Heroes is Back!

The second season premiere of Heroes aired last night, and it's great to have the show back. Flanked by Chuck and Journeyman, it was a great night of TV. And of course, there's a ton of speculation about what the new season has to offer.

One thing I noticed last night that seemed to stand out is that the symbol (the half-helix, or what Ando called "godsend") took a certain prevalence during the opening episode. But what bothered me is that it seemed different. When positioned vertically, the symbol normally has one line coming out of the top, and two on the bottom. Yet, several times last night, the symbol is shown inverted. Particularly coming from Molly's dreams about the man that can see her.

It reminded me of a typical convention of comic books, one that was the focus of the movie Unbreakable. Every hero has an opposite, a villian. It makes me wonder if the inverted symbol is a foreshadowing of sorts, preparing us for the introduction of anti-Heroes. In the first season, Sylar as Peter Petrelli's opposite was a primary focus, but I don't remember if the symbol was ever shown in conjunction with Sylar.

It's worth noting that on the pictures of Kaito Nakamura and Angela Petrelli, the symbol was in it's normal form ... perhaps Angela isn't as evil as Nathan wants to believe.

Journeyman

Journeyman is another one of those shows in NBC's Fall lineup that could have been awful if not executed perfectly, but again, NBC has another potential smash hit on their hands, and Monday nights are going to be hard for the other networks to beat.

The premise is similar to the old show Quantum Leap, but without the futuristic aspect to it, but it feels even more human, as they show the strain that the time travel takes on Dan and his family and friends. That makes the show even more engrossing that Quantum Leap ever was, and it's only the first episode.

After watching these three shows, Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman, I find myself incredibly thankful that these shows are on NBC and not Fox. Fox would have probably found a way to cancel them after just an episode or two, and the world would miss out on great drama (and in Chuck's case, comedy, too).

One funny thing I noticed ... when Dan jumps through time, his items go with him, including his Apple iPhone. It signals several times when he jumps because you can see that there's no digital cell signal back in the past. However, in once scene in particular, you can see that he's holding the phone upside down, but the text is right side up.

NBC Fall Season Rocks!

While I'm not a big fan of Comcast, when there's something on their On Demand service, I'm certainly grateful I have it. Sadly, the only network shows Comcast has had in HD for a while has been reruns of CSI.

I wanted to kill a little time today while something else was recording, and decided to check to see if the next CSI episode was ready yet, and there was a new listing for NBC. Imagine my surprise when the pilots of NBC's big fall season were there waiting for me. And from the looks of it, it's going to be a GREAT season.

Bionic Woman is a fresh take on the old series, and if it feels familiar, it should. It has the same tone as the remake of Battlestar Galactica, and even features a couple of those familiar faces as well. The last few minutes felt a little cheesy, and I don't want to spoil it for you, but when you see it, you'll know exactly the scene I'm talking about. That brief Velveeta moment aside, the show was really entertaining, and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

When I first saw the previews for Chuck, I thought that the show would either be really good, or really, atrociously bad. Lucky for us, it's great. To crib the phrase from his Steveness of Jobs, it's insanely great. Again, don't want to ruin the plot, but this show is going to pluck the strings of every geek out there as hard as Heroes did. So it's no surprise that it'll be airing right before Heroes in the lineup. That's going to be a hard one-two punch.

I still have to watch Journeyman and Life, so look for those impressions soon!

Oh, one small complaint ... Comcast didn't make the 5.1 soundtrack available on the HD feed, only the ProLogic sound. That's ok, it's just be even more reason to watch the shows again!

The Best of Tina Fey, SNL Weekend Update