Heroes

[MacGuffin]

Heroes' Creators Look At Year Two

Tim Kring, creator of NBC's Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that he and his writing staff are looking ahead at season two and that if they've taken one lesson from their freshman year, it's this: Don't be afraid to reveal secrets, even big ones, along the way. "I have to admit I feel pretty good about the fact that we didn't leave a lot of things dangling for people," Kring said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles on March 17. "There were one or two moments where there were things we had answers to and we couldn't film them, or we cut them in the editing room, and I regret that. But I do think this idea ... of not being too precious with any one idea is really an important lesson: to be willing to kill people off and take the really tough decisions to kill off characters that may be fairly popular for the sake of reinventing the show. It has to have a kind of constant sense of reinvention, or else we're going to die of our own inertia."

Kring added that he and his writers are trying to avoid the problems that other TV shows encountered after hitting big in their first seasons, only to falter in subsequent seasons. "The other big thing is we just have to reveal things in a timely fashion and not let them build up," he said, pointing to the example of The X-Files, which built up so much mythology over the course of 10 years that no answers were likely to satisfy the audience. Kring added: "I think we want to have some more romance, I think we're missing that. I'd like to have some more romance on the show."

Kring also said that he wants to tell a few more stories along the lines of this year's "Company Man," which detour away from the season's main story arc and delve a bit deeper into the backstory of a single character or two.

With the examples of Twin Peaks and even Lost, Kring is aware of the pressure for Heroes to maintain its quality and appeal. "I'm as worried about that as anyone else," he said. "I would be lying if I said that that doesn't keep me up at night. Because I do think that you only get one chance to really have a first impression, and that first blush, like anything else in life, whether it's food or a relationship, ... always has a certain bloom on it that is hard to relive. That being said, one of the ... basic premises of the show was setting up a world and a premise that would allow us to rejuvenate and not to be locked onto the same characters. So some of that secret weapon is the ability to bring on some new people. And I think since it's a show where I think mostly the reason that people watch it is they're enjoying the characters, ... if we can create new characters that people are intrigued by, you get a chance to start afresh with people. So that's the whole conceit. And then the other thing was the idea of trying to wrap things up in one season. Or one volume. And then start over in the next volume, but something new, so you give people the sense that there are closed-ended qualities to the show." Heroes will wrap its first season with new episodes beginning April 23 in its regular timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

[Gamblour.]

I spent the majority of this episode trying to figure out what the hell happened in the last episode.

[cine]

I spent the majority of this episode trying to figure out what the hell happened in the last episode.

i watched Parasite like 4 times during the break, so i was fine.. the ending of 0.07% was predictable to me but only because i think that's what we were all waiting for.

[Kal]

I think its great... not easy for a show to be so exciting and intriguing when they go back and forth between present and future, have characters painting the future and thinking they know everything that will happen... the new episode was great and I like that they are finding time for every character (like Lost used to be)

[Gamblour.]

(like Lost used to be)

Please don't be like my friend who argued with me that Heroes is better than Lost, like when he said, "I like it because the characters' lives are all intertwined."

[Kal]

Thats not what I meant. I like the Lost episodes when they try to include all or most of the characters and not just when its focused on a little group. That does not mean that I think Heroes is better or that Lost 'lost it'.

Lost is still my favorite show, but I'm very impressed with how good Heroes is.

[polkablues]

(like Lost used to be)

Please don't be like my friend who argued with me that Heroes is better than Lost, like when he said, "I like it because the characters' lives are all intertwined."

Must be a big "Crash" fan.

[Gamblour.]

But not Magnolia.

[modage]

LOST is Magnolia to HEROES Crash.

i've never actually seen heroes.  i'm just shit-talkin.

[Kal]

Those comparisons really make no sense.

Magnolia = GREAT FILM
Lost = ALMOST GREAT SHOW
Heroes = Pretty good show with a lot of potential
Crash = &$*@&#!

[Raikus]

So after directly ripping off the Watchmen's big twist ending I'm guessing the second season will deal with and alien who kills Claire. Soon though, four Claire like beings will surface each claiming to be the real Cheerleader: Baby Claire, Future-Half-Robot Claire, Energy Claire and a guy that dresses up in a mecha Claire suite.

[Raikus]

I guess there's still room enough in Season 1 to pull a Days of Future Past from X-Men out of the hat.

Maybe Kring will even throw in a little Spider-Man Clone Saga to before the finale. Hack.

[Gamblour.]

Agree. What a filler episode. The whole time, my friends and I were constantly aware of the uselessness of the episode. It doesn't matter how cool the writing or the twists are, it amounts to absolutely nothing. The characters' motivations in the future are completely pointless and I couldn't care less. It doesn't matter how "cool" it is that Peter has a scar or Parkman is kind of an asshole now. This is a future that will never come to fruition, and therefore has no benefit to me as an viewer.

Like my friend said, this could've been a piece of fan fiction.

[JG]

who cool

who "cool"

Gamblour cool. 

[Kal]

I liked the episode. Great entertainment. Of course the future will not be like that, but its good to see how they thought about it.

Still, I did not love some of the stories... like Nikki with Peter and stuff like that made no sense.

The whole thing about Hiro was cool. And after a whole season of using his coat, Peter Petrelli was really like NEO now controlling everything like it was the Matrix... badass.

Claire becoming a waitress... not so great... I mean she had a lot of money she could have go somewhere better to hide and stay there... like outside the US?