Here is No Why

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An Open Letter to Tim Kring, Creator and Executive Producer of Heroes

September 23, 2007 10:25 AM

r. Kring,
I have to say that I am extremely frustrated and disappointed.

Before the last TV season started, Heroes was one of the few new series I was excited for. In fact, I was extremely excited about it, but I feared that it would get cancelled relatively on. While the show's premise--ordinary people learning that they have extraordinary abilities--appealed to me, an old-school comic-book geek. Still, I was afraid that the public at large wouldn't understand or, more likely, that the creative staff would fail to take their characters seriously. Needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

In fact, I was astonished. It seemed as though every single episode was better than the last. I would go into the office on Tuesday mornings and declare the previous night's episode the best yet, only to have the next week's episode blow the last one out of the water. The characters were real; who couldn't identify with Hiro or Claire or Peter or even Nathan? The writing was perfect; the characters were believable, the plots were coherent, there was great tension and suspense, and there were even great humorous moments. And, of course, the villain was first rate; Sylar was both frightening and sympathetic to a certain degree. In other words, it was an amazing television show--definitely my favorite.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the whole thing started to come undone. After "Company Man"--which is still my favorite episode--the quality started to drop off severely. The finale was just around the corner. This was when you needed all hands on deck to bring us, your adoring, faithful audience, the finale we deserved--the finale that, based on the excellence we'd come to expect, we knew you could deliver. But as "How to Stop an Exploding Man" unfolded before us, we realized that you had not delivered.

In fact, not only had you not delivered, you had outright half-assed the thing. Part of what made Heroes so special was the fact that you took your characters, their situations, and their powers seriously. Despite the fact that your characters could fly, regenerate, and stop time, you always put them in challenging situations and then had them escape in ways that were, within the universe's logic, perfectly believable. And the characters' motivations and actions were always consistent with the character. It was as if you completely abandoned these principals during the finale. Why did Nathan have to fly away with Peter? In fact, why did he risk his life at all? Your statement that "real explanation is that we wanted Nathan to show up and [save the day]" only adds insult to injury. If you wanted Nathan to save the day, you should have expended the effort to have that resolution be both believable and compelling. Instead the episode that we had been looking forward to all season was the year's worst.

The second season starts tomorrow night. I'll be watching, Mr. Kring, but not with as much joy as I should be. Over the summer, repeats of last season's episodes have sat on my Tivo unwatched. I haven't gone to the forums I frequented, and discussions of your show with my friends have been less than enthusiastic. "How to Stop an Exploding Man" left a bad taste in my mouth, and I think that, although you and your writing staff deserves a great deal of credit, the blame for the disappointment falls squarely on your shoulders.

Please, Mr. Kring, don't let us down again.

2 Comments

frank x. said:

You're too hard on Heroes. The reason that Peter couldn't fly away is that the Jedi were busy getting dealing with the crisis on Naboo and were unable to send a diplomat to earth to resolve the conflict between the Heroes and Sylar. Had the trade federation not been blockading that peaceful planet, the Jedi could have sent someone to initiate talks between both side and hopefully reach lightsaber less conclusion. Also, Peter was using all of his focus to not explode. Flying wasn't the only thing he couldn't do. They didn't show his pants, but I'm pretty sure he crapped them.
I thought the season finale was less exciting then I wanted, but still entertaining. Every movie I've ever seen where I expect a big fight between the hero and villain always ends up uneventful (Not counting Star Wars) . What they should have done was end the season on a big cliff hanger relating to the explosion. That would have pissed me off, but it also would have been awesome and very golden age of comics. Will the Great Frank defeat the Evil Ismael? Will he survive the Blog 'O Ray? Check back on the next issue of Here is no Why!

September 24, 2007 9:27 AM

Ismael Tapia II said:

That was the most incoherent comment anyone's ever posted here. Were you high when you wrote that? Seriously?

September 24, 2007 6:55 PM