---

Tim Kring (creator). NBC, US, 45 min.

---

Heroes, an interesting new science fiction superhero drama, is a bit like Lost or 24 – there is very little you can say about it that will not add up to a spoiler, which makes writing a review a tricky job. But the premise is simple: there are powers in the world, and we follow the stories of some of those who have them. The characters are varied enough in background and temperament that everyone will find someone to empathise with. If it has a potential flaw, it lies in its greatest strength. It has immense gravity, but if it does not follow through on that constant portentiousness it may come to be seen as a hollow shell, much as happened to The X-Files when the answers to some of its much-discussed mysteries gave every sign of having been thought up on the hoof – I’m thinking in particular of the dreadful, ultimate revelation that Mulder’s sister was abducted, not by aliens, but by fairies, to save her from a child abuser… Heroes is making a lot of big narrative promises, but so far it has kept them.

It does share two flaws with The X-Files – an inexplicable urge to rattle on irrelevantly about God, and a near-total lack of understanding of evolution. (Those flaws may be connected!)

But it also shares many strengths of the earlier programme – it is dark, scary, gripping, mysterious and very well made, and I doubt I will ever miss an episode. – WB

---

Originally published in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #14.

---