"Save the Cheerleader; Save the World"

“With every answer come more questions,� declared the promo for next week’s episode of “Heroes� at the conclusion of Monday’s installment. While I’m not sure that’s the best way to tout the show – isn’t that how “Lost� hacked off a sizable chunk of its fan base? – I do know this: “Save the cheerleader; save the world� is a brilliant tag line.

If for all the wrong reasons.

Anyway, tonight’s episode of “Heroes� certainly inspired a bunch of questions. To wit:

Can’t someone convince Milo Ventimiglia to cut or at least comb his hair? Or is brushing his bangs out of his eyes what passes for his nervous character development? Clearly, the thing he did with his eyes tonight suggests he doesn't really need them.

Wouldn’t Hiro (Masi Oka) have learned from that comic book predicting his future not to win so much money at poker from the casino goons?

Likewise, wouldn’t the mind-reading cop (Greg Grunberg) have known not to trust Mr. Spectacles? And if he’s gonna have a romantic evening with his wife, couldn’t he at least have shaved for it?

Couldn’t they have come up with better backstories for the female heroes than “stripper� (Ali Larter) and “cheerleader� (Hayden Panettiere)?

Aren’t some of the artist’s (Santiago Cabrera) depictions of the future maddeningly vague?

Was it just me or were there about 10 commercial breaks littered throughout the episode? Is that what happens when a show becomes a hit? Next week, will they announce: “We’ll return to the commercials after another two and a half minutes of ‘Heroes’?�

And, pursuing that point: Wouldn’t anyone who has the wherewithal to purchase a Lexus already be vaguely adept at parallel parking?

Still, “Heroes� is progressing acceptably, particularly now that they’re giving Adrian Pasdar scenes worthy of the chops he demonstrated in the short-lived Fox series “Profit.� It’s doing an OK job of mixing and matching its disparate characters, if occasionally in a fashion that requires the old trope of “willful suspension of disbelief.� But if there’s a show that demands a willful suspension of disbelief, it’s “Heroes,� and so far, it’s rewarding those willing to make that leap.

Then, against my better judgment, I hung around for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,� which continues to be hellbent to utterly alienate Middle America. Tonight continued its condescension toward Midwestern audiences – one of the characters (Nathan Corddry) grew up in Ohio, where apparently his parents never heard of Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?� routine. Your Mayor grew up in the Midwest, and his father was a huge fan of Abbott and Costello and knows quite a bit about many of Golden-Age radio and TV performers. Honest, Mr. Sorkin: They’re not all rubes out there; many of them have a keen appreciation of the entertainment industry’s past.

Which was an overriding theme in Monday’s show, which attempted to vacuum pathos out of a blacklisted writer. While it’s true that many in the TV industry today have absolutely no appreciation for the history of the business that’s signing their lucrative checks, and while it’s honorable that Aaron Sorkin felt the need to right that wrong, tonight’s installment felt schematic, synthetic and preachy in a way that early “West Wing� episodes didn’t. These points can be made in an actually entertaining and not overly earnest fashion.

Too bad: The episode once again featured brilliant work from Matthew Perry (once this show is cancelled, someone needs to immediately cook up for him an equally wryly flawed character), and gave D.L. Hughley a couple scenes in which to shine, whether or not they were actually accomplishedly written. And, again, though while filling in a lot of character development for many of the principals, the episode’s overall thrust – most of it was set at a wrap party – provided further alienation from the rest of the real world that merely watches television and isn’t given the opportunity to mingle with glamour, bimbos or some combination thereof.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of tonight's episode: the notion that traffic on Sunset Boulevard late on a Friday night would move apace without anything approaching utter gridlock.