When I first heard about NBC’s Heroes series, I rolled my eyes thinking that it was at worst a weak attempt to cash in on the popularity of “the super hero craze” and at best a rip off of the excellent series The 4400.

Regardless of my initial impressions and because of my geek upbringing, I felt that I should at least give the show a chance. If I hated it, then I wouldn’t have to watch any more of it.

So I asked my girlfriend to set her DVR to record the show but unfortunately I asked her too late to record the premiere episode titled Genesis. I figured that I would download the first episode or something and we kept the timer in place.

With the geek community giving rave reviews about the series, I finally got around to downloading the first episode and I was somewhat irked by the episode.

Primarily, I was irked by the storyline of Niki Sanders. I know that it’s stereotypical to believe that single moms that strip or camwhore for a living all live in Las Vegas, but come on. Above and beyond that anyone that has actually lived in Las Vegas (as I have) cringed whenever they tried to pass off shots of suburban California as places in Las Vegas. Here’s a tip guys; Las Vegas is not that green no matter how many shots of the strip you Photoshop into it.

I realized that this was nitpicking so I gave the show another try and boy am I glad that I did.

The Niki Sanders’ plot line is still paper thin (she drives her son out to the middle of the desert, buries two guys and her son never wakes up. Please spare me.) and hopefully it’s going to make a change for the better or it’s discarded entirely, but where the series shines is with the other characters.

The story lines of Peter, Nathan, Isaac, and Mohinder are a joy to watch but the gem of the show is Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura. He absolutely shines as a geek with temporal and spatial manipulation powers. He’s also a true geek in real life as he works for ILM as a special effects programmer. Masi Oka is just plain cool.

I’m definitely going to continue watching the show and have high hopes for it.

It’s definitely something to watch if you’ve ever been interested in the whole super hero thing.