NBC's Heroes has had some struggle maintaining and attempting to recreate the great first season of television they provided us with. Unfortunately Heroes has fallen privy to cliches and plots take straight out of other comics and I have become increasingly less interested in a majority of the cast (only Sylar has kept my interest throughout the series entire run).

Luckily two other networks are throwing their hats into the ring with a couple different takes on the superhero genre.

First up MTV reports that FX is bringing established comic book series Powers to the small screen. The comic is "set in a world where superpowers are relatively common but not mundane. It follows the lives of two detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, police officers in a homicide department devoted to cases that involve "powers" (people with superpowers). Walker himself used to be a costumed superhero named Diamond, but became a police officer after he lost his abilities. Though stripped of his powers, he still retains his contacts within the superhero community." I hope this turns out to be the show that Heroes desperately wants to be.

So it's basically Law & Order meets Heroes. Could you imagine District Attorney Jack McCoy with superpowers? His fists would undoubtedly be named Law and Order and his superpower would be Justice.

ABC's foray into the superhero world is a bit lighter, but also takes a cue from other TV shows as well. The Hollywood Reporter says the network is adapting the British television show No Heroics for American television. Series follows a group of superheroes and their lives outside of being heroes, smoking cigarettes, paying the Sidekick Tax (even if they don't have a sidekick), and hanging out at the local bar The Fortress (where everyone has to follow these rules: "No Masks, No Powers and No Heroics." Series' like The Tick (also based off comics) have tackled the superhero genre as comedy before, and the less than stellar film Mystery Men made some sort of effort. I think this is a show I can get behind, but I'm always leery at some American adaptations of British television (fortunately The Office found its footing after the first season). I'd love to check this series out before its adaptation hits America.

Are you guys looking forward to some fresh fuel for the superhero fire on television?

With the return of many high profile shows, like NBC's Chuck and Heroes, viewers are now faced with a new dilemma. What do I watch? For those out there without the benefit of Tivo, or a DVR, the networks have really done a job of making us pick and choose what we want to watch. Scheduling episodes of Chuck against House, and Heroes against 24 it is causing problems with how people want to enjoy their downtime. It doesn't stop on Monday nights either, Tuesday features ABC's Scrubs up against FOX's Fringe.

Which brings me to my gripe... why? The networks see that these shows are popular, if not the most popular (stupid American Idol...) but they feel the need to set them in gladiatorial fights to the death in prime-time battles with the big loser being the viewing audience. Playing musical chairs with shows has been a favorite past time in recent years for the networks, it makes one nostalgic for the TGIF days. You'd always know that the Tanners and Urkel weren't going anywhere.

But somewhere along the way the survival of the fittest mentality got warped at the networks, and now here we all sit, remote in hand knowing that we're going to have watch the show that we decide not to watch at work tomorrow on your computer. So the fall of the American work ethic can be squarely blamed on the television networks. And worst yet the problem is simple, just get rid of the crappy reality shows and we wouldn't have this problem, and Detroit would probably be in better shape...