Heroes: Season 3 [DVD]

HEROES and LOST are the 2 more ambitious grand scale Sci-Fi series on today's TV. They both have in common stunning visuals spiked by well executed special effects, relentless action, a lot of it brutal and violent, intriguing story lines occasionally hinting critically at today's social and political realities (government-sponsored torture, the erosion of liberties, the roles played by large and secretive transnational corporations), large casts of great actors and the promise of getting at some core secret that would explain 'everything' but which is always elusive.Of the two, HEROES seemed to be on the verge of self-dissolution last year, following a promising Season One. I am happy to see the series back on track with a vengeance on Season Three.- CONTENTHEROES Third season easily tops the first two seasons as the core that survived the frantic struggles of Seasons One and Two understand that 'normal life' is not possible for those blessed or cursed with super powers, not when a government that's jealously trying to maintain its own monopoly on violence is after them and not when there are so many opportunities to 'save the world'. The plot slowly shifts focus from the first 2 seasons' "HEROES vs. the Company" to their constant running and hiding from a secret branch of 'Homeland Security' determined to wipe them out but not before doing a little torture and experimentation on them. Not that what we would politically correctly call 'people with abilities' are all angels. Most of them are not and the struggle continues between the good and the evil ones where the good ones sometimes turn evil and some of the evil ones turn 'good', permanently or only for an episode or two but, interestingly, the old 'company' staff seems to be taking sides between the government and the HEROES and a lot of the plot is driven by their shifting loyalties and what appear to be their own personal agendas.I hope I will be forgiven but I really don't wish to give away any of the plot's twists and turns because... this season's HEROES is THAT good. It's also possible that most have already watched many or all the episodes on TV and already have an opinion on what HEROES 3 was about. It's probably a lot more productive to discuss the Blu-ray edition which I shall.My conclusion on 'content' - following the somewhat disappointed 'amputated' Season Two, this Season is a true treat.- PACKAGINGTo my surprise, after being spoiled by some other very tightly packed seasons, this Blu-ray box is quite large. While the 25 episodes where squeezed on only 5 disks, the box is thicker than I expected. On the positive side, the disks seem to be held securely in place by a new and innovative locking mechanism.There isn't anything other than the disks in the box but brief summaries for each of the 25 episodes can be found on both the back side and on the interior wall that does not hold disks. The folding carton that holds the disks slides inside a cardboard sleeve.- PICTURE AND SOUNDAs expected, it's 1080p video, 16:9 or 1.78:1 - meaning 'full screen' on an HD TV set, no top and bottom bands. Some of the extra features may be in lower resolutions.The Sound is DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with English Dolby Digital 2.0 on the features.- PRESENTATION AND PLAYThe episodes, about 42 minutes each, run for close to 18 hours.The menu is relatively well designed but it's not perfect. The 'Play' option will play all episodes on a specific disk but, at least on my PS3, it could not resume play once interrupted. It was not possible to do a 'play all but start from the second episode'. To do so, one would start with 'Play', then fast forward or press the chapter skip button to reach the desired start point. Or episodes could be played individually. Individual episodes are not broken into 'scenes' in the menu.During play, one can take advance of U-Control which can be turned on or off by pressing one of the colored buttons. During playback, Picture in Picture provides cast and crew commentaries. I found this distracting and I was glad to see that it's possible to play the same commentaries separately from the menu. The other U-Control enhancement is the availability of Hero Connections 'post it' like notes that pop on the screen and provide some information about a specific character that's meaningful within the context of the scene that's playing at the time. Each disk allows for the viewing of the updated Connections network separately from playback.BD-Live allows for the downloading of a Season 4 preview and, being 'live', it's possible that more features may become available in time.One annoying defect, at least on a PS3 is the playback becoming unresponsive once the Universal screen saver kicks in. After that, it's impossible to resume watching - pressing play/pause/fast-forward would return 'this feature is not available at this time' and pressing STOP would get me out of the movie and force me to reload the disk.- SPECIAL FEATURESThey are quite few and thin for this season and many are bad enough to almost cross into the 'unwatchable' territory. After being spoiled with treats such as the story/legend of Takezo Kensei on Season 2, this season's disappoint. There are the obligatory 'behind the scenes' interviews but there is very little as far as 'creative content' is concerned. The short Pinehearst Commercial reminded me of the similar feature we watched while waiting to enter the Terminator 3-D show at the Universal Studios park in Florida and the Alternate Stories features are so bad, one wonders how they made it even as 'extra' features. Same for the Deleted Scenes - clearly, they were deleted for a good reason and watching them proves the director's wisdom not to include them.- RATINGCONTENT - 5 StarsPACKAGING - 4 Stars (could have been thinner)PICTURE - 5 StarsSOUND - 5 StarsPRESENTATION AND PLAYBACK - 3.5 StarsSPECIAL FEATURES - 2 Stars (big disappointment)OVERALL (subjectively weighted average) - 4 Stars

