Tonight’s episode, entitled “The Kindness of Strangers”, was ironic. And it was ironic because the strangers on the writing staff of Heroes gave no kindness to yours truly. There’s an insanely interesting murder mystery going on here, and the show…just…won’t…let…me…see…it. Instead, I’m treated to a host of stories that more than likely will pay off by the end of “Generations” (after all, I haven’t completely lost faith in the show yet), but right about this time last year, Future Hiro was appearing in the subway system of NYC and blowing my mind. As Molly Walker gets trapped inside her own mind (a much better fate than, say, being trapped in the closet with R. Kelly), I’m just not as invested.

But enough about the overview. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, in a style I started last week: The Good, The Bad, and the Fugly.

Party of Twelve

The Good

OK, I’m leading off with the juicy stuff here. After all, “Generations” is above all a murder mystery, or at least it should be, given the quality of the story and the fact that it brings together well-known characters in new and interesting ways. This storyline’s generated maybe 15% of the season’s air-time and yet is responsible for more than three-quarters of worthwhile television that these early episodes have produced.

We learned tonight the source of the photo being spliced up by The Nightmare Man, the moniker given by Molly to our newest serial killer. Turns out it was taken at The Petrelli Mansion, at a party ten or so years ago. In the picture were people we knew about or strongly suspected (Nakamura, the Petrellis, Linderman), some we should have suspected (the single-monikered Bob, who is definitely the Madonna of the Company), and some we never could have suspected (Papa Parkman). And if you looked really, and I mean REALLY closely, there, in the corner…there’s Waldo!

So, someone in this photo is ostensibly the killer. Someone who is more than likely than not the Nightmare Man.

The Bad

Now here’s where things get interesting: Molly took one look at Parkman the Elder and wigged out like Britney Spears espying a pair of panties: the girl took a serious wiggins. I was stunned: did Heroes just reveal the identity of the bad guy? Surely not, right? I mean, we’re only four episodes into a 11-13 episode arc: this can’t be IT. There must be a twist in here somewhere. I just can’t see it right now. Seemed a bit…sudden. This is a tentative “bad” pending on how this all plays out.

The Fugly

Damn, Nathan Petrelli out-fugs Jack Shepard when it comes to manic depressive beard grow. I actually almost purred when he showed up onscreen smooth-faced. You know what? Let’s all pretend this paragraph never happened.

I Want My MimicTV

The Good

Well, I had expected Ty Pennington and the crew to show up at one point, and they didn’t, so I suppose that’s a plus. As for other positives…um, I got nothing.

The Bad

OK, so new character Monica is kinda driven, kinda spunky, and kind of a mimic. But she can’t mimic just anything: only what she sees through television. No, I’m not kidding. That’s her freakin’ power. If she watches wrestling, she can wrestle. If she watched a cooking show, she can cook. If she watches Rachel Ray’s talkshow, she learns to be an annoying ninny. So forth and so on.

I must say, I love how they use a fake sport such as wrestling to showcase her ability. If anything, her version of Rey Mysterio’s 619 finishing move (yes, I know it, shut up, I can’t help it) should have grazed the burglar’s face, since, you know, she would have learned how to PRETEND to kick someone in the face. But that’s the kind of continuity NBC wants me to overlook.

(Also, imagine if she had this power in the 19th century. She would have been completely effed, unless say she could mimic things heard on a gramaphone.)

(OK, maybe I am just jealous, because if I personally could absorb everything I saw on TV, I would be more powerful than Peter Petrelli and Sylar combined.)

The Fugly

I just sat slack-jawed at the amount of overblown exposition coupled with overblown stereotypes that occurred during the 11 painful minutes this segment was on. This made the Missy Pyle stuff with Hiro and Ando last year seem like gripping drama by comparison. Yes, we are just meeting these characters, but give them time to breathe, show! And yet, we have Sassy Grandma and her sass, thuggish grandson and his thuganomics, and Monica with her Ariel, “Part of their World” attitude explained in painstaking detail while working at notMcDonald’s. It was as if the writers took the basic outline for these characters and literally formed dialogue out of said outline. Absolutely brutal. I can only hope we’re one and done with this so I can watch some drama versus listen to a story pitch.

