Heroes

The show I had been looking forward to this fall was "Jericho." That's the one where the people in a small Kansas town witness a nuclear explosion way off in the distance and suddenly find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. It was pretty heavily promoted and seemed promising. But having watched the first two episodes, well, it's just not clicking. Too many little subplots to keep track of, especially one about escaped convicts.

However, there's another show called "Heroes" that I hadn't heard of until earlier this week. The first episode just aired on Monday, but the SciFi channel is repeating it this Friday at 7 PM (eastern).

Basically, you've got a group of people scattered around the globe that are coming to terms with odd abilities. My personal favorite is the geek in Japan who keeps quoting "Star Trek" as he slowly masters his ability to teleport himself.

I suppose that an argument can be made that in some ways it's an X-Men clone, but I would have to disagree. So far, these people don't know each other, and there doesn't seem to be any central figure they can coalesce around. The first episode also hints at some great cataclysm that is about to befall the Earth, and it will somehow be up to these people to avert it.

Tom Shales of the Post pretty much panned it, but screw him. Shales hardly ever likes anything he watches, so why is he even covering television for a major newspaper? In fact, he should probably be barred by law from watching any more TV just to spare the rest of us his constant bitching.

Indeed, the very things he complained about in "Heroes" are what make the show interesting. It's dark and foreboding, with ominous music often lurking in the background. And most of the characters spend the first hour all depressed as they try to figure out what the heck is going on (Except for the Japanese guy, who thinks his ability the coolest thing ever. He even teleports himself into a ladies room).

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out the repeat on Friday.