The TV Zone

Most of us don’t get NBC Universal’s Chiller channel (or its mystery outlet Sleuth, for that matter, or Universal HD in non-high-def homes).

Here’s more to wish for. This week, Chiller adds two ’90s cult items. First comes Chris Carter’s “Millennium” (Mon-Fri 7 p.m. and 3 a.m.), where the “X-Files” creator hopped on the Y2K bandwagon (gee, remember that?), casting Lance Henriksen as a psychic investigating an end-of-the-world prophecy.

Then comes one of my all-time faves: “Profit,” a twisted eight-episode gem with "Heroes" star Adrian Pasdar [right] as a demented corporate climber who’ll stop at nothing to exact a very psycho sort of revenge. Trust me -- this one is deliriously weird.

The first two hours run Thursday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. and midnight. Episodes (including some Fox never aired) then air Thursday at 8 and 11 p.m. Check Chiller’s “Profit” page for details.

G4 nabs the big one this week for its “Heroes” post-show, airing Saturday at 11 p.m. after the cabler’s 10 p.m. encore of Monday’s NBC episode.

Series creator Tim Kring [above in NBC photo] joins hosts Kevin Pereira and Blair Butler on Dec. 8, promises G4, “to break his silence on the future of ‘Heroes’ and what the writers' strike means to this season and beyond.”

Along with Kring, G4 is touting guests Jack Coleman (H.R.G.) and Jimmy-Jean Louis (the Haitian), “as well as a special surprise cast member guest.”

Wallow in interactive goodies at the G4 “Heroes” page.

So two heroes “fell” from gunshots, right? And another one seemed to otherwise perish? There was so much going on in last night’s “Heroes,” who knows?

One thing’s for sure, the season’s whole “Generations” theme was pounded into the ground in this wrap-up finale. (Watch it here.) “How long are we going to suffer for your sins, for your generation’s deeds?” demanded Nathan of steely Mother Petrelli. “How much longer are we going to have to clean up their mess?” pleaded Matt Parkman. And then there was Elle, trying ever so hard to make her devious daddy proud. It’s always the parents’ fault.

While those familial layers provided some nifty intrigue this fall, it did feel like time to wrap them up, and scripter Jeph Loeb’s hectic hour did just that. In retrospect, the smarter move might have been to spread some of the climaxes further back among the season’s 11 episodes. Last night was a jam-packed whirlwind – sending Niki into a flaming building to rescue Monica in New Orleans (St. Joan in a fire!); having Maya shot by Sylar as he sought Claire’s regenerating blood from Mohinder in New York; Nathan and Matt racing to stop Peter from helping Adam set off the virus in a vault in Texas, with a last-second assist from Hiro popping over from Tokyo.

With all the activity, the episode benefited from savvy injections of humor, too often lacking in this dour-dominated “Heroes” season. Nathan and Matt made wacky flying partners, and Claire got a special moment with Mr. Muggles. Director Allan Arkush was smart to pause from the frantic exposition long enough to give us a chance to breathe, and to build a rollercoaster of thrills and chill-outs that made the reveals all the more effective.

The story’s upcoming Volume 3, “Villains,” was nicely set up with Mrs. Petrelli on the phone conspiring (“You do know that you’ve now opened Pandora’s box”) and Sylar doing his Terminator thing (“I’m back”). Even Adam was merely put out of action rather than terminated.

But how many heroes actually died? Always parse the language with these people. The promos promised two would “fall,” and they did. Whether they get up again is the kind of thing “Heroes” always plays close to the vest.

[Above: Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli in NBC photo.]

“Two heroes will fall!”

Please, let it be the boring ones.

NBC’s “Heroes” promos have been screaming hype all week, and the last couple of episodes – He’s dead! He’s not dead! He’s good! No, he’s bad! – would seem to bolster high expectations.

So we’re cautiously hopeful for tonight’s (semi-)season finale (Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. on NBC), bearing in mind how last May’s first-season finish felt so diappointingly anticlimactic.

In last week’s penultimate episode (watch a two-minute replay here), things moved so fast, we could hardly keep up. We met older-generation hero Victoria Pratt (Joanna Cassidy), supposed spreader of the plot-crucial Shanti virus, soon revealed to be instead a herald of its destructiveness, and she was killed (or so it seemed) mere minutes later. Hiro did more time-traveling, back to the virus’ development in 1977, and forward to not prevent his father’s death but rather vow to avenge it. “And save the world,” added our favorite hero.

