Heroes: "Strange Attractors" 10/26 - Grading & Discussion

[startrekwatcher]

http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/6816

Just saw this article. Thought it was an interesting take on the show although I don't agree with a lot of it.

After all, “Heroes” not only survived its third season, it is now well into its fourth season. Surely, it must have found its footing somewhere in this past year to have made it this far.

Yeah the only reason it is still around is because NBC has a sorry line-up.

Are there too many heroes? Looking back over the past four seasons, we met more than 45 heroes, only 12 of which have been regulars and another 10 were significant enough to readily recall as well.

I don't mind overly large casts when they are put to good effect. Let's face it the majority of Heroes characters in season one were mainly just plot devices. I didn't expect them to be really deep. So that was fine. They just had to be likeable enough.

Personally I miss the days pre-Lost where tv shows weren't so fast-paced, had modest ensembles were you could really flesh out and connect with a character, fewer independent threads that were fleshed out instead of being plot points. Nowadays it is ADHD pacing, jumping from thread to thread to thread and covering about a dozen in 45 minutes. Some shows like Lost can do this well and I love Lost considering it the best show in the last decade but I don't want a steady diet of them but with Lost's success now it seems that is all that writers want to do.

As to the claim of stale storytelling, it is another concession that after a few seasons any show will struggle to keep their storylines fresh, inventive and engaging.

I agree that most series will at some point run out of gas but the issue I have with Heroes is that normally occurs after 4 or 5 solid seasons not after a season or two.

Rather than yell, “jump the shark” at each attempt to revitalize and kickstart a newly introduced character or at the beginning of every new story arc, a viewer must have patience that the story will slowly unfold and develop as it needs to in order to lay the foundation of the story.

Again another valid point. Any serialized show hits a slow transitional period in between ending an arc and setting up a new one. However to ignore the fact that Heroes has repeatedly not resolved or came through with a satisfying payoff more than once is foolish.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I don't think I agree with any of it. The problems with Heroes have nothing to do with its format and everything to do with lazy writing and shit acting.

In fact, it's only the good acting that makes the show watchable at all. That, and I'm already committed... or at least I should be.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The problems with Heroes have nothing to do with its format and everything to do with lazy writing and shit acting.

I agree. Cable shows pull off complex serialized plotlines with far more dexterity - Dexter for example but also Big Love, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. And although it bores the hell out of me, I have to admit that Mad Men is very well crafted.

All those shows have premises that are restrictive compared with Heroes and therefore more of a challenge to pull off well. In Dexter's case, the premise is a straightjacket - the writers have to be ten times as creative just to keep from repeating themselves. Lost has a big cast, serialized plotline and a very tricky, hard-to-define premise that could easily go off the rails, yet those writers have had the imagination and discipline to craft a great story.

The writing problems on Heroes are low-level amateur mistakes that are unbelievable to see in so-called professional writers. There's no excuse for the horseshit that's been going on, when there are a plethora of shows with vastly better writing under more challenging circumstances. Obviously, writing talent does exist in Hollywood, it just hasn't been making its way to Heroes.

After all, “Heroes” not only survived its third season, it is now well into its fourth season. Surely, it must have found its footing somewhere in this past year to have made it this far.

The ratings are surviving because the demos skew young and I highly suspect the remaining audience is watching just for their favorite actors. Nobody's watching for the writing, that's for sure. Also, remember NBC is utterly worthless. On another major network, Heroes would be cancelled by now. At this point, I dunno if even the CW would have it.

it is another concession that after a few seasons any show will struggle to keep their storylines fresh, inventive and engaging.

If Dexter, with its straightjacket of a premise, can still be engaging in its S4, then Heroes, with its wide-open, no-limits premise ripe for imagination and creativity, has no excuse for being so stale and dull at the same point in its run. Dexter has far more talented writers. That's the difference.

 

[Aragorn]

The writer says Heroes still dazzles her. I think that sums it all up.

 

[ALF]

Below average.

All I can say is that I can't believe they are going to explore the lesbian thing with Gretchen and Claire. It's either very very clever, or very very dumb. What if it's done properly?

I like the Greg fellah that plays Parkmen and I liked him in Alias a bit... but I'm very happy to hear the news about him. Parkman is a very unlikable character IMHO.

This show has got to weave all the threads together a little better. Otherwise, why even bother having all those people together in one show?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The writer says Heroes still dazzles her. I think that sums it all up.

I haven't been "dazzled" since early season 2.

Are my standards too high?

 

[Lt. Trull]

Your arugment that Sylar's power made him kill all those people does not hold water.... If it did...
Carnie sylar would be ripping the skull tops off all those other muties at the carnival eating
their power because "his power made him do it" and it's not...
explain that!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Your arugment that Sylar's power made him kill all those people does not hold water....

You expect Heroes - the TV analogue to the HMS Titanic - to hold water?

In S2, the writers took away Sylar's powers, and he was still a psycho.

In S3, the writers took away Sylar's powers, and he was magically cured of all psycho impulses.

We can believe what we like about the cause of his homicidal impulses. The writers don't know, so how could we?

Hey billcobwebs, thanks for the uncoded spoiler! Or did you think we're all so brain-dead that we couldn't figure out what you're talking about.

I'm still holding out hope that they'll axe Hiro. God knows he's the one they need to lose.

Edit: Okay now I read all those other coded spoilers, here and in that thread in Gen Media. Yeesh. Everyone says someone different!

Too bad, I was hoping there was a groundswell behind Hiro...