TVSquad

Looks like NBC is really trying to relaunch Heroes. They have a whole new plot and series of characters (a weird carnival), and these videos seem to want us to get involved with the show again, and get to know the characters we love.

The Sylar and Claire videos give a good background/recap of the characters, but the "Heroes in Love" one doesn't really make sense (some characters aren't even on the show anymore, and the Matt/Daphne thing didn't really happen), but they're good promos. (Here's the trailer for season four.)

Like a lot of Heroes fans, there's a lot I've liked about the show and a lot that has frustrated me. But damn if they don't have me coming back season after season.

Jason already told you about what's coming up in season 4 ("Redemption"), and now here's a trailer. Looks like a whole new group of people with powers will be introduced (a carnival, I believe), Claire is in college, Mrs. Petrelli is still being mysterious, Sylar looks like Nathan (except when others see him as Sylar), and (sigh) it still looks like Hiro is time-traveling. But they have me curious again.

Not that Heroes is overflowing with lesbians now, but one of the plots that might be coming up this season is Claire getting romantically involved with her new college roommate, played by Rachel Melvin.

Michael Ausiello reports that, yes, Claire and the show are definitely going in that direction, though it's impossible to say how far the storyline will go. We all remember what happened when they hinted that Claire's first season best bud Zach was gay.

Can this be considered a power? It could lead to a whole new tagline for the show: Save the lesbian cheerleader, save the world.

Ever since Juliet hit the bomb and made it go off we've been wondering what is going to happen on next season's Lost. This could be a clue (and it's a spoiler!)

A former cast member is returning to the show, and her return will make Lost fans come up with many theories, guesses, and scenarios. Emilie De Ravin will return to the show as Claire. And it's not going to be one of those cameos or limited-time deals, she's returning to the show full-time. Which means...well, who knows what it means. Could Claire be alive? A ghost? Evil like fake Locke? Flashbacks?

No, it's not Fran Drescher. But wouldn't that be something? Her laugh could send shock waves though a person's brain and paralyze them for several minutes.

Actually, it's Madeline Zima, who played the youngest kid that Nanny Fine had to take care of on the sitcom. She's all grown up now and co-stars on Californication. On Heroes she'll play a college student who somehow gets involved with Claire. I guess that means that Claire is back in college and our heroes are no longer on the run. She'll be on for several episodes.

If you've read the comments section of our review of last night's episode of Lost, you'll see that a lot of viewers noticed a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows in the scene where Sun and Frank meet Christian. Now there are a couple of freeze frames that give a closer look.

I have to admit that I didn't see this when I watched the episode live, though I wasn't looking for it. Was it available to everyone or just those watching it in HD? The pic above doesn't really reveal anything. It just looks kinda like a blob. I didn't record the episode so I can't check it. I tried to go to ABC's site but I can't access it right now for some reason. Sigh.

Here's another look at the scene. Still can't tell too much. What do you think? Was it Claire? Charlotte? Someone else? Some filming mistake we weren't supposed to see?

[via TV Tattle]

As if Heroes hasn't had enough bad press lately. Here comes another controversy to deal with.

The makes of the Icelandic film Astropia are demanding an injunction against the NBC show, saying it has violated copyright laws. Remember the scene in the most recent episode where cheerleader Claire went to the record store to interview for the job left vacant when Aquaboy went on the run? The producers of Astropia say that the scene is very similar to one that they had in their 2007 film. Both show girls going to a comic book store job interview.

This is the second time that the show has been accused of lifting material from another source. A lawsuit came up during the show's first season.

The two scenes are after the jump. The first clip is from Heroes, the second clip is from Astropia. You be the judge! Is Heroes just taking stuff from other sources or is this just a superficial similarity?

OK, OK, SPOILER ALERT!

There are still a bunch of episodes left in this third season of Heroes, but producers and writers are already working on the fourth season (the show was renewed by NBC for another season earlier this week). There isn't much being disclosed about specific plots or what is going to happen to specific characters or what characters are going to make it out alive from this third season (though I would assume The Hunter will be gone). But there is one big clue as to who won't be the major character that is going to die at the end of this season, and we'll discuss that a bit after the jump.

