Hasn't Eric Roberts always looked like hell? - thought he did in Pope of Greenwich Village!

Late Academy Awards comment, and cheap, cheap joke - Ken Levine wrote about Steve Martin in his 2003 review, "Not since Bob Hope has an Oscar host lusted after more women." Perhaps the record has been broken. (Zero difficulty points. Zero points for timeliness.)

(Sorry, never seen Heroes.)

Eight stars

I just added another star.

The Ali Larter plotline better have one heck of a payoff.

But tonight's episode was great, the scary appearance of Eric Roberts notwithstanding.

I have glasses like Mr. Bennet, but I don't wear them much anymore.

I wonder what D4P thinks. He's what we call in the business a "contrary indicator."

D4P is the exception that proves the rule. Unless he doesn't like the rule.

I can deal with one loser storyline in Ali Larter, it's when there is more than one that is the problem, which is what was happening before Grundberg's storyline picked up again last episode.

That episode really demonstrated how much stronger "Heroes" is than "Lost" right now. As I was watching it I was amazed at how assured and controlled the show is. It had a HUGE plot revelation (Hiro's dad's involvement in the company) in the middle of the episode and for instead ended one an emotional high instead of a revelatory one. The episode advanced the plot, actually changed the status quo (no more domestic drama scenes with Claire, though I wonder what will happen to her friend from school), all while giving us heaping amounts of back story. The episode explained a) Claire's origin b) Claire's dad's involvement c) the mysterious Hatian's involvement d) the invisible guy's backstory e) gave us a whole bunch of information into the mysterious group that Claire's dad works for. All of that and yet the best moment of the whole show was Claire's mom explaining faith to Claire, where the subtext spoke to me of Christianity (in a show that is largely concerned with evolution), 9/11 and just love in general. By completely abandonning its formula (multiple story lines, cliff hangers every commercial) they hit one out of the park. Let the writer's of "Lost" take note before they give us another episode about Jack's haircut.

Let's see how Heroes is in Season 3.

9. That's what I was thinking. I definately enjoy Heroes more than Lost right now because it is much better paced, but there is the possibility that it could end up having the opposite problem as Lost. While Lost takes so long to reveal anything that it loses your interest, Heroes may reveal so much early that by season 3, there may be little of interest. In the end, though, even the first season of Lost seemed uneven with some stretches of episodes that just dragged, while Heroes seems to have have been of a more consistent quality.

10 - I think Lost has reached greater heights than Heroes. The feeling I had after last night's show, I had week after week with Lost. A lesser Lost episode was better than the average Heroes episode. Frankly, I'm not sure that still isn't the case.

But I don't need revelations to keep my interest in Lost. I don't watch the show to get the mystery solved. I watch because I'm invested in the characters.

I'd like to see Lost get Hurley some more screen time again soon.

11. I lost interest in the characters on Lost when most became backstories just became a repeat of the issues for each character. The only characters I'm even remotely invested in anymore are Sun & Kim, Locke, and Sayid, episodes featuring them I'd put up as being better than most episodes of Heroes, episodes featuring Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are much worse than any episode of Heroes I've ever seen, the rest are hit and miss.

At this point most of the characters on "Lost" are ciphers. Locke (who was arguably the break out star of the first season) barely appears this season and doesn't have a story line to speak of. Hurley hasn't had a story line since Libby died. ALL of the back of the plane died (besides that one husband and he hasn't been in an episode in forever). Kate went from being a strong, interesting butt-kicking female protagonist to a non-character who is either a hostage, a bargaining chip or source of jealousy between Jack and Sawyer. Sayid hasn't been important in an episode this season. Sun and Jin have barely appeared. Michael might be off the show. After all the hype about Michael's son, he hasn't really been on the show since the first season.

So what we are left with is two main characters- Jack and Sawyer- and three other interesting minor characters- Desmond, Ben and - all of whom probably will be talked about in the past tense by the end of the season judging by the fates of other additions to the cast.

Now "Heroes" is a vastly different show, but I don't really think that it is just plot driven. Many of the characters are driven by Freudian conflicts (father figures, children, spouses, siblings, ect) and nearly all of the drama is derived from character interactions. The difference is that the show is told in the present tense unlike "Lost" which spends half of every episode on back-story. As for "Heroes" struggling to keep up plot twists for several seasons, I don't think it is so difficult. Consider last night's episode where huge amounts of back-story and character development were revealed. Yet, all of the revelations begged new questions- what exactly is this organization? Who did the invisible man hide from the organization? What is Hiro's relationship to his dad (is it something like Claire's?)? Who is that murderous boss? How can people be exposed to enough ambient radiation to set things on fire and yet not end up with cancer? Not to mention the new story lines raised by the episode(Parkman and Claire's dad working together, Claire on the rund). Plot advancement doesn't have to be of the mind-$@*% variety. Say what you want about season 3 versus 1, but right now "Lost" is floundering while "Heroes" is just hitting its stride.

13 - That's a fair analysis. Although I am not as down on Jack as everyone else, I do miss the other characters being developed.

Heroes is solid. It hasn't always made my jaw drop, but it's solid. Except for Ali Larter v. Ali Larter.

14 - It hasn't always made my jaw drop, but neither did "Lost". "Lost" had plenty of of false steps along the way too. Very few shows are just mind boggling (my list is "The Office", "The Sopranos", "Seinfeld"... um a couple of episodes of "Entourage", and "Deadwood").

I think "Heroes" could be a lot tighter written, no narration, maybe a little less coincidences (I mean everyone on the show is related leading to the possibility of accidental incest- see: the smoldering look between Claire and Peter after he saved her, only it is later revealed he is her uncle) and I agree that Ali Larter is the worst character on the show right now... but it is still an awfully good show.

15 Twin Peaks. But in both good and bad ways.