Claire showed down against Elle, and threatened to squeal the heroes’ secret to stop her and The Company once and for all. Meanwhile, H.R.G. and Suresh and Bob all faced off against each other in weird geometric permutations that for me have recently become the most compelling part of the tale. Bob maintained to Suresh he was trying to “find a safe way to remove the abilities of dangerous individuals.” And now Sylar has called Suresh to say he has his mitts on youngest-hero Molly. So who’ll get to experiment on whom?

And then there’s Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei/other identities over the past 400 years. David Anders’ mysteriously immortal character is either responsible for the “future” unleashing of the virus that will kill 93 percent of the world’s population, or he’s a truly intriguing red herring. Too bad we have to go through his comrade-in-arms Peter to find out.

The episode’s tag promised us Peter vs. Hiro tonight. There’s only one way for this to go. Or I’m gone.

[Above: Milo Ventimiglia’s Peter, in tonight’s Chapter 11 episode, “Powerless.” Photo by NBC/Adam Taylor.]

Or some, anyway. Tim Sale, who does those prescient paintings for “Heroes” artist Isaac Mendez and the 9th Wonders comic books, appears this week on G4’s Saturday night “Heroes” post-show. It airs Saturday at 11 p.m.. after the channel’s 10 p.m. repeat of last Monday’s NBC “Heroes” episode. (Got that?)

Sale joins Kevin Pereira and Blair Butler for a live, interactive event incorporating video viewer mail, show trivia, and other "Heroes" hot topics.

Right: Tim Sale on the "Heroes" set, in NBC photo by Trae Patton.

OK, just when I think I’m out, “Heroes” pulls me back in with a whopper of an episode like last night’s. I think I’m still panting.

We had Claire with her dad doing that classic teen “I hate you!” thing. We had Hiro stopping time and tripping through it all over the place. We had heroes shooting each other, and saving each other, and controlling each other’s minds. AND we had two absolutely great reveals of breathtaking twists -- which you could see coming if you were halfway paying attention, but still they were great.

In fact, maybe they were better-great because you could anticipate them and then pat yourself on the back for being smart enough to follow the carefully laid clues.

Plus, the “Cautionary Tales” hour was laugh-out-loud funny in spots, which reminds us how much we miss that aspect of “Heroes” through episodes like last week’s morbid/morose flashback. Stephen Tobolowsky’s canny Company-man Bob continues to be not only intriguing but also amusing, with his Texas-drawl-dry delivery of lines like last night’s observation about gun-toting enemy H.R.G.: “He’s not big on the listening.” I’m not big on Kristen Bell’s too-cute executioner Elle, myself, but around big daddy Bob, this electric lady is a playful hoot.

And then there was Suresh’s nose getting broken again, and even Mr. Muggles playing a crucial role (or at least his doggie bathtub did) -- this is definitely an hour worth watching again. “Cautionary Tales” is online here, and with commentary here from Bell and Mrs. H.R.G., Ashley Crow, plus episode director Greg Yaitanes. It encores on TV Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. on G4. And in HD, Wednesday at 11 p.m. and Thursday at 8 p.m. on MOJO.

Now, “two episodes left” sounds like not just a threat but a promise. Of course, Peter will be back, with those other party poopers, the black-tears twins. But so will Niki, and Micah, and his cool new superhero cousin Monica.

You can revisit how we got from there to here with MOJO HD’s Thanksgiving weekend marathon of “Heroes” first season -- all 23 episodes, Friday noon-midnight and Saturday 1 p.m.-midnight.

[At top: Jack Coleman, Ashley Crow, Randall Bentley and Hayden Panettiere, in NBC photo by Chris Haston.]

“Strangely unmoved.”

That’s what it says in the notes I took watching last night’s “Heroes,” and it pretty much sums up this whole second season for me.

The show’s storyline does this and that, and jumps through hoops and back again, and yet -- so what? Remember how much we all wanted them to “save the world” last year? Seems like memories are all we have.

Last night’s “Four Months Ago” flashback hour provided one big indication why. The show’s two single most compelling characters -- Hiro and Claire -- were MIA. Daddy H.R.G. wasn’t around, either. Nor Matt or Mohinder. And the episode’s limp progress (re-gress?) made it clear the others are definitely second-stringers: Niki and D.L., Peter and Nathan, and as always bringing up the rear, Maya and Alejandro. (What was with that stupid bride-cheats-at-her-wedding storyline? Straight out of a novela. Sheesh.)

Sure, “Heroes” had a lot of ’splainin’ to do after jumping forward in time at the start of this second season. How did Nathan get disfigured and Peter marooned in a shipping container bound for Ireland? What happened to D.L.? And Kristen Bell’s Elle character was never properly introduced.

