TVSquad

(S03E04) A lot of people have said in the comments that it appears as if I don't like Heroes. Believe me, that's not true. I'm actually a huge fan of the show. As a huge comic book junkie for more years and dollars than good sense will allow me to admit, the potential and general premise of this series is tremendously exciting. And the fact that it achieved such mainstream success right out of the gate was nothing short of astounding.

However, just like you'll tell your wife whom you love more than anything else that she has a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth, I'm not going to just put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that every scene, line and moment of each episode is solid gold. If I see lettuce, I'm going to call them on it. Because the way I see it, it's just lettuce. It doesn't change how wonderful and beautiful she is in the slightest. It's just a little thing that needs to be taken care of because it's distracting me and it doesn't really fit the whole look her face is going for. Kind of like whatever's going on with Mohinder.

(S03E02) Mama Petrelli is going to be trouble this season, isn't she? I wonder how much of the flak the show is taking now is because they've had to restructure their overall plan due to the strike last year. We already know they'd intended to unleash the virus and have the aftermath of that drive the second half of the season. Who knows how that development would have flowed into what we're seeing now.

I'd hate to think that the lower ratings opening of last week's premiere will spell the impending doom of this show. If people are willing to ride along with the insanity of Prison Break for four seasons now, surely they can handle the comic book logic and over-the-top plotlines of this series for a little while. Sure, it's silly. Sure some of it really doesn't make much sense, but what do you expect with extensive time travel stories and super powers. Marvel and DC Comics have been struggling to keep the logic and timeliness of their universes in order for decades.

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.

This press tour hasn't exactly been good for my already-expanded waistline. Between the meals each network serves the critics and the snacks the hotel sends up on a daily basis, I seem to just graze all day long (by the way, the Ritz-Carlton has one of the best $15 cheeseburgers I've ever had. Of course, anywhere else, the burger would be $8. Still good though).

Case in point: NBC provided candy bins for the critics, giving them a chance to create to-go bags of various sugary snacks. Through all the afternoon press conferences -- for The Apprentice, the Grease reality show, Andy Barker, PI, and Raines, I absent-mindedly grabbed from the bag because, to be honest, outside of those great Rosie digs by Donald Trump, not much went on (even the Andy Barker session wasn't all that interesting, despite the presence of Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien).

But the Heroes session that closed the afternoon? That one made me take notice.

This week's San Francisco Gate takes a look at the recent upsurge in television's hot Asian ("Hasian") male factor and asks the enduring question, "Have we come a long way, baby?"

The author Jeff Yang surveys People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue and answers in the affirmative thanks to the presence of Survivor's Yul Kwon, Lost's Daniel Dae Kim and John Cho, formerly of Kitchen Confidential. While Yang sticks to East Asia, if you throw in South Asian actors Naveen Andrews of Lost and Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes, you start to get more evidence that Hollywood's worst crimes of representation might be behind it.