Comments | inigo: Say What? And Does Heroes Overestimate Its Audience?

inigo

Say What? And Does Heroes Overestimate Its Audience?

Oct 16, 2008 16:54

I watch Heroes. I enjoy it. To me, it's the same hokum it has always been. Like most, I found Season 2 to be less compelling than Season 1, but it had its moments. I think Season 3 is more exciting than last season. It's got flaws, sure, quite a few, but it is still entertaining and some of the special effects are breathtaking. From what I'm ( Read more... )

watching, tv, heroes

Comments 13

wee_warrior October 16 2008, 16:12:09 UTC

A lot seems to come down to this message to the writers: make this show much simpler and tell us over and over again the basis of every single plot point.The worst is, I think they are already doing that far too much ( ... )

funky_donut October 16 2008, 19:20:12 UTC

Part of me still thinks this show could be so much more.

So true. I still love watching it, in part because it's a show that my husband and I watch and discuss and enjoy together, but there are times when I'm sad that it doesn't live up to the promise it had in the beginning. But I've come to terms with it. :)

inigo October 16 2008, 20:02:15 UTC

It was also, at a lot of times, quite entertaining, and so is the third season, if you aren't bothered too much with continuity issues or earth logic or actual depth.

I'd love to delve into some of the problems on the show but whenever I start reading it, I keep coming across the stuff that to me is ridiculous and can't legitimately come under any of those categories. For example, I keep seeing references to Hiro being dumb for not simply going back in time to achieve some aim. It took two seasons for Hiro to learn the lesson that "The Butterfly Effect" taught FuturePeter and Hiro swore off going into the past in the first episode of the season. So his failure to do so has been well established and yet the complaint keeps coming up. Another couple of examples are Sylar's powers and Pandora's Box. These are ones where we still don't have definitive answers but there's so many assuming that it's a lack of consistency without even bothering to think that it may be part of an ongoing development.

wee_warrior October 16 2008, 20:18:39 UTC

Hiro: I don't think Hiro is being dumb for not going back into the past to fix something. I do think Hiro is dumb for jumping one minute into the future, seeing something, and then drawing conclusions without even trying to get a bigger picture. He does not know why FutureAndo had powers, nor does he know if it was really Ando who was the aggressor in the situation he witnessed. He has no idea at all what caused Tokyo to get destroyed. You would think he knows by now that he must spend more time on actually figuring out what is going on. And yes, I do think this is a writing problem, because they don't want to develop Hiro from his happy fanboy persona. Among other things, that makes him deeply irritating (well, at least to me ( ... )

Thread 8

funky_donut October 16 2008, 19:17:57 UTC

We've all seen how former fans of a show can turn on it viciously. *cough*VeronicaMars*cough*

I think that's what's happening here. People who were SO IN LOVE with the first season get disappointed by something -- a plot point they don't like or character development that's not what they wanted or a 'ship they want that they don't get or a 'ship they do get that they hate -- and they lose all sense of reason. They idealize the way the show used to be: "it was so perfect! squee!" and can't take the show as it is, on its own merits.

So, I don't think you're so much an apologist as just someone who perhaps views television a bit more rationally.

inigo October 16 2008, 20:03:56 UTC

We've all seen how former fans of a show can turn on it viciously.

It's ex-smokers and Gerald Manley Hopkins all over again!

funky_donut October 16 2008, 20:10:23 UTC

ha!

(I had to look up Gerald Manley Hopkins.)

spectralbovine October 17 2008, 07:04:11 UTC

I think Season 3 is more exciting than last season. It's got flaws, sure, quite a few, but it is still entertaining and some of the special effects are breathtaking.
I agree with all that. I also agree with a lot of what wee_warrior says, however.

I think a lot of it is that in season one, we had no previous knowledge, no comparison. They can't get away with as much anymore. I don't know, it doesn't have the same spark. In contrast, Friday Night Lights also had a great first season and a second season many found disappointing, but the third season has managed to recapture the season one glory. So it gives me hope that shows can indeed bounce back. And maybe this cracktastic show will wow me for real once again.

inigo October 17 2008, 10:20:03 UTC

I'm now regretting that I gave up on Lost mid-season 2 as I've heard great things about what happened later. I've got two and a half seasons to catch up on if I want to see what all the fuss was about. I never watched The OC but I seem to remember that the 4th season kicked ass after two lacklustre ones.

The main reason I think sophomore seasons suffer is the rush to judgement that compares episodes one at a time with an entire past season. The comparison is completely unfair. In the case of Heroes, I reckon that by episode 11 in S1 we'd had a couple of really good episodes and we had a couple of really good episodes in S2 but because you look back with the knowledge that S1 in it's entirety got better and better (at least until the last episode which split opinions), you don't have the same feel about the second.

Having said all of that, I agree that I'm not as taken by Heroes as I was. That's to be expected because the newness has worn off and these are not the smartest writers on the block. What's driving me nuts, though, is the ( ... )