Heroes appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on these Blu-ray Discs. The series came with up and down visuals.
In particular, the episodes tended to seem “overcranked”. We got too much grain that veered more into digital noise, and edge haloes could become prominent.
However, these issues didn’t pop up on a consistent basis, so some shots looked very good. It became difficult to discern any pattern, unfortunately, and that made the episodes maddeningly erratic.
This impacted sharpness as well, mainly because those haloes left the image as fuzzy at times. Other instances demonstrated positive delineation, however.
Some examples of shimmering and jagged edges occurred. Outside of the noise, I saw no issues with source defects.
Colors tended to feel awfully “hot”, and not in a way that made sense for the series. This went back to the “overcranked” impression, as the hues came across as too heavy.
Blacks were reasonably dense – if a bit crushed at times – and shadows were acceptable outside of lighting that sometimes left dark-skinned actors lost in the murk. Expect shows that sometimes looked very good but that came with too many problems overall.
Though not amazing, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Heroes satisfied. The audio supported the shows just fine. The soundfield emphasized the forward channels and worked quite well within that realm.
The front spectrum was nicely broad and blended together cleanly. The elements remained in the appropriate locations and panned smoothly across the channels.
Surround usage tended toward general reinforcement and atmospherics, though the rear speakers came to life pretty well during action sequences. The back channels didn’t dazzle, but they brought some life to the mix.
Audio quality always seemed good. Speech was consistently natural and crisp, though a little edginess crept into some lines.
Music was clean and concise, so the score appeared well-recorded and dynamic. Effects also came across as lively and distinctive, and they lacked distortion.
Bass response was deep and firm. Overall, the audio was more than fine for the series.
How did the Blu-ray compare to the 2007 DVDs? The lossless audio offered similar soundfields but better range and fidelity.
Visuals seemed superior at times, but the various issues I discussed restricted growth. The DVDs looked very good for their format so don’t expect a big leap from the BDs.
A mix of extras pops up across all five discs. Across all the platters, we find U-Control components.
These mainly break into two categories: “Artwork Presentation” and “Hero Connections”. For “Artwork”, we see closeups of artistic elements, usually paintings that predicted the future.
“Connections” provides character bios and discusses links among the roles. Both “Artwork” and “Conncections” feel inessential but harmless.
On Disc One, we find an Unaired Pilot: Tim Kring Cut. This one-hour, 15-minute, 46-second version acts as an expanded edition of “Genesis”, so it adds about 22 minutes, 29 seconds of footage to the televised cut.
That means you should expect to see a lot of familiar material if you already watched “Genesis”. Some of the scenes here are alternates or extensions, but most of the time the bits will look familiar.
So what about the fresh footage? Some of it really can’t be viewed as “fresh” since it appears elsewhere in the series, albeit sometimes in an altered manner.
For instance, we meet Matt 17 minutes into “Pilot” instead of waiting for “Don’t Look Back”. However, while he uses his telepathy to find a child in “Back”, here he locates a terrorist.
We also encounter Matt’s wife a few episodes early – and with a different actress, as she was recast for the aired episodes.
Terrorism is the major thread absent from both “Genesis” and “Back” that appears in “Pilot”. We learn a little more about the train wreck in Odessa and get info about terrorists that leads toward the apparently imminent nuclear explosion.
None of this appears in the series as aired; the Amid character totally gets the boot for reasons we’ll learn in Tim Kring’s commentary. That’s the biggest change between the two cuts and the most interesting aspect of the “Unaired Pilot”.
Located under “U-Control”, 13 episodes boast picture-in-picture commentaries that involve a variety of participants. Note that the rosters often rotate during an episode, as various folks come and go, so don’t expect to get all of them together the whole time.
Unaired Pilot: Series creator/executive producer Tim Kring. He discusses changes made between this version and the one that went on the air, sets and locations, cast and characters, some story issues, stunts and effects.
Kring offers a pretty nuts and bolts look at the pilot, which is fine to a point but disappoints as a whole. It’s good to hear about the alterations made to this version, but he dwells on locations and dry topics too much of the time.
I wanted to hear an overview of the series’ origins and whatnot, but we get none of that. The track’s okay but not exactly fascinating.
Godsend: Actors Jack Coleman, Leonard Roberts and Sendhil Ramamurthy. They give us a few notes about shooting the series but don’t expect many details here.
Instead, the track mostly indulges in joking around and praise for the show. This makes it pretty dull.
