Further thoughts on Heroes, now with spoilers.
So, basically, Peter Petrelli is Jean Grey of the last X-Men movie, down to the "oh yeah, I guess he didn't actually need to die after all"? Except not female. Umm, I guess that's an improvement?
(I was vaguely thinking, while watching, that something was going on that I didn't know about because I hadn't seen the show except for the prior episode; but no, not really, it was all there for me to realize that this was stupid. I was just hypnotized by the family angst.)
I did, however, notice even at the time that Hiro stabbing Sylar was inexplicable.
(Hiro and Ando! Best part of the whole episode.)
As for season one, I'm leaning against watching it, and just starting with season two with Wikipedia's character list open on my lap. Twenty episodes of Claire getting dragged around by people before she finally gets agency in the finale, or whatever was going on with the split-personality woman, just does not sound very appealing. And maybe there'll be better plotting in season two.
(People who asked what I like in TV: characters who are interesting and who don't make me want to throw something at the TV. Stuff happening that doesn't make the analytic part of my brain cry too much (both in plot and in theme/implications). And genre: something that isn't ordinary people leading ordinary lives, that isn't overly suspenseful or icky, and a lack of humiliation comedy (but does have a sense of humor). Lost eventually failed on the characters and on the lack of stuff happening (and the stuff that did happen, frequently didn't make any sense). I get the impression that season one might be somewhat marginal on the "not holding up to analysis" part. Also, Chad watched the finale, because he happened to be in the room when it started and we were having an unrelated conversation during commercial breaks, and I get the impression that he wasn't really impressed.)