So like many people I would watch the Olympics periodically for certain sports that managed to catch my eye. Among all the commercials and promotion for The Tonight Show and Late Night that was a commercial that would change everything. A teaser for Heroes:Reborn aired. Now this teaser didn’t have much except for some cool graphics morphing the logo of the show. It might now have been a lot but it was enough.

For those of you not familiar with Heroes, it was a show that aired on NBC from 2006-2010. The show was deemed groundbreaking television and well I actually have to agree with the critics. The show featured relatable characters all connected by an intricate storyline. It was brilliant it was able to take the fantastical and add just the right bit of realism into it. Show creator Tim Kring had a hit on his hands and the whole world was watching.

Although Heroes enjoyed great success it couldn’t last forever. The first season was brilliant and though the finale that the entire season had built up to fall a little short of expectation it was still great enough for us to want to come back for another season. When the second season premiered it jumped forward to keep up with real-time which wasn’t bad but after the way everything played out in the finale you couldn’t help but feel confusion. The theme of the season was to try to have the characters return to their ordinary lives after dealing with so much over the course of the first season. This was actually somewhat good, although the storytelling had slowed down significantly from the first season it was still a great chance to see more development of the characters we had come to love. Around the time of what many TV viewers know as mid-season the plot was beginning to be revealed in its entirety and we were also promised a spinoff show that would reveal the background of the infamous Company, that existed throughout the show. Things were looking good, then the Writers Strike happened.

The 2007-2008 Writers Strike saw the cancellation, and hiatus of many shows and Heroes was one of the shows that suffered the latter fate. I bring up the writer’s strike because it caused a strong negative effect on the show. It it believed by many fans that this was the turning point for the show, suffering from a blow in which they would never recover. The planned story arc had to be rushed to a unfulfilling conclusion and Heroes did not return until the fall of 2008 nearly 9 months after the season two finale. As a fan who actually watched Heroes on TV I was very upset. I was a dedicated fan, reading the comics online the day after an episode posting on message boards. Not before or since have I been as dedicated to any television show. I actually own the entire show on DVD.

As the fall of 2008 approached a new season promised so much, Promptly titled Villains everyone who was a fan of the show believed that the entire status quo of the Heroes universe as we knew it was about to change. Although it was entertaining the 13 episode arc fell a little short of what I expected but it was ok. I give Tim Kring credit, when developing this show he enlisted the help of many veteran comic book writers such as Jeph Loeb. They were able to do the initial origin story well but it just seemed hard to live up to the hype of the first season. I thinking back on the third season villains existing in a world that for the most part is to have more realism that counterparts which is supposed to make it stand out does seem a tad bit far fetched but I guess the suspension of belief is supposed to come into play at some point.

The thing that I did enjoy about season three was that it had two arcs over the course of a television season. Tim Kring had always wanted the show to be shorter or what we would now call “run like a cable season”. They were able to tell two full length stories that felt whole and complete and I as a viewer had a really great time watching.The second part of the season The Fugitives arc was a little lackluster. After the first half of the third season NBC fired the writers then hired new ones who really didn’t understand the show. By the end of the third season though they hired the original writers back, With three seasons as fans we were still praying for our once beloved show that dawned the phrase “Save The Cheerleader, Save The World”

As the fall of 2009 approached, season four managed to make its way on the air. Now personally this was my least favorite season of the entire series. It just felt so out of place. I mean originally the show had brought together people of different backgrounds from all over the world and managed to connect them in a spectacle. Then they learn that maybe it wasn’t just chance but that the connection went deeper than they thought. Then they find out that though many people around the world have powers not all of them struggle or try to do good some just simply don’t care and will do what they please. We then saw the characters on the run from the government. So to come into this season about building a family with carnival folk it just seemed a little too comic bookish even for me. I had held on , on this crazy roller coaster ride but it had just gotten ridiculous at this point. Even the die hard fans couldn’t handle this. I just didn’t understand where the writers were trying to go with the show. I mean I liked the character of Samuel but just not the environment he was in. The character development was pretty decent but I just felt like the story really lacked in comparison to other seasons.

So inevitably Heroes was cancelled in 2010. It left on a cliffhanger but in retrospect I feel that the ending was good in the sense that it left whatever was going to happen next up to one’s imagination. In the years since the show has ended I met many new fans of the show thanks to the wonderful streaming service that is Netflix. Many people came into the game late but I was happy they showed up period. It gave me a chance to go back and talk about the show and remember why I really loved it in the first place. I have a lot to thank Heroes for to be honest. I started developing my own sci-fi universe in which my series of novels take place and to say that Heroes helped fuel the inspiration would be an understatement. I understood the difficult tasks that one has as a writer to keep trying to come back and tell compelling and entertaining stories. I understand how easy it is to get lost in a story especially if you love it so much. We had heard a rumor that Microsoft at one point wanted to purchase and produce new episodes. At Comic-Con last year we had heard that dynamite comics would be continuing the show in comic book format. I sat by as these announcements came and remained hopeful. Though the show may have not left on a high note I was always open to the idea of new stories. The writers had created a massive universe where possibilities were endless.

On February 22 2014 things changed. That day I had a conversation with a friend from high school. We talked about Heroes as we had been in love with the show since middle school. We talked about how things could have changed and what we missed and if we could bring it back, I told him that if I built up my writings credits it would be a project that I would want to pursue in my future. I then took to tumblr and reblogged many photos from the show. It was on this day that I had really accepted the fate of the show. That though it had ended I was thankful for all the wonderful experiences it provided. Being able to attend a parties when a new season was about to launch. Being able to have entire discussions with people I might have otherwise never spoken to it was great. Just as I had gained that acceptance that same night NBC announced it was coming back.

Its amazing how almost 7 years later Season 1 of Heroes can still make me feel strong emotions — DeQuan Foster (@mrdefoster) February 22, 2014

Now I don’t normally get excited over announcements for some things but this was different. In the time since the showed had ended I had occupied my time reading Investigating Heroes which provided me with an even deeper understanding and appreciation for the show. I took to Twitter and Facebook to express my fanboy excitement. Now I’m a firm believer that within the first few hours your feelings really don’t matter because you are reacting purely off emotion and haven’t had time to thing things through, at least when it comes to these kind of things. So after coming down off my fanboy cloud I really thought about how I felt about the announcement and well I am in favor of it. The show is being done in 13 episodes which is how it should be done so that the plot doesn’t get old fast. It has a chance to introduce new characters and maybe even bring back some old ones. With the universe being so massive there really is no telling where this could go and well I’m just going to remain optimistic. I believe the show will perform better also because there are so many more fans now than there were when the show ended. so to all of you I Save The Series, Save The Fandom