OK, so mission accomplished. But that’s about it. Even with last night’s episode written by series creator Tim Kring, there was no real, well, spark -- unless you count those shock encounters between powered Peter and electric Elle. Which were another “so what” event.

I’m still intrigued by Stephen Tobolowsky’s evil-or-is-he Bob, commander of The Company [above in NBC photo], and now, too, by actor David Anders, currently named Adam Monroe after being introduced as Kensei back in 18th century Japan. He comes across as a canny guy -- frankly, I wish we’d seen him and Bob at the loggerheads he mentioned (or made up?) -- with an immortal story worth telling.

So, for that matter, does The Haitian [Jimmy Jean-Louis, left in NBC photo], who’s gotten slighted by this series most of all. “Heroes” only has another month to make things right in this “volume” of the tale, before holiday hiatus and whatever the writers’ strike brings.

Or what would bring us back whenever that ends?

Imagine, if you will, that in watching last night’s “Heroes” episode you were a brand-new viewer trying to figure out what was going on.

Heck, I’m a certified “Heroes”-head, and I’m not sure I know.

Yes, it’s a good thing that more of our familiar favorite characters are coming together than being far-flung off in 18th century Japan or some Irish pub or the snowy Ukraine. But the show is also adding characters like mad to its already confusing roster: Kristen Bell as the electric chick who seems to be doing the bidding of her Company daddy, Alan Blumenfeld as Matt’s mind-controlling absentee father, and now the seemingly key character of Adam Monroe, a “visionary”/“God” renegade from the earlier generation of heroes, who seems to be -- wait -- Hiro’s feudal Japan pal Kensei? Sure looked like David Anders in both roles to me.

It’s all starting to feel a bit too curlicued and contrived somehow, with that and Claire’s boyfriend having been once abducted by her dad and Sylar stumbling into the black-tears twins and all that time-shifting mumbo jumbo and other handy twists of fate. I miss last season’s sense of individual discovery and character evolution. How can a character evolve this season when each gets about 25 seconds of screen time till we have to move on? When Nathan complained last night about the Company’s “half-truths and constant manipulation,” he might well have been discussing “Heroes” itself.

The only one really overcoming that for me is Hiro, who seems to finally be done with his solo samurai time trip. It was indeed getting old, and yet I suddenly sense I’m going to miss it greatly. I don’t know if it was the old-time Japan setting or the formality of so many subtitles there, but Hiro’s been getting away with a lot of fable-like aphorisms that lift the show into soulful flight above its expository mechanics. “Pain has made him cruel, but he is good, inside,” Hiro said of the turncoat Kensei last night, radiating faith, nobility and heart.

Actor Masi Oka truly is the show’s breakout star, and probably its best actor. That’s going aways with veterans like Greg Grunberg (Matt) and now Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob) on board. But Oka has been given the opportunity to play it all -- from gravitas to playfulness, with adventure heroics and romantic yearning in between -- and he’s made it all sing. He’s just a warm, glowing, affecting presence that lights up the screen every time he hits it.

Now that Hiro is back in the thick of things, in the present day, he may be able to lift the show along with him. He should have help from its other key hearttugger, Hayden Panettiere, after Bob informed us last night “Claire is the key.”

But oops, next week (Nov. 12), “Heroes” goes all temporal shift again, bouncing back four months to explain what happened to Nathan, how Peter survived the blast, the fate of D.L. and more. Sure, we want the questions answered. But do we like being jerked all over the place like this? Pain has made “Heroes” cruel. But the show is good, inside there. Somewhere.

Watch last night's and other Season 2 "Heroes" episodes online here, or here with commentary.

[Above: Masi Oka in NBC photo by Paul Drinkwater.]

So maybe the reason I loved last week’s “Heroes” episode so much was that Maya and Alejandro weren’t in it. That thought struck me watching last night’s episode, where they were, and where they seemed to sink the whole hour again in a trough of whatever black sludge comes out of Maya’s eyes when she goes all homicidal.

That “power” is a killer, both literally and figuratively when it comes to the show. It’s silly, number one, and sillier, number two, when Alejandro holds her hands to snap her out of it. These new actors (Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz) don’t display much charm, either -- there’s no hint of buoyancy or playfulness in their portrayals. I know their Hondurans-fleeing-to-America situation is dire, but still. Something appealing or at least intriguing should seep through. But nada.

“Heroes” now has so many characters, it can’t begin to service them all each week, and it’s become increasingly crucial what an episode’s mix is. Between that south-of-the-border dreariness and the Ukraine winter/murder and Peter’s Ireland mopiness, last night’s hour just didn’t exude much magic. Even Hiro’s time trip to 18th century feudal Japan felt a little limp, his normal exuberance mired in romantic woes. (Though that last-minute betrayal twist was pretty nifty.)

