Created and Posted by

Paul White (Ragnarfan)

28/01/10

When I first heard about this new series Heroes I wasnt expecting a great deal ,think Mutant X and you wouldnt be far from the mark ,but I thought I would give it a go so I sat down and watched the pilot .

To my surprise I found it to be refreshing ,new interesting and intriguing ,I thought brilliant this is the kind of thing we want , intelligent well written fantasy science fiction , full of interesting characters and situations .

The possibilities could be endless if they opened there minds and let it fly.

As the first season progressed the show hit the ground running ,with twists and turns and great cameos from the likes of George Takei. The show was improving on an already great start each week , The introduction of Sylar as the Villian of the piece was perfect and the casting inspired. When we got into the second half of that long first season , 25 episodes if I remember correctly , I started to get the feeling the creators and writers were beginning to tread water on the story to stretch out across the increased season order.

Not an unusual thing I thought ,I had seen it happen in many of the best series ever made, but that niggling feeling started in my head how can they possibly pay off all this promise and build up on a TV budget even though I am sure Heroes had substantial cash from the network as it was NBCs big new show ,but I hoped it would an amazing season finale.

Then I watched it !

To say that I was underwhelmed was an understatement I dont think I have ever been more let down by a show !

I know people can say its only a TV show , its not important or relevant but as a big science fiction fan is it so wrong to expect the best !

The finale was a damp squib to say the least , nothing happened ! Apart from a pretty sky effect , after all the portent and warnings, that was it ?

My faith in the show had been shaken , but not lost ,so when it came to the second season I was still optimistic about the shows potential.

With the introduction of a host of new characters some interesting some not so much I thought it may go in a new direction.

The writers strike in America caused the season to be curtailed to 11 episodes

Which after viewing was no bad thing , running at a snails pace ,the storyline became run of the mill and repetitive in my opinion , it was almost as if the writers were frightened to make any brave choices ,to go to the places that all the best dramas go and actively seek out , once again the season finale felt stunted and rushed , going nowhere other than into another cliffhanger for the next series .

By this time I was really loosing interest , and so was a lot of the audience to ,maybe feeling the same as I did that the creators and writers had lost there way , and sight of what made the show such a shining light of Cult TV at the start.

I began to miss episodes at this point but it didnt seem to matter, I felt when I watched the episodes the same way .disinterest , not really any good character development , contrived storylines to give all of the cast something to do , instead of culling a few and concentrating on the more interesting ones, and thats the problem, the creators were never brave enough to do what needed to be done , cut out the dead wood so the show could blossom , the best shows of any kind are all about change an flux , Heroes never did that so is dieing a very painful death , I have now not watched any of the fourth and I suspect the final season is it any good tell me please because I cant bring myself to watch it, and as I write the the viewing figures in America for season 4 have dropped to 3.8 million viewers from a first season average of 15 million , so there are now only one quarter of the original viewers tuning in , that in itself says that I am the only one to think this way .

I hope this doesnt come across as a bitch fest because I am not that kind of fan , I loved this show when it first started and wanted it to succeed , I dont know the reasons why it failed and whether there were circumstances beyond the creators control that contributed , but it was a shame that such a promising beautifully made series bit the dust in such a long lingering way.

Maybe its just time to put it out of its misery?