Kring's my hero

Tim Kring (creator of Heroes) released an apology to the fans recently. Read about it here: "Heroes Creator Apologizes to Fans." You'll note that what he says was wrong with the show are the exact things I've been pointing out since the season started. OBViously he read my blog.

In all seriousness though, you've got to give the guy credit for recognizing that something needed to be fixed. My main man Aaron Sorkin's pride never would have let him do that. (see: Studio 60)

The last two episodes of Heroes have been much improved -- finally some excitement. (And a little lightning never hurt anyone. Yeah, Kristen Bell!) Kring never should have waited until this far into the season to get things moving. No reason this stuff couldn't have happened weeks ago.

Regardless, Heroes is back in the game, and by ending the season in a couple weeks and starting over again, Kring's giving himself an almost-clean slate to redeem himself. Thanks, Tim Kring, for being so super. ;)

No "Origins"

Well, it was a cool idea. But this is for the best. Maybe Tim Kring can fix Heroes now that he's not distracted by a spinoff. Here's hoping.

"'Heroes' spin-off not happening."

Heroes woes

I'm trying to avoid yet another post about how much I love Pushing Daisies. So instead, I decided to post about why Heroes is making me nervous.

Although I was a Johnny-Come-Lately, season one of Heroes amazed me. During the week that I holed myself up in my apartment to devour the show for the first time via DVD, I became obsessed, and I finally realized what the big deal was.

But I also know a good hook when I see one. Beyond the strong characterization, acting, script and graphics (yay comic books), the mantra "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" helped guide this show to its monumental heights of popularity. Who doesn't remember the commercials last year? Whispered mantra. Black screen. Pure promotional magic.

It wasn't just that. Season one also had a well-crafted, novel-style plot line, divulged in appropriate amounts at appropriate times. But you have to admit, without "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World," Heroes may not have become the pop culture phenom it is today.

Season one was well played by Tim Kring, the show's creator/writer/producer. NBC helped as well, with its clever two-hour programming slots and all the promotion, cross-promotion and hype. And you've gotta give Masi Oka a good deal of credit too. He's a hero (or, Hiro), who's hard to resist. He's simply adorable. Not to mention all the other attractive people on the show. (Mmm Sylar. He's my fave. Is that sociopathic of me?)

Okay, so there's all that going for it, and season one ended strong. I wondered how they were going to maneuver season 2. Obviously they have to bring in new heroes, since several died last year. Also, I read enough articles to know they were bringing back some of the best (and hottest) characters, whose fates remained questionable in the controversial season finale. (Sylar, Peter, Nathan, Matt...)

But now that it's here, I seriously question how Kring has designed season 2. First of all, he added yet another pair of non-English-speaking heroes. Which is fine, I'm not trying to be ethnocentric. My problem is that the doubled subtitles means a lot of reading for a show that's already pretty intense and already requires heightened concentration. But that's manageable. On top of that, the plot is winding in questionable directions. And by winding I mean dragging along like a snail. The story's no longer epic... now it feels forced. The mystery is weak (granted, I'm comparing it to "save the cheerleader, save the world" - which can never be matched). And most of all, there's too much focus on the earlier generation of heroes. That might sound ageist, but I can't help it. Their characters are simply not as compelling as the younger ones - if not outright off-putting.

It's okay though. I'm giving it time. Maybe it just needs to develop. Claire's storyline is the saving grace right now - I love the addition of the flying boyfriend and his hatred of Horn-Rimmed-Glasses man. (Flying Boy doesn't know Horn Rim is Claire's dad.) Hopefully we'll start seeing more of Peter - his new storyline is not boring and is wonderfully Irish-brogue-filled, even though it's kind of a classic cop-out. (Amnesia is still lame, even when the victim is a hero.) Sylar's still intriguing, of course. Even when he's not cutting brains open. And most importantly, next week Kristen Bell (she played Veronica Mars) joins the cast, and I hear her character's pretty badass.

So there's a lot that can turn around this season. But EW warned about two things that could ruin Heroes in season 2: not showing enough of our favorite characters, and inflated ego. I hate to say it, but I'm seeing both of these materializing before our eyes. (Kring, why are you dividing your energies by creating "Heroes: Generations"?? We don't need a new show - we need this one to stay as good as it was last season. Pay attention!)

I hope that now that the cheerleader has been saved, Kring can stop trying to save the world and instead save his own show. Come on, Heroes! Once more, with feeling.

