What I'm Watching -- Heroes and Prison Break

Both 24 and Prison Break may have slipped in the ratings some this year, and both have had up and down seasons, they are still appointment viewing for me anyway, so after watching last night's two-hour Prison Break and catching up on Heroes this afternoon, both shows are starting to move in the right direction.

Starting with Prison Break, you had to figure Michael's escape plan wasn't going to go quite as planned. Too early in the season first off, and just as he did in the first season, these false start escapes certainly build a lot of tension. The first hour was definitely more action-packed and exciting than the second, but overall it was a good night. Getting Lechero in on the escape made sense (I wonder why Lechero wasn't interested in escaping earlier, despite his power role inside Sona) and adding the wrinkle that Whistler may not be the innocent prisoner we thought I like a lot. Who is this guy? Is he working with the Company? Is he just a pawn like Michael? And if so, why not tell Michael he's had contact with the Company? Certainly gets me to keep watching.

As for Heroes, finally we are moving in the right direction. As I've written before I've not been a huge fan of this season so far. The stories have been too disconnected, the characters not interacting nearly enough, and there was no over-arching storyline connecting all of the Heroes. A few weeks back I thought they were headed in the right direction but then they fell back again. Maybe I'm just not enjoying the whole killer-twins/Sylar storyline, so the lack of that this week made for a better episode, I don't know.

What I do know is that it was about time for Hiro to come back from Japan, and they wrapped that plotline up pretty well. Now he can get back to avenging the death of his father, who if we believe Bob (and who knows at this point) was caused by Parkman's dead at the behest of this Adam character, who was Hiro's hero-turned-nemesis Takezo Kensei. While David Anders was fine as Kensei, he does his best work (as Alias fans will attest) as a villain, and I'm sure he'll bring a lot of his Sark character from Alias to his new role on the show.

And now, preventing the spread of the Shanti-virus, and saving the world again, will bring the heroes back together. Which may mean that Peter is on the wrong side of things, teaming up with Kensi-turned-Adam. But maybe not. Bob is the one creating the virus (of which Nikki is now infected) so who says he's not the one to release it to the general population. It keeps you guessing, which is exactaly what Mohinder is going through, and that should make Heroes really interesting going forward.

As long as, you know, this current writers strike doesn't short circuit everything, which I'm fearful it might.