The Fix: Actors Greg Grunman and Hayden Panettiere and Writer/Co-Executive Producer Natalie Chaidez. Expect more of the same content here, though we get a little more depth.
We learn a little about sets and locations as well as general production anecdotes. However, the track remains heavy on praise and jokes, especially when we hear from Grunman, as he presents a larger than life personality and occasionally entertains, but I wish we learned more.
Distractions: Grunman, Coleman, Director Jeannot Szwarc, Co-Executive Producer/Writer Michael Green, and Actors Zachary Quinto and Milo Ventimiglia. I’d love to relate that “Distractions” provides an exception to the rule set by its predecessors, but unfortunately it doesn’t.
Actually, it’s probably the best of the tracks since Kring’s, as we get a couple of reasonably interesting notes about the script and visuals. However, the commentary remains lightweight and not particularly informative.
Run!: Grunberg and Writers/Supervising Producers Adam Armus and Kay Foster, and Actor Kevin Chamberlin. I can’t quite decide if Grunberg adds life to these tracks, if he becomes obnoxious, or some combination of the two. Probably the latter, as he’s fun but a little too loud at times.
Does anything about this commentary stand out from the others? Not really. Grunberg continues to dominate, though he’s not involved the whole time, so we do get to hear from others. The writers add some nice character notes but not much more.
By the way, here’s one problem with the structure of these tracks: since folks come and go, we occasionally hear some of the same notes twice. This happened a few episodes back when we learned about the dog who plays Mr. Muggles, and it occurs here when the reason we see a Ramones T-shirt gets repeated.
Unexpected: Quinto, Ramamurthy, Director/Co-Executive Producer Greg Beeman, and Writer/Co-Executive Producer Jeph Loeb. I wish I could say something different about this track, but I can’t. It’s the same old collection of wackiness and praise without a whole lot of content.
On the positive side: a running gag about David Schwimmer that should annoy but gets funnier as it gets beaten to death. On the negative side: way too many uses of the phrase “rock the house”. Matters do become more sedate – in a good way – when Beeman splits - that man’s a manic maniac!
Company Man: Coleman, Director/Executive Producer Allan Arkush and Writer/Co-Executive Producer Bryan Fuller. Miracle of miracles, we finally get a really good commentary!
This one covers many bases as it delves into the episode’s origins and cinematic influences, character issues and choices, camerawork and pre-viz, effects, editing, and a few other topics. The track proves very informative and is the kind of serious discussion of the series we should have heard in the prior commentaries.
Parasite: Arkush, Writer Christopher Zatta, and Actor Jimmy Jean-Louis. I’m happy to report that “Parasite” continues the commentary winning streak. We learn about the series’ writing and directorial processes.
Specifically, we find out how different writers/directors come onto the show and how things are kept consistent. Jean-Louis talks about his casting and character, and we also find some notes about musical themes and other show-specific elements. This offers a lively little chat that fleshes out the show well.
.07%: Writer Chuck Kim, Assistant to Tim Kring Andrew Chambliss, and Assistant to Dennis Hammer Timm Keppler. Here we find another enjoyable commentary.
This one takes on a nuts and bolts approach, as it digs into all the different behind the scenes elements related to getting the series on the air. These touch on a variety of writing, directing, and general production topics, and the track informs well.
Five Years Gone: Grunberg, Ramamurthy and Coleman. If you expect this actor track to continue to run of good commentaries… sorry. Actually, I probably like it more than most of the pre-“Company Man” chats, but that might just be because I got out of that praise/joking rut with the last three discussions.
This one does include a smattering of decent notes, but expect more of the usual kidding around and praise. Ramamurthy’s hair becomes a running gag.
The Hard Part: Actors James Kyson Lee and Noah Gray-Cabey and Stunt Coordinator Ian Quinn. You’d think the inclusion of Quinn might change the tone of this commentary when compared to the other actors chats. You’d think wrong.
Quinn tells us a little about stuntwork, but mostly we get the usual praise. There’s less joking around than normal, though, and it is mild fun to hear the participants discuss subjects like what super powers they’d like to possess. Nonetheless, this is another pretty ordinary chat.
Landslide: Actors Masi Oka, George Takei and Matthew Armstrong. In terms of focus, this one tells us a little more about locations than usual, as we get info about how LA doubled for other spots.
Otherwise we hear talk about how great the series is and not a whole lot else. At least Takei tosses in a couple stories about Star Trek.
How to Stop an Exploding Man: Kring, Arkush, and Executive Producer Dennis Hammer. For the final commentary, the question became who would dominate.
