'Heroes' worship

Heroes has all the makings of a really great new series — including the absolute best new character on any new show this fall.

Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) is a geeky guy trapped as a corporate drone in Tokyo. A sci-fi nerd who's prone to referencing comic books and "Star Trek," he's also one of a new generation of humans with superpowers — turns out he can manipulate the space-time continuum.

What makes Hiro so utterly winning is not what he can do, but the pure, unadulterated joy he takes in the discovery. And his determination to use his powers for good. If Hiro can't make you feel good, nothing on TV can.

And the actor who plays him is thrilled with the role.

"Who wouldn't love playing him?" said Oka, who was born in Tokyo and immigrated emigrated to California when he was 6. "This is so amazing."

"Heroes," which premieres tonight at 8 on NBC/Ch. 5, is pretty amazing, too. It's about people with superpowers, but there's no spandex in sight. Everyday folks are discovering they have powers they don't understand.

A nurse (Milo Ventimiglia) in New York is convinced he can fly, although his politician brother (Adrian Pasdar) is skeptical. A high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) in Texas is indestructible. A stripper (Ali Larter) in Las Vegas seems to have a doppelganger who lives in her reflection. A drug-addicted New York artist (Santiago Cabrera) paints the future.

In the second episode, we'll meet a cop (Greg Grunberg) who can hear people's thoughts. And, later on, a fugitive (Leonard Roberts) who can't be caged.

Plus, there's a young scientist from India (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who uncovers his missing father's theory — that there are people with superpowers living among us. He's not the only one who knows this, however, because there are some Bad Guys who do some Bad Things with the same knowledge.

It's not all humor and light. Some storylines story lines are dark and violent.

There are elements of a lot of shows we've seen before, but it's all put together in a way that's so fresh and original that it's almost irresistible. After watching the first three episodes, I don't understand where all this is going, but I'm dying to find out.

And dying to see more of Hiro, who executive producer Tim Kring added fairly late in the process, because what he "ended up having was a lot of characters who were dealing in a very kind of intense, angsty kind of way with this discovery. And I felt that I needed one character who embraced it in a really positive way and saw it as the greatest thing in the world."

Which worked out great for both the viewers and for Oka.

"I'm also a big geek." he said. "I love comic books. ... It's kind of an extension of me, which is kind of cool."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com