Heroes And Villains

I'm a little bewildered by the first two hours of the new season of Heroes. It seemed more a reboot than a premiere. All the characters are acting, well, uncharacteristically.

Hiro is distrustful, Peter is bitter, Nathan's found religion, Niki has a new alter-ego (and a new power--she's gone from supergirl to ice queen), Claire is depressed, Mama Petrelli hates her kids and Mohinder no longer seeks to heal but instead grabs for power.

And not only are Niki and Nathan back, we've even got Linderman's return, proving you can't get rid of anyone on this show.

The first episode featured one of those dangerous future set-ups which, apparently, the rest of the season will explore. They've done this twice already, and I thought once was enough.

Next we see Sylar (another character who won't die) take Claire's power. Didn't they spend a whole lot of Season One trying to prevent that? There were a few characters who didn't show up at all in the first two hours, but that's par for the course on Heroes.

Anyway, this season looks to be darker, which is not a good sign. You want dark, watch Battlestar Galactica. Heroes is best at being fast-moving, light on its feet pop culture. I'll keep watching, but is this the Heroes that I've enjoyed in the past, or some other show with the same name?