Heroes
One of my favorite shows on the air at the moment has been Heroes… mainly because of how intriguing and complex the first season was. A near-perfect storyline, only to be let down by the weak conclusion, Heroes has merged the fans of mystery, drama, thriller, and comics into one hybrid of an adventure. But the second season isn’t as compelling as the first. Many fans, including myself, have been let down by the separate storylines, the new characters, the characters’ motives, etc. And, after all the trouble the characters went through in the first season… Syler is still alive? Peter doesn’t remember who he is and has to go through the whole discovering his powers again? Everyone had their own story, and the beginning just seemed so disconnected from their mission… to save the freaking world. You know it will eventually happen… but suffering through the first 5 or so episodes of seemingly randomness was frustrating.
Tim Kring was quoted in this week’s Entertainment Weekly and apologized for dissapointing its fans. Here’s some snippets from the article…
The Pace Is Too Slow. ”We assumed the audience wanted season 1 — a buildup of intrigue about these characters and the discovery of their powers. We taught [them] to expect a certain kind of storytelling. They wanted adrenaline. We made a mistake.”
The rookies didn’t greet themselves properly. The twins “‘’shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show. The way we introduced Elle (Kristen Bell) — by weaving her in via Peter’s story line — is a more logical way to bring new characters into the show.”
Hiro was in Japan way too long. Kring says it ‘’should have [lasted] three episodes. We didn’t give the audience enough story to justify the time we allotted it.”
Young Love Stinks. Kring regrets sticking Claire (Hayden Panettiere) with a super-dud boyfriend and forcing Hiro to moon over a cutesy princess. ”I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV,” he admits. ”In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.”
Kring did say he appreciated the fans feedback and will be making changes to make sure the next season won’t make the same mistakes.
WGA Strike Affecting Heroes
We all know about the strike affecting the late night talk shows and a number of sitcoms. Well, Heroes, along with many other popular primte-time shows, are now in panic mode and are preparing to cut their season short. It has been reported by a number of sources that the season two finale for Heroes will be on December 3rd. Although this was the episode to end Volume 2 “Generations”, it was not planned to be the season finale. After the episode, it was planned that Volume Three would follow and continue the rest of Season 2. Now, unless the strike is resolved, Kring and company will be reshooting the finale of Volume 2 as the season finale… which leaves the entire second season at 11 episodes long.
Another Heroes related casualty from the writers strike is the cancellation of “Heroes: Origin” which was expected to start as early as late April. This spin-off had planned a 6-episode season.
Box Office
This week’s totals (imdb.com):
Rank Movie Week’s$ Total$
1 Bee Movie (2007) $26M $72.2M
2 American Gangster (2007) $24.3M $80.7M
3 Fred Claus (2007) $19.2M $19.2M
4 Lions for Lambs (2007) $6.71M $6.71M
5 Dan in Real Life (2007) $5.87M $30.7M
6 Saw IV (2007) $5.01M $58.1M
7 The Game Plan (2007) $2.41M $85.4M
8 P2 (2007) $2.2M $2.2M
9 30 Days of Night (2007) $2.1M $37.4M
10 Martian Child (2007) $1.75M $6.01M
Can’t say I wasn’t surprised by The Bee Movie buzzing into first place this week. After a mediocre first weekend, falling behind to American Gangster, The Bee Movie won the race to the top by less than $2 million. Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti’s Fred Claus totaled at $19.2 million, a slight dissapointment for Warner Brothers. The big let down this week was Lions for Lambs. The all-star cast of Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, and Meryl Streep couldn’t rack in more than $7 million this weekend. Maybe it was the mostly negative reviews… or maybe America is just exhausted from the onslaught of war/Iraq movies this year. Whatever the case, put Lions for Lambs down as another hyped but dissapointing film along with Rendition, Reservation Road, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and We Own the Night.
Posted by Rob Eng 
