They fired two of the writer/producers... after most of the season had already been written and a great deal of it already filmed. Jesse Alexander (who worked on LOST and Alias) and Jeph Loeb (Comic book dude) were the two that got the axe. If you go to look up the episodes they wrote were some of the best. IMHO. So they didn't bring in fresh blood to improve the show, they brought in cheaper blood. There were rumors that Bryan Fuller might be returning should Pushing Daisies be canceled. He wrote a lot of good episodes in Season One, but it will depend on this last push of ratings for PD before the hiatus to know if it will be canceled.
The whole thing was more about her than him. She felt guilty after the retcon, because she pretty much sealed Sylar's fate...she knew he didn't want to kill and she pushed him into becoming the madman he became. In her mind, she was the one responsible for her father's death, not Sylar. I also believe she's somewhat relieved to be "free" from her father's expectations and control. You're expecting too much from this show, by the way. It's a live action, slightly more realistic comic book, which is fine by me. It's the popcorn flick of television shows.
The meat of the show isn't, and hasn't been, popcorn flick action scenes and power throw downs. It's been about the characters with a comic book backdrop. Given that the characters are the main focus....why aren't they offering us half-decent character writing? It's a glaring weak point of the show.
If the fans had accepted their original idea, then the show would be more like what you say. Originally they were supposed to shift away to all new characters and tell their stories of their powers and how they dealt/lived with them. But once they made the choice to stick with the original characters, a lot of the drama and suspense, the human element, was essentially removed. This show has been doomed to be a popcorn show ever since. I like it just fine. The 3rd season has been a different animal, and I'm more satisfied week to week than I was in the first one. (I was impatient) However, on the whole, the arc of season 1 and everything it had can't be topped.
If fans truly rejected the original premise, as you say, then why is season 1 considered the strongest? Why do the majority of fans consider the HRG-centric "Company Man" episode, which focused primarily on characterization and relationships, to be the best Heroes episode ever? I don't think the fans rejected the premise at all. I just think the writers got lazy and decided that half-assed dialogue, one-dimensional characters, and "ripped from the comic books" plot lines was easier to do. Pushing Heroes down the "popcorn show" path was a big mistake and will ultimately prove to be its undoing. The budget for Heroes, with all its nifty special effects and action scenes, has ballooned to more than $4 million an episode now. With dwindling ratings and a bad economy, you can bet that NBC isn't exactly thrilled with the ROI it's getting from the show. I mean, for crying out loud, Heroes is in third place in its time slot now and couldn't even crack 10 million viewers this week, even with DVR viewers factored in. My prediction: As ratings go down, NBC will keep slashing the budget, forcing Heroes to focus on characterization and less on expensive action and FX. But with a weak writing staff and the precedent now set as "that comic book action show," viewers will sadly reject the "new" direction of Heroes, leading to its eventual demise.
Well, season 1 is the strongest because they had fresh ideas and fresh characters to work with. Part of the allure of that first season was simply discovery...and those characters learning about themselves and their powers, and especially how to use them to help people. They could've had that all over again with a fresh batch of characters. Instead we returned to a familiar group who for the most part, how to use their abilities to their fullest. Then it became an exercise in how to depower characters until it was time to actually do something. (See Peter or Hiro's AWFUL storylines last year) If these people knew how to use their powers, it becomes annoying when they don't use it when they need to....which gradually lead to the kind of action we have today. One thing that could've helped, but is too late now, is if the show didn't take itself so damn seriously. It's why Hiro was such a great character in season 1...they've been trying to artificially create that fun since, but it doesn't work. Hiro as a 10 year old is the latest and most glaring example. But you're right about the eventual (or even sooner) demise of the show. With the nature of the program I'm not really surprised, though. It's hard to maintain a show like this without eventually engaging yourself in a one-up battle. The shelf-life of this show has always been pretty short. I wouldn't even be surprised if this were the last season.
I just find it all so frustrating, because the show had so much promise. It was supposed to be NBC's answer to Lost, a show I absolutely adore. But now, Heroes is like Kwame Brown or Stromile Swift: a big fat disappointment, yet you keep watching the show because it still has "potential" and shows flashes of greatness every now and then. "Heroes will surely put it all together THIS episode" is a statement I've uttered more than once to my friends, both last season and this season. But like watching Stro fumble around the court game after game, you begin to wonder when "potential" ends and reality sets in. Make no mistake, my wife and I still sit down every week to watch Heroes, and we will continue to do so until the end (we're invested now), but we don't anticipate each episode anymore, and there's frankly little joy in watching. It's just... sad.
