Save The Cheerleader, Save The World!

By Mark Rabinowitz in TV Reviews | Television on October 22, 2006 8:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been meaning to post something on the 2006 fall TV season for quite some time, but the NYFF and other things kind of got in my way. As a result, we're 4-5 weeks in on some shows and I have yet to inform you all of their brilliance. Well, thank god for iTunes and the other download services (not to mention Bittorrent...Shhhhhh!). That way you can catch up on the episodes you've missed.

First on the list is Heroes, an intriguing, intelligent and utterly gripping series created by Tim Kring (Crossing Jordan). Set in New York; Las Vegas; Odessa, Texas, Los Angeles and Tokyo, Heroes is exactly what a super hero drama should be, in order to make it on TV. Interesting and attractive characters, each with their own back story and family life, excellent actors, no silly comic book jargon, and just enough supernatural occurrences to make it different. Oh...and no silly super hero suits.

The characters are compelling and appreciably different and the actors all seem to have been meticulously cast, from Gilmore Girls' bad boy Milo Ventimiglia as the sensitive male nurse who might be able to fly to his sleazy politician of a brother, played by Adrian Pasdar to teen queen Hayden Panettiere who happens to be indestructible as the aforementioned cheerleader to JJ Abrams fave Greg Grunberg as a telepathic, under-achieving L.A. cop. There are other great casting choices, including Stephen Carrington 2 himself, Jack Coleman as the mysterious and possibly very very evil Horned Rim Glasses aka Cheerleader's adoptive dad. Best of all is Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura, a comic book devotee and "salary man" from Japan who figures out what he is, seemingly befopre anyone else.

Whew!

Heroes has shown enough oomph in the ratings department for NBC to already have ordered a full season of 22 episodes, and the good folks over at the peacock network are giving those of you who have not yet discovered this gem to check it out for yourselves, as they re-broadcast the second, third and fourth episodes tonight from 8 to 11pm (7-10, Central/Mountain, I guess...check your local listings, etc.).

Why not air the pilot? Well, they don't have 4 hours to devote before Monday's new episode, but as luck would have it, you can download it for $1.99 on iTunes or read a synopsis of the pilot episode, "Genesis," here at TV.com. Clearly those of you in the Eastern time zones that don't have DVR's or iTunes will have to read the synopsis, but TV.com's coverage is pretty damn good.

So get to it, people!

Photos, top to bottom: Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura and Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet, aka The Cheerleader. Save her!
All Photos ©NBC Universal Inc.