Whent the two-hour pilot for an NBC superhero drama arrived, I cringed and put the advance DVD at the bottom of the pile of mid-season shows.

Can you blame me? Given NBC’s frequently abysmal track record with drama pilots, given the residual ‘Heroes’ bitterness so many of us share, given that most networks have had a hard time executing the superhero concept well, it was difficult not to regard ‘The Cape’ with deal of wariness, if not outright fear.

Yet, wonder of wonders, the pilot for ‘The Cape’ (9 PM ET Sunday, NBC) turned out to be a nimble, engaging, fleet-footed bit of fun.

It’s definitely not reinventing the superhero story for our time — in fact, the drama borrows so heavily from the usual caped-crusader sources that it may start to feel too familiar, and that could be a problem. But in its first two hours, ‘The Cape’ presents an origin story with panache, energy and a notable sense of style.

And it’s funny too. It’s not a funny-haha superhero parody, but when ‘The Cape’ deploys humor, it does so adroitly.

Based on the trailer I saw, I hadn’t even considered giving this show a shot. Now, I think it’s worth adding to the DVR queue just to check it out.

The other one, No Ordinary Family, looks really cool. Like live action Incredibles cool. Plus it stars Michael Chiklis, who I think absolutely rocks. That trailer is here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I really enjoyed this trailer and look forward to watching this one.

Hat tip to Ideology of Madness for pointing these out.

Okay, so two super power blonds born on the same day ……sounding like twins to me.  Or is it really clones?

My favorites:

5) Maya. Well, she’s all over the promo shots for season 3 of Heroes, so no luck there. But I hope they make her and her Runny Mascara of Plague superpower more interesting and a lot less grating.

1) Heroes sucking. I hate sounding like a proprietary fangirl. I’m not Tim Kring, so it’s not up to me to decide the direction of the show. I just remember waiting impatiently for the next episode, and the last time I felt that was probably after “Company Man” in the first season. I continue to watch for the characters I still like, for the moments of fun and surprise the show is still capable of. The writers’ strike probably didn’t help the second season and neither did the focus on Peter. I’m hoping the hiatus has given the creators and writers an opportunity to refocus. It worked for Lost, which returned from its early third season batch of episodes better than ever. Giving Heroes a subtitle like “Villains” is already keeping expectations high. I hope the show rises to the occasion because when Heroes was good, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

I (obviously) haven’t seen the episode yet. However, there are a couple of things she says that I agree with without having seen it:

Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) are comedy gold. No matter how bad things get on “Heroes,” they’ve always been the show’s saving grace, . . . .

Maya (Dania Ramirez) doesn’t just have poison in her eyes, she is poison to the show. And no matter how many different characters the show gives her.

HRG (Jack Coleman), who’s only in the premiere for a few seconds, is the show’s other saving grace. If the show was mainly about Hiro, Ando, Mama Petrelli and HRG, I would be 3.7 times more excited about the continued existence of “Heroes.”

Click through to her post to read the entire post and to see some clips from the episode.

The 50-second clip focuses largely on Sylar, who has his powers and his villainous swagger back. The clip also shows Kristen Bell as Elle, H.R.G. discussing the dangers of bad people possessing powers, and in the trailer’s most “OMG!” moment, momma Petrelli hanging out with Sylar.

Fortunately, an enterprising person at the festival filmed the trailer and posted it on YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.