Heroes remains entertaining and intriguing, even as it frustrates. I’m a sucker for anything involving superheroes and, therefore, I should be eating this show up. And, to be fair, I kind of am. However, I do have doubts about its future and, although the next two episodes may extinguish those fears, Heroes is going to need to step on the gas pedal, and soon.

Let’s face it: if you were to combine the first three episodes of Heroes into a film, it would be a Robert Altman movie. The characters are vaguely connected, if at all, and it’s beginning to get tedious jumping from one story to the next, knowing that we may only see a character once or twice an episode. Heroes, as it stands now, is a series of vignettes whose only through-line is the fact that these people have superpowers which, crazily, they’ve only now discovered, at roughly the same time.

Ensemble dramas are hard enough to pull of when all the characters reside in the same zip code, but become exponentially more difficult when you scatter them across the country. The vignettes are interesting, but at this point we understand all the Heroes and their powers. The sheer amount of exposition us viewers have experienced is staggering.

We’re not stupid. We know that the main characters will eventually interact. By extension, we’re aware that the conflicts they face before they meet are, ultimately, inconsequential. It’s not unexpected when Ali Larter’s stripper character eludes the small-time gangsters. I want to see her (and her mirror twin) face the real baddies.

I’ll admit that when a show has you greedy for action (as I am), it’s done its job. Passion in any way is a success, and avoiding indifference is what really matters. Heroes has the potential to be great and I’m convinced that either a) the creators are toying with us, building the story slowly with the knowledge of a spectacular payoff, or b) they don’t know where they’re going and the writers are spinning their wheels, trying to milk as many episodes out of as little action as possible. Whatever the case, Heroes has me watching and, though a little frustrated, I plan on giving the show a chance to wow me. Or disappoint me. Who knows?