More spoilers! USAToday article
NBC's 'Heroes' delves into villains - USATODAY.com:
NBC's 'Heroes' delves into villains
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES - On Level 5, all hellions are breaking loose.
Heroes' villains, possessing extraordinary powers to rival the NBC drama's namesakes, are scurrying from cells in a concrete bunker, about to wreak havoc on society in a scene from Monday's two-hour, third-season premiere (9 ET/PT).
IN PHOTOS:
Check out a rogue's gallery of villains from 'Heroes'
As the escape scene indicates, the appropriately titled "Volume 3: Villains" moves immediately into action, answering a complaint that the hit series meandered in its second season.
"We built this volume around the idea of hitting the ground with a tremendous amount of pace and adrenaline," creator Tim Kring says.
"In the first night, we've leaned on a lot of things the show, I think, does very well. One is the action theme. Another is the idea of (being) scary, doing our version of a horror film. We wanted to let the audience know this is going to be a roller-coaster ride."
Fans shouldn't worry that new characters will pull the show away from the heroes who made it a phenomenon in its first season. All will be part of an umbrella story that will feature "some very unexpected pairings" of heroes who had had little to do with each other, Kring says.
NBC is putting a big promotional push behind Heroes, its most-watched entertainment show, but one that has been off the air nine months due to the writers' strike. The relaunch includes a red-carpet premiere party to be featured on a one-hour Heroes special preceding Monday's opener. (In shortened Season 2, Heroes averaged 13.1 million viewers, down 12% from its first year, though the drop was smaller among advertiser-coveted young adults. It had the fourth-highest rate of time-shifted viewing of any scripted show.)
The premiere picks up right after last season's attempted assassination of highflier Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar). As "Villains" opens, the re-empowered Sylar (Zachary Quinto) visits the Bennet home, hoping to collect Claire's (Hayden Panettiere) regenerative ability, and he stumbles on details of Level 5.
If that isn't enough, time-traveling Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), Nathan's younger brother, returns from the future to try to change the present, hoping to prevent the Earth's destruction.
The new season also will see tension emerging in the friendship of Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) and Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee). The drama still has its sense of humor, however, as exemplified by Hiro's attempt to undo an end-of-the-world formula he has let fall into the hands of a super-speedy thief, Daphne Millbrook (Brea Grant). His pursuit is "like Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner," Oka says.
In the mystery category, a woman named Tracy Strauss - a ringer for Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), who seemingly perished in last season's finale - appears.
Hidden family connections and conflicts will be exposed. Good vs. evil will be reflected in "a war of the Petrellis," says Cristine Rose, whose character, Nathan and Peter's ruthless mother, Angela, will have her power revealed in the premiere. "There's a revelation about her that you wouldn't dream to be true."
Any lingering matters from Season 2 will be resolved by the second week's episode, Kring says. And 90% of the questions raised in "Villains" will be answered during the 13-episode volume, which will be followed by a 12-episode Volume 4.
Complex characters
The internal battle between good and evil will challenge the heroes. Some may take wrong turns, thinking they're doing good when they aren't.
"There is the implication that some of our heroes can be villains and the implication that some of who we know to be villains might have some heroism in them as well," says Jack Coleman, who plays Noah Bennet (aka H.R.G. for the horn-rimmed glasses he wears), an on-again/off-again operative for The Company, a shadowy organization that operates Level 5.
The evil, unrelenting Sylar must make choices. "He finds himself in some unique positions. He's forced to employ qualities of restraint he's never been forced to employ before," says Quinto.
Peter, who has a special connection to one of the villains, will struggle with his identity. "Peter is not quite himself. His journey gets held up when he finds himself stuck in unfamiliar territory," Ventimiglia says.
And Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), the genetics professor studying the extraordinary people, faces the temptation of becoming a hero after he cracks the power formula. "I think it's great they're allowing the darker side of Mohinder, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde spin, to be explored," Ramamurthy says. "There are consequences to Mohinder's actions."
At Heroes' Hollywood set, sparks fly in the aftermath of a confrontation involving the head-scalping Sylar and the electrified Elle (Kristen Bell) in the Level 5 cellblock. "You can't open up a woman made of lightning and not expect something bad to happen," co-executive producer Jeph Loeb says.
H.R.G., imprisoned with the others on Level 5, is intent on recapturing the villains, some of whom he had caught previously. "H.R.G. knows a lot and knows these people. There's a certain amount of responsibility he feels to return them to their incarceration status," Coleman says.
Heroes also will feature two characters thought to be dead: Malcolm McDowell returns as Mr. Linderman, the ominous company mastermind, and Robert Forster arrives as the Petrelli patriarch. Seth Green and Breckin Meyer also will appear.
More than time separates Season 3 from the first two, Kring and his cast say. With barely a writing break between the first two seasons, the strike afforded time to breathe and readjust.
Bell says the writers gave Elle "a lot more depth and deeper connections" after the character had served partly as comic relief last season.
Maya Herrera (Dania Ramirez), an arrival in the second season who some thought was too separated from the others, is with Mohinder now, and her presence provides the key to the extraordinary powers - along with a dose of passion. Maya is "definitely a lot more integrated this season. She has become part of the bigger picture," Ramirez says.
Return to roots
Cast members acknowledge fan complaints about the second season, which started with a long piece involving Hiro in feudal Japan and the introduction of new heroes. "A bold choice that the audience didn't react to in the way we wanted them to," Oka says. "A perceived aimlessness," as Quinto puts it, adding: "It is very difficult to keep up with something that is so successful so quickly."
"Villains" will have a faster opening, more attention to the original heroes and a cutback in the kind of separated story strands that some critics said slowed the show.
The cast is pleased with the new volume. "We're going back to Season 1 and the roots of what made Heroes great: fast-paced storytelling and original characters," Oka says.
"The first season was about the discovery of new powers and the choices we make. Now that we know we have this power, what do we do? It is the more difficult choices we have to make that defines our character," he says.
Ramamurthy felt Season 2 started to take off in later episodes, a feeling shared by some fans and critics, but momentum was then derailed by the strike. If the capacity crowd that cheered the full cast and the third-season premiere screening at July's Comic-Con in San Diego provides any indication, the fan base eagerly anticipates the new season.
Ramamurthy echoes that excitement. "The villains bring a little bit darker feel to the show. Everyone's stakes are so much higher," he says. "There's so much happening this season."
Keep enemies close: Hero Peter (Milo Ventimiglia, left) and villain Jesse (Francis Capra), whose power lies in his voice.
A war of the Petrellis??????????? And the hint about a revelation about Angela? OMFG-I-CAN'T-WAIIIIIT!