Ahhhhh, the benefits of an occasional long lunch hour!

I began with the first episode of Heroes last night; today, I decided that it might have been better to start with the unaired pilot. I was right. So here are my suggestions for viewing:

If you haven't seen Heroes at all: Just watch the episodes as aired, in the original order. Then you can go back and watch the supplementary material and such.

If you've seen random episodes of Heroes: Just watch the episodes as aired, in the original order. Then you can go back and watch the supplementary material and such.

If you saw Heroes as it aired: Begin with Disc One, go to the bonus features first, and watch the director's cut pilot with commentary off. Then watch the director's cut pilot with commentary on. Then watch the first episode as it aired and continue from there.

My way of viewing was less satisfactory, starting (as I did) with the first episode as it aired, then cutting to the original pilot with commentary. That commentary does bring up fascinating details. (That's why we watch most commentaries, isn't it?) There's an entire plot thread that was dropped for a number of reasons, for example -- involving terrorists, which is why there was a trainwreck in which the cheerleader is seen by the fire fighters. It also affected the introduction of one of the major characters, thanks to droppping the plot thread that introduced him.

As to filming details, I was surprised about Petrelli's dive off the building: It was actually a stunt person's fall from the building -- but he was on wires, whereas I'd assumed it was complete CGI work. On the other hand, the cheerleader's dive wasn't on wires and was an unusual face-down fall into the padded surface below. Ouch. It was also done in a continuous take (though done more than once), with the star ducking out of the shot and the stunt person taking over.

If that sort of thing bores you, you may just want to skip the original pilot altogether; it's the sort of thing that fascinates me.

A final note (well, not really final, since I'm sure I'll end up posting more about my Heroes marathon in days to come, but ...): One of my favorite websites is Television without Pity, and you might find it entertaining to follow up your viewing of each installment with a visit to its snarky discussion of that episode. But begin at the bottom of the page; since there's a quick summary of some events in the airing, you don't want to look at later descriptions unless you've already seen the full season.