This is a great little article, and I have to give Tim Kring props for being a man and admitting the failures of the show. He pretty much hit all of them on the head – except he forgets to mention that the future evacuation/vaccination story is not super interesting because we saw something VERY similar last year – that said – if that was the only thing wrong with this season I’d be a pretty happy girl.
In case Tim Kring’s people are scouring the globe for brilliant thoughts on how to get us back on track, here’s a little list from me, the 1979 Semi-Finalist…
1. KILL A LOT OF CHARACTERS. The Wonder Twins should be the first to go, preferably painfully; West – really painfully; and either kill Micah’s cousin or replace her with a new actress or a new writing staff and lose the accent while you’re at it, she is just painful to watch, though her power is interesting. Kill Nikki/Jessica (LONG overdue). You have a beautiful canvas of characters. Why overpopulate it with poorly developed new characters? As fans we are so over the whole “learning about new characters” thing. Maybe we could meet a new character or two over the course of the new Season, but five new “heroes” and another half dozen plus supporting characters in the first couple episodes? Huge mistake. Go back to the characters we love and let them grow and change. Trust what you’ve already created.
2. Lose the accents. They’re great when done well, but they’re not being done well, and when every third character has one they lose their “specialness”. Let Adam Monroe keep his, it’s the only convincing one anyway, and toss the rest.
3. Bring back the old Claire. She was occasionally whiney and bratty in Season 1, which is to be expected, she’s a whiney/bratty teen, but she’s out of control and unlikable this year.
4. Pull back on the sappy drama and exposition. Show what is happening to these people instead of letting them run off at the mouth with poorly written and poorly performed solioqy’s…it didn’t work for you the first season, and now it’s happening at a frightening clip this season and is working even less.
5. Utilize your best actors. I know there are plans for Kristen Bell, make them better and bigger. While her role weeks ago was small and was a little cheesy, she’s a talented actor and did a better job of saving the bad writing than some of your less talented new actors (Wonder Twins, Copycat, etc.).
6. Never send Hiro off on his own like that again. He’s a great character, but he’s best in a lighter and somewhat comical role. His bravery and idealism was refreshing last year…bring that element back to the character. Let him grow in a more natural way.
7. Stay away from romance unless you hire some people who really can handle it, both onscreen and in the writer’s room. The romance has been the stuff of ridiculous after school specials and harlequinn romance. Truly, it’s been painful to watch.
8. Last but not least, stop being afraid of your powerful characters. I know you have limits on budget and graphics etc., but there are plenty of clever ways to still allow your powerful characters (Sylar, Peter, etc.) to spread their wings on the show, without giving them annoying cliched amnesia or de-powering them. Don’t be afraid, instead get creative. Fortune favors the brave my friends.
I’m hanging in there, especially after reading Kring’s article…but please…implement change…save this show!
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Okay, I hope you don’t mind some minor spoilers, but I’ll give what little scoop I’ve got (via the TV Guide I got yesterday). And of course I’ll give my two cents too.
1 – Yes. Kill more people. I never thought I’d say this, but I really want Sylar to kill the twins and Claire’s boyfriend. I want him to eat their brains with a dash of A1 sauce. Niki, I have mixed feelings about. And I actually like the Louisiana girl.
2 – Never really noticed any accents except for when they were in Ireland and Japan.
3 – Claire in love just isn’t hot. Unless she’s in love with me.
4 – Save the drama for your mama. Nuff said.
5 – I think lightening girl will be good. And she was strong in her debut.
6 – Hiro does need a partner. Be it Ando, Peter, whoever. He’s a funny but noble guy that I’d like to see laugh at himself and kill someone all in the same episode.
7 – Romance belongs in the bedroom, not on a sci-fi show.
8 – Sylar, Peter, HRG, Hiro, Claire, and Parkman are the root of this show. Make it stronger by keeping them in it longer.
