I'm holding out for "Heroes"

Time to face facts, true believers: "Heroes" this season has been pretty lame. If the Emmy-nominated first season was Superman, this season is coming off more like Blue Beetle.

What went wrong? The adventures of Peter Petrelli and friends landed 17 million viewers in the beginning of October (thanks to a operating change in the Nielsen's, allowing viewers from a second airing to be added to the first,) but the show failed to crack the Top 20 last week. Fans have complained about the snail-like pacing, the boring new additions to the do-gooder roster (cry-baby Maya and brother Alejandro, anyone?), and Hiro's extended vacation in 15th century Japan, helping out his own hero, Kensei, who ANYONE COULD SEE would eventually become a bad guy.

Things got so bad that even show creator Tim Kring fessed up to fumbling the ball in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview. Recognizing fan disgruntlement, Kring promised to remove the kryptonite and restore some adrenaline to the storylines.

As much was evident in this week's episode, which FINALLY flashes back to where last season's finale left off, with the after-effects of Peter's nuclear meltdown over New York. We found out why Peter needed Nathan to fly him away instead of flying himself (he was using all his power to keep from going boom,) and we saw Maya first discover her bleeding-eye power in the season's first holy-crap moment when she accidentally kills an entire wedding party. And we saw electric-bugaboo Kristen Bell look sexy as hell, toying with a captive Peter.

With three episodes to go before the "mid-season finale," (and presumably until the writer's strike is resolved -- maybe Jessica can go slap around a few studio heads, get them to cough up some residuals,) I'd say "Heroes" is back on track, if only seven episodes late.

-- Adam Reinhard, lifeisfunnybutnothahafunny@gmail.com