Heroes the Best Serial on TV? Get Lost.

The point I'd make is that it's not all that difficult to write characters that are full of surprising past and present behaviors that the viewer couldn't predict. It is difficult (or at least seems so because it's rare in TV) to have such characters be part of a cohesive, sensible, and interesting story.
The big thing with Lost that gives me pause is Abrams previous show, Alias. I got sucked into that show by the second episode and thoroughly enjoyed the Rambaldi storyline for the first two seasons. Then the whole ball of yarn unraveled and we were left with a bunch of crap nobody cared about.
Same can be said of X-Files.
I suppose Heroes may ultimately suffer the same fate, but so far the story is both engaging and moving in a clear direction.
Perhaps it's not as artful as Lost, but to these eyes it's a heck of a lot more entertaining and gratifying.
I still watch and enjoy Lost, but on the rare occasion that Heroes is still sitting on the TiVo when Wednesday night rolls around, you can bet I'll be watching it first ten times out of ten.

James,

As a long time comic book geek, Heroes was very easy for me to get into. The logic, the physics and the shortcomings were all things I was familiar with. (But you're right. With all the screwing around Nathan's been doing, I think that makes him perfect for the white house.)

As for Lost, I had friends who went nuts over it. Just crazy! Kept threatening to tie me down and force the island's sweaty mysterious goodness down my throat like a reality tv antibiotic or something. It's confusing and difficult to watch and there are few things that are patently ridiculous. (The whole Sawyer and the pacemaker episode was just stupid.) But I still watch it.

I think in the end, the difference between Lost and Heroes is based more on personal taste rather than quality of the series. They both have their strong points and weak points. If you like Byzantine complexity and Umberto Eco then Lost is for you. If you can recite all the characters from all three X-men movies, Heroes is probably going to be more your thing. I like them both but if you made me chose between them I’d have to pick Heroes because I’m a big fat geek and I like closure.

P.S. What about Battlestar Galactica or have I gone too far into the Geek side?

Amen, James. Lost is, was, and will continue to be better that Heroes - from both the production side (the music, camera work, editing is all top notch), writing side (a show that does not insult the intelligence of its audience, and uses dialogue effectively), and acting side (Mohinder wouldn't get cast as an EXTRA on Lost).

As for the other commenters, how can you say Heroes is going in a clear direction (and if so, what direction is that)? And how is psychological mindgames (a la Sawyer's pacemaker) any more patently ridiculous than Nikki and the mirrors, or Matt's wife staying with him after he learned to read minds, or the idea that an Indian geneticist could somehow create a list off of genetic markers that there would be no known way to track?

Lost is hand's down the better show. And now that its producers are demanding an end date from ABC (so they can plot out accurately the arc of the show), it will go down as legendary, and avoid the X-Files type traps...

Nice entry...this is an apples and oranges thing...Heros is comic book Lost is a novel...

I love em both and don't waste time with which one is better!

Dude, you are so right.

Having Lost to watch makes up (a little bit) for not having Buffy the Vampire Slayer still on Tuesday nights.

At it's best, Lost almost rivals Buffy.

Sorry, I love your blog but you are dead wrong on this count. Heroes is certainly a flawed show, but it is miles ahead of what Lost has become in the second and third seasons. "Not In Portland" was perhaps the most boring episode of television I've seen all year. Lost is just awful now. The writing and dialogue is trite and boring. The show is not creative at all.

Plus Lost wastes an excellent cast. Why have we spent so much of this season focusing on the others and the insipid Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle? Why did we spend so much time on the tailies last season, just to kill most of them quickly? Why waste great actors like Naveen Andrews and Terry O'Quinn?

My tivo season pass for Lost is in serious danger of being deleted. The show isn't even funny to mock anymore, like it was through long stretches of season two. It's just sad what it has become.

I agree with Chaddog. The writing of Heroes is somewhat insulting to the show's audience. The acting in Heroes leaves a bit to be desired as well.

Although Lost and Heroes are both far-fetched, it's television and many TV viewers enjoy stretching their minds for a few hours here and there.

In my opinion Lost is a better TV show due to what has already been stated (better writing, better acting, better editing, etc.) but Heroes is often much more suspenseful than Lost. That's not surprising since Heroes is modeled after a comic book, which has to end suspensefully so that readers will want to pick up the next issue (or watch the next episode) when it comes out.

Lost, on the other hand, is much more of a novel that depicts characters changing gradually. Some episodes are certainly not as good as others, just as some chapters of a novel aren't as good as others. After the series is complete, though, we'll find that the show as a whole is much more fulfilling and gratifying than Heroes has been.

That being said, there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be on my couch to watch Heroes tonight. Need my fix of Monday evening suspense...

I have never watched heros, but probably should. I was hooked on lost the first season and a half. But now, oddly enough because of so many backstories, I just don't care about the characters. I don't want to psychoanalyize each character through flashbacks and then see then do nothing in real life on the island. My favorite was Mr. Eco and Terry O'Quinn with the faith vs reason concept in the present. Mr. Eco's death was my favorite episode. Sorry to see him die but loved the story. Now most of "tailies" are gone and notice that Rose and her husband are shelved somewhere never to be seen. I think one or two more episodes and then I am quitting. Loren Wingblade

Heroes is a fine show, confident, well-executed, and engaging. It deserves its audience and plaudits. But don't let anyone tell you it's a better show than Lost, which is all of those things, but worries less about being engaging in favor of being challenging. In this way and many others, it's the most ambitious show on television. Heroes is a confection (albeit a tasty one); Lost is a meal.

