Heroes

By Brian Howard All I’ve got left is Thursday nights. I took on a lot of shows this season, both to blog about and recap and just to watch for enjoyment. But one by one, they’ve fallen by the way side, from Flight of the Conchords and Battlestar Galactica to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I gave...

By Brian Howard Chuck, Heroes, Sarah Connor, BSG and Flight of the Conchords have all called it a season. I kind of wish what remained were spread out a little more. It makes for a solidly funny but exhausting effort for this whiny TV blogger. 8:30 — Parks and Recreation

By Brian Howard The season finale, “An Invisible Thread,” put HRG and Danko in the same cell, Peter and Nathan on the same team, Claire and Angela in the same semi-useless supporting roles and Matt and Hiro and Hiro’s sidekick mostly on the same periphery of all the action. Sylar, as usual, was the root of al...

By Brian Howard Bryce never got over Sarah, did he? For all he did for Chuck, it turns out Chuck stole his girl, and that’s a pretty cool twist because to his dying moments he remained loyal. He was a better friend than Chuck ever knew. Sorry Bryce, but I love that Sarah chose Chuck over her duty and I love even mor...

By Brian Howard I know it’s based only on one episode, but I feel like adding Parks and Recreation to the Thursday night lineup and ditching Scrubs and the ill-conceived Kath & Kim has given NBC a solid comedy block worth parking yourself in front of the TV for. The only weak link is Earl at 8 p.m., so I plan to...

By Brian Howard Seeing Sylar-as-Nathan in that TV press conference did not excite me at all, especially since it puts a chink in Nathan’s plans to reestablish a normal life. For now, check out this conversation with Hiro’s sidekick: Ando Talks! at E! Online.

By Brian Howard Between Parks and Recreation, the funniest debut of a new sitcom since 30 Rock, a brand new episode of 30 Rock itself and two new, nonconsecutive episodes of The Office, it was an embarrassment of comic riches. Not to complain, but it all kind of flowed together in the end.

By Brian Howard He was still shaken up by it later on when HRG showed up posing as Sylar posing as HRG. (Got that?) And that shook up Danko a little more. But HRG was in for his own shaking up, as Sylar used his new shape-shifting ability to good effect, impersonating Sandra. It was mad genius time, the way Sylar co...

By Brian Howard Questions that loom include what’s to become of Daphne. If she wakes up, will she leave Matt high and dry? And what of baby Parkman? Does the little power cell have a purpose or did Micah just think he needed saving and that Hiro and Ando needed something to do? Niki/Tracy/Jessic is gone, so we...

By Brian Howard Niki/Tracy/Jessica was killed off saving Rebel, Rebel was revealed to be Micah (called it), Hiro got his powers back at least partially, Peter made a heroic appearance but didn’t speak (win-win!), Angela got heavy dramatic screen time, Danko took control of the hero-hunting operatio...

By Brian Howard Admittedly, an end date for “Heroes” might not creatively help the show as much as “Lost,” “BSG” and “Shield” because there’s no overriding central question consistently driving the NBC show that fans instantly will recognize as being resolved by a finale (which arguably is “Heroes’ ”...

By Brian Howard No Mohinder or Peter this week, and very little Hiro. What we got was pretty intriguing, though. He and Ando go to L.A. to save Matt Parkman, but it turns out it’s baby Matt Parkman. I always wondered why they wrote his wife off the way they did.

By Brian Howard As part of Hollywood Reporter’s annual Q&As with the five broadcast network chiefs, Bromstad was asked if “Heroes” could be considered “on the bubble” for a renewal. “No,” she said, and added that the network plans to order 18-20 episodes of the show for next season.

By Brian Howard It also came out that Noah had gone to Suresh early on, but Suresh never told anyone. Because of that, Matt blamed Suresh for Daphne’s death. That’s not a leap. After all, Suresh could have warned them all. No wonder he kept protesting Matt’s attempts to go deeper into HRG’s mind.

By Brian Howard From there, Hiro and Ando have orders to save Parkman in LA, according to that fax from Rebel. I’d figured Rebel, who’s also texting orders to the cheerleader, was Peter. But we saw Peter and Parkman, with Suresh, hauling off CRG at the very end. Rebel must be some kind of free agent, maybe a char...

By Brian Howard “Trust and Blood” was an apt title for an episode that explores the broken family trust of Nathan and Peter and of Claire and Noah, not to mention Mama Petrelli and Nathan. The blood, well, besides those blood ties, was also the blood of Daphne, and I’m not at all happy about her demise.

By Amy Vernon Daphne’s luv of Matt saves him from the dastardly Arthur Petrelli. Angela Petrelli reminding dearest Arthur of the luv the once shared saves herself from the dastardly Arthur Petrelli. Sylar remembering how Elle saved his life makes him luv her and, in the end, saves her. He has empathy — whi...