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NBC's 'Heroes' full of bunk but watchable

Verne Gay | Off Camera

September 22, 2008

THE SHOW " Heroes"

WHEN|WHERE Tonight at 9 on NBC/4

REASON TO WATCH Season three opener of TV's most maddening - and occasionally enjoyable - thriller.

CATCHING UP Tonight's a full reboot, so don't worry about the disastrous (and short-lived) volume two; there is an 8 p.m. recap special, however.

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WHAT IT'S ABOUT (WARNING: SPOILERS) We're four years into the future with a sleekly metallic and treacherous Claire Bennet ( Hayden Panettiere) telling Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) that "I'm sorry ... I've always loved you," while lifting a gun, and boom!

Then, flashback to present day, when Peter's brother, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), is about to give a speech and ... let's just say he ends up with messianic powers: "God," he says, has "a message of hope and urgency, and He's not going to wait much longer."

Sylar (Zachary Quinto)? He's tracked down Claire, and this time, he really gets into her head.

Mohindar Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) learns hero powers come from adrenaline. Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) - now bored, wealthy and in control of his dead father's company - is told by Dad (via a DVD recording) that there's an amazing formula in a safe, but under no circumstances can he open that safe. Naturally, Hiro opens it and holds the world-changing piece of paper in his hand. Suddenly it disappears - snatched by a "Heroes" newcomer played by Brea Grant ("Friday Night Lights"). The basic point: The forces of evil are gathering, slouching toward our heroes.

BOTTOM LINE Even with a bit of high-school Yeats quoted to give this some pseudointellectual heft ("And what rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born ..." while the episode is titled "The Second Coming"), the first chapter of the third volume is still a heaping, steaming pile of bunk. But so what? This is good bunk, fun bunk, energetic bunk. Much better bunk than the last volume - which was really right-off-the-tracks-into-the-ravine bunk. "Heroes" is a comic book, and when it's good, this is TV's best comic book. I do believe

"Heroes" is actually watchable again.

GRADE B