[url=http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/22/heroes-nbc]Entertainment Weekly just announced[/url] that NBC will be reviving their 2006 series [i]Heroes[/i] for a 13 episode run in 2015, with Tim Kring once again at the helm.
I was a big fan of this show. I know it was cancelled due to the sharp decline in ratings and critical acclaim that hit after its first season, but the big writer's strike started just as their first season was ending. Of course the quality dropped. Then it was cancelled before it could really get its feet back under it.
Personally, I hope this little test run (since that is obviously what it is) goes well. I will be watching closely to see how it does when it finally airs, considering the amount of comic book universe-based television there is slated to be at that point (provided nothing gets cancelled, of course).
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My thoughts exactly, Winter... I LOVED season one.. and basically hated every season after.
I really hope they can restrain the premise somewhat, this go around... (more like Alpha's I guess... which, in turn, was basically the X-men)..... it just ended up too crazy and bombastic.
Also, as much as I enjoyed most of the cast of the original series, I really hope none of them return for the new one (also, I hope this is a new heroes universe, with a different power dynamic in the world)
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[i]....Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...[/i]
Colour me sceptical but with a wee pilot light of hope for a resurrection of the feel of the first season.
Wonder what Sheldon will make of this announcement... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryi2o3wmH6E
Spurn all ye kindle.
Unless they're willing to spend some real money on some special effects, I just can't imagine it doing well.
I don't want a Superman that doesn't fly. I don't want a build up to a big fight between to powerhouses that ends up being a light show creeping out from behind a door.
I think the reason "season one" of Heroes was pretty good and the rest sort of sucked was that the original premise of Heroes really only worked as a single "miniseries" of shows. The "series" was doomed to failure the moment they tried to extend the original story past its logical conclusion.
Now ever since "American Horror Story" proved there was a market for a show where every season has completely reformulated plot, story, characters, etc. maybe if this new Heroes takes the tack of being completely "reimagined" like AHS does every season then it might manage to do well.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
apparently that WAS the format Heroes was supposed to have... each season, new characters (with maybe one or two showing up as special guests) and new plot arch...
but NBC or whoever didn't think that format would be viable, and then the writers struck.
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[i]....Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...[/i]
Yep that was supposed to be the working idea for Heroes and I think the first season was written more or less as a pretty decent "self-contained" story along those lines.
But like you say maybe by the time season two was due to happen the idea became a little too revolutionary for the Network Suits and they flinched. Hopefully American Horror Story has given everyone some reassurance that the idea could in fact work.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
It was the original intent, but at the same time, I think I would've hated not seeing some of those characters again.
I would have been ecstatic, if I didn't have to see most of them again (in particular, any of the ones over 35)
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[i]....Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...[/i]
But Noah Bennet!
[i]This[/i] was why they scrapped the original "switch the casts around" idea. I think people fell in love with the characters more than the plot or premise, and suddenly the producers and writers had a big problem: following their original plan meant disappointing a lot of fans. However, this is not unexpected: people fall in love with characters, especially super-powered ones. Their problems and their successes seem immeasurably more significant than ours, and that is really enthralling to experience. Hell, look at all the noise fans made when it was announced that Nightcrawler would not be carried forward from X-Men 2 to 3: he was a very unique character with a contrasting ideology and kick-ass powers, and he just ambiguously disappeared. We don't like that. So when season 1 of Heroes ended, I think that people had already grown attached to the majority of the characters (not all), so the head honchos decided that to completely start over would be too big a risk.
I think they could have kept Claire and her father; Hiro and Ando; the Petrelli family; Sylar; and [i]maybe[/i] Dr. Suresh (because I only disliked him starting after Season 1), and moved on. Sylar is debatable since usually super story lines are delineated by the defeat of one villain and the emergence of another, but they could have moved forward with his rehabilitiation story and kept him around.
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I suppose it's possible the Network Suits thought that people started to "grow attached to the characters/actors" and didn't want to take the risk of the planned "switch the casts around" premise. But if that's the case I can only conclude that the Network Suits ultimately misjudged the situation which led to the unfortunate suckiness and lingering death sprial of the post first season episodes.
Yes I realize if they had actually stuck to their guns and reshuffled all the characters/actors that some people (like Brand X) would be disappointed. Heck I would have probably been a little sad to see some of the first season characters go as well. But frankly I think I would have liked seeing the story reshuffuled as envisioned from season to season more than the stagnate episodic mess the series became. Let's put it this way: I've seen all of season one and two, but even though I actually have all four season boxsets for the show I haven't even gotten around to getting through season three yet because I just can't bring myself to put up with the silliness the show devolved into.
