An interesting article about the demise of Heroes (spoiler: it's -mostly- network fault!)...
How and Why Heroes Fell Apart
How and Why Heroes Fell Apart
So five years after its cancellation, NBC is bringing Heroes back this fall and naturally, there’s a lot of debate. That’s mainly around the idea of “why the hell bring back a show that broke our hearts so much?” and such. It’s been easy for five years to put all the blame on Tim Kring for letting the show falter but blame is a lot like fertilizer; you have to spread it around. While Kring shoulders a lot of the blame for the show’s fall (which he has acknowledged), there are numerous factors that led to the series’ collapse.
Now, I’m going to start with two statements that may not be popular but I’m getting them out so you know where I’m coming for:
1. I didn’t hate the last three seasons.
2. Season 1 is not as perfect as many claim.
Hear me out. I fully acknowledge the issues of the last three years and such but really, the first season is not this shining gem so many say it is. I remember Entertainment Weekly declaring that the first season was “possibly the greatest single season of television ever” which even in 2010 was a ludicrous claim. There were plenty of problems of pacing, the stuff of Hiro in Vegas, dragging out the visions and Peter a whiny idiot, we just didn’t really notice them as much thanks to how fresh the series and characters were. And the fact is, the last few years could give us some interesting stuff. I always loved the bit in season three where a powerless Claire is shot and what should be a minor flesh wound becomes life threatening because her system doesn’t have the antibodies a regular person gets through sickness or injury. Or how she drinks a bunch of frat guys under the table without getting drunk as her body instantly replaces liver and brain cells. Jack Coleman was always good to watch (I did enjoy his origin in season 4 revealing he’d once been a decent would-be writer before turning into a hunter) and the rest of the cast able to help too. I thought the carnival of season 4 was a great idea, powered people hiding in plain sight. There was good plots, the execution of them was just terrible. But again, you can’t lay it all on the creators as so many factors abounded.
Network Interference
The excellent book Showrunners has plenty of stories about the clashes of networks and producers and how so often, network “suggestions” are quite clearly “do it or else” orders. Remember, Heroes wasn’t supposed to be a hit. NBC was putting all their bets in 2006 on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as the big show of the year but that crashed while its lead-in rose. That’s why the early season does so well, NBC didn’t care what was going on. But as soon as it got successful, they started putting in ideas that harmed the show.
The biggest is that it’s quite obvious Kring and company really wanted a revolving cast, bring in new characters and let older ones go. That included killing Sylar and Nathan for real in the season 1 finale which made total sense for the story. But instead, NBC pressured them to keep as much of the cast together, convinced that “stability” was needed to keep the show going. Thus we had Nathan and Sylar back and Ali Larter playing a new character when they all should have been let go with tales done. That alone caused a shake-up to the show that interfered with plans. Contrast that with shows like Lost and others more than willing to cut folks loose and you can see how Heroes was hampered badly by this.
That’s best exemplified by the season 1 finale. It was going to be a big two-hour event with a massive FX filled battle against Sylar. But at practically the last minute, NBC refused to give the time or money so they had to cut it down to the lame fight we had, a big let-down for everyone. That budget problem popped up a lot in the series and led to more disappointments. See the season 3 Nathan and Peter vs Sylar fight happening off-camera as on the audio commentary on the DVD, they say “no way we could live up to expectations with the budget so we let fans imagine it.” Make no mistake, NBC’s own attempts to “help” were a major reason they killed their own golden goose.
The Loss of Bryan Fuller
Now, I won’t begrudge Fuller for leaving the show as I would not trade Pushing Daisies getting on the air for anything. But it’s damn obvious how his absence hurt the show as season 2 started. To his credit, Kring has openly admitted that the biggest creative mistake they made was assuming fans would want season 2 to have the same “spread them out and slow build” of the first year. They waited too long to bring in the killer virus storyline and other pacing problems. But the loss of Fuller was clearly felt, his spark and inventive drive lowering things badly. See how when he returned in late season 3, we had the excellent “Cold Snap,” a fantastic return to form and had he stayed longer, we may have gotten a much better turnaround. Instead, we were left with Jeph Loeb whose writing, sadly, has never been the same since the death of his son in 2005 and contributed to the show’s downturn. Of course, there was also...
The Strike
Hands down, the reason the series fell and fell hard. One can only imagine how vastly different the television landscape would have been without the 2007 Writer’s Strike as slews of shows were cut way too short, some outright axed and others faltering. For a show meant to keep its heat going like Heroes, the hiatus was truly devastating as being without new episodes for nine months was a mortal blow it never recovered from.
Equally as bad, however, is how NBC decided, in the wake of the bad reaction to season 2, that season 3 should have a new storyline intended to attract viewers fast. That meant the loss of the entire Shanti Virus story and that was truly a massive creative blow. On the season 3 DVD commentaries, they make it abundantly clear that the virus story was a huge part of the overall arc of the show, meant to have key turns for characters and their world, up the stakes and attract viewers once more with this big plot. Removing that left a giant creative hole and the writers admit it was damn hard trying to fill it. The much maligned Maya was to play a key role, sacrificing herself to stop the virus but without that, they had nothing for her to do and just weakly wrote her out (they openly apologize to Dania Ramirez for promising her a big break and having it end so badly). I truly believe without the strike, there was a chance the show could have rebounded from the rough season 2 start but the loss of that entire story arc was something they never recovered from.
Quick fixes
Again, reading between the lines of interviews, it’s obvious how Kring and company fell into that classic trap of quick fixes to try and get viewers back rather than a slow build to something. Thus we had the storylines of them put in prison then breaking out, of the Hunter, of Sylar seeking his dad and more, leading to a season finale that should have killed Nathan but, again, pressured to keep Padsar so came up with the idiotic “Sylar thinking he’s Nathan” arc. Again, the Carnival story had some potential and did like how Hiro’s journey gave Charlie a happy ending. But the “Sylar redeemed” story was a bit much as fans just loved him better as the bad guy and the season came to a too rushed conclusion. They still were so sure of a renewal and thus the ending of Claire outing her powers to the media and Kring actually seeming hard hit when the cancellation came.
Again, I loved the first season as much as anyone but I don’t see it as perfect as others claim while the last three (certainly flawed and at times bad) aren’t the horrible travesty others see it as. The fact is, there was so much potential, the execution was flawed and Kring himself has even admitted that. But keep in mind how the strike, the loss of an entire huge storyarc and the constant interference by their own network all played major roles in how Heroes fell from such heights.
It’s been five years, things are different and maybe this time around Kring is able to assert a bit more authority and be allowed to do what he really wants for the program. Maybe Reborn can be a return to some of the glory days and redeem the show’s legacy. As it is, it remains a downright frustrating case of how so many factors can turn a once must-see series into a joke and I personally hope there’s a chance for rebirth in more ways than one.
