I finally put my finger on what pisses me off about "Heroes": it's a point-for-point rip-off of the X-Men film series. I was actually going to write a comparative breakdown of characters, abilities and agendas, when I realised that it wasn't really necessary, since the similarities between the TV and film series are so incredibly obvious. Here are some broad-stroke examples:
• People with special abilities, who pose a threat or frighten the small-minded general populace.
• The "good" faction, led by a protective figure, that seeks to establish harmony between all the mutants *cough* heroes, between the heroes and society, and to avert an imminent crisis, to be caused by a powerful hero.
• The "bad" faction, led by a well-meaning megalomaniac, which attempts to find and recruit as many heroes as possible, including said super-hero, and to cause said crisis.
...it's all by the numbers from there on. My only hope is that the series will not collapse upon itself after the current, apocalyptic storyline will be resolved (but I really doubt that the heroes would just band together to fight crime; they're too fucked up individually to make anything useful of their gifts).
Oh, yeah, as for "24" - nice! The new CTU takeover plot twist is a great narrative vehicle for some world-class ass-kicking on Jack's part. It'll also be interesting to see how the writers will resolve the Audrey storyline, and segue this season to the next.