TVSquad

Poor Heroes. After a phenomenal first year, it was one of the most highly-anticipated returning shows last season. However, not only was it claimed by the dreaded sophomore slump, but its season got cut short by the writers' strike, leaving us with eleven kind of awkward episodes.

While season one was about ordinary people discovering that they have extraordinary abilities, much of season two was about these people trying to return to their ordinary lives with the knowledge of what they, and others, can do. The problem that Heroes ran into in the second season was its split focus. You have the original heroes dealing with the aftermath of the first season, highlighted by Nathan Petrelli dealing with the gopher attached to his face, while at the same time you're delving into the story of the previous generation that is being quickly killed off, not to mention the addition of new characters.

When I received the season two DVDs, I was curious to see if producers went the extra mile to make up for a lackluster season, or if the DVD set is as disjointed as the season itself.

The Heroes season two DVDs retail for $39.98, with Blu-Ray coming in at a hefty $69.98. However, you can find both on Amazon for a significantly lower price. The packaging has a freaky mirrored/3-D effect, which is pretty cool, but the inside is just a standard fold-out disc holder--the kind that you unfold and a disc invariably falls out into your lap. It features some of the comic book illustrations from the show and the episode list for each disc. All in all, it's pretty standard TV on DVD packaging.

Each disc on the four disc set has its own set of special features. Disc One has a behind-the-scenes, but mainly promotional documentary that consists of cast members telling you what's in store for season two. There are mildly interesting deleted scenes as well as commentary tracks featuring Tim Kring, Greg Grunberg, Jack Coleman and others.

The features on the second disc are much more creative. You still have the deleted scenes (there's an adorable Cyrano-inspired one between Hiro and Kensei's princess) and the commentaries, but this disc goes beyond standard DVD extras and gives you two documentaries. The first one is a National Geographic Channel-style documentary called Tekezo Kensei: Sword Saint. It's produced by The Yamagato Fellowship, a company started by Hiro's father, Kaito Nakamura. Its a surprisingly in-depth five-part series explaining the legend of Kensei. It features mock interviews as well as gorgeous artwork and computer animation.

There's also a two-part news magazine-style investigation into the life of Richard Drucker, a reclusive figure known to many as "The Godfather of the Internet." This apparently ties in with the Heroes graphic novels and is interesting in that it adds a new layer to the mythology of the show. The production values on this piece aren't as high (everything is awkwardly shot on obvious green screens) but it's short and worth a viewing.

The third disc is a bit of a letdown after the second, but is still effective in showcasing different aspects of making Heroes. In addition to the audio commentaries in which we learn that Kristen Bell used to babysit for Hayden Panettiere, and deleted scenes that include a great one chronicling Nathan's rehab, there's another feature called "Genetics of a Scene." In it, a producer/director takes us inside a scene and shows how it went from storyboard to screen. Scenes featured are the sword fight in Feudal Japan from episode two, Maya & Alejandro's introduction from the season premiere, and Kristen Bell saving the day in the season finale. The most interesting one, however, is watching all of the wire work that went into the Peter/Nathan explosion scene from the first season finale.

The fourth disc is filled with spoilers, so if you haven't seen season two yet or if you don't want to know about any alternate endings, stop reading now and just take my word for it: the fourth disc is awesome.

The fourth disc is really where you get your money's worth. The main focus of it is "what could have been." It features an alternate ending for the season finale and answers the question, "what would have happened if Peter hadn't caught the vial?" Not only do we see the alternate ending, but they go behind the scenes and show us storyboards and discuss how the season would have proceeded had the virus been released and Odessa been quarantined.

As you probably know, Heroes' second season was cut short after 11 episodes due to the writers' strike. What I didn't know was that when the strike was announced, they were in the middle of writing and shooting episodes 12 and 13. Another one of the disc 4 features shows a handful of scenes that they had already filmed for those episodes. In it, you see Sylar trying to regain his powers in his special murder-y way, with Elle hot on his trail. HRG continues to get Elle to see the truth about her father, while we also see how Hiro is dealing with the aftermath of Adam/Kensei's betrayal.

The disc also features a (highly uninformative) look at season three, commentaries, NBC.com featurettes and a Tim Sale gallery of screen art, all of which are worth a viewing.

I became a huge fan of Heroes in season one, but like many, was disappointed in its sophomore effort. Watching the season two DVD set didn't really make me change my mind about the 11 episodes we saw, but it made me more excited about season three. The alternate ending for episode 11, which would have had the virus being released, looks like a fascinating storyline to take us through the last half of the season. Season two started to get good towards the end, and the look we get on the DVD set of what was to come makes it seem as though it was only going to get better.

Given that there are half the number of episodes on it, the season two DVDs are about half the price of season one. The bonus features, while they started off a little slow, quickly make the set worth purchasing. I highly recommend this for Heroes fans, whether you were in love with season two or not. Either way, it's going to get you excited for season three.