UPDATE: Go here to check out The Groovy Age of Horror creator Curt Purcell's own thoughts on this subject. (WARNING: LINK IS NSFW)I don't often share my thoughts on TV shows, I am mostly a film geek and that's how I roll. However, one of the shows I do watch is HEROES. It's not a work of staggering genius, but the first season was charming enough to get me through to the end. The second season was meh and I just blamed the writer's strike for that.
Now, we are in the third season and it all feels like there is no structure to it. There is characters being added at every corner turned and more time travel mistakes being made. I could go on, but that would be a whole different post. The gist is that HEROES is not the show it once was, it had devolved into a mess of convulted plot lines and needless characters.
Now recently the show's creator Tim Kring has made comments on how the show should not have been told in a serialized format and how it's really the audience's fault for the decline of HEROES. Oh, really? That's why the show is going down the toilet? Let's break these two thoughts down, shall we?
SERIALIZATION DOES NOT WORK?
Seriously? Serialization is probably the best and only way to tell a story about a group of non-spandex wearing mutant heroes who battle a impending chaotic future. Serialization has worked for pulp fiction writers for decades. It's a proven formula that you can bet good hard cash on. It works for comics, pulp novels, and even shows like LOST.
Look around you Kring. There is a web serial popping up every day and people are watching them. There is a strong audience for it. Stand alone storytelling is great for sitcoms and the occassional serialized episode, but it's not the answer for HEROES.
The flaws are not in seralization, the problem is how the story and characters are gone so far off the rails that there is little hope in saving the show. Honestly, I even wonder if you and the writers had a story arc plan to carry through for several seasons or if you just come up with whatever sounds good in your head as you jot down notes while sitting on a toilet, which seems fitting considering that is how the show will end up.
IT'S THE AUDIENCE'S FAULT FOR USING THEIR DVR'S
How classy is that? Don't blame yourself or the writers, but the faithful few who have stuck it out this far with your show. It's not the quality of the show it's the damn Tivo, digital recorders, and fancy internet which is undoubtly tied into Skynet. I have this feeling that Mr. Kring also sits on his front lawn constantly screaming at kids to get off his damn lawn, too.
DVR is not the problem. Recording a TV show has been going on years through the magic of VCR's and a blank VHS tape. Only now has it gotten easier with the advent of Tivo and other DVR devices. I'm sorry that I have a life and enjoy watching shows on my own leisurely time. But to blame me for using something to make watching your show easier is not the solution. It's network producers and show creators who are stuck in the past which is the problem. I'm recording what I want to watch and when I want to watch it. Get over it!
SOME FREE ADVICE
Besides what I have said, this is how I would save the show; kill every character off. That's right, kill em' all and let God sort them out. Make it one big awesome battle against some greater evil to save the world. Let their stories be discovered by a new group of Heroes and continue on with a new kind of evil.
And for the love of God, stop time traveling! I hate the fact that the show has yet to move away from the though that somehow the future is in peril and needs to be saved. I would love for once to see a plotline that involves the present as opposed to what may happen tomorrow. As much as Hiro is one my favorite characters, his power needs to be taken away from the big picture.
That's my two cents. Stay weird!