Weird, isn’t it, that suddenly the show’s most compelling character seems to be Bob, that Company functionary (or is he?) played by cool-customer character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. Beware the guys in the glasses. With this show, they’re always more cagey than you expect.

(BTW, the episode’s “in memory of” end credit was for Tim Susco, the “Heroes” location manager who passed away Aug. 15 at the age of 25.)

Watch last night’s and other second-season “Heroes” episodes here, or with second-screen cast/crew commentary here (this week from episode writers Kay Foster and Adam Armus, with H.R.G. actor Jack Coleman).

[Above: Masi Oka and Eriko Tamura in NBC photo by Justin Lubin.]

Finally! One of those great “whoa!” moments that takes you completely by surprise and takes your breath away. Like last fall when they cut to a shot of cheerleader Claire lying on a table and chatting away with her rib cage cut completely open. Whoa!

“Heroes” did it again last night when Matt’s in-the-marked-for-death-picture dad lured his cop kid and Nathan Petrelli past a door in his Philadelphia apartment that led to -- everywhere! Matt found himself in a humongous jail cell, while Nathan was on that Manhattan rooftop overlooking the (forthcoming) apocalypse. It all ended up being a dream -- daddy is Molly’s “nightmare man,” after all -- but it was a doozy of a twist, utterly unexpected.

More please! After laying track the past few weeks, “Heroes” is finally zipping along. We also got a great dose of wonder and joy in Micah and his copycat cousin Monica, who’s just discovering her abilities. Turns out that reintroduction feels crucial to the show. With everybody else jaded or uber-motivated On A Mission, Monica represents that aching-heart intimacy the story needs to stay personally affective, to keep from lapsing into pure genre adventure. She reminds us what the show is really about -- people in crisis, perplexed by their sudden “powers,” overwhelmed, fearful, sometimes excited, but afraid of losing themselves by becoming entirely other persons.

Like Nathan. What’s up with the split personality? Is he going all Niki on us? And the older generation of “heroes” represented by Suresh’s boss Bob and the Petrellis’ mom and Matt’s dad, the latter actually invoking the catchphrase “save the world” last night -- good guys? Bad guys? For that matter, are we sure The Company is evil? And what about lightning-fingered new girl Kristen Bell and her on-the-phone “daddy”?

There’s suddenly so much going on that we don’t even notice when half the cast is MIA. No H.R.G. and Haitian to speak of, no Claire, very little Hiro, no Sylar and the (I’m still not into them) Hondurans. They’ll all be back next week, but “Heroes” seems so full of rich characters that they can rotate to keep the show feeling fresh. Let’s enjoy it while we can. You know what’ll happen once they’re past November sweeps . . .

Watch the episode again here, or with fun video commentary from star Greg Grunberg (Matt) and producer Greg Beeman here.

[Above: Noah Gray-Cabey as Micah, Dana Davis as Monica, in NBC photo by Chris Haston.]

Well, sort of. Turned out the thought-dead brain-eating blackguard was actually hallucinating in some dumpy cement-block building marooned in the depths of the rainforest. Of course this he discovered only after chomping dead his keeper and latest victim, mind-bender Candice.

Pretty nifty turn for “Heroes” to take in its third hour of the season. (Watch it online here. With cast-crew commentary here.) Sylar (Zachary Quinto) actually got to show a little soul when he feared he’d lost all his purloined powers. And maybe he has.

But new powers were being revealed everywhere else, upping the action ante quite nicely. Still not sure, though, how I felt about that Christopher Reeve-Margot Kidder-“Can You Read My Mind” moment where fellow student West (Nicholas D’Agosto) swept Claire (Hayden Panettiere) up into his arms for a little Superman soar around the California coast. C’mon, producers -- you can do better than ripoffs of saccharine-sweet sentiment.

But the student’s capacity for flight was matched around the world and three centuries earlier when reluctant hero Kensei (David Anders) was revealed as being self-healing. The syrup wasn’t quite as sugary in ancient Japan, providing a warm moment for Hiro (Masi Oka) to pine over the white knight getting the babe he was not only yearning for but secretly courting, too. Hiro as Cyrano! Priceless. So was his sneaky scroll-hiding communication with Ando across history. [At right, NBC photo of James Kyson Lee by Chris Haston.]

And there was so much more. Peter’s bullet-spittin’ chest. (And I’m liking that Irish chick he’s been confiding in, too. And her creepy crook brother.) Niki taking Micah to New Orleans to live with hailing-frequencies-opening Uhura (Nichelle Nichols, all white-hair-helmeted now). Claire learning from her flying friend about an evil kidnaper who wears -- what else? -- Horn Rimmed Glasses!

