DVD
Heroes
Season 1 - Part 1

Starring: Sendhil Ramamurthy, Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, Greg Grunberg, Santiago Cabrera and Masi Oka
Universal Pictures UK
RRP: £34.99
8250872
Certificate: 15
Available 01 October 2007


Experience the suspense, mystery, and electrifying twists as this series follows seemingly unconnected, ordinary people around the globe who discover they have extraordinary powers. As they come to terms with their unique abilities, their risky decisions will affect the futures of everyone around them... and the world...

Heroes was an almost overnight success and it's not hard to see why. The show follows a group of normal people from around the world who suddenly discover that they've got unusual super powers. None of these powers are duplicated amongst those that have them. Some of the powers are welcomed by their owners, but not all of them.

As the series progresses, we discover that there are more and more people showing signs of these powers and it becomes apparent that each of them has, somewhere on their person, one of two distinct marks. What can these marks mean? Do they belong to two different groups? Is Armageddon about to be fought on earth?

As the first few episodes unfold we are introduced to the show's main characters, although as the show's creator, Tim Kring, has stated many times, don't get used to this line up as not all of the characters we are introduced to will stay as regulars throughout the show's run. These characters include:

Mohinder Suresh: An Indian genetics professor who travels to New York in a bid to complete his father's research and uncover the secret he died protecting. Suresh has no powers.

Peter Petrelli: A young male nurse desperate to convince his politician brother, Nathan Petrelli that he can fly. Peter is convinced that saving a young cheerleader is the key to preventing his nightmares becoming reality.

Claire Bennet: A high school cheerleader who discovers she is completely indestructible and has an adoptive father who is being very secretive about his job at the mysterious 'Prima Tech Paper Company'.

Niki Sanders: A Las Vegas stripper struggling to make ends meet to support her young son Micah and who is troubled by her reflection in the mirror, which has a mind of its own and holds a dark secret.

Matt Parkman: A Los Angeles cop who realises he can hear people's thoughts. This puts him on the trail of an elusive serial killer named Sylar but also makes him a prime suspect in the murder case.

Isaac Mendez: A gifted artist whose drug induced paintings, predict the future. This includes nightmare visions of the brutal murder of a cheerleader, a flying man, and the obliteration of New York City.

Hiro Nakamura: A computer programmer from Tokyo, who finds himself able to teleport and manipulate the space-time continuum. Joined by his best friend Ando Masahashi their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world...

Extras are incredibly poor. This is a brand new series, so the producers have no excuse for not bringing value added content. What we get are the unaired pilot (which is not really that different from the finished show - there are a couple of terrorist plot threads which were dropped; Greg Grunberg's Matt Parkman is introduced a lot earlier; Sylar is revealed; and Isaac loses his hand); deleted scenes; Making of featurette (10 mins) and Special Effects featurette (9 mins). The unaired pilot comes with optional audio commentary with Kring.

While the episodes themselves are worthy of a finished mark of 10/10, the fact that Universal Pictures are blatantly trying to squeeze as much cash out of fans of the show as is possible is almost criminal. When the second half of this collection is available later in the year the entire season will have set you back £70 for a season box set?!!?

The Region 1 DVD, which is already available in America, contains the entire first season for $60 (around £30) and you get the exact same extras. In this day and age, where almost everyone owns a multi-region DVD player you've got to ask yourself why UK consumers are having to pay more for only half the content of our American cousins.

Universal have also tried to make it look like fans are getting value for money by spreading this over four discs, when three would have easily been enough in fact they may just have squeezed onto two (CSI managed to fit six episodes on one disc recently - CSI: New York: Season 3 - Part 1 if you want to check).

Personally I'd wait until later in the year (or if you can't wait - and this won't make me popular with the UK arm of Universal - I'd seriously consider purchasing the Region 1 edition). Or, if you can wait until December 2007, you can pre-order the Region 2 entire Season One box set from Amazon in the UK for £42 (RRP: £59.99).

Darren Rea

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£26.24 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
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£26.99 (Play.com)
   
£26.99 (HMV.co.uk)
   
£24.73 (Asda.co.uk)
   
£24.73 (Thehut.com)

All prices correct at time of going to press.