SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

With ratings like these, if the CW was a TV show, it would have been cancelled long ago.

The barely breathing network trotted out its new game plan today, with the family-in-Africa drama “Life is Wild” missing. If you don’t know what show I’m talking about, don’t worry. Very few viewers ever tuned it. In fact, if you gathered all the regular viewers together they probably wouldn’t even make a noticible line in Starbucks.

Penn Badgley as Dan and Blake Lively as Serena star in Gossip Girl on The CW. Photo Eric Liebowitz /The CW

Not that they don’t have some great shows. “Gossip Girl” is a great guilty pleasure, and although “Reaper”never again rose to the level of its fantastic pilot, it’s still not a bad show.

Enough pitching. Here’s the line-up:

Monday

8 p.m. “GOSSIP GIRL” (Beginning January 28)

9 p.m. “PUSSYCAT DOLLS PRESENT: GIRLICIOUS” (Beginning February 18)

Tuesday

8 p.m. “REAPER” (Beginning January 15)

8 p.m. “BEAUTY AND THE GEEK” (Beginning March 11)

9 p.m. “ONE TREE HILL” Wednesday (Beginning February 20)

8 p.m. “AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL”

9 p.m. “PUSSYCAT DOLLS PRESENT: GIRLICIOUS”

Encore

Thursday

8 p.m. “SMALLVILLE”

9 p.m. “REAPER” (Beginning February 28)

Sunday (Beginning February 10)

7 p.m. “CW NOW”

7:30 p.m. “EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS” Encores

8 p.m. “EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS”

8:30 p.m. “ALIENS IN AMERICA”

9 p.m. “GIRLFRIENDS”

9:30 p.m. “THE GAME”

What in the world has happened to “Heroes”?

Yeah, I’m late jumping on the critic wagon wondering how such a good series could go so terribly wrong. Call me an optimist, but I kept thinking it would get better. Instead, I’m hoping the writers’ strike gives the scribes some time to rethink this entire season.

Tonight’s aptly named “Out of Time” did nothing to make me want to extend my stay in “Heroes” land.

First, the Irish adventure could not have gone worse. Maybe it was the whack Irish accents, or the lack of crackle between Peter and Caitlin, but tonight when they were split up I found myself cheering.

And Peter’s amnesia? I’m so over that. Then we have the baring Peter’s chest to the world at least once an episode. Nice the first time, but tonight just made me yawn.

Could there be less passion between Katie Carr as Caitlin and Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli? — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Thank god the wonder twins didn’t pop up again. The black-eyed death has seeped through the fourth wall and into my living room, making me want to curl up and die every time I see them on the screen.

Claire Bear has become unbearable. Daddy, if you can kill and abduct people, then I can at least have a boyfriend. Oops. Sorry he killed you daddy, but gosh I need my independence. Claire Bear, and her twisted little boyfriend West, must go.

The whole Molly-Matt-Suresh triangle has turned into My Two Dads, the Twilight Zone edition. Suresh has lost his sex appeal through this little daddy adventure, and Matt’s just trying too darn hard. As for Molly, well, we won’t knock child actors but perhaps this wasn’t the most inspired casting.

Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh, Adair Tishler as Molly, Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

And just when we think we’ve finally gotten rid of Kensei, he pops up as the mysterious Adam. Adam’s the guy we’re all supposed to fear, the one really going after the people in the Company. Apparently, Hiro’s little frolic with his princess has left this immortal spending centuries nursing a grudge.

David Anders as Kensei — NBC Photo: Justin Lubin

Lord, make it stop now.

How could this series go from my No. 1 pleasure to this?

Next week, we’ve got Kristen Bell back. As much as I hate to admit it, my Veronica Mars didn’t add the much need punch “Heroes” needed when she popped up the first time.

The episode goes back four months earlier to answer some questions. Nathan pays a terrible cost for his heroic actions. While Peter survives his detonation over New York City, the Company “bags” him as a threat to the world, eventually leading to violent confrontation with Elle (Kristen Bell) and the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis). D.L. (Leonard Roberts) makes the ultimate sacrifice for Niki (Ali Larter) and Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey). Maya (Dania Ramirez) horrifically manifests her dark powers for the first time, driving her and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) to America for help. A mysterious, yet familiar face is introduced.

Seeing Kristen Bell on “Heroes” tonight was electrifying.

OK, that was cheap thrill, but discovering K-Bell’s special power allows her to shoot bolts of electricity through her hands was, as she said in an interview last week, pretty cool.

Her character’s got some problems distinguishing right from wrong. Here’s a primer: helping people is good, frying them is bad. She just had to cook the truth out of Peter’s pal. And it was all for nothing, because “daddy” called her home before she could seal the deal with Peter.

So who do you think “daddy” is? It couldn’t be HRG. Or could it?

At least we won’t have to listen to those obnoxiously bad Irish accents any more now that Peter’s on his way to Montreal to find out more about his past.

Talk about Daddy Dearest. Welcome to your worst nightmare: That your papa is a real boogeyman out to trap you in your own mind.

Luckily, Matt Parkman inherited his old man’s mind power, but not his Satan-worthy evil twist. Makes Sylar look like just a nasty bully in comparison. Parkman’s pops tried trapping his own son in a field of nightmares, but Parkman was able to wake up _ and roust Nathan as well.

Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman

So if Parkman can make Nathan snap out of it, why can’t he rescue little Molly from her nocturnal prison? Guess we’ll have to wait until next week.

“Heroes” is getting dangerously overpopulated _ and creator Tim Kring says he’s well aware of the problem.

“On a show like this, you have to be able to fold people in and fold people out,” Kring says. “So the audience should fully expect to see characters leave, soon.”

