TVSquad

(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.

(S02E10) For the second to last episode of the season, I found tonight's show a bit slow. It had it's cool parts--I even have dedicated a section to them at the bottom of the post--but I looked at my watch a lot throughout the episode.

Overall, I think Heroes has come a long way since the beginning of the season. I think many Heroes viewers are just spoiled from the novelty and plot twists of the first season so they are critical when stories/characters aren't up to snuff.

But, that said, I am looking forward to the season finale. As the ads keep saying, "It all comes down to this."

(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.)

I have to admit that I don't really get why so many Heroes fans are up in arms about this second season. I've heard everything from "sophomore slump" to "it has jumped the shark" to "it sucks!" and I don't agree with any of those viewpoints.

Has it been the intense, oh-my-God look how this episode ended in another cliffhanger thrill ride of the first season? No, but I think that's more a case of how the last season ended and how they had to set up this new season, with new plots and new heroes and old heroes in new situations. And I think that the show really kicked into gear with Monday's fantastic installment.

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!)

The long break for Heroes is nearly over, and to get people excited, NBC has released two video clips. This one is simply a scene between Mr. Bennett and Thompson as Thompson tries new tactics to find out where Claire is. This other scene reveals a new hero, so if you don't like spoilers, don't watch it!

And if you're new to this whole Heroes thing or just have a lot of time on your hands, you can watch the first 18 episodes of Heroes online for free. NBC is streaming the entire season so far with "limited interruption" from various sponsors.

Heroes returns April 23rd.

(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.

Yesterday we told you about the controversy surrounding the change that NBC was making to the character of Zach, Claire's friend on Heroes that seemed to be gay. Now, creator Tim Kring has sent an e-mail to the web site that posted a long piece about the controversy that we linked to yesterday.

You can read his full e-mail at the link above, but it seems that he's saying that they did try to make the character gay, but that they didn't want to pursue that any further after some discussions with NBC execs. He says it was "too complicated behind the scenes to push this issue further," which I think is interesting. Some of the comments after the article show that some people are ticked off at this decision, especially if they have some plot where Zach's sexual orientation is changed because of the memory wipe he experienced in the fall finale. I can't imagine that happening. It's my guess that they'll just simply not mention anything he has said to Claire before or any other hints to Zach being gay and just leave it at that.

It's hard to say how long Thomas Dekker will stay with the show, since he has signed on to play John Connor in the Terminator series next fall.

[via TV Tattle]

Monday is the mid-season finale of Heroes, and Access Hollywood has about five minutes of clips from the upcoming episode. The clips include two scenes with Peter- one with Claire and one with his brother, another clip includes Hiro and Isaac, and there's also one with Mr. Bennett and Sylar. There's nothing terribly revealing in these clips, which makes me wonder whether there's going to be any action in this mid-season finale. The scenes just show characters having conversations with each other and the plot advancing forward.

Check out the clips here-- warning: the video is a little jumpy if you use a Mac.

I've mentioned several times here that I'm getting sick of all the times Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and CSI have made the covers of both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide. So it was really great to see the cast of Heroes on the cover this week.

Among some of the tidbits revealed in the article: Masi Oka (Hiro) worked on the special effects for The Perfect Storm; Ali Larter (Niki) bought herself a Porsche when the show was picked up for the whole season, and almost accidentally hit Kanye West with it; creator Tim Kring talked to Lost producer Damon Lindelof, a good friend, about the idea when he came up with it; and the first season finale is going to blow everyone away, especially regarding one major revelation. And speaking of...

Warning! This article contains several spoilers about the rest of the season!

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.

While NBC is apparently giving up on Kidnapped, it has given a full season commitment to Heroes. The sci fi drama has averaged about 13.5 million viewers in its first two episodes, while poor Kidnapped only had about 7 million per episode. Critics are calling Heroes the "break out" hit of the fall, but I think that title is reserved for Ugly Betty. Heroes will now get a full, 22-episode season.

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