The TV Zone

A hot Hiro!

Yes, the astounding “Heroes” can get even better.

Not only that, but it got a lot more topical last night. The NBC drama’s visit to the five-years-gone future kicked some intriguing ideas into play.

After the nuke hits New York, the outed “heroes” are feared by the populace as some invading horde of not-us aliens. Now they’re “undocumented individuals,” considered to be terrorists, who are rounded up by a big-brother government, led by secretly-flight-capable American president Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), who considers himself “the decider” in such homeland-security matters. Since voters don’t really understand these superpowered people, they’re set up Nazi-style as “a species to be exterminated.”

Whew.

But wait! Nathan isn’t Nathan! He’s actually Sylar (Zachary Quinto), the brain-lifter who’s absorbed the power to shape-shift himself. And he’s one ticked-off dude. With reason: The foretold nuking of Manhattan was blamed on him, when it was really, as we’ve known since fall, triggered by self-flaming fellow power absorber Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia).

But wait! Peter is alive, with a deep scar slashed across his pretty-boy face, and he’s bitter, sulking in Vegas with his new girlfriend, pole-dancing Niki/Jessica (Ali Larter). Both of them look much older than five-years-on, beaten down and weary. As do they all. HRG (Jack Coleman) is running some sort of underground railroad to keep superpowered folks free, while daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is hiding by biding her time as a brunette in a podunk diner. Matt (Greg Grunberg) and the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) have become cynical enforcers for pseudo-Nathan. Only Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), also working for “the president,” seems to have any of his old can-do spirit left.

And do he does, big-time, in the episode’s climactic twist. When ordered by one hero to “put down” another, vet-style, Suresh instead turns on a third, inciting yet another chase, another epic battle, one more chance for Hiro to truly be a hero and save the world.

Ah, yes, Hiro. Last night, Masi Oka got to play both his anxious office geek’s current self and his swashbuckling future incarnation, all smolderingly dashing in black gear, ponytail and ninja sword. (Be still, my heart.) He was so intense that, as current Hiro whimpered, “I scare me.”

But he also impresses, immensely, with the essence of what has made “Heroes” authentically great. Though the fantasy action races at a pace that’s mindboggling, it never feels rushed, only immediate. That’s because the underlying emotion is so penetratingly played, even in its succinct delivery. Last night’s time-tripping interplay between current Hiro and buddy Ando (James Kyson Lee), and then future Hiro and past buddy Ando, evoked such a rich relationship in just a few quick strokes. Now Hiro, who finally is a hero, doesn’t even care about saving the world. He just wants to save Ando. Talk about a truly human twist.

“Heroes” is delivering the most deliciously creative -- and soul-delving -- drama of the season. It isn’t just breathtaking, it’s deep.

And all this magnificence in NBC’s Monday lineup is being used to lead into -- “The Real Wedding Crashers”? Get serious, guys. “Heroes” is a genuine phenomenon, and even better, a show that actually deserves to be. When I get a gander at what follows it each Monday night, I scare me, too.

(Watch last night’s “Heroes” episode online here with resizable video commentary from actors Grunberg, Ramamurthy and Coleman.)