One person not leaving any time soon is new character Ella, played by “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell.

“It’s been so much fun,” Kristen says. “She (doesn’t have) the brightest and shiniest of intentions. She’s so conflicted and comes across as such a vixen. She’s so much fun to play with.”

Kristen says she can’t reveal her secret powers, “but it’s a very cool power.” She has ties to HRG and Claire and to Suresh.

“(She’s) a little messed up in the head, manipulative, out to get what she wants. She doesn’t have many boundaries,” Kristen says. “All first season about good natured people, conflicted about how to deal with them. Elle enjoys her power and the power she gives over other people.”

Tim says they are tying Elle to The Company that HRG was involved in.

“Elle was actually raised within The Company,” Tim says. “It’s a cautionary tale about how (the other heroes) would have been if they lived with The Company their whole life.”

Tim says once again this season will be filled with plenty of answers.

“We actually are not a shot that tries to keep answers away from the audience,” Tim says. “No answer so precious we can’t tell the audience what it is. But something to be said for drawing out interest.”

Questions are answered by Episode 11, which Tim says ends the second “volume.”

“Last season was all one volume, so at the end of the year, we were dragging out a lot of story so expectations were so high, it was hard to meet,” Tim says. “This (season has) multiple volumes. Every question raised (in the first volume_ will be answered, then the next (set of questions) swings us into another volume. People say they want answers, but like the twists and turns.”

Kristen is signed on for 13 episodes, but says it is up to the discretion of the producers as to how many episodes she’ll actually appear in.

“I start in Episode 5, I’m not in episodes 6 or 7, then episodes 8 and 9 expose a lot of Elle,” Kristen says. “At the end of 13, we’ll have a pow wow and see if it makes sense for me to continue.”

Kristen says she’d love to stay on “Heroes.” So what about a “Veronica Mars” movie or animated series?

“If (creator) Rob (Thomas) asks me to mow his lawn, I would do that,” Kristen says.

Actually, we’re hoping he opts to do more “VM” with Kristen.

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OK, it’s just a week away from Veronica Mars, er, Kristen Bell, coming on “Heroes.” But first, we must deal with tonight’s episode.

I have to admit I wasn’t blown away by the first, or even the second, episode of “Heroes.” Things didn’t start getting interesting for me until last week. This week, things really started percolating.

Spooky Sylar hooked up with the Troublemint Twins, a coincidence that makes you suspend your disbelief by epic proportions. But just like a bad horror flick, I started screaming at the screen: Shut UP Maya. Yet, she didn’t, and now Sylar’s heading to New York with the double sibs to find Suresh.

But the big news of the night is THE PHOTO. The photo shows the 12 who are related to some of the Heroes, like Hiro’s deceased dad and Peter and Nathan’s parents. We discover tonight that one of the men in the photo is Suresh’s new boss and more importantly, another man in the photo is Parkman’s estranged dad.

Parkman tells Suresh that dad deserted him when he was 12, gave him $125 and a pat on the head before dashing out of Dodge.

Worse news. Parkman’s deadbeat dad is the Nightmare Man who has been haunting Parkman’s charge Molly.

Cripes!

So Parkman gets Molly to confront her worst nightmare and seek out evil dad. What were you thinking, Parkman??? Now we know where daddy dearest is, but at what cost to poor little Molly?

Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh, Adair Tishler as Molly, Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Next week, Kristen Bell, who looked deliciously wicked in the previews. “Heroes” is back on the can’t wait for the next episode list.

Kristen Bell as Elle — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Oh, and the Big Showdown with Nightmare Man is just three weeks away. Here’s the blurb:

Nov. 5 episode:

WHILE SEVERAL HEROES FACE OFF AGAINST THE “NIGHTMARE MAN,” PETER LEARNS JUST HOW DEADLY THE VIRUS CAN BE — When one of his forgotten abilities suddenly manifests, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Caitlin (Katie Carr) get thrown into a crisis situation, and learn first-hand just how deadly the mysterious virus striking people with abilities can be. Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Matt (Greg Grunberg), Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), Niki (Ali Larter) and Bob (guest star Stephen Tobolowsky) band together to fend off the “nightmare man’s” attack. Despite Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) best efforts to keep them apart, West (Nick D’Agosto) learns that the man who kidnapped him as a child is her father (Jack Coleman). Meanwhile, in feudal Japan, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Kensei’s (David Anders) legendary journey takes a dramatic, final turn. Kristen Bell, Noah Gray-Cabey, Dana Davis, James Kyson Lee, Zachary Quinto and Dania Ramirez also star. Alan Blumenfeld, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Shalim Ortiz, Eriko Tamura and Adair Tishler guest star.

I have to admit, I was starting to get a little worried about my show after the past two weeks.

And I’m still not really happy with the lousy Irish accents in the Peter storyline, although I am appreciating the buffness that is the new Peter. The only storyline I enjoyed right from the beginning was Hiro in old Japan.

The twins haven’t really done it for me. She kills, he heals. Too many subtitles. I don’t like subtitles as a rule because while you are reading, you miss out on the actors and the nuances in their faces. With these new characters, it gets annoying quite quickly.

But tonight we got Sylar, and that bad to the bone boy has learned that he still has some considerable limits on his power. Thank goodness.

And what a treat to see original “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols as Micah’s caregiver.

Nichelle Nichols as Nana Dawson — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

First Sulu (George Takei) and now Uhura. Trekkies should be in bliss. Can Spock and Kirk be far behind?

It’s all a great tie-in to the new “Star Trek” being film, which stars Zachary Quinto (Sylar) as Spock.

For fans of Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”), she’ll be showing up as Elle on the Oct. 22 ep.

Kristen Bell NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Yep, I’m back on board after tonight’s show.