Now, the spoilers. Well, kind of spoilers.
– HRG appears to have captured lightning girl (who I think is Bob’s daughter) while the Company has captured Claire. I think this is when lightning girl attacks Claire.
– We find out what happened to Peter and Nathan when they broke atmo.
– Hiro goes back to when his father was killed and guess who did it? Adam. He’s apparently immortal. Like the Highlander.
– We find out how DL died. Apparently not due to Linderman’s bullet?
– We learn how Peter ended up naked in Ireland. A bad party or maybe the Company?
– We learn why Niki “really” made that call to the Company. I’ve always suspected she was putting them on.
– The twins kill a bunch of people. Whoopee, who cares unless they kill themselves.
– And the Dec. 3rd episode is supposedly going to have a “big housecleaning.” As in heroes will die. -
i like the Louisiana girl’s power, but her saccharine sweetness and badly faked southern accent make my skin crawl.
i don’t mind romance, if they can do it right. so far they have proven that all they know how to do is do it horribly horribly wrong. buffy was sci-fi and full of “romance” and “drama” and it was handled brilliantly by both the writers and actors.
as for spoilers. i think i knew pretty much all of that so no harm.
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I read the article and I think that’s an excellent article. It’s too slow… I am a comic fan myself, and comic stories don’t take that long to develop. That’s why I stopped watching it. And way too much drama too. Leave that for Desperate Housewives.
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Nail.On.Head.
had to stop watching a couple weeks ago to stop cronic eye rolling.
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brett!
thanks for stopping by! so good to see you/read you here!
yeah, my eyeballs were getting sore with the eye rolling. i’ll let you know if it improves enough to warrant a comeback, okay?
xo
kelly -
I gotta disagree about lightning girl. While I’m intrigued by her lack of desire to control herself…on any level. She’s over the top about it. Kick her to the curb.
Twins kinda suck. I mean, what do you plan on these guys to ever do, play practical jokes? Twin one: “I’m going to kill you all and be really sad about it.” Twin two (after everyone wakes up): “Fooled you!” Its lame…the power results in the same thing every time. If there are different levels to it, then fine, maybe cool. How about giving twin 2 the option to only “bring back” the people he wants? Forget it, its hopeless.
I was bored to tears with the Hiro in Japan thing. Really..seriously…I cried once.
How about Adam? Are we really supposed to believe that this guy gets his heart broken once and decides to take it out on the world for the rest of eternity? Pretty lame character development if that’s the case…I hope there is more there.
Love,
Brother of the 1979 SemiFinalist…strangely born in 1979…wait that name doesn’t have anything to do with me I hope. -
scottyt: did you see it last night though? i like lightning/weather girl even more now. i’m sorry she’s not growing on you. i just think she’s a better actor than most the newbies and not so bad on the eyes. i like the idea of a hot chick with super powers that’s all fucked up in the head cause she’s never been on a date. i thought, despite her shocking peter, she stood way more too lose from that kiss than he did, shock or no. it’s interesting…or maybe i just hate her less than all the other newbies so it just SEEMS like i like her.
twins kinda suck? how about they super duper suck? see what i did there with the word super and they’re “super powered”?…okay, lame.
i cried many times over the nightmare that was Hiro in Japan. Ooooh…you mean he was really reading about himself when he was a child…because HE was actually Kensei? Awesome…oh wait, no totally absolutely LAME.
Adam i think is intriguing. i have a hard time believing he’s holding the grudge as well, but it’s more believable when you think that more than getting his heart broken, Hiro had set Adam on the path to being a “hero”, to changing himself into a “good guy” and then by betraying him sent him off that path. i’m not saying that is correct logic, but it can easily be “bad guy” logic. people will tell themselves all kind of things to keep from being responsible for their own actions.
love back to you.
k
ps – don’t worry – 1979 Semi-Finalist is all about me, and way to blow my cover that I’m not three years younger than people might have perceived!
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