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season 2, but no major season three giveaways+++The third season of Heroes returns the show to a full season after the writer's strike ended the mess that was season 2 early. The season is split into two volumes, one titled Villians and the other titled Fugitives. The first half of the season involves the fallout from the assassination attempt on Nathan. We find out who tried to kill him, and why, and much of the first half of the season revolves around that plot. The other major plot point of the first half of the season is a bunch of villains escaping from the company, and joining up to try and give everyone powers. The second half of the season involves a government effort, spearheaded by Nathan to round up people with powers.For those who get the Blu-Ray set, there are a ton of extras. All 25 episodes get picture-in-picture commentary tracks that have members of the production team and/or members of the cast providing the commentary. There are just under 40-minutes of deleted scenes, and six behind-the-scenes featurettes that cover multiple elements of the season, and range from 6-minutes to 20-minutes in length. Finally, there are a series of alternate stories that involve some of the more minor characters from the season. They are basically three webisodes that run a combined 46 minutes in length. Then there are character bios and a couple of small promo items. So, if you like bonus material, there is a lot there for you.As my headline says, the season is better than the second but not as good as the first. Some of the new cast additions like Brea Grant and Željko Ivanek were great. Some of the plot points like Sylar trying to figure out if he wanted to be a good guy or a bad guy did get a bit tedious. Also, there are definitely recycled plot points that just get eye roll-inducing because of being a bit too predictable. Personally, I think the show would have been better served to stick with one "big bad" that must be brought down rather than trying to reboot the series with each volume. So, overall, while it is not perfect, I do think the season is worth watching and the blu-ray is a great pick-up for those who love a lot of bonus content.

シーズン２が脚本家組合のストで短かった為か、今シーズンはかなり気合が入ってます。とにかく凄い。面白いんです。　　特筆すべきはシーズン１，２とのリンクが随所に見られる点、そしてそれが見る側を驚愕させ、感動させてくれます。まずは悪党たちと銘打たれたストーリーがシーズンの半分を占めます。このドラマの悪党といえばパワーを奪うために能力者を惨殺するあの男。と言いたい所ですが・・・、まあ見てください。そしてその後には、あの男と能力者たちとの戦い。それではシーズン１と同じなんですが、そこに新たな登場人物が援護につきます。悪いほうに。 そして唖然とするシーズンエンド。どうなるのよシーズン４は・・・という終わり方。ある能力者が死に、ある能力者が生き残る。そしてそれはその逆をも意味するという・・・・とにかくどういうことかは観てのお楽しみ。　　吹き替えよりもマシオカとカイソンリーの、でこぼこコンビのつたない日本語のほうが私は好きなので、こちらの輸入版を購入。今回もとても笑えました。加えてアクション、CG、そしてホラー要素にも磨きがかかり、物語は進んでいきます。　　　ちなみにこの作品をご覧になったことが無い方は決してこのシーズンから観ることのないようお願いします。なにぶん登場人物が多いもので辟易してしまうこと間違いなし。

I loved Heroes from the moment it aired and have been a regular watcher of the show since. I loved the depth that they brought to the characters, and I felt really 'in tune' with them...as in I cared what happened to them and what they were up to. The plot was also very creative and flowed brilliantly with little to no fillers, and even if it was a filler it served a purpose.I lost interest in season 2; the plot had gone downhill a LOT because of the writers strike and the plot was focussing too much on stupid sub-characters rather than the main ones. This basically amounted up to possibly 4 different stories going on in one episode which was enough to make your brain go *poof* and tune out. It was still enjoyable, but I was likely to turn off in a filler episode. None of the characters really developed...that is why it wasn't great, apart from maybe Mohinder.Season 3 is split into two halves, Villains and Fugitives. I know a lot of people debate over which half is their favourite and I have to say the second half Fugitives is my favourite. The season starts off pretty docile and slow, keeping up a sort of constant fillerish feel and the new 'villains' that are introduced are not looked at deeply...they're just who they are xDYou see a lot about Sylar's back story in season 3. That is one thing I liked about season 3; while Sylar's 'parent' issues become increasingly irritating it is still nice to see his backstory in greater detail that shows how he got to be a killer and I find him the most interesting character in the series, especially towards the end of 'Fugitives'. I think Zachary Quinto does a great job of keeping his character alive no matter what awful piece of the script he's given is xD In my opinion season 3 has been a 'Sylar season', not much work done on other characters. Annoying thing is that he can't make up his mind on what side he's on! He probably goes from good to evil about 4 times or something during the season! =.=beganClaire and Peter got on my nerves a great deal; Claire because of her constant whining about pretty much everything and seems to always be in debate with herself about whether or not she can trust her father =.= same old same old. I don't really feel like Peter played a big enough prt in the season, he seemed mostly demoted to a side-character. Mohinder also gets increasingly absent from the storyline whereas he was incredibly important in season 1. The rest of the characters are good, but Hiro gets very same old same old; I miss season 1, innocent Hiro =(, and Nathan seems like more of an idiot than normal =.= Angela is as manipulating as ever, and most of the guest stars from season 2 are dead...thank God! ^^All in all I still enjoyed season 3, loved it towards the end when things really picking up momentum, but warn people that you must be patient for the first half of the season, as it starts quite slowly. =)

