I've seen tiny bits of Heroes (admittedly from the season where ppl have said it soured) and it looked as preachy and smug as Grey's Anatomy.
I read Tom's spoiler so it was my own fault for spoiling myself. I might have been drawn in a little more to the episode if I hadn't done that. The more shocking part, I think, was more that Widmore was his father and less that his own mother killed him and knew about it. I felt sad for Dan, which I didn't expect, because he looked so hurt by what his mother did. "You knew... and you sent me back anyway" type of thing. Being killed by his mom seems like LOST trying to surprise you again, but Widmore being daddy was a little more "woah". Anyway, this week's episode was also quite good. As it stands, I think most of Season 2 shouldn't have happened. Season 2 and 3 should've been combined with some of 4 and this season should've been 4 combined with some of the season 4 eps. Again, Dan, like Miles, is much more interesting that some of the regulars (Jack, Kate, etc).