Why You Should Watch Heroes on NBC

The premier of the new serial on NBC “Heroes” is a combination of Six Degrees and Field of Dreams. Set in the skies of a partial eclipse of the sun characters around the globe with seemingly no connection emerge with super human abilities to alter time and space. As one might expect the lead characters have few if any day to day super abilities. A younger less achieving sibling decides to fly off the top of a building. The cliff hanger is the more apparently successful sibling may have had to fly up to catch him. Wait and see next episode.

A somewhat distant daughter in a pretty screwy family named Clare, puts her hand in the garbage disposal while it is running and it mangles her hand, but miraculously it repairs herself. Her mother an ephemeral character talks through her Papillon that is ever present. The father is on the other hand benign in appearance, but perhaps sinister. The brother is your typical annoying younger brother who thinks everyone is weird. He is probably right.

There are other characters, an artist whose dying work of the impending eclipse of the world as we know it requires periodic injections of morphine, a hapless, but cool Clara Barton who comes to his rescue all the time.

A non-descriptive Japanese drudge who finds he can alter time and space by just concentrating. He changes the time of day in Tokyo and the next scene transports himself to downtown Manhattan. It is almost like a Jon Stewart roving reporter story I saw years ago about a guy who was selling his “longevity ring” for $19.95. It looked like a mood ring, but promised the ring would bring eternal life and all at the price of less than a couple of 12 packs.

So all of these characters and more are going to meet each week on the screen. There is no telling when the characters plan to actually meet one another. Maybe they all just converge on some spot in New York, Topeka, or Cleveland and solve the mystery of the universe. There is no telling on this plot challenge. Each week someone else appears to come into this not personal circle of friends who don’t know each other and then something else happens.

Maybe this should be a reality show where each week the challenge for survival will be how to bind and find the threads of this plebeian plot. The main problem is attraction and on reflection I can’t think of one character I really care about. There was a whole lot on tricks, but very little in development of the character. I say cute, but no Friends.

I want to watch the next episode to see how the Japanese guy does in Time Square. It will be fun to see how he can transport himself around. Maybe he will never have to wait in line for a show. Maybe he will never have to pay $75 to see a Broadway play. Maybe he will be able to “stump the band” on David Letterman and still make in time to get a free sausage from Jay Leno. The possibilities are infinite. Maybe he will meet Claire and they can redesign the common garbage disposal for the good of man. Who knows maybe even marry and raise super humans who can bend time and titanium. It is just too good.