Okay, so have you finally gotten around to watching last week's season premiere of NBC's Heroes that you TiVoed? I hope so, because I'm about to reveal a minor spoiler...

Fans of that supernatural show know that one of the storylines for season 2 is an interesting and unexpected one; that our Japanese nerdy time-traveling hero, coincidentally enough named Hiro, somehow ended up back in feudal Japan (the 1600s, to be exact) through a time-traveling accident, and has now hooked up with a legendary samurai named Takezo Kensei, who is behind many of the mythic elements of this unique show (including being the original owner of Hiro's sword, using as a personal crest the strange symbol found all over the show's timelines, etc).

What you might not know, however, is that NBC sponsors a fake "viral" website for Heroes (among many) that is supposedly for the Yamagato Fellowship, the mysterious corporation that Hiro's dad runs in Japan, which just happens to be obsessed with Kensei as well. The website itself is nothing special; what's really cool there, though, is that in the month leading up to the Heroes season premiere, they've been posting a six-part fake documentary on Kensei, featuring perhaps the highest production values I've ever seen for a web-exclusive movie.

As those who have seen the season premiere know, the legend of Kensei is going to play a very important role in this particular storyline; because it turns out that the real Kensei is nothing like the legend indicates, but rather an English thief and scoundrel who is essentially hiding out in Japan, pulling fast ones on local villages in order to beef up his riches and reputation. What this web documentary does, then, is actually explain this legend in detail that is going to be pulled apart over the course of season 2 -- including great 3D "cutout" animations, talks with "experts" in rooms that look like real professors' offices, and a lot more cunning cinematic trickery. It's basically a treat for the dedicated Heroes fan; a way to thoroughly understand the Kensei legend that they will be making fun of throughout the year, so that you too will get each and every joke that's written.

It's no secret that I'm an ambivalent fan of Heroes at best; that while I admire the show's insanely fast pacing, as well as their ability to juggle dozens of major characters, I also feel that many of these characters are not much better than cardboard cutouts, with dialogue that often falls flat on its face. (From the season premiere, for example, note the embarrassingly amateurish subplot featuring HRG's new job at a copy store, featuring dialogue that sounds like it was written by a 14-year-old.) What I admire most about the staff of Heroes, though, is their total and complete dedication to the geekier elements of the show itself -- things like this high-quality Kensei web documentary, for example, when most other shows treat their web-exclusive content as "crap for the interns to worry about," not to mention hiring actual famous comic-book artists to do their comic-book-style illustrations, their commitment to viral websites and heavy presences at sci-fi conventions, etc etc. It's what keeps me both watching the show and being a (guilty) fan, despite the weaknesses that would normally otherwise turn me off a show for good.