Written by Anthony Burch

Heroes, the show that turned out to be so disappointing I dare not speak its name for fear of writing a seven page rant about it, already has some characters lined up for next season (and not just those Origins characters the viewers will vote on). According to , the characters are "mostly international," ranging from a 28-year-old black mother who acts as a surrogate for Niki's son, Micah, and "a sexy boyfriend for everyone's favorite cheerleader, Claire."

Okay, two things. Firstly, Claire doesn't need a goddamned boyfriend, much less a sexy one. It's nice that she'll have a friend character that exists outside of the plot constraints (remember the good old days when she had a maybe-gay maybe-straight nerd buddy?), but a "sexy boyfriend?" Weird. Secondly, these characters will supposedly come on only for short story arcs, not as permanent cast members. That sounds okay, were it not for the fact that the single most interesting character this season (The Invisible Man, played by Chris Eccleston) appeared for an arc, did a fantastic job, got a backstory, and then disappeared completely with no explanation and no payoff. The moment Eccleston disappeared, the show pretty much began to (albeit subtly) fall apart.

 

Oh, and the next season of Prison Break will take place in a Panama prison along with a wrongfully imprisoned fisherman, his girlfriend, a drug kingpin, and a government operative. I don't watch Prison Break, so I don't know how to take this news, but I will say this: remember when the plan was for the show to only run one season? Remember how neat that was? Yeah.