I'm going to put it bluntly. I pretty much worshipped Lost throughout season one and I still believed in it throughout the second season, I even found the season two finale to be quite moving and interesting. But could the creators get any more annoying? It seems to me that they are the ones looking down on the audience. They refuse to acknowledge that they don't know where the show is going and they keep trying to distract us from that brutal truth with random plot twists, inconsistent characterizations (Charlie much?), cheap deaths, aborted plotlines and a veritable mountain of unresolved mysteries. The tower is gonna topple eventually at this rate. I used to love the flashbacks, and even at his worst, Jack still amused me with his yelling and storming around. But now it just bores and frustrates me. I actually forgot it was on this week.

Whereas with Heroes, I see a show that started out humbly with the simple aim to entertain comic fans. It hardly had any higher aims and it wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, and yet it has continued to improve at an astounding rate. The most recent episode, Company Man, was without a doubt the best hour of television that I have seen since Walkabout (I was literally crying at the end). I look at Heroes and I see a show with the potential to follow in the footsteps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I can only hope that it doesn't get too caught up in itself and derail in the future seasons. Unfortunately, Lost has left me a little gun shy and cynical when it comes to television addictions :/

In terms of writing, Lost Season 3 simply sucks. Characters are engaging as they were before. The writers are using them as dummies to serve their contrived storylines. Poor dialogue, dumb characters, no continuity, no consistency, randomness, ambiguity-all-over style... That's Lost and in terms of good wrting these definitely do not make Lost better than Heroes. Shallow references to faith, destiny, free will do not make a show "ART"

Heroes compared to Lost is incredibly well-written right now. Granted characters are not dramatic as they WERE in Lost. But at least they are human.

I love both of these shows. I'm a comic fan and I think it's about time a good television series about super heroes is out there. But while Heroes is very entertaining, suspensful, and great (I don't get what some of these Heroes-critics are saying), Lost is better.

Do not compare the third season of Lost to the first season of Heroes, because the Lost writers haven't been as good this year as they have in the past. The main advantage that Lost has over Heroes is its characters. Heroes has a villain that's evident early on in the season, it's got more action and is extremely suspensful action-wise, but even characters like Peter, Nathan, Hiro, and all of its other great characters don't match up to Locke, Eco (or Eko, whatever), Sayid, Charlie, Hurley, and Claire. Heroes is a comic book: exciting, fun, sometimes moral and almost always suspensful. Lost is a novel: legendary, symbolic, character driven.

I'm a big fan of Lost and have not given up on the show even when others have grown disappointed over the 2nd and 3rd season. I agree that it wasn't as compelling as the 1st season and with some of you here have mentioned, it really isn't fair to compare it to Heroes. Hands down I also enjoyed Heroes, but if i were to pick one, It would still be Lost.
I guess with lost, i find more depth in the characters (couple that with really really good acting) like Sayid, Locke, Eko, in the sense that i can really connect with them. (i obviously cannot connect to the characters in Heroes, but i do wish i had Hiro Nakamura's power)
That's why I'm counting on season 4, I'm begging the writers to keep the pace going from how season 3 ended. Loved season 3's final episodes.
Good luck to Heroes and I will continue watching the show. Kudos to American TV

Lost is eating itself. The first season was superb but I gave up halfway through season 3. I don't need constant closure, but I do need to feel that I'm not being strung along by writers who have no end game. Jack and Kate have become so smug and annoying that I wanted Sawyer to escape the other island alone and just leave them there! New characters are introduced and then killed off without exploring them fully, others start to behave totally unrealistically… due to the nature of the show, itll be difficult for them to pick up viewers they've lost, even if it does get better.

Heroes, on the other hand, does exactly what it says on the tin. It's entertaining, funny, dramatic and doesn't ask you to watch for several years to reach a single plot reveal that will, in all probability, be rubbish and full of holes when you get there. Company Man was as good as any eposide of Lost. Heroes is the rightful heir to the Buffy throne for those that like their sci-fi with a dash of pop culture, and their action with a pinch of comic book geekiness. I predict that, unlike Lost, Heroes will only get better as we more fully explore the universe they are creating, delve into some of the mysteries they have lined up (like Peter & Nathan's mother) and become more and more ambitious. Eventually the trajectory of the two shows will cross - with Heroes soaring while Lost tailspins. Heroes has a bigger canvas to paint on and is without limits - I don't think they'll waste it.

I do think that the point about 1st seasons being an easier sell to the Emmys is right, though. Look at all the nominations for Heroes - they are all for "Genesis" the very first episode, yet ask any fan and they'll tell you that Company Man was the highlight of the season.

The first 2 episodes of Lost beat the first 2 episodes of Heroes hands down.

I found the plane crash scene very interesting, you had the polar bear attack (I think) and the suspense was the mysterious recording that played over and over again.

Overall the characters from Lost are def more interesting and the show does have better writers.