Again I'm hoping they've "learned their lesson" with this and will be more willing to take the risk of switching things around once logical storylines have been completed.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I really enjoyed Ali Larter's individual characters and how she portrayed them, and I think she would have done very well if Heroes had been kept in that AHS one-offs. Her characters were like testing the waters of that and tracked well for me...until they started connecting that they were triplets separated at birth and blerch! Zach Quinto also being an AHS veteran proved he could have been equally stable as a new character season/chapter to season/chapter.
Acting talent aside (and no I don't think all of the actors could be so dynamic and adaptable to unique yet similar storylines) I'd be very sad to not know where Hiro was going or what possible bigger evils would present to everyone. News of the series for me is high hopes, low expectations.
[i]“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” -Douglas Adams[/i]
Personally, I was completely enthralled with Heroes from beginning to end. Season one was definitely the best, but there were many episodes of brilliance throughout the series. I think part of the problem was, along with the writers strike, they weren't sure where to go with some of the tent pole characters. Peter and Sylar became entirely too powerful and so they needed to come up with a way to dial them back a ways in order to keep the "good vs evil" conflicts balanced. So they come up with these convoluted plot devices to neuter them (honestly, the whole thing about Peter losing his memory and then his dad coming back and stealing all his powers was ridiculous), and Sylar losing every ability except his intuitive aptitude and completely unstoppable telekinesis (and why was that one retained??) due to a very specific virus was just plain silly. And then things just become too predictable. Of course Sylar got his redemption story...first because of his characters' popularity, and also because there had to be someone of his power level to face the imminent danger of the final villain because they made Peter all but useless. But to top it off, the whole build up to these two titans throwing down fizzled and died so horribly, I think they lost a lot of hope from the core fans of that first season and never got it back. They OWED us a showdown and never gave it. It should have been the hallmark scene of the series and instead it became the biggest disappointment. Throw in the mess that was Hiro going back in time for way too long, Nikki and her irrelevant story lines, Nathan losing his mind and becoming a complete dick, and the whole Micha/Rebel thing and well...the rest is history.
This "reboot" could be a really awesome thing if they correct the mistakes they made the first time round. I hope Tim Kring has learned his lesson
Currently trapped inside the Speed Force...
I can accept that there were various moments sprinkled throughout the post first season episodes of Heroes that were fairly cool.
But imagine if you will what it might have been like if the plotline they started in the first season really did come to a final conclusion at the end of the first season and whatever became of the next season after that really was a completely different story that had started fresh without having to rely on any of the "convolutions" that were built up from the beginning. If you can imagine that then you might realize that practically all the criticisms you yourself mentioned would never have happened. They wouldn't have had tinker around with Peter or Sylar's powers or any of the other silliness such as Hiro's time travel or Nikki's dumb side stories. They didn't know where to go with the "tent pole" characters as you say because they their stories weren't really "designed" to last for multiple seasons in the first place.
Basically in a nutshell if Heroes had followed its "every season will be a different story" plan we wouldn't have had any of the post first season dumbness we got. And for what it's worth I don't think you can really blame the writer's strike for that overall failure either. The show effectively set itself up for a death spiral the moment it decided to try to keep the "house of cards" from the first season going.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I have to agree with you. Every season SHOULD have been a new story arc with new characters. For continuity sake, maybe Peter shows up here or there, maybe Hiro doing something to preserve the timeline, etc. I think the popularity of Heroes really surprised everyone, including Tim Kring and all the other writers of the show. I wouldn't be surprised if the network execs put pressure on the staff to keep the story going so they can keep the ratings up. From a business standpoint, why change what brought them the initial success in the first place? But that was the beginning of the downward spiral. The first season story arc was built entirely on the inevitable face off between Peter and Sylar (and subsequently Hiro delivering the death strike to Sylar) but the network panicked and likely forced the change at the last minute so we see Sylar TK'ing Hiro across the plaza and him defending himself by...throwing himself 100s of years back in time...?
The one good thing about the mess of the following seasons for me, was watching Sylar's badassery continue until they wiped his memory. I loved his utter domination of any other super powered character, especially the episode where he has Claire and her mom locked in a building with some of the level 5 escapees. Especially the scene where the puppeteer tries to hold him and Sylar breaks through it. It was also cool to watch the dynamic between him and Noah when they were partners for a while. For me, Sylar made it worth continuing through the show, just waiting to see what awesomeness came next.
Currently trapped inside the Speed Force...