So wait. The good guys are which ones? And the baddies might be -- ? Hmm. Not sure whom to root for now. Kinda cool, isn’t it?

(Still unpersuaded by that meandering Maya tale, though.)

Did “Heroes” start this fast/slow last fall? Guess I need to go back and watch the DVDs to remember. This second season is ostensibly racing along after two weeks -- last night’s episode (watch it here) bounced from 17th century Japan to contemporary Guatemala, to Haiti, to Ireland, to California and New York -- and it further integrated at least a half-dozen new characters.

Yet after last night’s expository hour, the series feels to me like it’s just ambling somehow. Can’t quite figure it out. I mean, Claire is all “I can’t not be what I am” again -- hasn’t she been through this like seven times already? -- and Hiro is babbling in subtitles about what he’s doing to “the space-time continuum.” Again. At least the return of the Haitian was welcome. Hadn’t realized how I’d missed his particular presence.

But the new characters haven’t really been clarified yet. What’s the deal with Maya’s “black tears” and their sometimes fatal consequences? And her twin brother sort of purifying her? I wanna know more about Japan’s white samurai, too. And that whole Irish gang, and Peter’s amnesia. (And Nathan’s moping.) Meanwhile, where the heck are Niki and Micah? (NBC press releases had promised them as part of this second episode.) And Sylar?

Pretty cool to see Claire’s severed toe regenerate, though.

Maybe this is just the measured way the season game has to be played. Kind of like “24.” That Fox thriller begins each “day” gangbusters, sort of levels off in intensity, then utterly loses its way through the season’s middle third, only to recover dramatically by story’s end. (Well, usually. Not last season.)

“Heroes” has even more to juggle, needing to reestablish its plethora of returning characters while introducing a whole ’nother passel of people and their “abilities.” That takes awhile. But after the way last season caught fire and blazed away for weeks on end, I’m in that rhythm with the bar being set high. I want those rousing reveals, breathtaking payoffs and explicit explanations all the time. So far only Claire’s lizard-toe has come close to doing the trick. And we’re two hours into the season.

Sure, I wanna see more. I just want “Heroes” to pick up the pace.

[Above: David Anders and Masi Oka in NBC photo by Trae Patton.]

Missed last night’s big “Heroes” return? NBC is happy to help you out.

The second-season premiere repeats on NBC (in high-def) this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.

And it’s streaming online now at NBC’s “Heroes” page, along with last May’s first-season finale. The site also hosts Monday night’s live blog with “Heroes” creator Tim Kring and star Jack Coleman (H.R.G.).

And if you're lucky enough to have a Verizon V CAST Mobile TV equipped phone, you can even watch it on that teeny-weeny cell screen via NBC2Go.

Finally! "Heroes" sure heated up last night, bouncing back strongly after last May's anticlimactic first-season finale. Ending four months of anticipation, the faithful were rewarded with a white Japanese legendary hero, a new flying boy, a Company man who's a Midas, and more than a few of our "heroes" reinventing themselves in new locales.

And still, satisfyingly, Claire in full flower as the nucleus of our story -- the bleeding heart and aching soul whose hardly shallow teen dream to "be who I really am" is the essence that makes "Heroes" not some superfluous sci-fi romp but a resonant portrait of our human thirst for purpose, identity, belonging.

Way to go, Tim Kring, creating a show where a blonde high school cheerleader profoundly represents the truest and strongest in us. Of course Kring would cast some sandy-haired Englishman as a godlike Japanese myth, again subverting our expectations with a bracing jolt. Not to mention the expectations of Masi Oka's Hiro, who'd teleported back to a 17th century version of his homeland in the season finale. His discovery that celebrated samurai Takezo Kensei was a dirty-fighting pirate, whom it seemed it was his responsibility to rehabilitate -- "I broke history," Oka moaned, wonderfully -- marked a nice, if oddly far-flung, twist of fate.

Too bad that last night seemed to be the end for Hiro's father, Kaito, who'd been sitting vigil for four months at that bland urban-square site of the season finale's big (little) showdown, which Hiro had squinted himself into time-traveling away from. George Takei's character, and Cristine Rose as the Petrelli matriarch (and his fellow hero "elder"), were both marked for death on photographs by that mysteriously meaningful symbol otherwise seen in tattoos (and fleetingly revealed last night on the historic Kensei sword).

