In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows there are three objects that, when gathered together, will give mastery over death. One item in particular is the resurrection stone. Three turns and the holder can bring back their dearly departed from the veil of death. But, as with all magic, there is a cost. They come back little more than a ghost, shadows of their former selves. Because that’s the thing about resurrection, it’s almost never as good as you remember it.

Which brings us to Heroes Reborn.

Heroes was released in 2006 on NBC, and ran for four seasons with a writing strike cutting into the second season.

Heroes is the story of people across the world suddenly coming into super powers. The show was highly rated, and it competed with Lost on ABC during the same time slot. The show ended in 2010 with the heroes revealing their powers, and themselves, to the world. This is where Heroes Reborn comes in.

Heroes Reborn continues in the world of the now dubbed “EVOs”, short for evolved humans, with a summit to bring peace between the EVOs and the “Norms”, until everything goes pear shaped. The summit explodes in a mushroom cloud seemingly caused by one EVO losing control. This takes place one year before the first episode.

Now, the format of Heroes has always been like a comic series. A variety  of people who may or may not ever meet each other, are still connected by these events and their stories all intertwine in one way or another. Reborn is no different. In the beginning of the original series, Noah was known under the alias “HRG” as an antagonist. His arc from villain to hero was one of the better story-lines of the series. Now on the hunt for the truth of what happened on June 13^th, the day the world turned on EVOs; the day his daughter was killed; the day the cheerleader could not be saved.

Now you see how interesting that sounded? Like, what cheerleader? Who caused the world to turn on the EVOs? What is going on? And that’s the first episode of Heroes Reborn. But, after that initial blast off, the fire dies story-wise. The heroes seem to lose their way. Not like some heroes, like Batman after the death of Jason Todd, but more like Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds, and you stare at the screen thinking:

“Ugh! I don’t get it!”

“Is that cloud thing supposed to be a dude or a monster?”

This is serious. I followed like a roadie following a 60’s rock band. I was dug in like a tick, but I lost interest, and I think I can point out what the problem is. Time. In the time of the original Heroes there was Smallville, but no other superhero shows that could compare to the drama or intrigue that Heroes offered to it’s viewers.

Now we have Flash, Arrow, Constantine for those who saw it, I zombie, the 100, Game of Thrones (not really super heroic, but for drama, oh yes), and this is just TV.  The world has changed and brought in more heroes to play with. There are far more characters with the backstories and the drive to move through plot lines. Heroes who are new, and heroes who are old, so when you bring back Heroes from only a few years ago and nothing about the show has anything new to show for it, well, that’s a problem.

So, spoiler alert, in the Deathly Hallows the hallows are actually meant not to give true power over death, but the realization that once you have accepted death as a part of life you can master yourself over it. Once you accept the fact that something is gone but not forgotten, your memories keep that thing or person alive. Heroes Reborn is a great idea, but with such poor execution it stirs up feelings of regret.

This is a guest post submitted by Randy Yarbrough (Houston based film and comic book podcaster @dogfinradio) If you’re interested in contributing to the site, please fill out this online form and send us your pitches!