“Heroes: Reborn” should’ve stayed dead

This useless reboot tells you all you need to know about the state of broadcast network prime-time television

Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I?

Didn’t I tell you the new Heroes: Reborn would be a disaster?

I told you – right here in this space in February 2014 – about how bad an idea rebooting Heroes was. And it turns out I was right (don’t celebrate this fact, for the love of God.)

Yours truly was willing to give the show a second chance, and I did. Heroes: Reborn did drop on September 24 as advertised and as you would guessed, ratings aren’t impressive. After starting at a 2.0 Adults 18-49 rating, the series has plunged to a 1.1 – a nearly 50 percent drop. And the number is even lower than its ill-fated 2009-10 final season.

So what do we have so far… Evos – there are a lot of them. Then there are these multiple black guys who look like Arsenio Hall chasing these Evoses around, showing up in the most unexpected places – it’s like something from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Then there’s a Japanese girl who is trapped in a video game – reminds me of those stupid QuestWorld CGI sequences from 1996 flop The Real Adventures Of Johnny Quest, another reboot that never should have happened. And then there’s Mr. Bennett, who is looking for his daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere, who is not in this revival) who died and is looking for answers – with a gun of course. No one wants to see Bennett running around acting like he’s Jake Doyle from Republic Of Doyle, a Canadian series with far better acting and writing.

There are two Illinois kids on the show, but they’re useless since they can’t make Gov. Rauner or Mike Madigan permanently disappear. Oddly enough, one of them – who is a high school freshman – is Claire’s son. My, they grow up rapidly. He must’ve grown up in the time it takes to get from O’Hare Airport to the Clark/Lake station on the CTA Blue Line.

After watching eight episodes, it’s time to declare this show a failure, both ratings-wise and creatively. The bad acting, writing, and special effects are in Heroes: Reborn just as they were in the original series.

I’ll spare you any further thoughts – last year’s piece was sufficient enough. You can read it for my thoughts on Tim Kring and the show.

And NBC thought this was a good idea to bring this show back?

As long as the broadcast networks continue to employ dum-dums in the executive suites instead of innovative people, this is going to be the norm as broadcast primetime network TV continues its march to the afterlife.

Grade: D-.