But as Takei took a seemingly fatal plunge, another possible "hero" took flight. After Claire met an interesting boy at her new high school in the California town where her Texas family has resettled, the kid was revealed to be levitating his way into peering into her bedroom window. Interesting this should happen while she was on the phone with dissolutely depressed daddy Nathan, in the form of a newly bearded Adrian Pasdar, who mopingly gazed into a mirror and saw a bloodied, skin-stripped face staring back at him. He'd flown off in the finale with younger brother Peter, whose death he and his murder-marked mama seemed to be mourning -- though at episode's end, an amnesiac Peter was seen huddled in an otherwise empty shipping container in far-off Ireland.

In other words: The start of "Heroes" second season seemed to lay out as many disparate threads as last fall's very first episode. Canny professor Suresh was seen off in Cairo laying a trap for The Company, in cahoots with now-Californian Claire daddy H.R.G. Mind-reading California cop Matt has become an NYPD detective -- and the protector of sight-gifted kid Molly, suddenly afflicted with hero-symbol nightmares. Down in Honduras, we met new "hero" Maya and her brother Alejandro, fleeing toward the United States after being hit with a murder rap. Seemed after their smuggling-truck mates wound up bloody dead that maybe Maya sometimes goes uncontrollably postal.

And these folks are hardly the half of it. The post-show previews of future "Heroes" action reminded us that we hadn't yet seen Sylar, or Niki, or Micah, and what about The Haitian?

Of course, we're lucky if we can see any of them behind those obnoxious NBC series promos that plaster themselves over the bottom part of the screen as "Heroes" action unfolds. If Wednesday's new "Bionic Woman" series weren't already known to me as a dreary stinker of a remake, I'd boycott it anyway, to protest these distractingly moving, garishly colored intrusions. My hero would be anyone who can get these atrocities gone for good.

(Watch "Heroes" video online here.)

[Above: The new kids. Dania Ramirez as Maya, Shalim Ortiz as Alejandro, in NBC photo by Trae Patton.]

It’s not exactly a sneak preview of the second season of NBC’s hit “Heroes,” but fresh footage will be streaming online to prepare fans for new episodes starting Sept. 24.

“Sword Saint” is a five-part web series at the NBC-created web site YamagatoFellowship.org. Supposedly funded by George Takei’s corporate magnate Kaito Nakamura, father of Masi Oka’s Hiro character, the site salutes legendary heroes such as Takezo Kensei. That iconic samurai will be part of Hiro’s fall time-trip back to 17th century Japan.

A “video message” from the elder Nakamura is streaming now (in Japanese), with historical “Sword Saint” adventures yet to come. Narrated (in English) by John Rhys-Davies (“Sliders”), they represent stories told to Hiro as a child.

Other big “Heroes” news includes Tuesday’s release of the first-season DVD and the ongoing Heroes World Tour by the show’s cast and crew. Read more about those here. (The tour stops at Rockefeller Center Tuesday morning.)

Repeats continue on NBC Monday nights at 9. Oka and costar James Kyson Lee (Ando) host tonight’s “Six Months Ago” flashback.

[Above: NBC photo of Masi Oka in Sept. 24 season premiere.]

That “Heroes” cast is getting crowded. “Veronica Mars” herself, Kristen Bell, has signed on to play “a sexy, intriguing, mysterious young lady who has ties to Peter’s apparent death, H.R.G.’s past and Claire’s future.”

Bell’s character, named Elle, will first appear in October for a multiple-episode arc in which she commits “a terrible crime,” says NBC.

Already reported “Heroes” cast additions for fall include ex-“Trek” hailing-frequencies officer Nichelle Nichols, as a relative who takes hero kid Micah into her New Orleans home; Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz as Central American siblings; Nick D’Agosto as Claire’s new boyfriend; Japanese pop star Eriko Tamura; and David Anders (Sark on “Alias”) as Hiro’s hero, legendary samurai Takezo Kensei (yes, Anders is a white dude; we don’t get it either).

BIG body count on last night’s penultimate “Heroes.” If you don’t want to know, STOP READING NOW.

Click "Continue" to see who got it . . .

A hot Hiro!

Yes, the astounding “Heroes” can get even better.

Not only that, but it got a lot more topical last night. The NBC drama’s visit to the five-years-gone future kicked some intriguing ideas into play.

After the nuke hits New York, the outed “heroes” are feared by the populace as some invading horde of not-us aliens. Now they’re “undocumented individuals,” considered to be terrorists, who are rounded up by a big-brother government, led by secretly-flight-capable American president Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), who considers himself “the decider” in such homeland-security matters. Since voters don’t really understand these superpowered people, they’re set up Nazi-style as “a species to be exterminated.”

Whew.

