The first two episodes of NBC's new series, Heroes, left me with mixed feelings. It's one of those new, ultra-hip dramas that tries soooooo hard to ape Lost with the slow, drawn-out mystery that I wanted to reach through my television and slap the showrunner around a little. Okay, a lot. Two full episodes, and all we'd had were character intros. Sheesh.

The end of episode 2, "Don't Look Back," gave me a bit of hope with a cool tease of a nuclear explosion going off in future New York. Okay, now we know at least part of the plot. And episode 3, "One Giant Leap," ended with the killer (literally) cliffhanger of cheeleader Claire waking up on an autopsy table with her chest cut open. Ouch! Last night's episode, "Collision," featured a number of the proto-heroes crossing paths (what is it about Las Vegas, anyway?) and the series finally starting to generate some forward momentum. I have one suggestion for the show runners--quit trying to follow the Lost playbook. "Collision" is thus far the episode that stands out the most simply because it deviates more from that draw-things-out mentality (or, in comics terms, the much-derided Marvel strategy of "decompressed storytelling). With more episodes like "Collision," I'll definitely stick around to see what happens next.

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