TVSquad

(Check out part three of this four-part report)

Tired of hearing about Comic-Con? Figured all the talk was over? Sorry to disappoint you, but due to an untimely vacation (vacation untimely? Wha...how?) and a bit of reflection on my first trip to the big 'Con, I was able to get this last bit complete for you.

The Sci Fi / Entertainment Weekly Party

Man did it feel good to have gone to my last panel. I had much sympathy for Rich, who had another nearly-full day ahead of him on Sunday. So, we went out to finally get a decent meal at an actual restaurant downtown before we had to head off to the party. We had no idea at all what to expect from the party -- would there be food? Free booze? Who would be there?

And thousands of Heroes fans around the world say "well, duh."

Heroes creator Tim Kring admits that there might be a little bit too much going on in the show's universe. At a NATPE LATV Festival panel discussion, Kring says that there might be so much content going online -- and so many employees working on the online content -- that it sort of takes away from the experience of the show and the storyline, especially if you have a creative team working online that really isn't close to the team that works on the TV show. Sounds like he's referring (strongly) to the much-maligned second season of the show.

He also thinks that all of the product placement and corporate sponsorship that the show has doesn't help either.

The Saturn Award nominations are in, and many popular sci-fi and fantasy shows made the cut. Returning favorites like Lost, Heroes, and Dexter were recognized by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, as were newcomers Pushing Daisies and Journeyman.

With seven nominations, Lost is ahead of Dexter and Heroes, which received five and four nominations, respectively. Heroes was the big winner last year, taking home awards for Best Network Series as well as acting awards for Masi Oka and Hayden Panettiere. Both actors received nominations this year, along with co-star Greg Grunberg.

We all know that how people watch TV has been changing dramatically in the last few years, but now comes this news from TorrentFreak.com: 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time are downloading a TV series. More than anything else, it's TV content they want.

What this means is that TV fans aren't just watching TV shows live or using DVRs and TiVos alone. They're just as apt to download a show to view on a laptop, desktop or iPod. According to the article, "over a billion TV shows are downloaded every year and this number continues to rise."

According to various sources such as Kristin Dos Santos from E!, Ain't It Cool News and Michael Ausiello, it is more than likely that we will get no new episodes of NBC's Heroes this spring. Even if most series will return this spring with a few new episodes, it looks like NBC decided to have the cast and crew start shooting Season 3 instead of offering fans a few more episodes for the second season.

Heroes didn't have time to complete more than 11 episodes, all of which have aired, before production was shut down due to writers' strike. However, it was confirmed the cast and crew had time to shoot some scenes for episodes 12 and 13 (other sources say they had time to shoot part, if not all, of episodes 12 to 16!). TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that Tim Kring presented a new trailer at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles, which includes some of those yet-to-air scenes.

(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.

Masi Oka is now playing a different kind of hero. According to ComicMix, he's been appointed as a global ambassador for the One Laptop Per Child program which is trying to develop a $100 laptop for children in developing countries. The initiative is headed up by MIT Media Lab's Nicholas Negroponte

This is not surprising. Masi Oka is a math genius who appeared on the cover of Time at the age of 12 and went on to receive a dual degree in Computer Science and Math from Brown University and then program special effects for George Lucas' ILM before taking his talents to acting.

At the end of May, we already gave you a spoonful of spoilers for the upcoming season of NBC's hit show Heroes. The Season 1 finale left us with many unanswered questions and, amidst the numerous casting announcements made over the summer, we have found a few more answers.

Spoilers ahead!

I was thinking about this the other day. Even though I named Heroes as the best show of the year, I've been worried lately that season two might turn out to be an over-hyped, overdone disaster that will make me tire of it really quickly. I mean, they're adding cast members at an astonishing rate (Kristin Bell, Nichelle Nichols, David Anders, Stephen Tobolowsky, Janel Parrish, Jessica Collins). They're going to have a storyline in another time (Hiro), produced a spinoff mini-series to be directed by Kevin Smith, produced online stories and comics to keep fans entertained and well-fed and gone on a world tour to promote the show. It's really overwhelming, and I hope they're not doing too much, too soon.

The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert is worried too.

The Heroes Comic-Con panel was jam-packed - so jam-packed that I almost didn't make it in despite getting in line three hours before it kicked-off. Fortunately, I squeaked in for the last 2/3 of the event - just in time to catch the announcement that none other than Kevin Smith would write and direct the first episode of Heroes: Origins, the mid-season replacement spin-off that will feature six episodes introducing six new characters. Viewers will decide which character joins the full-time Heroes cast. Each Origins episode will be directed by a different auteur. We'll be getting more announcements about the talent line-up for Origins in the coming months.

Obviously I mean the actor, David Anders. But wouldn't it be beyond cool to see the character of Sark show up on Heroes? Maybe he got some sort of power from being so close to all that Rambaldi business. Maybe he can have the power to impersonate anyone's voice exactly (Anders is actually from Oregon but does a British accent perfectly).

Kristin over on E! is reporting that Anders is under negotiations to join the NBC hit this fall. He would play a new character named Kane (Isabelle has details on the character here), though there are no other details about the character. Of course, it's not a done deal, but it would be fantastic if this actually happened.

[via TV Tattle]