Would this be a decent but dry track ala Kring’s discussion of the “Pilot”, or would this be a lively, insightful chat like Arkush’s look at “Company Man”?
The Kring side wins. That doesn’t make this a bad commentary, as it gets into some decent nuts and bolts topics related to the episode.
However, it lacks much depth, as general production bits come to the fore and we don’t get much insight into the series’ stories, arc, and other related issues. It’s worth a listen, but as a season summary, it doesn’t excel.
Don’t expect much from the visual aspect of these picture-in-picture commentaries. Mostly we just see the participants as they watch the shows, so they work better simply as audio chats.
If you like deleted scenes, you’ll find plenty here. We get cut sequences for “Genesis” (8, 6:42), “Don’t Look Back” (4, 3:39), “One Giant Leap” (2, 4:17), “Collision” (2, 0:52), “Hiros” (3, 2:34), “Nothing to Hide” (8, 9:37), “Seven Minutes to Midnight” (3, 2:53), “Homecoming” (1, 0:59), “Six Months Ago” (2, 2:31), “Fallout” (1, 1:45), “Godsend” (2, 1:53), “The Fix” (1, 1:19), “Distractions” (3, 2:14), “Run!” (3, 3:26), “Company Man” (3, 1:47), “Parasite” (1, 0:46), “.07%” (1, 0:29), “Five Years Gone” (1, 0:42), and “Landslide” (1, 0:53).
Most of these clips simply add minor extensions to existing scenes. Don’t expect any new subplots or major developments, at least not after “Genesis”. It includes references to the deleted terrorist storyline, and it also would have introduced DL to the series at an earlier point.
Otherwise, these snippets don’t give us anything revelatory, though they do serve to broaden the characters. For instance, we find out how Claire first realized she had the power to heal, and we get a mix of other interesting character insights.
Despite a few redundant bits, most of the pieces are pretty interesting. They don’t prove fantastic, but they add to our understanding of the characters.
On Disc One, we find a bunch of featurettes. Making Of goes for nine minutes, 59 seconds and offers notes from Kring, Oka, Ventimiglia, Panettiere, Grunberg, Roberts, Loeb, Ramamurthy, and actors Ali Larter and Adrian Pasdar.
The program looks at the series’ origins, Season One’s story and character arcs, casting, the show’s Comic-Con debut, and the show’s success.
At about 10 minutes, you can’t expect much detail from this piece. It starts pretty well as we finally learn a little about the series’ start, but it stumbles from there.
For instance, the casting section gives us interesting thoughts about how the Sendhil character changed to accommodate Ramamurthy, but we learn nothing about the other actors. There’s a smattering of good comments but this is a pretty promotional piece overall.
Next we find the eight-minute, 44-second Special Effects. It presents remarks from Oka, visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack, 2D artist Ryan Wieber, and 3D artist Tony Ocampo.
We get a definition of the difference between special effects and visual effects before we find info about the work done for Heroes. In particular, we look at how they created the scene where Hiro stops time to save the Tokyo schoolgirl.
This becomes a good look at the effects processes. It’s also cool to learn that Oka has a background in effects and actually used to work at ILM.
The Stunts goes for 10 minutes, 22 seconds. It features Quinn, Pasdar, Ventimiglia, Ramamurthy, Oka, Takei, and Quinto.
While we find decent information about how the stunts were executed, the best material comes from the raw footage. I like those elements, as they let us see the stunts as they happened. This isn’t the most in-depth discussion of stunts, but it’s reasonably good.
After this comes a Profile of Artist Tim Sale. This 11-minute, 25-second piece includes remarks from Sale and actor Santiago Cabrera.
We learn a little about Sale’s background in comics as well as his work for the series and the use of his art in the show. Some fascinating tidbits pop up – like the fact that Sale is colorblind – and those turn this into a good little show.
For the final featurette, we get The Score. It runs eight minutes, 57 seconds and offers notes from composers Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman and audio engineer Michael Perfitt.
They discuss their musical choices for the series and how these elements were recorded. The program lets us learn why the musicians did what they did, so we learn a lot from this useful piece.
The Blu-ray set drops one feature from the DVDs: a “Mind Reader” game. This was cute but not essential.
Heroes gives us a comic book tale that emphasizes character in addition to intrigue, and it balances the elements well. I can quibble about some choices and episodes, but Season One usually works very well. The Blu-rays offer iffy visuals along with pretty positive audio and supplements. I like the series quite a lot but the picture quality here disappoints.
To rate this film visit the prior review of HEROES: SEASON 1
