Heroes

Classic commentary about last night’s Heroes

Jeromey Balderrama

I just wanted to pass along a link to some great commentary about Monday’s (Nov 12) episode of Heroes from the Cracked.com blog.  Hilariously true as well, and definitely recommended reading (warning: some F-bombs are dropped).

“The most critical revelations this episode centered around what happened to Peter Petrelli, namely, how did he go from blowing up over New York to a shipping container in Ireland? The somewhat convoluted answer is that he saved his brother, was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Company, escaped with Adam Monroe, then got handcuffed by the Haitian inside the shipping container and had his memory erased. Perhaps most importantly though was his time spent with Veronica Mars, who will now forever be celebrated as the person that finally gave Peter a haircut.”

I agree with everything written in the blog, especially the part about the new characters.  There isn’t one new character on this season’s show that is all that compelling.  Adam may be the closest resemblance of being interesting.  I don’t get the Venezuelan twins, and the Veronica Mars character just annoys the hell out of me.  Now she’s tied with that Nikki character for Heroes I can’t stand.  The worst part is at the end of the episode NBC promotes “3 episodes left to save the world”.  It looks like they’re preparing for a season finale, punishing the viewers of the show for not being able to get their act together against the Writer’s Guild.  Hopefully this season doesn’t turn into a big roller coaster that made us slowly and steadily incline for 7 episodes, only to drop like 10 feet.

Heroes creator to fans: Sorry season 2 has sucked

Romey

Matt pointed me to a crazy story today, from Entertainment Weekly:

[Creator Tom] Kring himself is keenly aware that Heroes is broken. Here’s his candid critique:

THE PACE IS TOO SLOW We assumed the audience wanted season 1 – a buildup of intrigue about these characters and the discovery of their powers. We taught [them] to expect a certain kind of storytelling. They wanted adrenaline. We made a mistake.

THE WORLD-SAVING STAKES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED SOONER The premonition of nuclear apocalypse created a larger context that unified every story line last season. Kring now sees that Volume 2 would have been better served if Peter’s vision of viral Armageddon had appeared in the season premiere rather than episode 7. “We took too long to get to the big-picture story,” he says.

THE ROOKIES DIDN’T GREET THEMSELVES PROPERLY New Heroes … shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show. The way we introduced Elle … by weaving her in via Peter’s story line – is a more logical way to bring new characters into the show…

HIRO WAS IN JAPAN WAY TOO LONG Hiro’s … time-bending adventure in 17th-century Japan – where he mentored samurai hero Takezo Kensei — – finally came to an end on Nov. 5. But Kring says it should have [lasted] three episodes. We didn’t give the audience enough story to justify the time we allotted it.

YOUNG LOVE STINKS Kring regrets sticking Claire … with a super-dud boyfriend and forcing Hiro to moon over a cutesy princess. I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV, he admits. In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.

Wow, that’s candor! I’ll admit that while Heroes hasn’t seemed as good as it was last year, I didn’t expect the creator to apologize to fans.60; That said, I’m glad he did – talk about “stand up”! I think Heroes has been a bit of a victim of it’s own success. Last year, there were no expectations for this show. I was just excited that comic geeks had something to watch on network TV. The quality story-telling of Heroes blew everyone away, and single handedly converted our Monday 24 Nights to Heroes Night (with 24 afterwards).

November 5th’s episode was a dramatic improvement, and it was really cool to watch that show come together the way it did. It’s a bummer that everything may be back on hiatus with the WGA strike.

With Tom Kring doing what he did, a part of me wishes we’d see a similar statement from the 24 creators about last season…