TVSquad

(S03E04) A lot of people have said in the comments that it appears as if I don't like Heroes. Believe me, that's not true. I'm actually a huge fan of the show. As a huge comic book junkie for more years and dollars than good sense will allow me to admit, the potential and general premise of this series is tremendously exciting. And the fact that it achieved such mainstream success right out of the gate was nothing short of astounding.

However, just like you'll tell your wife whom you love more than anything else that she has a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth, I'm not going to just put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that every scene, line and moment of each episode is solid gold. If I see lettuce, I'm going to call them on it. Because the way I see it, it's just lettuce. It doesn't change how wonderful and beautiful she is in the slightest. It's just a little thing that needs to be taken care of because it's distracting me and it doesn't really fit the whole look her face is going for. Kind of like whatever's going on with Mohinder.

(S03E02) Mama Petrelli is going to be trouble this season, isn't she? I wonder how much of the flak the show is taking now is because they've had to restructure their overall plan due to the strike last year. We already know they'd intended to unleash the virus and have the aftermath of that drive the second half of the season. Who knows how that development would have flowed into what we're seeing now.

I'd hate to think that the lower ratings opening of last week's premiere will spell the impending doom of this show. If people are willing to ride along with the insanity of Prison Break for four seasons now, surely they can handle the comic book logic and over-the-top plotlines of this series for a little while. Sure, it's silly. Sure some of it really doesn't make much sense, but what do you expect with extensive time travel stories and super powers. Marvel and DC Comics have been struggling to keep the logic and timeliness of their universes in order for decades.

(S03E01) If you were a little disappointed with last year's strike-shortened season, not to mention that horrible diversion south of the border and that other lengthy one to feudal Japan, Heroes is looking to get back on track with its third season. "Volume 3: Villains" begins with tonight's two hour premiere, and continues for the first thirteen episodes before giving way to "Volume 4: Fugitives" for the remainder of the season.

We know that "Villains" will feature a re-powered Sylar and introduce a whole slew of more super powered baddies to the Heroes universe. I can't say that this was the most accessible place for potential new viewers to jump into the storyline, unless they caught that "red carpet" extravaganza before the episode began, but if you were able to keep up with it, they're certainly looking to turn things on their ears this year.

If you were wondering just what that extra dollar buys you when you upgrade to HD in the iTunes store, you can get a free look. Our pals over at TUAW made note of a number of shows that have free episodes available, in HD. The files are large, with the HD versions clocking in at right around 1.5GB, so it will take a bit to download. Something that isn't helped by the fact that iTunes downloads the SD version as well.

I've been taking a look at them and I grabbed screenshots from Heroes, Life, and Battlestar Galactica to give you an idea of the difference in the picture. It's fairly dramatic. Those captures, and the full list of free episodes, with the iTunes links, are after the jump.

Poor Heroes. After a phenomenal first year, it was one of the most highly-anticipated returning shows last season. However, not only was it claimed by the dreaded sophomore slump, but its season got cut short by the writers' strike, leaving us with eleven kind of awkward episodes.

While season one was about ordinary people discovering that they have extraordinary abilities, much of season two was about these people trying to return to their ordinary lives with the knowledge of what they, and others, can do. The problem that Heroes ran into in the second season was its split focus. You have the original heroes dealing with the aftermath of the first season, highlighted by Nathan Petrelli dealing with the gopher attached to his face, while at the same time you're delving into the story of the previous generation that is being quickly killed off, not to mention the addition of new characters.

When I received the season two DVDs, I was curious to see if producers went the extra mile to make up for a lackluster season, or if the DVD set is as disjointed as the season itself.

Annie posted earlier today about Michael Phelps' upcoming hosting duties on Saturday Night Live. The Olympic swimming champ isn't wasting any time capitalizing on his stardom, because now he's also landed a cameo on HBO's Entourage.

According to the World Entertainment News Network, the eight-time gold medal winner will appear as himself in an upcoming episode of the buddy-series, which begins its fifth season on Sept. 7.

Phelps certainly must have some good people working with him, because in addition to hosting SNL, he'll be among the presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7.

Hey everyone! This time we've got five copies of Heroes - Season Two on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. One of the copies is signed by several main cast members. The DVD is available in stores tomorrow.

To enter, leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, August 29 simply telling why you'd like to own this set. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

NBC is set to debut the trailer for the new season of Heroes on August 30th as part of the big "NBC Primetime Preview." But since most of us grew up with MTV, we don't have the patience to wait for that. Luckily, it's already online, and embedded after the jump.

I'm one of those that had some issues with the last season. It felt like Maya, Alejandro, Micah, and Monica were all part of an elaborate scheme to make me put my head through a wall. And man, I was ready for Hiro to be done with ancient Japan about three weeks before he was. However, I do believe Tim Kring when he says he understands what they did wrong, and that the next season will be better. That, combined with the new trailer, has me as excited as ever about the show.

