New on TV: Heroes

After watching the pilot, I had to agree with the points made in the TeeVee review of the show. I am happy to say that the show has improved over the last couple of episodes, as the show has becomes less expositionally-focused and the characters have become more fully developed.

That doesn't mean I've become that much more interested in them. I still find Milo Ventimiglia's character irritating, and I'm fairly bored with Ali Larter's character. The revelation that one of the heroes is the adopted daughter of the guy who is hunting the heroes has spiced up that story line a bit, though as the TV Without Pity recapper has noted, there's a little bit too much subtext in their father-daughter relationship to sit comfortably.

Hiro, the Japanese time-and-space bending office worker is still the most enjoyable of the bunch. I was pissed at the show for putting what might have been the most ham-handed product placement in TV history in his story-line, but we've moved through it for now (though I assume several glamor shots of said product in future episodes). The mind-reading LA cop has also become a fave, and for pretty much the same reason as Hiro. He's confused at his new ability, but he embraces it - perhaps a little too much, as it seems like he's gotten himself into some trouble.

I'm still not quite on board with some of the overblown narration, which is very reminiscent of Revelations (not surprisingly, as some of the staff from that miniseries is on this show). I'm hoping this will become more sensical as we move forward, but I'm steeling myself for an entire season of proto-mytho-scientific mumbo jumbo to open and close episdoes. I'm trying not to take it out on the narrating character, Mohinder Suresh (the son of a professor who was trying to create an algorithm to find and track down people with heroic changes), but it's hard. His new, chrirpy sidekick isn't helping, either, nor will the eventual discovery that she's working for the bad guys.

Anyway, for X-Men lite this isn't a bad show. Just a little dour for the start of the week.