There is a pattern to a number of TV dramas. They start off with some great ideas, and give us a super first season. Maybe they still have some good ideas, and the second season is as good, or better. Then the rot set in.The basic problem is that they are making too much money to stop, but the ideas have stopped flowing. And that's when they start jerking our chains.What are the symptoms of this? Well, the main one is that they make us question what we've been told. They make good guys into bad guys and vice versa, and keep swapping them around. They go back and rewrite what happened in the past. They over-complicate stories, thinking that they are delving deeper and deeper but in reality just going round and round in ever-decreasing circles. They probably think that they are being terribly clever but they aren't, because they don't actually know where they are going or how to get there.This phenomenon has come to Heroes in its third season with a vengeance. Part of this season is subtitled "Villains", but the whole premise of this season is that - apart from a few people who you know are good (Clare, Matt, Hiro...), everyone's loyalties, causes and essential goodness is brought into question. Is Sylar still bad, or has he turned? Is Peter now the bad guy? How about Nathan? Who are Clare's real parents? We don't know, and the writers keep making us jump from one side to the other.Another symptom of this malaise is invulnerability, and I complained of this in my review of another show which went through this process (Alias - and Lost is another classic example). Characters keep getting riddled with bullets (or otherwise injured beyond the point of survivability), and miraculously come back to life. OK, in Heroes they had a reason for one of the characters, who had this ability - that's fine. But then they do the same with lots of other characters, through various means. It's a fake way of creating tension without expending your assets - and, crucially, without having to think of a smarter way to develop the story. What the TV executives don't seem to understand is that after a while, this means that we can't trust anything they tell us ("trust" within the context of accepting the story that they are creating), and therefore we stop caring.The acting, production, stunts etc are still excellent, which is why I've reluctantly still given this season three stars. But I still rather wish they'd stopped after the second season (or even the first), and started afresh. I doubt whether I'll be getting season 4.

(VERY MINOR SPOILERS)Heroes has received a mixed bag reviews on Amazon. Many found that seasons 2 and 3 were quite disappointing, as to a lot of fans, they did not match the pure gold quality of Season 1.I can see why people did not enjoy Season 2 so much as it was badly affected by the writers strike at the time. However, to me, Season 3 delivers.The action kicks off right where Season 2 left off, so it feels like we never left the story and there are no time gaps to fill with catch ups or flashbacks...at least, not at the start of the season.Volume 3, Villains adds a greater dimension of peril to the story, as now many other dangerous Heroes are put into play. Although some of these characters are bland and not that interesting, it does add a bit of flavour with these brand new threats, (in addition to Sylar who is also back on the rampage.)With so many characters, the plot may seem slightly confusing at times but if you persevere, everything begins to even out into a more balanced Volume 4.The actors all continue to play there parts well with some characters receiving greater portions of the script than in previous seasons. Certain characters, (Maya for example) are slowly faded out of the story, whereas other like Sandra Bennet have bigger parts to play, especially in Volume 4: Fugitives.Once again though, Zachary Quinto,(Sylar) delivers the most outstanding performance.To conclude, Heroes is definitely back on track after the inhibited second season. Although the story is slightly cluttered in places, it makes for highly enjoyable entertainment and I, for one, am looking forward to Season 4 on DVD.

This third season of the `Heroes' series is something of a show of two halves. The first half of the series, the `Villains' storyline, is about the attempt to create artificial powers is very interesting and in my view is as good as anything from the first two seasons. The second half of the season though, `Fugitives', sees the government getting involved in the hunt for people with abilities and while still good the main plot isn't really up to much and it is the various subplots that kept my interest with the series. It is, however, the final few episodes in this season that cause it to lose a star as they are quite poor and seem a bit unfocused and lacklustre.This season sees some interesting new characters join the cast, such as Tracy Strauss and Daphne, but it is the established that are still the best part of the show, especially Sylar, Noah Bennet and Angela Petrelli who are all really good this season. The special effects for this season were generally quite good, although there were a few failures here and there. There are also a few retcons in this season but they are generally minor things and aren't all that annoying.Overall this third season of Heroes was, despite a few missed steps, still very enjoyable and well forth a solid four stars.