overall a very disappointing start. i’ll give the show a pass as you could see how much trouble they were having getting viewers caught up with such a large cast of characters (Niki, Michah, & D.L. were blissfully absent – the biggest upside of the whole episode).

[spoilers]

we got a few interesting threads to start us on our path (e.g. the mysterious killer of Hiro’s father) good stuff, and the last 10 minutes was pretty compelling, but overall there were too many chessy saccharine speeches and repetitive bits (if i had to hear Hiro say that Kensei was “supposed to be a hero” one more time i was going to pull my hair out). and the sad thing about that whole bit was that having Kensei the mythic Japanese legend turn out to be a white guy (and very much not a hero) was pretty funny, but everything that was interesting about that was worn away after seeing the same conversation between Kensei and Hiro twenty times.

the good: my boy Nathan Petrelli is back and with a badass grizzly beard – and what was up with his burned off face in his reflection in the mirror? one of the coolest things we saw all episode…can’t wait to see more of what is up with that – also cool was Nathan ripping his mother a well deserved new one. my boy Peter Petrelli is obviously not dead (as we all knew) and we finally got a peek at him at the end of the episode, with nice shorn off locks. I’m not a fan of amnesia as a plot device, but they’ve made Peter so powerful that i guess they will have to keep thinking of ways to hold him back…this season it will be amnesia i guess. my boy Parkman back in fighting form and seeming less whiny than before. my boy Suresh being smart (finally).

the bad: the saccharine sweet and too long awkward speeches by various characters (most notably HG…say it ain’t so). the cheesy over the top stuff e.g. dialogue between Claire and her new teen “love interest”; almost every word out of Molly’s mouth; HG’s “kinko’s” boss…played for laughs, but it was just….uncomfortable; and as mentioned before the repetitive speeches with Hiro and Kensei.

the ugly: what is Claire made of glass? why on earth would she suffer such a horrible break from a simple back tuck. i mean, i would probably suffer that break, but Claire? i don’t buy it, a weak device to get us to see her powers…i liked the scene overall the idea of highschool as the horror show we know it is and Claire being forced to hide her true awesome self was all good, but the scene would have played better if she had just done the back tuck and been fine…no reason for the badass leg break; also ugly were the horrendous accents and bad acting on our “Irish” guys in the final scenes…ugh what a horrible note to end on.

as a first episode i give this a: C-

if this had been the first look i’d ever gotten at Heroes i never would have come back for more. fortunately i know they can do better, so i’ll come back. maybe since my expectations are now down around my ankles i won’t have to worry about them “living up to anything” anymore…see…i can be a glass half full kind of person – i swear!