I'm a sucker for time travel shows. I loved it when Star Trek did it (all of the Star Trek shows did it, several times) and Back to the Future is one of my favorite films. So I'm really enjoying Lost this season, with it's time-tripping and skipping. But I have some problems with it, and so does Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings.

Jennings mentions on his blog that he thinks the writers have actually answered too many questions, which isn't a complaint that you hear from Lost fans too often. He thinks if they had left more plot questions, some of the things that happened in previous seasons "could now be explained as the actions of Future Juliet or Future Sawyer or somebody."

Jennings thinks it's smart that the show has the rule that you can't change what happened, because if something happens a certain way it will always happen that way. But I think the show is breaking that rule here and there.

(S05E03) "Because... he's one of my people." - Locke

I really need to get in the habit of taping my mouth shut while watching Lost because my jaw is always on the floor by the end of every episode. Time-traveling has added an entirely new dimension (literally) to the story-telling techniques of this show and the first three hours of this season have been some of Lost's best. The flash-backs always lacked a certain amount of tension because they already happened. On the flip side of the same coin, the same can be said about the flash-forwards because you know they're going to happen. But time-traveling has created this new ripple where nothing has permanence anymore, whether it happened, is happening, or will happen. This is mesmerizing stuff to watch unfold because everything becomes new the second Faraday, Locke, and Co. make a new jump. They may not be altering the ultimate outcome, but they are altering the moment.

I'm sure a lot of people have thought about this, actually: what if the world of ABC's Lost someone merged with the world of NBC's Heroes?

Well, for one thing, it would certainly give a boost to Heroes, which a lot of people think needs a boost, but it would also be rather funny, if the video after the jump is any indication. It's from JustForLaughs.com and The Fine Brothers. Basically, they took Lost and Heroes action figures and made a little short film, showing what would happen if the cast of Heroes somehow ended up on the island and had to convince the castaways that they were there to rescue them. Of course, Sylar shows up and wants to control the island, but a surprise giant saves the day (and no, not the one with the odd toes).

I'm impressed at how much the action figures look like the real characters. I'm not kidding when I say that I'd actually watch a Robot Chicken-ish Lost/Heroes show.

As amazing as Lost is, I still hate it for one tiny reason - every time a new season begins, I get terrified that I won't "get it." If that happened, it would completely deflate my enjoyment of the show. While Lost has had its fair share of WTF episodes, most of them are decipherable after repeat viewings; season five's first two installments definitely fall into that category. It's like playing the sequel of your favorite video game - for the most part, the controls and game-play are the same, but there are enough changes that it still takes you a few hours to get a handle on it.

The Emmy Awards telecast may have been a bit on the lame boring awful dry side, but there was a ton of excitement to be had on the red carpet and at the afterparties -- with loose-lipped stars spilling the beans about their shows' upcoming seasons.

Some of the best dish to be served came courtesy of former (or is it current?) Lost star Daniel Dae Kim, who all but assured EW.com's Michael Ausiello that fans of the show have not seen the last of Jin -- though his character was (spoiler alert!) seemingly blown to smithereens in last season's finale.

First they saved the cheerleader, now they've given her a boyfriend.

Nick D'Agosto will join NBC's Heroes this fall as West, Claire's boyfriend. The show says he will have a "cool" super power. I don't know if that means the super power is interesting and neat, or if he can turn himself into a giant ice cube tray and make ice cubes for when the other heroes are hot and thirsty from fighting the bad guys.

D'Agosto has guest starred on several TV shows, including House, ER, Cold Case, Six Feet Under, Big Day, Without A Trace, and Boston Public.

I guess this means that we won't be seeing the gay/not gay Zach back on the show as Claire's boyfriend. He's too busy on another show anyway.

The Heroes controversy continues.

It has been reported that Thomas Dekker (who played Zach) and his management didn't want him to play a gay character, and that's why the character and the actor suddenly disappeared from the show. But now Dekker has said on his web site (horribly designed, and I can't find the posting) that it's absolutely untrue.

In fact, Dekker says that he has played a gay character three other times in his career, as a younger teen, and would have done it again. He says his leaving the show had nothing to do with the story arc for Zach, though he doesn't really get into why he did leave the show.

Producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview last month that Dekker left because the character was gay and they were going to explore that plot further in later episodes.