Which hero works for you?

For the following blog, I'll need to you take a leap for me. Imagine a desolate, shattered world. A world where happiness is a distant hope. A world where you have to watch television live and with all the commercials (or at least deal with a VCR if you can't get home from work on time). A world where you only have the resources to watch one television show at a time. A world like 1997. A world without TiVo.

(Quick disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any heart conditions caused or aggravated by this post.)

I know for many, that's not a hard concept. There are few people who care about television as much as I do, but if you care that little, you probably didn't spend all that time clicking through app.com to get to my blog. So I think it's a fair assumption you know what type of feeling I'm trying to convey.

Now, take this imaginary world a step further and imagine you have to choose between the season finales of 24 and Heroes tonight. I'd contend that's not a hard decision, but lets look over it briefly before I give my opinion. I figure this is more fun than simply updating you on what has to happen or what should happen on tonight's finales.

(Disclaimer the second, while 24 is six seasons old, it's new to me, having clashed with other favorite shows of mine in the past. But I'm hooked now, I swear. I'm not swayed by that at all.)

Heroes is arguably the most important and most popular new show on television. A friend pointed out to me last night that he thought it was the only show on NBC that's really worth watching. I can't really agree with that when Office, Earl, Scrubs and 30 Rock are around, but I can see his point. It's a very strong show that embraces the genre that bore it and rides the recent popularity of comic-based movies.

It has a Lost-like following and the same penchant for mystery, but it's more likely to offer up the big reveal much quicker than its serial predecessor. It's delivered on many levels -- from production quality to acting to storytelling.

(Disclaimer III: There are spoilers below, so if you're not caught up on either show, you may want to stop.)

As it drives into the finale, Hiro's chasing Ando, who has decided to go after Sylar himself; Sylar has half-capitated Ted (who I was starting to like since he shaved the Geico caveman beard) and taken his nuclear powers; Peter and Claire lose Ted while the three are trying to leave town, only to find out what Sylar has done and (probably) decide to stop him; Bennett and Parkman go after the "tracking system" that turns out to be the little girl Mohinder has been trying to cure; D.L.'s dead, but so is Linderman (having killed each other), and Micah easily fixed the election in favor of Nathan. They're all in New York... just like in Peter's dream. Nathan knows about the bomb and is doing nothing to stop it... and Sylar's poised to win and seems to have no qualms about what that might mean.

The story has ramped up quite nicely after an annoyingly long hiatus and the show has an energy different than any other on TV.

Then there's 24. Jack's father has been masterminding the whole thing and plans on leaving evil America for China, where they understand him. He wants to take his grandson with him, so he gets the vice president to have CTU get the kid out from under Jack's nose using the chip (which the veep wants the chip secured so the Russians don't try something fishy) as collateral. Pretty much every other plot has fallen by the wayside going into the last two hours of the season. Subplots on Jack and his sister in law's relationship, Morris and Chloe, Nadia (now sans Milo), and the veep's now likely brain-dead chief of staff all remain, but are significantly unimportant.

There's a great chance for a big finish here, with everything focused as it is. You'll find yourself wondering who dies (I'm betting on Ricky Schroeder, who's changed sides more than a soccer team), since we all know it won't be Jack. From what I'm told, this hasn't been a particularly strong season overall. It's still been enough to hook me on the show, which reminds me of the good parts of early Alias.

So, I suppose it's obvious I'd pick Heroes if I was by chance thrust back into a pre-TiVo world. I'd still have my mom tape 24 for me. And, maybe a few years ago 24 would have had the upper hand overall. But, for me, Heroes has a ton of cred right now, and I'm almost more curious about whether and how they all come together to stop the bomb than how exactly Jack gets everything back to normal. There's so much that could go wrong with Heroes. So many characters that could flip and turn heel on the group (Peter is the easy money, with a Nathan flip as well), so many ways it could go.

And you know with all the hype, it has to end big. I mean, it has a two-volume second season to reel you in for. And a ratings dip to make up for.

I now open up the forum. Discuss.