But wait! Nathan isn’t Nathan! He’s actually Sylar (Zachary Quinto), the brain-lifter who’s absorbed the power to shape-shift himself. And he’s one ticked-off dude. With reason: The foretold nuking of Manhattan was blamed on him, when it was really, as we’ve known since fall, triggered by self-flaming fellow power absorber Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia).

But wait! Peter is alive, with a deep scar slashed across his pretty-boy face, and he’s bitter, sulking in Vegas with his new girlfriend, pole-dancing Niki/Jessica (Ali Larter). Both of them look much older than five-years-on, beaten down and weary. As do they all. HRG (Jack Coleman) is running some sort of underground railroad to keep superpowered folks free, while daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is hiding by biding her time as a brunette in a podunk diner. Matt (Greg Grunberg) and the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) have become cynical enforcers for pseudo-Nathan. Only Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), also working for “the president,” seems to have any of his old can-do spirit left.

And do he does, big-time, in the episode’s climactic twist. When ordered by one hero to “put down” another, vet-style, Suresh instead turns on a third, inciting yet another chase, another epic battle, one more chance for Hiro to truly be a hero and save the world.

Ah, yes, Hiro. Last night, Masi Oka got to play both his anxious office geek’s current self and his swashbuckling future incarnation, all smolderingly dashing in black gear, ponytail and ninja sword. (Be still, my heart.) He was so intense that, as current Hiro whimpered, “I scare me.”

But he also impresses, immensely, with the essence of what has made “Heroes” authentically great. Though the fantasy action races at a pace that’s mindboggling, it never feels rushed, only immediate. That’s because the underlying emotion is so penetratingly played, even in its succinct delivery. Last night’s time-tripping interplay between current Hiro and buddy Ando (James Kyson Lee), and then future Hiro and past buddy Ando, evoked such a rich relationship in just a few quick strokes. Now Hiro, who finally is a hero, doesn’t even care about saving the world. He just wants to save Ando. Talk about a truly human twist.

“Heroes” is delivering the most deliciously creative -- and soul-delving -- drama of the season. It isn’t just breathtaking, it’s deep.

And all this magnificence in NBC’s Monday lineup is being used to lead into -- “The Real Wedding Crashers”? Get serious, guys. “Heroes” is a genuine phenomenon, and even better, a show that actually deserves to be. When I get a gander at what follows it each Monday night, I scare me, too.

(Watch last night’s “Heroes” episode online here with resizable video commentary from actors Grunberg, Ramamurthy and Coleman.)

I’ve seen April 23’s return episode of NBC’s “Heroes,” and I just can’t keep it to myself.

Yes, a hero does die. Really. Truly. (Apparently.)

Rather, I should say, at least one hero dies. Because some other life-expiring takes place, too.

Don’t you hate me for being so cryptic?

You shouldn’t. This new episode, after six agonizing weeks without one, is well worth the wait, moving at light speed to fire up thrilling new adventures for nearly all the characters.

Some of the “heroes” who’ve never met each other finally do (probably not the ones you think). Family members are reunited while others get separated (not the ones you think). Adversaries join forces (not the ones you expect). There’s some super-major turn-your-face-away torture/gore (not the victim you’d predict).

We even learn that an ostensible baddie actually wants to be a good guy, with a weird plan for “healing” that should resonate double in this particular part of the country.

And just when you think they’ve forgotten our fave hero Hiro entirely, he gets the top shocker of the entire episode!

Less than two weeks away, people. You can make it.

Especially with these refreshers:
• NBC airs the previous three episodes in a Saturday night marathon April 21 (“Unexpected,” “Company Man,” “Parasite”). Great way to catch up in HD.
• Sci Fi repeats “Heroes” episodes Fridays at 6 p.m. (“Unexpected” this Friday, “Company Man” April 20).
• NBC.com offers all 18 of this season’s episodes on-demand online. The most recent six can be viewed with optional video cast/crew commentary on the proceedings.

In the meantime, this tantalizing photo hint:

[Malcolm McDowell as Linderman, Ali Larter as Nikki Sanders -- NBC photo by Paul Drinkwater]

Counting the days till “Heroes” resumes new episodes on NBC April 23?

Fill the void by rewatching the last six episodes online, complete with enlightening cast/crew commentary. As each episode replays in one computer window, you can watch writers and actors in an adjacent window discussing the plot, the production process, their reactions to what’s been scripted, and more.

For the most recent episode, “Parasite,” producer Allan Arkush directs a discussion on a soundstage set with writer Chris Zatta and actor Jimmy Jean-Louis, who plays that mysterious, usually mute Haitian. For “Company Man,” it’s Arkush with featured actor Jack Coleman (H.R.G.) and episode writer Bryan Fuller. You can minimize/maximize picture and audio for either window at any time.

