Static Zombie

"...shamelessly ripped a page out of the Lost playbook..."

Hehe... but I don't think you're being completely fair with this. Lost isn't creating links between the characters, but between their backstories. If neither Kate nor Sayyid realize that her dad was his handler, for instance, that doesn't advance the story, it's just the writers nudging the viewers in the ribs. Charitably, Lost is trying to establish a web of synchronicity to suggest that deep and inscrutable forces are at work; cynically, they're just trying to cut down on airfare flying character actors out to Hawaii.

Heroes, on the other hand, is linking the characters together directly, in order to establish connections and move the plot forward right away. GMs do this in roleplaying games all the time, to get the protagonists trusting each other quickly so that the action can begin in earnest. It's not gimicky, it's just... expeditious.

At any rate, yeah, I'm with you—they had me at "superpowers." They'd better start delivering the goods fast and furious, however, or they're going to lose me. With the exceptions of Hiro and maybe Isaac, the characters so far range from unbelievable (Claire), to unlikeable (Nathan), to annoying (Peter, Mohinder), and some are all three (Niki). Surely ABC and HBO can't have sucked up all the decent writers in Hollywood.

My bar is set all the higher, unfortunately, because kid-free leisure time is in very short supply for me. I'll cut a show a lot more slack if an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old can watch it. And Heroes is almost at that point... but no, suddenly they've got to "keep it real" and establish Niki's "street cred." (Thank heavens for DVR.) I'll hold out hope that we're past that nonsense and can get on with the heroism and cool special effects.

I'll admit, though, that the second stamp in the top row of this page makes me optimistic that the pace is going to pick up soon. Make with the giant lava demon!

The plot has been catapulted off the carrier deck, but with some unnecessarilty obvious dramatic compression: Niki's son's exit from private school. Peter and Nathan's tale of two brothers. Mohinder's father. Ugh.

Hiro's simple story was the notable exception. Style points for the subtitled Japanese dialogue, too. "death grippu, Spocku!"

I didn't find the characters themselves annoying, but it's up to the writers to find their footing to make the whole thing work for more than a few episodes.

Optimist: we get on with the plot at a pace that makes sense, deliberate or frantic.
Pessimist: the newness wears off, making the flaws more glaring.

We watched, we liked, but I ultimately expect to be disappointed.

I liked it a lot too, as did my wife, and while somewhat nervous that they are going to screw it up I'm optimistic. I was helped by the interviews here, 9thwonders.com, the quasi-offical fan site. The creator knows nothing about comic books, which I found odd, but the two lead writers are both experts (Jeph Loeb is a very successful comics writer) and they both think the show is much better due to his lack of expertise. It allows him to avoid being boxed in by the history and structure of super-hero comics, and they help him avoid the more serious cliches.

Also, unlike Lost, they make it clear that there isn't going to be an ongoing mystery at the center of the plot, but indicate that it will be a character driven show in larger arcs, sort of like Buffy. I hope they can pull it off. This and Studio 60 are my two new shows this year. I'm hoping one of them will be good enough that I'm still watching it two years from now, which hasn't happened with a new show for me in over four years.