"Are you a robot or an alien?"

The most anticipated premiere of the Fall '07 season was slightly less heroic than expected, but not totally deflated.

We return, as the title suggests, four months after Peter Petrelli went Atom-Bomb to find: The Bennets living a "normal" life, Mohinder finding a new job (giving Mutant Trap, Co. a taste of its own medicine), Hiro stuck in the 1600s having just met the legend-turned-Gringo Takezo Sensei (a new character a la David Anders), and Matt Parkman with his newly (adopted?) daughter Molly who is frighteningly articulate and quite the standout in this episode. What we don't find, unfortunatley, are the likes Niki and Sylar, and they were missed.

We've also added four new characters: Nicholas D'agosto, a flying-friend of Claire's, who we thank for this blog's quote, Mutant Maya and her brother Alejandro trying to cross over into the United States, and a man of the Midas Touch who goes uncredited as Monhinder's new boss.

The scenes drudged on -- especially between Hiro and Takezo, and the ambiguous storyline was more frustrating than envigorating. But chasing the alien that was Season 1 of this show (FANTASTIC television) has to be more than overwhelming. Hope there's enough heroism in the story-storming room to save this season, for the first episode was curiously robotic.