Heroes Reborn somehow has taken the cheesiest, most painful parts of the old Heroes -- and kept them. But they forgot the comic book lettering (& are now using some god-awful lettering motion graphics which don't reference comics at all - & they suck)!!
The new show's first episode was like a really bad episode in Season 1 of Heroes -- which coincidentally, was what made the show fun: naivete, the silliness of earnest comic fandom, unknown, and a rapidly toggling mix of characters to keep you watching.
Spoiler Alert for Heroes Reborn:
Japan - video game bad-ass meets video-game heroine who lives inside & outside of a game.
East LA - grizzled war hero alcoholic returns home to his Catholic Mexican family, discovering his "do gooder' brother is a masked super hero. Then his brother is killed, prompting the soldier to carry on his legacy.
Teleporter kid - a young kid has a power that he doesnt understand, and also is going thru puberty. Ugh.
Noah Bennett - continuing onwards as the underlying story (which I wish had died back in season 1), Agent Bennett discovers his mind was wiped (by his choice) and is trying to rediscover his past. He leaves his fiance, w/o barely a glance back, & begins a spy-style mission to get to the truth. Somehow the horrible event of 2/16, where Evos tried to 'come out' & were instead killed (by a bomb?), has some secret behind it. He finds this out by catching a 'Truther" stalker.
Randoms - Mohinder Suresh is lurking around, there are 2 odd Evo killing vigilantes, and a fat guy w/a briefcase full of pennies & mental powers.
Critique -- This show's core problem is bad writing. In certain ways, its the same flaw of the first -- overly ambitious story, flat characters, unbelievable scenarios, horrible dialogue. "Claire Bear" and over-used Syler & Peter were enough to make me nauseous by the end of old Heroes.
But I guess that was also the old show's strength as well: overly ambitious story, flat characters, unbelievable scenarios, horrible dialogue. Is this the 'comic book' emulation? No, Marvel has figured it out much better.
Its hard to think back on Heroes & not have regrets at watching all those really campy, bad shows. But Heroes was one of those shows that started so strong with tons of potential -- and the first season felt like a win for comic lovers, while the rest felt like betrayals (like Star Wars, in some ways: 1 great, 2 ok or good (yet flawed), followed years later by 3 atrocious films).
Not sure I will give Heroes Reborn a chance after Episode 1 -- but clearly there are others who will.
