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Review: NBC's 'Heroes: Reborn' did not need a resurrection

In 2006, Heroes premiered on NBC with a tight first season. We met characters from all over the globe who were becoming aware that they possessed extraordinary powers. Like comic book superheroes, each had a special talent, from time travel to flight to cellular regeneration.

In 2006, Heroes premiered on NBC with a tight first season. We met characters from all over the globe who were becoming aware that they possessed extraordinary powers. Like comic book superheroes, each had a special talent, from time travel to flight to cellular regeneration.

The first season was good fun, even if it had its flaws. That first entry, unfortunately, begot second, third, and fourth seasons that expanded the world with too many characters and muddled up the central mystery that had kept the first season so thrilling.

The flaws got bigger. The excitement of characters discovering their powers was gone, leaving a deficit for the audience, as well. The holes in the story got bigger. It was a great concept that could not deliver.

The failures of the following seasons have not stopped NBC and creator Tim Kring from reuniting for Heroes: Reborn, a mini-series sequel to the events of the previous years that debuts at 8 p.m. Thursday on NBC with a two-hour premiere.

The events of Reborn begin several years after the end of the first series. Noah Bennett, aka HRG (Jack Coleman), is attempting to reconcile with his daughter, the regenerating cheerleader Claire, (Hayden Panettiere, now employed over on ABC's Nashville, stuck in many of the same holding patterns of the original Heroes). He wants to reunite at a summit between normals and evos (the people with superpowers). But an attack on the summit sends the heroes into hiding.

Cut to a year later, and we meet some of those closeted evos, but none of them contain the spark and novelty of that first season, where Claire repeatedly (and giddily) tried to physically harm herself because she knew she would survive. For the most part, these evos are already fully formed.

The villain of sorts, aside from an overarching conspiracy, is played by Zachary Levi, formerly of Chuck, who trades his sweet-boy nerdiness for some fatherly angst he's totally unsuited for.

Other characters from the first iteration of the show are set to return, among them Greg Grunberg as telepathic cop Matthew Parkman (did anyone really miss him?) and Masi Oka's time-traveling Hiro (a favorite of the first series).

The mini-series' subtitle, Reborn, connotes some kind of change, as though to assure those among us that the mistakes of the past could be corrected. But it's a misnomer. The newest aspect of Heroes: Reborn is that there are no new characters, only the same inertia that plagued the first go-round for Heroes. The superfans will be pleased if only because it's comforting to see long-gone characters return to continue their story lines, but everyone else will be confused as to why Heroes was resurrected in the first place.

meichel@phillynews.com

215-854-5909

@mollyeichel

TV REVIEW

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Heroes: Reborn

Premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday on NBC10.EndText