If that’s not enough to tide you over, the episodes themselves repeat on TV as “encores.” NBC airs the last two, tonight and next Monday at 9 p.m. Sci Fi cable has a five-episode mini-marathon this Friday, March 30 (7 p.m.-midnight on Sci Fi), with additional eps on succeeding Fridays through April at 7 p.m.

[Where we left off: Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli, Zachary Quinto as Sylar, in NBC photo by Chris Haston.]

Yuck.

Suresh stapled to the ceiling, dripping blood. Jack Bauer clipping off people’s fingers. And I thought they were over this ickiness.

“24” actually chilled out a bit the past couple weeks after that early-season torturefest, but last night the Fox thriller seemed to be going back to its old games. Now that Jack Bauer has de-digitized and pistol-whipped the terrorist Russian consul, what will the Ruskies do with their captured intruder? Might it involve pain and suffering? (Well, are U.S. vice-presidents scheming evildoers here?)

“Heroes” got gross again last night, too, thanks to all-evildoers-in-one Sylar. The episode pretty much wasted a great twist, when resident professor/philosopher Suresh wised up to his masquerading companion and restrained the power-swallowing Sylar to “fix” the villain’s craving for other heroes’ brain matter. Too bad the script only let that last a few minutes. Then drippy flyboy Peter Petrelli arrived, and Sylar started in on buzz-sawing his skull. He should have consulted some “Heroes” fans first. We could have told him: There’s nothing in there.
[At right: Milo Ventimiglia in NBC photo by Chris Haston.]

Ah, but there was really something to this cliffhanger hour’s other great twists: Claire’s dad H.R.G. letting his “wife” in on his workplace secrets (Eric Roberts and the shapeshifting chick were not happy), and the Petrelli boys’ mom being revealed as wise to her sons’ (and granddaughter’s) otherworldly gifts.

Can’t wait till “Heroes” returns from NBC hiatus April 23 for its sweeps-month climax. In the meantime, Jack’s got the Monday night agony index all to himself.

[Rewatch last night's episodes online here: "24" and "Heroes."]

He’s a bad guy. No, he’s a good guy. Wait, he really is bad. Nope, now he’s good again. Maybe.

And now that he’s been shot in the gut, is he dead, or what?

“Heroes” just keeps on keeping us guessing, last night with some juicy flashbacks explaining indestructible cheerleader Claire’s dad, otherwise known as H.R.G. (played by Jack Coleman, right). We even got to see her younger self pick out his namesake horn-rimmed glasses.

But we learned juicier stuff back further, as we saw him taking the baby Claire home after “adopting” her from – OMG! – Hiro’s dad (George Takei)! Is everybody in the universe in on the secret of these “heroes”? We saw H.R.G. evolving from a stolid “company man” (the title of the episode), whose job was apparently helping corral and control superpowered specimens, into a seemingly caring father more concerned with keeping his daughter under the “company’s” radar.

With help from the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis). Or is the silent memory-wiper actually evil? He told Claire the truth about her dad. Now he seems to be helping her elude the mystery boss (Eric Roberts, video clip here) whose shadowy appearance last night only whetted our appetite for more.

Which reminds me: Christopher Eccleston’s invisible “hero,” the on-the-lam man who recently took Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia, left with Eccleston) under his tutelage, showed up in flashback as H.R.G.’s fellow company man. Did he go bad on them, which means he went good? Or are they actually good, and he went bad? Is he really a renegade, or instead some devious mole?

And what was with that sneak peek at next week, where the shot-dead-by-her-junkie-artist-lover Simone (Tawny Cypress) seems to be -- alive?

Do we love this twisty tale, or what?

(You can watch the entire episode again here, with informative video commentary from director Allan Arkush, writer Bryan Fuller, and star Coleman.)

As all true-blue “Heroes” viewers — and they’re about 14 million of you out there, myself included — the best new show of the season is on hiatus until Jan. 22.

BUT... on the off-chance that you missed the most recent two episodes, NBC is giving you another chance to catch ‘em this Saturday from 8-10 p.m.

If you’ve seen these episodes already, you can always re-watch (and record it, if necessary) to peruse them for buried clues as to what might occur come January.

And if you’re a newbie who’s heard all the hype, don’t be afraid to jump in right now. You might be a little confused at what it all means, but that feeling will pass quickly and you’ll get hooked on the action. Like that guy in the Men’s Warehouse commercial says, “I guarantee it.”

If you want more, you can always go the nbc website, where the entire season-to-date of "Heroes" is streaming for free.