'Heroes' Never Recovered From Its First Break
Series creator outlines his feelings on the evolution of NBC show on the bubble http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7129 When you think of NBC's <http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7129> http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif "Heroes," you can't help but think of a younger, less emotionally certain Peter Petrelli <http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7129> http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif standing on the roof of a building with Mohinder's enigmatic narration on the nature of life's mysteries. Those were the good days. Now, the series has evolved to a point where it is barely recognizable from its debut season (both in terms of characters and pace), and the ratings have plummeted. Where did the series go wrong, if it indeed went wrong in the first place? Fans have their opinions and series creator Tim Kring has his own. However, to Kring, the series never fully recovered after its first break following the initial 11 episodes. "Fallout," the 11th episode of the series, originally premiered on Dec. 4, 2006, after which the series went on a festive vacation before returning to the screens on Jan. 22, 2007. "We took about four days off between Season 1 and 2 -- we never stopped writing," Kring told The AV Club. "Same directors, same actors, same everything. So when someone says they don't like Season 2, it's like, 'Well, that was yesterday.' We don't have a sense that the seasons are divided by ideas or timeframes; it's just this big long continuum." Kring said the first season can be divided into two places. Then "Heroes" took a seven-wrrk break, and the audience simply never came back. "The first 16 episodes was the part everybody talks about," he said. After that 16th episode, "Heroes" delved deeply into the mythology of the mysterious Company, and eventually built toward an explosion-filled season finale ... and that became a problem for the show. "The other thing is, you can only be shiny and new one time," Kring said. "Also in that first season, we probably should have done two volumes or three volumes, smaller stories. I think people would have gotten used to the fact that we tell a story in volumes that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Because we didn't, and we ended with sort of a finale, it felt like, 'Well, I guess that's over.' "So how do you go back to saving the world again? In reality, that was an issue for me. I was very interested in the origin story of where these characters came from - that first blush of discovery. It's the most fun to write, and ultimately it's the most interesting for the audience." But Kring previously apologized for the direction that "Heroes" took in its second season, right? Wrong. According to Kring, his comments were taken out of context and although he may wish to do some things differently he claims he did not apologize for any creative decision the series has made. "No, I was standing on the picket line when Jeff Jensen [from Entertainment Weekly called me," he said. "And he said, 'Would you have done anything different?' Nobody had ever asked me that before. So I answered really honestly, 'There isn't a day that goes by where I wouldn't do 10,000 things differently.' People think you're making some precise widget, some scientific little thing, but instead it's filled with human error and guesswork. So I mentioned a few things, but they published it as I 'apologized to my audience.' I got sandbagged." Kring was also keen to discuss the change of pace in the fourth season of the series, specifically the elongation of character arcs. There have been instances this year where a pivotal piece in a character's back story is revealed only to be discarded for weeks until there is a time to revisit it. This change hasn't been an accident, but instead an act of necessity due to the high number of characters that make up the series. "That's a product of a few things," Kring said. "First of all, there are only so many storylines you can actually do. The first season, there were six or seven - little bit of this, little bit of that. The haiku type of storytelling was effective when characters had very separate storylines. My idea was for them to stay apart for as long as possible. The network wanted them to be together on the second episode, and we really fought that. Once characters start crossing, you can do fewer stories." The trick to making a show more cost-efficient is by telling fewer stories per episode, he said. "When you have a certain number of characters, you're facing a mathematical reality that not every character can be in every episode. So some have to sit out." There is still no word on whether or not "Heroes" will receive a pickup for another season -- or in any other format for that matter -- which means that if Season 4 is the last page-defying adventure, the show has ended without a proper conclusion. Krings's full interview can be found at The AV Club by clicking <http://www.avclub.com/articles/tim-kring,37975/> here. E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (7.0.0.514) Database version: 6.14380 http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/
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