‘Heroes’ Creator Tim Kring On Season 2: ‘We Made A Mistake’
‘Heroes’ was NBC’s darling last year, however, its had anything but a fairy tale season so far.
And creator Tim Kring has heard it all: from critics complaining about the show’s sluggish storytelling, to a significant ratings drop from last year. But in a rather candid interview with ‘Entertainment Weekly’ today, Kring promises to get the show back on track.
“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,” Kring says on the pace of the second season.
He also acknowledges they took too long to get to the larger story, as the premonition of nuclear apocalypse created last season. ”We took too long to get to the big-picture story,” he says of waiting until the seventh episode for Peter’s vision of viral Armageddon.
Kring also agrees the romance storyline didn’t work as intended for Claire: “I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV,. In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.” And adds the introduction of new Heroes Monica, Maya, and Alejandro was somewhat clumsy and “shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show.”
But ‘Heroes’ is hoping to get back to its roots at the end of Volume 2 (the 11th episode of season 2). The December 3 episode has been tweaked to function as a potential season finale, a move inspired by the writers’ strike but one that will also give the show a clean slate when it returns — something Kring is desperately looking forward to: “The message is that we’ve heard the complaints” and we’re doing something about it.”