GregHowley.com

I think I've found a new favorite show on television. Granted, I still love The 4400, and it still holds the #1 slot in my mind, but Battlestar Galactica isn't grabbing me as much this season. The show I'm currently loving most is Heroes.

The show started good and got better. True, it's not as realistic as The 4400 or as gritty as Battlestar Galactica, but for a show like this you've got to suspend disbelief a bit and just enjoy it.

The show focuses on the lives of eight different people who are slowly discovering that they have superhuman ablilities. Until this most recent show, none of them have actually met each other, although there have been many subtle interconnections, a la Lost. This article will serve as a primer on the show's characters for people who haven't been following it, and it will include some big spoilers.

Mohinder Suresh seems to be the central character of the show. He is a genetics professor in a university in India who comes to the United States to bury his father, who was also a famous geneticist. He soon comes to believe that his father was murdered to stop him from pursuing his genetics research into people with superhuman powers.

Claire Bennet is a high school cheerleader whose wounds heal instantly. From the beginning of the show, she's been attempting suicide, and maiming herself constantly. In fact, as of episode four, she has died in every episode.

Early on, we learn that Claire's father is a nefarious figure who's been following Mohinder Suresh, and whom Suresh believes may be responsible for his father's murder. We also learn that he knows about his daughter's abilities, although Claire still believes that her classmate Zach is the only one who knows.

Claire, like a few other characters in this show, really has the potential to turn bad. In the most recent episode she apparently killed a boy who had raped and murdered her, then stripped her body and threw her in a river. Granted, the guy had it coming, but murder isn't generally something we'd expect out of a heroic figure.

Matt Parkman is an officer in the LAPD who's been trying to get into the FBI, but just can't pass the tests. But at a crime scene, he hears a girl's voice in his head which leads him to the hiding victim. His inexplicable knowledge of her location leads to his arrest, but soon he proves to the arresting officer than he can read peoples' minds, and is invited to work with the FBI. But soon after, while reading the thoughts of random people in a bar, he is mysteriously rendered unconscious after failing to read the thoughts of one particular man. Matt then awakes strapped to a table in the presence of this man, who appears to be a crony of... Claire's father.

Isaac Mendez is a heroin-addicted artist living in a Manhattan loft. And recently, he has begun painting the future while in drug-induced trances. Afterwards, he can remember nothing about the painting process. But most disturbingly, he has painting a picture of New York being destroyed amidst a gigantic mushroom cloud. This is obviously one of the central plot points, and I'd guess that it's going to be a season finale moment.

Peter Petrelli is a nurse who Simone brings to Isaac's home to help him after he overdoses on heroin. However, Simone and Isaac later get into a fight over Isaac's drug habit, and Peter ends up in bed with Simone, fulfilling the prophetic image Isaac sketched weeks ago.

Peter has been fascinated for weeks with the notion that he could fly. He's had incredibly vivid dreams to that effect, and has only discussed these dreams with his politician brother Nathan. But Nathan is an ass, and has been anything but supportive. Peter's fascination with flight has continued to the point where he actually jumps from a skyscraper, and begins plummeting to his death. Shockingly, Nathan flies up and saves him. Later, during an argument between the two, Peter finds himself hovering a couple feet above the ground, but finds that he can only do it when Nathan is there. Between this and a stick figure sketch Peter made earlier, I belive that Peter can actually emulate the powers of other superhero-types who are nearby.

Nathan Petrelli, on the other hand, can indeed fly but chooses not to. After all, such scandalous sensationalism would make him a freak and ruin any chances of him being elected to the House of Representatives.

Hiro Nakamura is easily my favorite character on the show, partially because he's the comic relief, but mainly because he's a huge geek. Hiro is a bored office worker in Tokyo who manages to make the second hand on the clock in his cubicle go backwards one second, and soon learns that he can manipulate space and time when he teleports to New York City. Unknown to him, he has also travelled five weeks into the future. He sees a comic book penned by Isaac Mendez that chronicles Hiro's teleportation to New York. Of course, this is Isaac once again painting the future. Intrigued, Hiro travels to Isaac's loft where he find's Isaac dead, with the upper half of his skull removed and his brain missing. The police show up and arrest Hiro, and that is when they all look out the loft windows to see a titanic explosion rushing towards them. Hiro scrunches his face up in concentration and teleports back to Tokyo, back five weeks. Now he too knows about the disaster that will occur in New York.

Hiro and his friend Ando Masahashi travel to the U.S. to save New York, and are currently in Las Vegas at the same time as Nathan Petrelli, who is there trying to raise funds for his political campaign.

Niki Sanders is a single monther trying to support her only child by selling videos of herself stripping on the internet. When the mob corners her for not paying back the money she's borrowed from them, she loses consciousness, and when she awakes she finds both men brutally slain. It seems that Niki, who is essentially a good person, has a split personality. And her evil twin is superpowered.

In the most recent episode, the mob catches up with Niki and sends her to Vegas to sleep with a politician as a way to repay her debt. The politician is - of course - Nathan Petrelli. Niki decides not to sleep with him after learning that he's got a wife and kids, but then her evil twin takes over and the two end up going through with it anyway. The episode ends with Claire's father and his mysterious crony standing over the two. Looks like Nathan Petrelli is about to be kidnapped by the same folks who took Matt Parkman.

I'm definately hooked on this show. In the most recent episode, a version of Hiro from the future appeared to deliver a warning to Peter Petrelli. Hiro was decked out all in black, carrying a katana and sporting a soul patch and ponytail. He also spoke English with almost no accent. Quite the change.

I've recently discovered that NBC is hosting Hiro Nakamura's blog, which is interesting. They've also got online graphic novels - one for each episode currently out, which means that right now there are four. Each one centers on a specific character. You can click on the following images to view these.