These are the events leading up to, and shortly after, the attack in Odessa, Texas, 2014. Claire Bennet made it OK to come out. Countless Evos have revealed themselves since. Not everyone takes it well. Gradually, the tensions increase and spread. Through this, the audience are shown how things got as bad as they are in the main show. The socio-political climate, I mean, not the... overall quality. I don't think that can be adequately explained. Seriously. The disappointment... I'm getting off-topic.
This is not an ensemble piece. That helps it focus. In general, this is all tight, with fast storytelling, and engaging. It's about three people... the two Frady (cat?) siblings, and her college room-mate. Quentin(Zebrowski, a tendency to obsess, comic relief, only tolerable in very small quantities, which is the case here, unlike...anyway) is seeing her off, and starts to worry as she becomes an increasingly open activist. Phoebe(Paul, likable, we immediately empathize with her and want her to be safe) starts to see some discrimination as the world's perspective worsens gradually. She can create and control darkness, although the first time we're shown this, it just looks like her shadow is faster than her, making her an opposite Lucky Luke. We see her ability, and hers and our understanding of it, grow. And Aly(Onieogou, deeply cares about them) is there for her as much as she can be, on and off campus alike.
The use of imagery, words and the like that is derived from/similar to real life political issues is back with a vengeance, rarely makes sense anymore, and is now completely shameless. Best case scenario, it's "only" distracting and pulls you out of it. Westboro Baptist Church(representing supposedly common bigotry, rather than them being a fringe group using that for getting attention), Truthers(but here about something that's true), Illuminati(but about a single event, not peerless subtle guiding over centuries), Anonymous(...OK, that one kinda works, although the identity is barely hidden, especially to the viewers), news coverage/in-office public servants responding to actual terrorist attacks(yup, they went all the way there), etc.
Every found footage fiction has to justify certain things, and this fares well, and is a great mini. This comes to 43 minutes without commercials. The varying length of the 6 episodes helps them pace the plot, and convey it in the size of chunks that best fits. The concept of filler material doesn't even enter into it. Why is all of this being filmed, and by whom? The three of them, to catalog the personal development – they didn't expect things to get as big as they do, at which point, it's documenting those world-changing events. Who is editing it, and how are we seeing it? You'll find out by the end of this. Does it break the format? Almost never, and it's forgivable when it does. And are the necessarily off-screen events too plentiful, involved, ill-explained or overly exposited about? No, they're summarized well or easily deduced.
Ultimately, I implore you, watch either this or Heroes Reborn, and I'd go with this any day of the week. Make up in your own head what happens afterwards: trust me, you'll almost definitely come up with something better than the producers did. Honestly, your frustration with expectations this set will grow exponentially through your viewing of that. A large part of it is where it goes with the narrative, powers and characters established here.
I recommend this to any fan of drama and sci-fi. This contains a lot of disturbing content and some moderate-to-strong language. 8/10
