TV-Reviewed

It’s the 1^st episode for a brand new show. It shares the same fate as all the others, if you don’t impress you’ll be out before Christmas. Luckily this show has impressed, at least me anyway, for the first 60 minutes of its existence. It’s a show about humans with special abilities and how they are going to use them. It sounds like something for the sci-fi channel or a marvel comic book series, not something you would see on NBC. Nevertheless it is worth a watch.

The series opens with Mohinder Suresh, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy, receiving some very bad news. His father took the long dirt nap courtesy of an unknown killer. His father was into some pretty heavy and ridiculous research while he was a scientist in his own country. Mohinder followed in his footsteps and believes this is the reason he was killed. Mohinder travels to the big apple to find out who killed his father and why. When he walks into his apartment, he notices that his father didn’t live very well. He overheard an intruder that looked like he could be a librarian in the home. Mohinder quickly escapes without being noticed. He will encounter this man again at his new job. The only job he could get for a man of his integrity, a cab driver!

Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh

Meanwhile, in the same town, a male nurse named Peter Petrelli, played by Milo Ventimiglia, is taking care of an old, dying man. They seem to respect one another and the old man enjoys his presence. He has a crush on his daughter who happens to be involved with another man [more on him later] but it looks like that won’t be enough to stop his innocent advances. He also has dreams about flying with his brother Nathan, played by Adrian Pasdar. His brother is a politician running for office. We first see him when he goes to Peter to give him some disturbing news. Their mother is a klepto! I believe she did that for attention. She doesn’t seem like a woman that would steal, so it made me curious. Why would she steal when she knows that her son is running for office? Something isn’t right there.

Nathan and Peter has the usually big brother little brother problems. Nathan is more successful and Peter is just average. They go back and forth with this for most of the episode until Peter notices something about himself. He believes he can fly! His brother thinks he’s nuts and tries to disprove his theory. Peter becomes hard headed and goes to extremes to prove his point. Peter jumps off of a building purposely attempting to fly.  On his way down, Peter finally starts to believe that he may be wrong and starts to panic. No need to worry because Nathan breaks his silence and flies up to save his brother! Peter is astonished to see that his brother can fly too and gets mildly excited. Too bad his brother doesn’t have a firm grip. Peter slips from his hands and begins to fall to the ground. It is unclear whether or not he survived but since it is the first episode, I’ll bet he will live. This storyline was put together very well and I’m interested to see what will happen with these two characters.

Down in Las Vegas, a woman named Niki Sanders, played by Ali Larter, is having some serious trouble. She is a single mom with a baby daddy in prison, She can’t afford to pay her son’s school tuition, she strips for perverted men over the Internet in her own home, and she is a little off. Oh, and did I mention that she has a mobster hunting her down for money that she doesn’t have? This girl is a front runner for mother of the year, barely in front of Britney Spears! They catch up to her at her home and lays the smackdown on her but something really strange happened. She ended up ripping them apart! She doesn’t remember it though and she believes that it was her split personality that did it. This girl is all screwed up. I’m very interested in where her character is heading because it looks as though it won’t be a happy place.

Over in Japan, a man named Hiro Nakamura, played by Masi Oka, believes he can stop time. His friend Ando (or Andy, as I call him), played by James Kyson Lee, thinks he’s crazy and that he should concentrate on his work, even though Andy watches Niki on her website any chance he can get. Hiro claims that he is going to save the world some day and that he will be a great hero. Andy laughs at him and doesn’t take him serious. He takes him to a bar to help him clear his mind. On the train ride home, Hiro sees a sign advertising New York City. Hiro wants to go there and in a blink of an eye he is standing in the middle of time square! Hiro and Andy seem like the G rated Cheech and Chong. They have great chemistry with one another making their plot even more enjoyable.

Jack Coleman as H.R.G.

Over in Texas, a teenage girl by the name of Claire, played by Hayden Panttiere, has a very unique ability. She can regenerate any injury no matter how serious in a matter of seconds. That’s pretty cool! She has a friend that video tapes her every bone crushing experiment. It seems that Claire wasn’t always a good girl. It doesn’t surprise me since she is a cheerleader. Claire does put her powers to good use by pulling a man out of a fire. She doesn’t stick around to take the glory. She runs away as soon as she realizes the guy is safe. Claire has that normal middle class family. She has a brother, a mother, a little dog, and a father that stalks people in New York City! Who is this guy? Let’s hope we find out soon.

Back in New York, a painter by the name of Issac Mendez played by Santiago Cabrera, can paint the future when he is high. He has a girlfriend by the name of Simone Deaveaux, played by Tawny Cypress, who cares about him but can’t deal with his drug problem. She doesn’t believe he can paint the future either which really puts a strain on their relationship. Issac overdoses on his stash and she enlists Peter for help. He attends to Issac after she calls the police. It looks like he is going to get some brownie points with Simone after all

This show kept me entertained from beginning to end. I enjoyed all the storylines and the plot twists. Everyone was on the same page and it never lost its flow. I hope the whole season is like this because if it is I believe it’s going to be a hit!

Rating: 10