Monday night gut reaction

Quick (very quick) review of the season premieres before bed:

HIMYM: A
Big Bang Theory: D
Chuck: A+
Heroes: B+
Journeyman: C

Yeah that doesn't really tell you very much. Let's just say...
- Chuck and HIMYM were amazing, as expected
- Heroes was good and will undoubtedly get better as it gains momentum (Here's an idea... let's start by shaving Nathan's beard. Good lord.)
- Big Bang Theory not surprisingly blew (it's by the creators of Two and a Half Men, so...)
- Journeyman was disappointing... not necessarily a bad show, but probably a bad programming move on NBC's part.

And that's my brief, snap-judgment rundown. Tomorrow is another night of season premieres. And my life has order again.

Premiering tomorrow (Monday)!!

TV roundup

Hey TV fans. Just a quick recap of stuff I watched this week, stuff I read about today, and one special show I've just fallen in love with.

Notable stuff I watched:
- Gossip Girl. I'll preface this by saying that I feel some sort of six-degrees-of-separation type of thing with this show. First of all, they've been filming this all down 27th street in NYC, and they've done a week or so right by where I work. (Their wardrobe trailers were outside my building... and I accidentally walked through their breakfast tent one day and saw some of the beautiful gentlemen cast members. Hell yeah. One of them even glared at me! Be still my heart.) Secondly, my coworker's friend wrote the books the series is based on. Anyway, I've gotta say, this show was pretty smutty. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. A good way to sum it up is that while I never watched The O.C., I'm not surprised that it's by the same creators. But Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) is the narrator, and I love her. And I think it really captures the culture of the teenage set these days - with the sidekicks and the texting and the blogs and whatnot. It's interesting to me from a cultural perspective, and I always love a little drama. It's classic CW/WB, so I'll be tuning in again.

- Back to You. It's hard to judge sitcoms by their pilots. I was a little disappointed by this show's premiere. I'd flag it as mediocre so far. But hey, I'm not giving up on it just yet. Who doesn't love Kelsey Grammar?! Plus, it reminds me of Murphy Brown, News Radio and Mary Tyler Moore. So I'll hang in there.


Notable stuff I read:
- Tony Almeda is returning to 24 this season! Maybe the plot lines, character development, and, oh, say, anything interesting at all, will return too. We can only hope.

- Insight on Pushing Daisies from Slate.com: "...anyone who's seen the Pushing Daisies pilot has to wonder: How long can the studio keep up that expensive look? The same question applies to the premise—guy touches dead people, they come back to life; he touches them again, and they die permanently. The girl of his dreams dies. So, guy loses girl, guy touches girl, guy can never touch girl again." We'll have to see how that plays out. I've thought from the beginning that this might be one of those shows that would make out better as a movie. But here's hoping.

- NBC's co-chairman Ben Silverman threw a pre-Emmy party that included girls in underwear and a tiger in a cage. Formal attire only. Assumedly that applies to everyone but the g-string-clad women. And the tiger. So... there's that.

- "How to Sound Like an American." This Slate video article investigates how all these British actors drop their accents to sound so utterly American. (House is the best example. Damn, he's good.)

My new love:

HEROES. Seriously, I missed out last season by not watching this. Now I understand what all the hype was about. It's so much better than I expected!!! It's everything I always wished Lost and 24 could be. And for someone like me, who loves reading novels, the fact that this plays out like a novel is fantastic. The writing is phenomenal, the characters are so complex, and the plot is revealed just enough at a time. And like my sister said, the story arc was planned from the beginning, so nothing that happens is an accident. Plus, I love superhero stories. So this is like my dream show. I am wondering, though, how this got scheduled in a 9pm time slot. It's pretty graphic, racy, dark, and scary. (Especially if you watch it with all the lights off and only candles lit, like I've been doing. Very "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark"-ish.) Anyway, seriously, watch this show. I always knew I'd like it, but I never knew I'd love it to the point of addiction, which is how I feel now. Season 2 starts Monday, but you should DVR it, Netflix the season 1 DVDs right now, and have a marathon over the weekend, like I'm doing, so that you can start watching season 2. (You definitely have to start with season 1.) I'm holding out hope that it won't lose momentum in season 2. This show is extremely powerful. And you know what they say... with great power comes great responsibility. Crossing my fingers that that means season 2 plays out just as fantastically as season 1!