This is going to please Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Seth Green, who played Oz on Buffy and currently is one of the brains behind Robot Chicken, is joining NBC's Heroes this season. He'll have a multi-episode storyline with fellow Robot Chicken-er Breckin Meyer. They'll play two comic-book aficionados who cross paths with one of the heroes, though it's not certain right now which of the heroes they'll interact with, in what way, or what their character names are going to be.

Is this good news for the show, or are we already starting to see too many new characters for the show so soon after new characters were introduced in the strike-shortened, fan-hated second season? I agree that it's an awfully large cast right now as it is, but I also understand that as the seasons go on and new plots develop, new characters are necessary. And having a fan favorite like Green (playing someone geeky) might be fun.

In the Heroes universe (as with the Buffy universe before it), death has never stopped anyone from being a guest star. According to EW's Michael Ausiello, Robert Forster will be joining the cast as Arthur Petrelli, the father of Nathan and Peter Petrelli. The character has been well-established as being dead on the series. Forster is best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance in the movie Jackie Brown.

As the original article states, there isn't a definitive way to know how we'll meet Papa Petrelli. Hiro's time-travel abilities could be involved or it could simply be a flashback.

And thousands of Heroes fans around the world say "well, duh."

Heroes creator Tim Kring admits that there might be a little bit too much going on in the show's universe. At a NATPE LATV Festival panel discussion, Kring says that there might be so much content going online -- and so many employees working on the online content -- that it sort of takes away from the experience of the show and the storyline, especially if you have a creative team working online that really isn't close to the team that works on the TV show. Sounds like he's referring (strongly) to the much-maligned second season of the show.

He also thinks that all of the product placement and corporate sponsorship that the show has doesn't help either.

Ah, Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center. If you've been to Comic-Con before, you know how cavernous Hall H is. If you don't, well, it's just frick'n huge. I didn't think anything could make Ballroom 20 seem small.

I got in like over two hours before the panels in this room started, and by the time I got in it was about 3/4 full. Then, finally, the Heroes panel started.

The thing about the Heroes panel is that, unlike any of the other TV panels I went to so far, there were very few things discussed or questions asked. I think perhaps five people got to ask questions, most which weren't informative at all. What did take up the time was a viewing of the entire first episode of the new season, which doesn't premiere until September 22. I'll post some spoilery details on that later, but for now I'm typing this as I await the Lost panel.

Saturday -- a time of rest and relaxation. A time to put your feet up, grab a lemonade, open a book, and let the cool, summer breezes gently rock your hammock as a lazy July day passes. Of course, that's if you aren't attending the San Diego Comic-Con. Then, it's out of your bed, quick shower (if any), breakfast-on-the-go, and right back into the queues to see your particular favorites talking about their television shows.

Like Friday, Saturday at Comic-Con will be packed with television goodness. This is the day that many of the big guns come to play. Shows like The Office, Lost, Battlestar Galactica will be making appearances. They will be joined by newcomers Chuck, Dollhouse, and Pushing Daisies. There will even be an appearance by the recently single Sarah Silverman. There's also a good bit of television animation being featured, particularly by Nicktoons and B.E.T. Animation.

In order to make sure you get the most out of the money you paid to get into the convention, we here at TV Squad are providing you with a complete list of television-related panels for that day. If you are interested in seeing what else is going on July 25th you can review the official full schedule at the Comic-Con website. Remember, times and appearances are subject to change and seating in all event rooms is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

NBC launched a webisode series called Going Postal to whet your appetite for the fall season of Heroes. Each week we'll get introduced to a new villain, their ability and their motives.

The first installment called "A Nifty Trick" features Echo DeMille played by Kiko Ellsworth (General Hospital, Dexter). Echo is a mailman with a secret ability that involves really loud screaming. An official-looking agent and a pale thug are after him.

Over the next few weeks we'll find out more about Gina (Rebeka Montoya), Constrictor (Mark Steger), Agent Howard (Brian Prescott), and Agent #1 (James Ryen). Gina is Echo's love interest (according to the site she doesn't have a special ability). And we meet Constrictor in this first video. You can probably tell what Constrictor's ability is just from the name.

By the time Heroes kicks off season three, babies will have been born that were conceived after the season two finale but arrived in time for the season three premiere. That's a long wait by anyone's standards. Anyone except David Chase anyway. It's not as bad as all that though. NBC has seen fit to commission the web series, Heroes: Going Postal to make that wait just a little easier to take.

The series kicks off next Monday on NBC.com, and they've started the hype machine up this week with a trailer. The new character you see in the picture is Echo DeMille. He's a mild mannered mailman, with a secret. But as the trailer tells us, sooner or later, secrets will kill. The three part series is made by the same people behind the show and new episodes will appear on the following Mondays. It's unclear what role, if any, the regular heroes will play in the web series, but there is a familiar face that pops up in the trailer. See for yourself, after the jump.