Another week, and another week of tumbling ratings for NBC’s Heroes. Once on of the best rated show on television (can you believe it was only a short two years ago?), Heroes has slumped into the red warning zone following Monday night’s ratings.
Not to gawk at the overturned semi-truck on the freeway, but that “Heroes” number is startling — a series low by far (as is “Chuck”) and marking the drama’s third week of decline. “Heroes” was NBC’s strongest scripted series the past couple years and its now fading quickly. It’s a clear problem without a clear solution. Episodes this season have continued the show’s dense and sometimes difficult-to-follow mythology, but they’ve still been readily superior to last season. One can only hope the show has now established its third-week ratings bottom.
A clear problem without a clear solution? How about giving the story some direction, where something actually happens in an episode? What about removing some of the bloated characters and slimming back the cast? What about having them actually team up X-Men style, or having the mutants actually come out to the public? I would really like an episode that is a done-in-one without the constant dragging week after week.
What are your thoughts? Can Heroes be saved, or was the first season the best its ever going to be? Anyone want to take bets on if the show gets picked up for a fourth season?
12 Comments
After having seen the 4th episode im confident in saying that this show still kicks ass, but slimming it and giving the next season (If its greenlighted) a better and more originale plot would be a bonus…duh
Still though, the writing is becoming better and with the added superpower fights and focus on the more interesting charcacters, namely Matt, Sylar and Hiro i think this season is my favorite so far.
Just give us more HRG and Elle with less Claire and Nikki/Jessica/David Letterman… and im all set.
I’d definitely put a moratorium on the whole “evil future we have to prevent” storylines. Between time travelers, prophetic dreamers, and prophetic painters too much emphasis is placed on this. Also, too many characters seem to hold the “Idiot Ball” far too long.
By the way. Has anyone noticed that every time the “save” the future, a worse one pops up? A few million dead in NY, a few billion dead by the Shanti virus, and now the whole world is apparently destined to go boom.
I agree and I’ve said it before. They really have to let go of this Days of Future Past crap. It’s tiresome and confusing. Let’s get the Heroes teaming up and fighting bad guys.
I think part of the problem with them using the “future we must prevent” is that it worked so well for the first season, but then they also just really gave us a glimpse of it with Hiro and the paintings, not big chunks of each episode. Of course, only being four episodes in, it could be a huge mcguffin that gets fixed early and the real focus will be the something else.
Hoping for the McGuffin explanation, frankly…. I mean, the ‘volume three’ title is “Villains”. If there were intent to focus on saving the past/future/present, I hope they would have called it “Timecops” or perhaps something less-facetious but equally-appropriate.
The writing pacing and characters are all fine. It’s the story that just starts to get stale. Give me something thaat doesn’t involve the world ending. How hard is that? I was hoping they would go public so we could see some sort of greater power rise up to challenge them.
That said, I’m loving this season way better than anything that season 2 had to offer.
I find it interesting that a series starts out wonderful, from apparently a consensus point of view, but by the third season people are calling it crap. The devotion of fans is fickle indeed. I haven’t seen any of the latest season so far, as I’m not American. In fact the station here didn’t even make a real effort to bother ending the last season. They showed season 2 but didn’t have the last two epsiodes until 6 months later when they decided they might as well throw them both on one night. Anyway what I find of interest is fans criticising a show for going down hill as if the creators are criminals for letting down the fanbase. People seem to devote themselves to a show so much that when cracks appear they cry foul as if their childhoods were violated. If the show is rubbish, then stop watching. I used to watch BSG, and liked it,but then they had a series of boring episodes, eventually resulting in a boxing match, and I just decided then and there not to waste my time anymore. It’s as if people think the creators owe them something, or they owe the show something.
A friend was telling me of developments in season 3, stuff like oh Sylar doesn’t eat the brains, or Mrs Petrelli is his real mother. My reply, well fo course he’s not going to be doing what everyone assumes he does, and to the second one “ofcourse she is” :re:
I don’t watch Heroes, so I’m not going to offer an opinion on the quality of the show as it stands now. That being said, I had to ask, WTF is up with that guy’s arm?
It’s done.
Way too many characters. Too many plots to follow. Too many bad guys trying to out-evil each other. Too many heroes making mistakes.
It’s repetitive. Hiro makes dumb moves. RHG makes tough choices to protect his family. Peter trying to change the future. Claire pouting.
The show focuses on the wrong things. People like stories about heroes, not villains. People like simplicity, not complexity. People liked the gimmick of future-paintings, not time-travel.
As a comic reader for a very long time, if you can lose my interest halfway into episode 2 of your new season, you’re doing it wrong.
Last season, there was some scene or another that finally made me reach for the remote and change the channel. I came back the next week and did the same. This season is shaping up to be more of the same, with me having already simply turned the channel twice already.
They’re supposed to keep us watching, right? That’s the goal, or so I’ve been told. They aren’t doing a very good job of it.
The only reason why im not watching Season 3 is because i havent watched Season 2 yet, which i bought season 2 on DVD two days ago.
Oops for its downfall *blush*
Kurt Fenreer
Watch ep 4 whole…trust me