Heroes: still here, still mopey

Last season, Heroes had such a bad sophomore slump that its creator Tim Kring felt the need to apologize for it and I was even wondering why I liked the show in the first place. I don't remember where the show left off (which was a pretty time ago with the writers' strike and all) but I have to report that this season's premiere was definitely better than last year's. But that's kind of not really saying much. It still has a lot of the same problems but at least stuff happened. Let's break it down:

The possibly interesting:
- Mama Petrelli in charge of the Company. She's one of the few characters left that I actually find compelling. Her being Sylar's real mother is kind of lame though.
- The escaped "villains." I do also still like HRG, so seeing him deal with them could be fun.
- The new "speedster" girl. She got a much better introduction than last year's newbies and I think it'll be fun seeing her kind of compete with Hiro.

The questionable:
- I do still like Nathan too and I guess I'm glad he's not dead but the religious stuff was just strange.
- Why is Niki suddenly someone else? For some reason the writers/producers seem to want to keep Ali Larter but it seems like they don't know what exactly to do with her.
- Hiro and Ando. I'm glad they're still around to provide comic relief amid all the angst angst angst but Hiro was being stupid this episode and I don't know if I like the idea of Ando getting a power.

The totally lame:
- Peter, in general. I totally laughed when Mama Petrelli told him "You're not as smart as you think you are," because it's true. Peter is just so stupid. Everything he does is stupid. That's really all.
- Mohinder, also in general. Injecting himself with the serem and gaining a power -- all very 4400 (which I'm still kind of bitter about being canceled). And course it's more than he bargains for. What is he, becoming a bug? Can we also cut out the terrible voiceovers? And um, do we really have to endure a Maya-Mohinder romance? UGH.
- Matt randomly in Africa. Is this really necessary? At least he's not some other time period a la the failure that was Hiro in feudal Japan. Oh, and where did Molly shipped off to?
- All the different visions of the future. It's just too easy and too hard at the same time when they KNOW the world's going to end. AGAIN.

Just can't bring myself to care:
- Elle.
- Claire.
- Sylar.