The primary problem with this series is that it is too isolated If it were I . . . next season would have more Governmental conspiracy etc they also have to be careful of what Marvel ran into too many people with superpowers. . . . If you use say . . .1% of the populations that is still millions of people Rocket River
I liked the dark humor of having the heroes losing their powers completely unexpectedly.. Parkman making his little 'head-turn' move over and over again, Nathan plummeting out of the sky, Elle and Sylar and their cocky 'we're gonna mess you UP - huh??' moments.. hehehe cute stuff Not sure what Elle is up to though, is she really a bad egg, or is she just trying to get 'Gabriel' away from Arthur any way she can? Yes, the turn of events with Daphne was unexpected for sure.. And... ummm.. I am sure other people have asked this, but... Spoiler WHO THE HECK IS DRAWING THE COMIC BOOKS NOW??
Spoiler Good question, I guess I just assumed it was from the sketchbook left over from Isaac. But maybe they will bring in someone new to be the artist.
I think they are still looking at old ones that Isaac did. He had to have the money to buy all that heroin, so I am guessing he had been doing the comics for a while. The question I have though, is how many different futures did Isaac see? Because in the first comic it was to save the cheerleader to keep nyc from the explosion - and in that Ando died. Obviously the next comic didn't have Ando dying and Hiro become "bad arse future Hiro" so how did those comics flow if there is actually a change in the timeline? I think we should demand NBC give us copies of all the 9th Wonders comics Overall I was pleased with the episode. I liked the "Bonnie and Clyde" feel of the Elle Sylar scenes (and yeah I think she's testing his limits to see if he's a good or bad guy by nature) I liked the reveal with Daphne, though I didn't understand how her ability might work when I watched it (but then someone explained it to me) and I really loved the chucking corn at Matt to keep him from giving up. Oh and Hiro and the nodding turtle... very funny. I am looking forward to Claire kicking the bucket next week, of course I won't be as happy if she survives
Solid start for a 2 parter, very curious to see how next weeks turns out. Does anyone really think they'd kill off Claire? Do think we could see the end of Elle next week though.
Sorry, I really like Kristen Bell.. I hope they re-think the notion of killing her character off. And they can't kill off Claire, no way. The eclipse goes away, everyone's power 'resets' back to normal, meaning Claire survives just as it looks like she has died (in fact I predict we have an episode where she does 'die' in cliffhanger fashion, but then her powers return and she comes back to life. Also, I would not be surprised if this resets the powers of the people who gather up others' powers, so Peter and Gabriel will suddenly be back to square one on that front, and it may also be the final undoing of Arthur - just as it appears that he will win, his acquired powers vanish, leaving him paralyzed again. Curious to see what is going to happen with Doh!-hinder though...
Me too, and I wish they could kill off Claire. Though, I was spoiled that there will be regulars who don't make it to the next volume.
Can't kill off Claire - she kills future-Peter in the future with her future gun and her future hairstyle. Can't be all future-ey if you are dead. And just to nit-pick.. hehehe a solar eclipse is not a world-wide event.. it only happens in certain parts of the globe at any given time, so it would seem a bit unlikely that, say, Lawrence Kansas and Haiti would be having the same eclipse at the same time as Washington DC or New York .. hehehe I know, just being silly, and it doesn't spoil things for me like it seems to do for so many other people who seem to have lost their ability to have a fun suspension-of-disbelief, which is necessary to be able to enjoy most works of fanciful fiction
Been wondering about the comics myself. Mostly enjoyable episode, it'll be interesting to see where they go with this. I do remain annoyed at the endless personality flip flopping with Sylar (lesser degree, Elle). It's a microcosm of the show's achilles' heel (character writing). I would take this and go a different direction. They DID try inserting a batch of fresh characters (Monica, Mya) and it was a trainwreck in S2. You don't take a successful TV show and reboot it each season as if it were American Idol. Where they failed in the worst way was not (at least seemingly) having a set game plan for where the characters were going to go. LOST's best feature is that the producers knew the endgame and specific turning points (the initial "rescue") when they kicked off S1. They knew who the characters were and what they were going to end up being. The beauty of LOST is that the characters, while not static, aren't being altered on the fly to chase ratings. Heroes' creative team is abysmal in this regard. Hey, let's make Peter evil for a couple episodes! Hey, let's make Sylar sweeter than Oprah for a twist! Hey, let's make Hiro 10 years old - that'll be hilarious! A good creative team would allow characters to progress. It takes patience and nuance, things this show lacks in the worst way. Let Sylar grapple with his O/C killing, move into self loathing over it, and eventually become a "recovering alcoholic" and dark hero. Let Peter and Hiro go from naive idealism and allow some hard choices to toughen them. They already have a couple of good Grey characters in Noah and Angela. Taking the others and rewriting them with a spin the wheel approach kills the show over the course of time. Evan
Thanks for in turn spoiling the rest of us, even if you did leave out specific names. That was a great opportunity to use spoiler tags.
