Countdown to Fall: Does Heroes Suck? Can it Be Fixed? Does Anybody Care Anymore?
August 6th, 2009Categories: Articles, John J. Joex
(The Fall season is just around the corner, Vampire Diaries and Supernatural premiere on Sept. 10th, so now is the time to start taking a first look at what is coming.)
By John J. Joex
The Season 4 Premiere of Heroes is just around the corner (September 21st), so now seems like the appropriate time to ask the question: does the show really suck? Really? Well, apparently quite of number of people seem inclined toward that opinion based on the negative buzz I have seen bouncing around the internet this past season. And while Season 3 was running, our stats showed that nearly 30% of the search engine terms that directed people to this site contained the words “Heroes” and “Sucks”. So I would say that the overall opinion on the series does not skew heavily in the positive of late.
Way back in its first season, Heroes jumped out of the gates strong and quickly grabbed the attention of a significant audience. It presented a compelling drama about people who possessed extraordinary abilities trying to deal with grander events that they had the power to influence. However, after a strong, season-long buildup, the story just kind of petered out (pun unintended but accepted) in the final episode of Volume 1. Following this let-down, Season 2 just seemed to meander and go nowhere until things finally come into focus toward the end of its truncated run (cut short by the writer’s strike) and the show seemed to get back on track as it concluded its sophomore year.
Season 3 picked up on this strong note and seemed to be headed in the right direction after its first four to five episodes, but then it completely derailed. The excesses that the show demonstrated in its first two season, and which fans continually grumbled about, just took control of the show. Some characters were constantly zipping through time and changing past and future events, while others made a habit of dying then popping back to life. It was like nothing that happened in an episode really mattered because somebody somewhere could just zip around and change everything. And then, somehow an eclipse lasted seemingly a full day and covered the entire world. The show just spun out of control.
Then the story arc for the second half of Season 3, “Fugitives”, seemed to set things right a bit, but it did not manage to return to the level of quality we saw in Season 1. Even with the return of Bryan Fuller late in the season, the episodes just seemed to be treading water (and at times back-peddling) and fans started to desert the show in droves. By the end of Season 3, the show could barely bring in six million viewers per week and only received a renewal because it airs on the struggling fourth place network.
So with the fourth season approaching, can the beleaguered franchise finally redeem itself?
I would say that it has a chance, but I’m not putting any money on it. The fact that Fuller has already abandoned ship, is a bad sign in my eyes. Sure they are saying that it was planned all along that he would only help out for a while before moving on to other projects with NBC, but I think if he really believed in the series he worked on during its heyday, he would have stuck around in some capacity.
If they want to revive the show in the eyes of fans, there are a few things they must do:
1. First, re-focus on the main characters, and cut back on the bloated cast. Too many characters and too many storylines makes it hard for the audiences to follow and hard for the writers to keep things in focus.
2. Dispense with the hi-jinks. Turning Hiro and Ando into comic relief last season, just did not work. In the first season, Hiro was the heart and soul of this show as the person who on one hand looked at his abilities with wide-eyed disbelief and of the other was determined to use his powers to help people. Maybe it’s time to start showing us how he will eventually turn into the grimmer, more serious character we have previously seen glimpses of.
3. Less time travel and no more faux deaths. The constant time travel and killing off of characters to only pop back up shortly thereafter really degraded the quality of the series. They already started moving away from this in the second half of last season, but then ended with the faux death of Nathan/Sylar and the return to life of Tracy, so they haven’t gotten it out of their system yet.
4. Go back to telling good stories. The strength of Season 1 was the compelling stories it told of these people with special abilities and how they dealt with their powers. The writers really lost touch with that during the second and third seasons, but they need to go back to their roots if they want this show to soar again.
At one point, Heroes seemed set to establish itself as one of the next great franchises in Science Fiction and Fantasy television. Since its stellar first season, though, it has become a shadow of its former self. The show received a stay of execution this past season despite its significant ratings slump, and it has one more chance to prove itself. If it stumbles again, though, it will likely get the axe and be looked upon as the series that could have been great.
Go to TV.com for more info on Hereos including Episode guides and Cast bios and check out their Sneak Peek at the New Season
