We love Heroes. We wouldn't dedicate so much time to this fan site if we didn't.

Still, there are improvements we'd make to the show, especially as it zooms through season three (in an attempt, which we're grateful for, to make up for a lackluster second season). In a nutshell, Heroes must get Lost.

The series must follow the lead of another serialized show, one with an abundance of characters and back stories. Lost focuses on one character each episode, still adding to the overall story lines, yet allowing itself to set a reasonable pace for the show, while also giving various actors and characters a chance to shine.

Just consider the rate at which viewers were sped through character developments this week, all in a single episode:

Claire went from victim... to tortured daughter... to vengeful hero on the verge of evil. We loved the idea of Sylar's attack on Claire having a profound affect on this troubled teenager. It was a mind rape, after all. But wouldn't it have been nice to focus on just what she was going through for a full hour?

Don't just toss her into a cargo box with her birth mom (who viewers barely know, yet are led to believe is a disciple of Mr. Miyagi all of a sudden?!?) and then set her on a revenge trip to Primatech Paper. Let us feel Claire's pain in-depth.

Heroes could learn a few lessons about how Lost treats John Locke and company.

Sylar learned he was Angela's son... then was teamed with HRG... then regressed to his old ways. We've known Sylar as the ultimate bad guy, an evil killing machine. But within five minutes, his mother convinced him that his destiny was actually to help The Company. And both Sylar and HRG bought into it on the spot!

Can't we see Sylar wrestle with these two halves of his personality? We're not asking to see him on a psychologist's couch - but we'd have preferred for him and HRG to have formed a partnership for more a few episodes, with each side slowly, subtlely growing suspicious of the other. Instead, HRG comes right out and announces his intentions to kill Sylar at the end of Monday's hour.

Peter escaped the body of a criminal and was instantly transported to the future. Well, okay then. We'll likely see this angle develop next episode, but wouldn't it have been cool to get Peter's perspective for almost an entire hour of being inside this evil body? It was confusing enough when we learned that Future Peter could transport people into new bodies, but just as we were beginning to ramifications of this act, Peter's setting is changed. Again.

See what we mean? These are essentially the three main characters on Heroes. And each is involved in what could be an interesting story line, if the writers gave each plot sufficient time to develop.

Our complaint with season two wasn't that it was slow; it was that it was slow AND boring. This season hs potential, but not if every character development, twist and turn is rushed in the manner of those described above.

And why are they rushed? Because there are simply too many Heroes on the series. Again, similar to Lost, this series needs to cut down on its protagonists. Sorry, Maya, Mohinder, Parkman, you need to go.

What do you think of our assessment? Agree? Disagree? We'd love to hear feedback!

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.