Heroic Return

With all the furore surrounding ITV and the missing episode of Pushing Daisies, it may be easy to overlook that last year's televisual phenomenon, Heroes, is back on BBC2 this week.

Oddly enough, losing an early episode or two might improve things here. Fans of the show – which is basically everyone, right? – might be alarmed to find that the forward momentum and clever storyline intermingling used throughout the excellent first season has disintegrated.

Subtitled 'Generations', this 11 episode season (halved due to the Writers' Strike) shifts much of its focus to the relatives of the characters and the role they may have played in unleashing another catastrophic future event.

Opening four months on from last year's final tag-team showdown, the genetically modified gang are separated once more.

Peter is in Ireland, to be sure, with no memory, powers and an implausible romance in the offing. The Bennet family, meanwhile, have moved states and are in hiding, with Noah in a junior print shop position and daughter Claire mystifyingly attracted to the obnoxious class weirdo.

As season one viewers will know, Hiro has made his furthest leap yet to Feudal Japan in 1671, discovering the man behind the legend of Takezo Kensei. Both overlong and undercharged, this thin plot-line is weakened by more romantic entanglements. It's supposed to be Heroes, guys, not Love Actually!

Most of the new potential heroes, including unsympathetic brother/sister Mexicans on the run and a New Orleans resident with a fairly useless power, don't inject much excitement either. It's left to – SEASON ONE SURVIVOR REVELATION ALERT – toughened-up Matt Parkman and his compelling quest for The Nightmare Man, plus playfully wicked new character Elle, to sustain interest.

It's never rubbish, just rather ordinary escapist fare compared to the first season's extraordinary event television. Think The Matrix: Reloaded compared to The Matrix.

Stick with it, through. Creator Tim Kring took the unusual step of offering a public, self critical statement of apology to fans for season two's early shortcomings via a phone call to influential US magazine Entertainment Weekly.