Vengeance Restored! Heroes Saves the Day

Which is not to say I enjoyed watching Heroes last night. I'm just proud to have posted four times in one day.

Listen, Heroes is probably a totally worthwhile show. I'm sure if I'd seen Season One, I'd have been thrilled with all the revelations from last night's episode. But I had never seen the show before, and I found myself unable to manufacture much of an interest in any of the 47 plots. Except maybe the cheerleader. She seems sort of cool and interesting. But really, this might as well be Journeyman -- I have no idea what is going on.

This is not a new television conundrum. All serialized dramas struggle with finding ways to reel in new viewers without having to constantly waste precious airtime with exposition. The issue becomes even trickier when the show has an elaborately layered mythology that even regular viewers have trouble tracking. The X-Files attempted to address this issue by sprinkling "stand alone" episodes throughout the season. These were episodes that followed the format of a Law & Order-style procedural. The idea was that stand-alones would allow new viewers to get to know the characters without all those confusing alien conspiracy theories. I don't know how well it worked, but I do know that the stand-alone episodes are among some of my favorites of the series (remember when Scully and Mulder went to Texas to investigate the vampire pizza guy, and the town sheriff was Luke Wilson? That was awesome.). It is at least a more artistic approach than the one adopted by Lost, which is to preface seasons with explanatory "episodes" that summarize the show's previous seasons.

I'm not making suggestions for Heroes. Like I said, it's probably a very good show. But I think I'm going to have to wait until the DVDs to find out.