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(S03E06) Say what you want, but I think this episode continued the good streak established last week. It looks like, after a shaky start, the Heroes train is finally back on the track. All it took was some patience. That's a good sign for the rest of the season. Now if it could just get some of those lost viewers back. I hope NBC is factoring in downloads, DVR playbacks and streaming views online into their decisions regarding this show as I know it performs extremely well there.

(S03E05) "Suresh. Yeah, he's harmless." Nathan telling Tracy that maybe Mohinder can help them.

Ah, the irony. Those who were harmless are suddenly finding themselves much more dangerous. In fact, the three sweetest characters from past seasons, Peter, Mohinder and Claire, are suddenly three of the darkest characters as tonight's episode began. Especially if you factor in their future incarnations. A lot of critics are decrying the meandering plotlines and again overcrowded cast of this show, but I have to say that by the end of this episode, even those naysayers should be on board this train.

The reveal at the end brought together so many elements from the past and really paved an exciting future for us. I was always intrigued by the promise of more attention spent on the first generation of heroes, including Ma Petrelli and Pa Parkman, Linderman and the rest of the "old folks." It looks like we're going to finally see some of that promise come to light and I think it's going to really add something to the mythology being established here.

(S03E04) A lot of people have said in the comments that it appears as if I don't like Heroes. Believe me, that's not true. I'm actually a huge fan of the show. As a huge comic book junkie for more years and dollars than good sense will allow me to admit, the potential and general premise of this series is tremendously exciting. And the fact that it achieved such mainstream success right out of the gate was nothing short of astounding.

However, just like you'll tell your wife whom you love more than anything else that she has a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth, I'm not going to just put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that every scene, line and moment of each episode is solid gold. If I see lettuce, I'm going to call them on it. Because the way I see it, it's just lettuce. It doesn't change how wonderful and beautiful she is in the slightest. It's just a little thing that needs to be taken care of because it's distracting me and it doesn't really fit the whole look her face is going for. Kind of like whatever's going on with Mohinder.

(S03E02) Mama Petrelli is going to be trouble this season, isn't she? I wonder how much of the flak the show is taking now is because they've had to restructure their overall plan due to the strike last year. We already know they'd intended to unleash the virus and have the aftermath of that drive the second half of the season. Who knows how that development would have flowed into what we're seeing now.

I'd hate to think that the lower ratings opening of last week's premiere will spell the impending doom of this show. If people are willing to ride along with the insanity of Prison Break for four seasons now, surely they can handle the comic book logic and over-the-top plotlines of this series for a little while. Sure, it's silly. Sure some of it really doesn't make much sense, but what do you expect with extensive time travel stories and super powers. Marvel and DC Comics have been struggling to keep the logic and timeliness of their universes in order for decades.

(S02E11) When Kristin offered up the chance to review the Fall (Season?) Finale of Heroes, I couldn't resist stepping in to help. While this episode lived up to a lot of the promises of the season, much like last season's finale, it may have been a little lighter on the action than you'd want. There are a lot of big changes for a lot of the characters and yes, the promised "hero" death. We get resolutions on the virus plot, the Sylar/Mya journey, Hiro's quest to stop Adam, the Bennet situation, and in the end, there's enough to entice us to come back for more. It's all here and let me tell you, if Kristin was yawning and checking her watch through the last episode, there wasn't time this week. This episode is absolutely jam-packed from start to finish. "Volume Two" wraps, and as with last year we get a teaser of Volume Three. But we'll get to all of that after the jump.

(S02E09) "You've gone native. Are you kidding me?" Noah Bennet to Mohinder Suresh.

Just when you thought Mohinder couldn't get any stupider, he goes and shoots Noah Bennet in the eye. He is really in too deep with this company. And lately, he is making Matt Parkman look like a genius. (Wait, did Parkman just make me say that? Dumb joke, I know.) More on this after the jump because it basically took up the whole episode.

But before I go through all the storylines for this week, let me just say that I was so relieved that those ridiculous mascara-plague twins were absent from this week's Heroes. And just so I don't get too excited about it, I put a picture of them in the post to remind me that they are still on the show. (However, they are the vehicle to get the devilish Sylar back in the states so I suppose I forgive them on some level.)

A mere few days after the exploding season finale aired, spoilers for next season of NBC's hit show Heroes are starting to leak. TV Squad was able to get its hands on casting spoilers for the first two episodes of the season, which will start shooting mid-June.

(SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

(S01E15) A rough week for some of the heroes makes for another pretty good episode, especially the Parkman and Jessica stuff.

For once, things appear to be going Matt Parkman's way. He's beaming as he heads off for his first day on a new job as private security. His client turns out to be an a-hole. Matt has not gotten used to overhearing the negative thoughts everyone he meets seems to have of him.

Just in from Vegas, recently-liberated Jessica has a new job herself; it's the first of what may be many contracts from Mr. Linderman. The cat-and-mouse chase up and down the stairwells was intense. So was Matt's near fatal fall. Jessica chucks him out a high window before finishing what she came to Los Angeles to do. Say what you will about Jessica, but she certainly enjoys herself more than Niki ever has. It was cool that Matt read both Niki's and Jessica's thoughts as they argued in the stairwell. [Note: that's how I interpreted Jessica & Niki's exchange in the stairwell anyway. See comments by Michelle @ 13 and Bill @16, etc. below.] Wherever they go, the mirror-twins seem to encounter an ample supply of reflective surfaces.

If you are a fan of Heroes, you may have already found Greg Beeman's blog as you search the internet for more clues about the show. But even if you're not a fan of the show, it's still worth a look. While the focus is obviously on Heroes, there is enough behind the scenes stuff to make it an interesting read for anyone that just loves TV. The posts read like a good DVD commentary track with Beeman talking about what he wanted to achieve with a certain episode, or why he did things a certain way.

He's very forthcoming in his comments. About the latest episode, which he directed, he says, "Also, truthfully, we're still learning what stories to tell and how to tell them. Do we always need to see the whole cast in just a handful of scenes? Or should we, sometimes, concentrate on just a few of our characters and give them more intensively developed stories." And if all that isn't enough, there are also storyboards, an interview with Ali Larter, and a large collection of behind the scenes pictures, like the shot of Hayden Panettiere on the autopsy table waiting for her scene. Fun stuff.

(S01E06) What a minute. Did all this stuff actually happen in only one episode? I don't know where to start. Even Isaac, the mopey artist, seems to be charged-up and awake. Maybe he feels a little better now that he's seen Peter manifest paint-the-future powers of his own, and thinks he is not so crazy after all.

Just when you think Horn-Rim Glasses Guy might actually be okay, and that evil is just his day job, he sets up daughter Claire to meet her "bio-parents." I guess there's no good reason to call him Horn Rim and not Mr. Ben net, or even "Claire's dad." But HRGG is more fun, and sounds more mysterious. As he truly does love and worry about Claire, he makes a great complex villain.

OK, so this isn't really a very early review, since the pilot episode appears on iTunes today, but since Heroes officially premieres on NBC on September 25, this works.

We caught an early look at this show back in June, but since we were told the copy was "not for review," I left my initial impressions pretty light. But now I guess the gloves come