General Heroes Discussion (SPOILERS), Mondays at 9:00PM on NBC Options

[Waterloo]

Maybe I'm confused, but Peter is back to the one ability thing. This time, he has to touch the person to get it. There's a little flash effect every time. He's done it a couple times this season.

[Quinn]

I'm saying that Peter should have the ability to soak up all the powers he wants...only he has to be in proximity to whatever "special" has the original ability for him to be able to use it. When he's around HRG, he has nothing. Around Claire, he can heal. Stuff like that. It'd make for an interesting dynamic, where he can be the most powerful or the weakest hero...depending on the situation.

[Teelie]

The latest ratings apparently tanked. Badly. It'll be a miracle if the series makes it to another season. I'm disappointed it hasn't gotten better but I gave up hope of that long ago. I'm still sorry to see it go before it had a chance to redeem itself.

[Quinn]

Well what's really going to be sad is that the finale isn't going to wrap up anything according to an interview I read. And knowing Heroes...it'll probably be a cliffhanger (as they move on to Volume VI)

[TJ]

(as they move on to Volume VI)

Is Volume VI guaranteed?

[Quinn]

Oh, certainly not. But every volume so far (including every season finale) has offered a preview of the following volume. I can't imagine this season will be any different.

[TJ]

Typical to end it on cliffhanger with all the filler episodes (in pretty much every season)

[Xenan]

I think Heroes really has potential, but the writers just screw it up everytime.
This weeks ep was just mainly filler. IMHO they just seem to be stuggling to get to 24 (or is it 22) eps.

For once I really liked the Sylar thing, but the Claire - Bennett thing is getting boring. How many times have they played this card? It happens almost every 2 or 3 eps. And then when it gets interesting, the ep is over and we have to wait an other week.

Every Heroes ep follows the same outline: first 5 minutes are interesting, then 30 minutes of boring stuff and then 2 minutes of cliffhanger stuff.

[Waterloo]

This season will actually be eighteen episodes, and the final one (here, anyway, in the States) airs tomorrow.

[Quinn]

I don't think the season has been filler. I just think (and I know Waterloo disagrees) that the writers are scared to disrupt the status quo with these characters. That some of them have grown a little bit...but, with only a few exceptions, could've been season two with almost no differences.

And I think if it'd been season two, the show would be doing better in the ratings.

[Xenan]

This season will actually be eighteen episodes, and the final one (here, anyway, in the States) airs tomorrow.

I thought that 4x18 was last week, so that would means yesterday's ep was 4x19.
19 eps seems like a strange total for a season, no?

[Waterloo]

Maybe I'm missing an episode or something, but I thought my count was accurate.

Anyway, I would still argue, and if I had the time (and perhaps I'll find it just to try and prove a point), I'd go character to character with the changes they've undergone throughout the four seasons. I don't see stagnancy except in a few relationships, but then, that's what relationships sometimes are.

[Diesel Micky Dolenz]

I think my problem with the development of some of the characters isn't that they don't change, it's that the changes don't stick. How many times now have we seen Sylar go from villain to hero (then back)? Matt wants to be a hero, then he wants to be a stay at home dad. HRG is going to quit the bag and tag gig then he isn't. Claire just wants to fit in, then she wants to be able to live out in the open. Did she learn nothing from the last attempt to have 'specials' live openly with their abilities?

The show has some inherent flaws. It has a built-in pattern of "break up the band" every season, then find a reason for them to all come back together again to fight the big bad guy that none of them can stop on their own. Wash, rinse, repeat. It gets tiresome, and there's no really acceptable fix. There doesn't seem to be any desire by TPTB to do a superhero team-type of show, which necessitates breaking up the team again. There seems to be very little willingness on the part of the audience to accept more than one or two new heroes, so you can't just pick up another group of people's stories. The fans also seem to demand that the heroes lives intertwine, which necessitates a reason to bring them all back together again. So the cycle repeats, and very few are satisfied with the results, but there's also no will to go in a different direction.

[Quinn]

There doesn't seem to be any desire by TPTB to do a superhero team-type of show, which necessitates breaking up the team again.

That's something that is a bit weird. Outside of the people who are family (which includes Claire), none of the heroes are really close friends. You't think they'd bond a bit more, but it's always back to their original homes and trying to get back to their normal lives.

I guess one of the themes of the show is "you can't go home again." But if that's the case...why aren't they learning that?

[Waterloo]

I don't think Sylar has been wishy washy. He's had a number of good reasons to be conflicted, because almost at every turn, someone has been ready to use him for their own nefarious purposes. First it was the Company. Then it was Angela Petrelli. Then it was Danko. Then it was, basically, Matt Parkman. Peter was the first person who seemed to ask his opinion. Granted, Sylar wasn't much of a saint, but then, on Lost, characters like Sayid, Sawyer, and Ben are routinely accepted for the wild shifts of moral character they carry on (Mr. Eko was the only one to ever really be forced to atone for his sins, even though he was the one who seemed to have reformed best). With Sylar, because the focus never shifts to anything quite shiny and happy, no one wants to accept that he can ever be viewed as anything but the "monster" he was first introduced as.

With HRG, there's been so much work done with him, and coming from this last season we finally saw a starting point to his character arc, it's really kind of hard to argue that he's been wishy washy, too. The dude was, famously, a "company man," and it was his effort to reconcile that fact with his daughter that began to make things so difficult.

With Parkman, it's always, from the start, been about how comfortable he can get with his powers. This season was the year he finally managed to integrate himself back into his former life, despite the number of complications that cropped up.

As for the threats that kept bringing the characters back together, I think it's only really been the first and fourth seasons that saw the finales end with a big confluence of arcs. The third season saw a particular scenario that by default brought everyone together.

I don't know, it just seems to make more sense to me.

[forst]

It looks like NBC may cancel Heroes, at least according to New York Magazine:

For weeks, even in the face of Heroes' bottom-dwelling ratings, conventional wisdom among TV-industry insiders has been that NBC was leaning heavily toward bringing back its once-mighty superhero series for a fifth and final thirteen-episode wrap-up season. But as NBC has become more confident in its slate of new shows, all indications are that our Heroes are dead.

[...]

However, NBC (which declined to comment for this story) is nothing if not appreciative of the few Heroes fans who still care about the saga and doesn't want to leave them hanging. While a half-season appears to be out of the question, we hear there's a good chance the network will at least try to find a way to fund a two- or four-hour movie event in order to give some finality to the franchise. Those discussions haven't taken place yet, however, since NBC still hasn't officially told Heroes creator Tim Kring his show is canceled. Networks like to hold on to as many cards as possible headed into their annual upfront announcements (NBC's is on Monday), in case some last-minute development suddenly shifts the scheduling equation. This time last year, for example, the obits for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse had already been written when Fox stunned TV types by giving the show another (futile) shot.

[Diesel Micky Dolenz]

I pretty well stuck with it to the end. Can't say I care whether it gets wrapped up or not, though. This is one show that should have finished with its first season.

[Waterloo]

If NBC does cancel it, I would definitely be game for a TV movie or two.

[Quinn]

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure...with their backs against the wall...they'll be able to do some cool things.

I'll admit, though, I was shocked that they left it open-ended, and I can't believe more "on the fence" shows decide go with cliffhangers when it's not certain a show is going to come back. Is there such a bad thing about ending with some form of closure...even if there's a chance you'll be back? Because it's not like it's that hard to reopen a story...it happens with every sequel that's ever been made.

[forst]

At this point, I am not sure another few hours could actually do anything worthwhile. And some things I have read suggest that NBC may not even be able to get the cast back. So who knows if the wrap-up "event" will ever come to pass.