oh, sweet Heroes Season 2 DVDs.
I had the box set in hand before noon on Tuesday - I am dedicated, yo. (Unfortunately my eagerness cost me yet again - I bought it at Borders, when I really should have bitten the bullet and taken the long trip out to Target, because yes, just like last time, there IS a special limited edition box set with a sketchbook booklet of Tim Sale art from the season that's exclusively sold there. Damn it!)
I would love to write up a meta post about my thoughts on rewatching the season - and the deleted scenes - but I'm going to save it for now. I will say, in brief, that the deleted scenes were worth the cost of the DVDs - hell, the deleted scenes for the first episode are worth $31 all by themselves - and while I'm still super-down with this show and it's a gorgeous thing, I found myself absolutely appalled at the massive continuity errors, character inconsistencies, and dropped plot points as the season drew to a close. It's really quite shocking and they really should know better; there's absolutely no excuse for that kind of sloppiness, looming writer's strike or no. And it really does amaze me that Tim Kring gets writing credit for both some of the best episodes of the season, and almost all of the worst. Has he been paying attention to his own damn scripts at all? This is a genre show; rock-solid continuity is half the point. Shame on them.
They fucked up, big time. Here's hoping they can pull out of that tailspin before they drive away their most devoted fans, because as far as I can tell, the general audience doesn't really give two shits about this show unless it's giving 110%, and the creators have shown in the past that they're capable of that. Take a page from Ronald D. Moore's book (and hell, J. Michael Straczynski's) and just go for it; to hell with the general audience, and reinforce that fan base with immaculate continuity, genuine emotions, and intensely compelling storylines. So what if it gets cancelled after only three (or maybe four) seasons? MAKE THOSE SEASONS COUNT. They've already thrown a season out the window. Bring that magic back - for the fans! We're the ones who will be buying the merchandising, tuning in every week without fail, bringing new eyeballs onto the show (and the ads, remember?) and loving it for years to come. I know Kring & the Gang know that the writing's on the wall, but I hope they understand EVERYTHING that went wrong, not just "oh, the new characters didn't work out quite right, and we spent too much time in Japan..." No, that's not the problem. The problem is that they need to be paying at least as much attention to the writing as they do to the photography, lighting, and costumes (which are all absolutely incredible - Heroes is still one of the best-looking shows I've ever seen, up there with Carnivale) - and preferably more. Babylon 5 looked like shit half the time, but I didn't care; I cared passionately about that world, those characters, and the horrible choices they had to make.
Get. A. Clue. Kring.
I would love to write up a meta post about my thoughts on rewatching the season - and the deleted scenes - but I'm going to save it for now. I will say, in brief, that the deleted scenes were worth the cost of the DVDs - hell, the deleted scenes for the first episode are worth $31 all by themselves - and while I'm still super-down with this show and it's a gorgeous thing, I found myself absolutely appalled at the massive continuity errors, character inconsistencies, and dropped plot points as the season drew to a close. It's really quite shocking and they really should know better; there's absolutely no excuse for that kind of sloppiness, looming writer's strike or no. And it really does amaze me that Tim Kring gets writing credit for both some of the best episodes of the season, and almost all of the worst. Has he been paying attention to his own damn scripts at all? This is a genre show; rock-solid continuity is half the point. Shame on them.
They fucked up, big time. Here's hoping they can pull out of that tailspin before they drive away their most devoted fans, because as far as I can tell, the general audience doesn't really give two shits about this show unless it's giving 110%, and the creators have shown in the past that they're capable of that. Take a page from Ronald D. Moore's book (and hell, J. Michael Straczynski's) and just go for it; to hell with the general audience, and reinforce that fan base with immaculate continuity, genuine emotions, and intensely compelling storylines. So what if it gets cancelled after only three (or maybe four) seasons? MAKE THOSE SEASONS COUNT. They've already thrown a season out the window. Bring that magic back - for the fans! We're the ones who will be buying the merchandising, tuning in every week without fail, bringing new eyeballs onto the show (and the ads, remember?) and loving it for years to come. I know Kring & the Gang know that the writing's on the wall, but I hope they understand EVERYTHING that went wrong, not just "oh, the new characters didn't work out quite right, and we spent too much time in Japan..." No, that's not the problem. The problem is that they need to be paying at least as much attention to the writing as they do to the photography, lighting, and costumes (which are all absolutely incredible - Heroes is still one of the best-looking shows I've ever seen, up there with Carnivale) - and preferably more. Babylon 5 looked like shit half the time, but I didn't care; I cared passionately about that world, those characters, and the horrible choices they had to make.
Get. A. Clue. Kring.