(By the way, just checking: it’s like, really, really wrong to suggest Micah’s superhero name be “Black Box” after this episode, right? Just checking. Thanks.)

Wonder Twins Around the World, They Coming to America!

The Good

notJames Blunt bit the dust! That was fantastic. Dude stole Claire’s car (a factoid I totally missed until reading some fan board last week), he wrote “You’re Beautiful”, and those two things alone merited his homicide.

Also, I’m giving a tentative “good” to the Three Amigos of Alejandro, Maya, and Sylar. For one, it’s a totally bizarre and unexpected combination, and while it will probably never reach the heights of the Parkman/Sprague/Bennet triumverate in Season 1, it has potential, if for no other reason that Sylar being that close to so destructive a power lends a nice tautness to their scenes: will Sylar truly try to redeem himself by helping these two, or could he himself become a one-man Captain Trips?

Also, Sylar looking down at his broken watch and calling himself “Gabriel Gray” almost made me feel bad for him. I felt sympathy for this scariest mofo in the Heroes universe a year ago. Well played, Future Spock.

The Bad

Dude, Actor Playing Alejandro, you need to learn another facial expression other than “I just ate three bran muffins and now I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper on the Tappan Zee Bridge.” Please.

Also, why Maya would just show Sylar the whackjob book on genetics? Just like that, eh? Seems like you would keep your intentions hidden from the nice man you found sprawled out on the Mexican roadways. Just a thought.

The Fugly

It’s kinda annoying that Maya’s powers comes from her tears, if for no other reason that Alejandro should know as her twin brother ways to keep her constantly happy. You know, recite a Chris Rock stand-up routine. Sing “The Sign” by Ace of Base. Anything. On the other side of the spectrum, you have to make her sad in order to access her powers, which might be hard to do in the heat of battle. The two of them could be pinned down by gunfire, and Alejandro would have to shout things like “FELINE CANCER! HOMELESS KIDS WITH FLIES BUZZING ABOUT THEIR DISTENDED BELLIES!” in order for them to escape.

It’s problematic at best on both fronts, people.

Fly West, Young Man

The Good

Well, we know where the F/X budget went in this ep: to the scene atop the Hollywood sign. Methinks someone in the Heroes production staff sure likes the living hell out of “Superman Returns”, since we’ve seen about three scenes already that match Clark/Lois flight scenes in terms of pace and composition. I didn’t much care for the scene, but it looked absolutely GORGEOUS in widescreen, high-definition.

The Bad

I think I figured out why I hate West so much. I mean, it goes so much beyond the smug attitude and his stalking and his inability to take “no” for an answer. I think it’s because his eyes are so dark that they freak me out. I swear to Christ, each time I see him I think Maya’s somewhere offscreen, infecting him.

Also, I talked about this last week, but it’s still bad: after ALL that the Bennets went through, why no one bothers to be honest with each other boggles my mind. I know that there would be no drama in simply everyone being honest and then secluding themselves in a fallout shelter, but how about this for an alternative.

Everything up to the end of last week’s episode stays the same. So, Noah sees picture, Claire’s mad at Daddy for giving West a hicky before she could. Next day, Noah and Mrs. B tells Claire not to see boys. Again, same as before. She flips, which she should, at which point Noah busts out the JPEG. After all, every single one of Isaac’s paintings has come true, and while things look grim, they cannot be avoided, and maybe, just maybe, he survives this the way Claire survived the Homecoming painting. Only, see, on the side, she still is falling for West, and can’t stay away, and can’t possibly think HE is the one in the painting, and all the while Noah is tracking down the other paintings while Claire gets closer to West…

I mean, isn’t that 100% better than what we’re seeing now? And I’m not even very smart. Sudoku kicks my ass, man. And I came up with that on the fly. I had a whole other bit in there about lemurs with bazookas, but I cut it for budgetary reasons.

The Fugly

How on earth the absolutely best character on the show last year, Noah Bennet, can have his balls snipped off so immediately by the writing staff blows my mind. He was not only a major badass, with no powers to support his badassery, but he was a fierce father, one you’d feel proud to have as your own. And yet, this season, I barely recognize the man behind the horn-rimmed glasses. Just tragic.

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OK, I’ve said my piece…now it’s time for yours: comment away!