I often joke that, despite my experience and a few gray hairs, I’m actually a 12-year-old boy. I play video games. I laugh at double entendres. And now, I love "Heroes."

Let’s be clear: I love most of the first three episodes of "Heroes," despite a few flaws in episode No. 2. It is the new series I’m most excited about this fall season. Its rich tone and patient pacing harks back to M. Night Shyamalan’s "Unbreakable," and the plot has a hint of "X-Men."

The men and women of "Heroes" aren’t superheroes yet. They begin as everyday people. A New York politician. A Texas teenage cheerleader. A Japanese cubicle worker. And so on. They slowly realize they have gained special abilities, apparently brought on by the world’s environmental shifts ... or something.

TELEVISION REVIEW

’HEROES’

8 p.m. Mondays on WMAQ-Channel 5. (Pilot episode available for viewing now at tv.yahoo.com.)

If the introductory narrative is to be believed, these super people eventually will save the world.

The two most compelling heroes-to-be are Hiro and Clair. Clair (Hayden Panettiere) is a popular cheerleader in sleepyville, Texas. Her first onscreen appearance comes as she jumps off of a bridge and smashes into the ground. She picks herself up, rearranges her broken arm, and watches it heal.

Clair is totally freaked out. Wouldn’t you be? No matter how many times she tries to kill herself, she lives. Like Buffy Summers at the start of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Clair’s introduction to unbreakability is a fright. Panettiere portrays Clair’s sadness and befuddlement with great depth.

Hiro (the fantastically charming Masi Oka) approaches his new ability with the opposite reaction — elation. He can stop time and teleport into women’s bathrooms and elsewhere. Like "Spider-Man’s" Peter Parker, Hiro (a lifelong loser) couldn’t be happier to be special. Wouldn’t you be?

Other heroes are equally excited or scared. There’s a Vegas sex-site model, a nurse, a junkie painter, an L.A. cop; some are seers, one has a shadow doppelganger to do dirty work, another can fly. More super people are on the horizon. Some will be good people. Some, bad.

The show’s super strengths are its well-developed filmmaking, smooth pacing and a perfect cast. It views like the first hour of a fun, thoughtful movie.

The only question is: Can it be this compelling regularly? "Heroes" doesn’t dream up real romance yet, but it has much to offer — drama, light comedy, suspense and slightly thrilling scenes.

You just have to accept the explanation for the characters’ greatness. Some people’s DNA can make humanity leap to the next step of evolution.

I think of "Heroes" as the next step of evolution in TV’s recent spate of mysterious, sci-fi serials. "Lost" was good, but last year’s "Invasion" was better (though canceled). Even finer is "Heroes." And if "Lost" was a fish out of water, "Heroes" has opposable thumbs.

This is the result of networks’ giving TV writers room to play with the serials format through trial and error. Here, error is not apparent, and they’ve crafted themselves a nearly perfect vehicle. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they don’t crash it.