Heroes: Season 1 was last year's hit series that, though it had a sci-fi theme, was all about character development. The premise is that all around the world, humans are making the evolutionary jump and starting to exhibit strange new abilities. This show follows a group of individuals as they learn about their powers and realize that they are all involved in a grand plot that could leave all of New York City destroyed in a nuclear explosion.

The show features characters from many walks of life. You have Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), a Japanese office worker. Then there are the Petrelli brothers. Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), a politician running for Congress and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), a hospice nurse looking after an old man whose daughter is dating a painter named Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera). Also in the slew is Nikki (Ali Larter), her son Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey) and husband D.L. (Leonard Roberts) from Las Vegas. Then there is Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), a cheerleader whose father is more than just a paper salesman. And of course, there is a mysterious murderer known only as Sylar, who is taking out these "special people."

There are dozens of other characters that show up throughout this show (both major and minor) and I don't want to go into details about all of them (or even mention their powers), because I don't want to reveal any twists that the show throws out there - because there are plenty. But what is great about this show isn't the special effects (quite frankly, short of camera tricks, there aren't a lot), but the story and character development. You end up getting to know each of the characters so well that you really fear for them and are truly shocked and sad when some of them die (because some will die).

Heroes: Season 1's HD DVD boxed set comes with a ton of special features including the original unaired pilot that has a very different plot and set up for this season. While this pilot is interesting, I am very glad the series didn't go in the direction they were planning on. In this other pilot, the NYC explosion was caused by terrorists. Quite frankly, the events that actually lead up to the impending explosion in the show is much better and the terrorist angle feels too contrived and it might as well be a twist on 24.

The other features really take advantage of the HD DVD abilities like picture-in-picture. You can turn on various features that talk about characters as they appear or give you close up views of Isaac's paintings and even have all of the Helix Symbols pointed out to you as they appear (a great thing for when you are re-watching the show).

Quite simply, Heroes is a great show that even non-sci-fi or non-comic book fans will love. Even though the characters have powers and that adds a great twist to the show, this series is all about the characters - and what characters they are. I believe that everyone should watch this show at least once; if you don't love the show, you should watch it just to hear what all the hubbub is about.