Saturday, November 3, 2007

The problem with "Heroes"

I was going to take the weekend off from posting, but I got to thinking about why HEROES went from being really liked to seemingly reviled in a space of a few months. I still like the show. It has had it's good and bad moments. But I think I may have stumbled upon a couple of things that are causing people to flip on it.
First off, they have kept the core cast while adding new members. This is often a tricky proposition. People loved the characters and want to see them grow more, but not adding new people to the mix can make the show get stale fast. There was a real organic sense of things coming together, the lives of the good and bad guys crisscrossing and intersecting. It built up to something, and it felt like it was leading to that, for the most part. While some of the new characters have been decent, it takes away from the characters that made the show good.
Next, we have the pop culture factor. Any show that becomes big and has people parodying it will always have backlash. It's inevitable. I defy you to name me a show that was big that didn't take some sort of hit. Especially in this day and age, things are chewed up and spit out so fast we never get a time to enjoy it.
Finally, we have the tired factor. LOST went through this as well. I don't know if they still are, I have never watched the show. The first season there were so many surprises (George Takei and Stan Lee cameos among them) and plot threads left that you had to watch to see where things were going next. This season, the plot has been all over the place. There is no real connection to each other and what is happening. The shocks seem almost for shocks sake and have no real effect on what is happening. I think the writer's are mostly to blame for this. I understand the producers had them cranking out scripts so that when they went on strike, the show could continue. Obviously, they didn't really put their heart and soul into from the looks of it. I also single out Tim Kring, the creator. It looks like he has been spending more time taking congratulatory bows and prepping the DVD sales then working on the show. He could take a lesson from Joss Whedon. You can tell with Joss's shows when he was involved and when he was just a cursory presence. The shows (Angel and Buffy) soared and were terrific when he was active. When he wasn't, they suffered. They weren't awful, but the quality suffered.

So there you have it. A dissection for you guys. You have rode me for a while about how bad this show is, and now I have explained to you as to why I think it's not as good. I still would take this over most of the other things out there. I mean, have you watched that new Bionic Woman? Sheesh. Oh, yeah one more things. SHAWN!!! Go get the newest issue of Wizard. I PROMISE you won't be disappointed. Your girl is in there and smoking hot!

7 comments:

Jim said...

Now I really don't want to ever watch Heroes and I tried a Bionic Woman episode and it was really uninteresting.

Ron said...

Sorry to have turned you off of it, Jim. If they had named the show anything else, it may have been something. I watched the first episode and couldn't stay with it.

Ron said...

The Bionic Woman I mean. lol

Shawn said...

MY GIRL?!?!?!

Where? WHERE?

lol

Joss Whedon is making a new show with Tim Minear who he made FIREFLY with. It's called DOLLHOUSE and will star Eliza Dushku, the bad-girl Slayer from BUFFY and ANGEL.

This means God loves me.

Oh yes.

Ron said...

Check out the latest issue of Wizard. I realize that your hands could explode from holding it for too long, but you'll like it.

Anonymous said...

I still like Heroes. Although, I feel asleep in the last episode due to exhaustion from taking my five kids (solo) to DC last Saturday. It's an annual Daddy-day tradition. A lot of fun, but very tiring. I also missed out on some much needed naps.

The worst part of the new storyline is the girl traveling around with Sylar. How long does it take to get to the US? I may not love or understand everything that is going on, but it's still consistently good. Compare that with Smallville, where I can only enjoy parts of the show, while other parts are just awful (usually the ones with Lana in them). Although, last nights episode was very good. Another complaint I have with Smallville is that everyone drives or "runs" all of the place to have a 3-min conversation with someone - it's ridiculous.

But these are the only two shows I watch. I tried an episode of Bionic Woman and it was too harsh for me (she's trying to have sex in the bar bathroom and almost breaks the guy's arm). I need season 10 of Stargate! I hear the Tales of the Gold Monkey is coming out on DVD next year - I can't wait!

Shawn said...

You know I really would have liked that live-action version of James Robinson's STARMAN to have made it.

That great superhero book could have made a fun series with the more modern version of the hero like Jack wearing no real costume (like they do in HEROES) but using the same devices in the show as the comics where they set episodes in the past with the Golden Age heroes that connect the story to the present as well.

That would have been really fun.

SMALLVILLE has gotten better in the last few seasons but of the 22 episodes a year, only a ahalf to 2/3's of them are any good.

The rest are garbage. But when the show is ON it is most definitely ON.

ACTION was a great episode.(where he got the cape)

-SJD