on January 21st. The season broadcast on NBC was billed as a reboot and departure from the preceding offerings (2006-2010). With the episode 13 finale concluding the season what is the verdict on the show in retrospective?

Tim Kring, the show’s creator and executive producer who has presided over NBC’s Heroes franchise since 2006, returned for the 5th season. This 13-episode event series chronicled the lives of a new group of protagonists who discover they possess superhuman abilities. These newly empowered characters share an interlinked destiny and become embroiled in adventures as they come to terms with their superpowers. Some of the past Heroes franchise characters make an appearance including Hiro Nakamura, Mohinder Suresh, Micah Sanders, The Haitian René and Angela Petrelli. While, the show’s next generation of superheroes include Miko, Malina, Carlos and Erica.

Five years after the end of the original series, the story picks up in the aftermath of the last season’s finale. In a new world order, people with extraordinary abilities are in hiding and are hunted by enemies with some devious motives following a catastrophic terrorist attack in Odessa, Texas. The attack in Odessa, Texas left the city decimated and Evo’s (Evolved Humans) the alleged primary culprits are now roundly blamed by the world for the explosion.

The new season sustains some curiosity by creating new characters who are often completely in the dark about what is happening, even Noah loses his memory. Switching narratives are deployed throughout which may prompt some confusion among audiences with the plot developments. In Tokyo, Miko Otomo discovers a sword in her father’s study that sends her into a video game world to save him, now bestowed with the extraordinary ability to transport across the two realities. Audiences are invited to experience fight scenes within the video game universe. Hiro and Noah travel back in time to the Odessa peace summit from the opening episode to stop, we later discovers that their intervention to prevent the bombing will produce a worse future. The temporal mechanics may prove too mentally tasking for some viewers.

The central crux develops into the new Evo generations coming of age in fulfilling their ultimate destiny and saving the world. Earth is about to be destroyed by geomagnetic reversal and solar flares and are superheroes take on the ultimate struggle, while finding out the truth about themselves. The parallels of outsiders experiencing discrimination and the turbulence that inevitably follows is a worthy message.

The chances of a new Heroes season are not high according to the show’s creator Tim Kring. The development teams’ intention from the very beginning was a standalone 13 episode season. Kring has not as yet announced a change in his opinion. A webcast mini-series prequel “Dark Matters” is also available.