EW - Kring Admids to Season Two Pacing Mistakes

Terrormaster · 11-07-2007, 04:20 PM

You can read the entire article here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20158840,00.html

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 WORLD-SAVING STAKES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED SOONER The premonition of nuclear apocalypse created a larger context that unified every story line last season. Kring now sees that Volume 2 (the first 11 episodes of season 2) would have been better served if Peter's vision of viral Armageddon had appeared in the season premiere rather than episode 7. ''We took too long to get to the big-picture story,'' he says.

THE ROOKIES DIDN'T GREET THEMSELVES PROPERLY New Heroes Monica (Dana Davis), Maya (Dania Ramirez), and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) ''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.'' (That said, Kring says a few newbies won't make it beyond this second volume, which wraps Dec. 3.)

HIRO WAS IN JAPAN WAY TOO LONG Hiro's (Masi Oka) time-bending adventure in 17th-century Japan — where he mentored samurai hero Takezo Kensei (David Anders) — finally came to an end on Nov. 5. But 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.''

Yet while Heroes has finally found some dramatic traction, this second volume is pretty much a wash. The Dec. 3 episode has been retooled to function as a potential season finale — a move inspired by the writers' strike and a desire to give the show ''a clean slate'' when it goes back into production for Volume 3. At that point, Kring wants to craft a rebooted Heroes that can attract new fans and win back those who've tuned out: ''The message is that we've heard the complaints — and we're doing something about it.''

-TM

Sam · 11-07-2007, 04:32 PM

Visit the front page every now and then, TM.

Leah · 11-07-2007, 05:38 PM

I am glad that he realizes the mistakes they made and that he was able to admit it. The last episode was amazing and the season keeps getting better.

Terrormaster · 11-07-2007, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Visit the front page every now and then, TM.

Sorry Sam - I had just got in from jury duty and was smack in the middle of rushing out again to make a parent/teacher conference. Saw the email from EW in my mailbox and thought I'd post it up quick.

-TM

Esquin · 11-08-2007, 08:03 AM

Oh god they're trying to re-tool it to suit the fans AGAIN. Well lets hope this time the biggest part of the re-tooling process is ignoring every last one of us. Lets face it guys, we brought this on ourselves by loving the cast too much.

Chris · 11-08-2007, 10:15 PM

Is great that he has recognised certain errors and has apologised for them, very rare indeed, in my mind the show has been going in an inhibited direction as popular characters were kept in, to me all season 1 characters were/are popular. I post this before the four months ago episode and chances are this episode may change my mind about this - Nathan should have died saving New York would've been poetic and given much strength to the show, Matt should have died after taking 4 bullets to the chest (tho admittedly his power has got very interesting), Sylar should have died by Hiro's samurai sword (I say this even tho next to Hiro Sylar was my favorite character from last season), DL should be alive. It is also a shame Peter didn't absorb Nikki/Jessica split personality problem as well as her strength, he would've made an interesting 'Big Bad.'

Oh and the Nightmare Man was nothing on Sylar in full head slicey mode, I even found Candice a more threatening character than the supposed boogie man. And Sylar really should be dead, to coin a phrase from a classic show here in UK, 'better dead than smeg' (yes I know I already coined Buffy, but hey I miss her and is time they included some old cast members from different shows before we get trekied to death)

I still dig the show of course and will be hoping those writers across the Atlantic get what they deserve quickly so we can all sit back in our comfy armchairs and sofa's and watch a full season of heroes doing heroic stuff.

The_Heroic_Loser · 11-08-2007, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esquin

Oh god they're trying to re-tool it to suit the fans AGAIN. Well lets hope this time the biggest part of the re-tooling process is ignoring every last one of us. Lets face it guys, we brought this on ourselves by loving the cast too much.

Well, no, that's not really true. The biggest complaint against the show so far this season is its slow pace and lack of progression through the new storyline, not the fact that Kring decided to allow Nathan to live. The fans wanted more action and quicker pace, but Kring didn't anticipate their desires and so he opted for a slower, more drawn-out method. And there's also the storyline involving Claire's high school drama. The fans didn't ask for that - NBC executives probably did. If Kring actually DID listen to us, then the show wouldn't have the same issues that it has had so far and the ratings would most likely be way up.

Chris · 11-08-2007, 10:52 PM

Fans don't all think the same things if we did then no way would West have happened, from what I have seen the pacing being slow and elongated is due mostly to character congestion, take away 3 or 4 and that would surly free up minutes to speed things up regarding story progression and/or go more in depth with the remaining characters, or increase the length of episodes which I would be for, feature length episodes would be a huge step in the right direction for some tv shows, although I have little doubt that there is some kind of beaurocratic/contractual/advertising/airtime/network reason why this can never happen. Let's make all TV shows Direct-to-DVD then ratings go out the window and we can enjoy a four hour season finale and writers wouldn't be pushed into to trying to appeal to every social and cultural demographic on the globe hehe

Ikin · 11-09-2007, 12:00 AM

Use punctaution, man!

Esquin · 11-09-2007, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Heroic_Loser

Well, no, that's not really true. The biggest complaint against the show so far this season is its slow pace and lack of progression through the new storyline, not the fact that Kring decided to allow Nathan to live. The fans wanted more action and quicker pace, but Kring didn't anticipate their desires and so he opted for a slower, more drawn-out method. And there's also the storyline involving Claire's high school drama. The fans didn't ask for that - NBC executives probably did. If Kring actually DID listen to us, then the show wouldn't have the same issues that it has had so far and the ratings would most likely be way up.

I was referring to the re-write mid last season that caused the current cast to survive instead of having 90% of it killed off. Remember it was supposed to have an ever shifting cast, but hey rewrote it because the fans didn't want that.