The return of Heroes

I watched the latest ep with pretty mixed feelings. The first half almost had me squirming in my chair, it was sucking so bad. The irritating voiceover before the episode even started put me in a wrong state of mind, thinking I might be subjected to a torturous "what if you had a super power?" recap a la Lost. So, I was a little critical from the start. Then the acting was painful to watch, so much hammy emotion and lack of range or subtlety. Nor was I especially impressed by the writing. Maybe it felt a little dumbed down, or just kind of lazy. Too much catch-up and not enough progression of the story.

That said, there are definitely things I liked about it, and it's not like I won't catch next week's ep. My issues with the first half seemed to be mitigated in the second half.

What can I say about Hiro? He's just fantastic. I love that he really seems to grasp his role as a hero, and forges ahead with enthusiasm & a sort of certainty. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into, but he knows that whatever it is, it's what he should be doing.

I want to know what the not-so-mute Haitian is up to. They're an interesting pair, he & the boss's mutant daughter. What new angles is he going to share with us? Claire had some weak points in this ep, but generally I like her character. I especially liked the scenes toward the end when she & Zack's recorded "attempt #1."

Claire's father, it turns out, is a lot more intriguing than I thought early on. He's still creepy, but I like how unclear it is whose side he's on. We don't know who he's working for, what his or his employer's aims are, why Sylar is so much more interesting [and valuable?] to him than the rest of the mutants, as well as a slew of other things. Finally, I predict that Mohinder will be giving Mr. Creepy a call pretty soon...