Fall Of The Heroes

NaBloPoMo has been running now for just 10 days, one third of the month, and I have had a post a day at least, and more some days!

Anyway, to keep things moving without break, let's just mention Heroes, 'cause, you know, everyone else is!

Season two, in my humble opinion, sucks. Thankfully, I'm not the only one to think so! In fact, so many have agreed with me, that Season Two may well finish with the December episode. Ok, so the Writer's Guild Strike is a factor as well, but seriously, the creative staff obviously know that they've failed to meet any potential. I found this article which summarises the contents of an interview in The Los Angeles Times, as well as my feelings on the show. Unfortunately, I've lost the link to the source of this particular piece. Sorry for the shoddy reporting, but here you go (emphasis by me):

Tim Kring not bugged about criticisms of hit NBC show, says episodes seven to 11 are "best episodes we've ever done."

Heroes has been on the tips of television-viewers' tongues a lot this year, but not for the same reason as last season. The superhero show was a breakout hit last year, but this season it has been the target of critics who cite disjointed storylines, too many characters, and a lack of direction for disappointing fans. Viewers have also tuned out; last week's episode rang in the worst numbers in the key 18-49 demographic ever for the series, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But there's one man who isn't fazed and thinks fans shouldn't be worried either: series creator Tim Kring.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Times, Kring dismissed the numbers much like many other television executives have: DVRs, online episodes, the Internet. What's more, ratings drops are taking their toll on almost all shows, not just Heroes.

As for the rest of the criticism, Kring is promising that it will all make sense. "It will all be paid off by episode 11," Kring said. "From seven to 11 are the best episodes we've ever done." The Heroes crew has always said that this current season would be split up into "volumes," with the current one, titled "Generations," concluding midseason.

"One of the things that we found is that, by the end of the (first) year, we were dragging a tremendous amount of story behind us that had to be paid off in that final episode," Kring said during a conference call, according to Salt Lake City's Deseret News, "which made for an episode that the (audience) expectations are so high that it's hard to meet everybody's expectation."

But that didn't stop the writers from adding several new characters in the offseason, and the result is too much story to pack into one hour of television per week to satisfy everyone.

"Part of what happens on any show is that you enter a relationship with your viewers where you teach them how to watch your show and they teach you what they seem to be responding to," Kring said, reports the Deseret News. "And we, I think, are in this process right now of teaching the audience how to get used to the idea that not everybody is going to be in every single episode."

Some think that Heroes is just undergoing a sophomore slump. However, Kring may be thinking that viewers are looking at season two a bit too harshly by elevating season one unrealistically. "People tend to look at last season and see things in it that were not in it. We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]."

Now the "last week's episode" they mention at the start is actually Episode 6, from two weeks ago. The article is a bit dated. Anyway, I find the last line, "We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]" hilarious!! He says this like it's a good thing! That's one of my biggest criticisms about the show. Why am I watching the second season if it's gonna be just the first one again?!? I should go back and watch that. At least that had a focus right from the opening episodes. This season is all over the place, and I have little to no idea where the show is going. Also, the special effects are atrocious. Everything is poor green-screen sets with either dull stock photography or awful photoshopped images! In particular (related to Episode 6, so spoiler hidden just in case), Peter in the empty "future New York" was laughably bad! I've seen better quality green-screening on Bosco's Magic Door!

And this week, creator Tim Kring admitted as much! He actually apologised to the fans for Season Two. Now, I have to give the man credit for admitting he's wrong, but this is ridiculous! NBC have spent millions upon millions on six, possibly more, episodes of tripe! Despite hoping to start "Volume Three" on a clean slate, I have an uneasy feeling that the ride is over. The only reason they still have a chance at Volume Three is because they are with NBC. If this was Fox, we wouldn't even get the resolution to Volume Two!