The View From Here

What does one do with a long weekend provided by Labor Day?  Finish off the first season of Heroes with friends!  So at this point we sit on the edge of finding out if this show will turn into another Lost or if it will keep our attention through the second season.

Let me talk a little about Season 1 (as vaguely as possible to avoid spoiling it for anyone who has not seen it).  I really enjoyed the characters of this show.  Just a few episodes in all the actors seemed to own their characters and the watcher was able to get attached to them.  Most of them are deep and have an intriguing past to find out about  I felt like the story was very well done.  It move at a quick pace only faltering a couple times with plot lines that seemed to be filler.    One of the problems I had with Lost was it was very melodramatic.  Heroes didn’t seem to have a big problem with this.  The characters actions seemed true to the characters and most of their actions were based on some driving force and not just drama for the sake of drama.  There was a little less action than I would have liked to see but I am hoping that as our heroes progress we will see more of this.  Overall this is probably the best show of its kind that I have watched and I am really looking forward to season 2.

If you are planning on watching this show based on my recommendation please know that there is some fast-forward-able content at the beginning of the show and in a couple other places.

Let me talk a little about TV shows in general and what I think would make them better.  The biggest difference to me between movies and TV shows like Heroes is time.  Movies pack a lot into a short time period and TV shows pack a lot into a much longer time period.  There are many positives and negatives to this but I think the main ones for TV are these:

• Positive:  There is much more time for character development and story telling.
• Negative: There is much more time for the show to lose itself.

Many shows lose themselves.  They don’t develop enough ideas to fill the time they have so they end up stretching the ones they do have too thin.  They drag things out and don’t resolve them so the viewer ends up frustrated but they enjoy the ideas that were present enough to come back and see if the show does it better the next season, usually to be disappointed.

Another problem TV shows seem to force on themselves is the idea that they are like a drug.  The makers seem to think that the more people get of something the more they are going to want.  They think they have to up the ante until the show is not fun to watch because it is so ridiculous.

I don’t know if my solutions would be doable because I don’t know the money or time constraints on developing a TV show but here they are nonetheless.  First, don’t stretch ideas too thin.  Some plot ideas are worth more time than others.  When you don’t resolve one for longer than it is worth you frustrate the audience.  Spend more time developing ideas to make sure you have enough to fill the time you have.  Second, don’t get lazy with characters for the sake of drama.  Let the drama occur on it’s own, don’t force it.  If you don’t have it then maybe you don’t have characters that are good enough.  Third, show people what they want to see.  In Heroes I want to see some more action.  I want to see what the heroes can do when they have to.  We were teased with this in an episode late in the first season so hopefully the second season will deliver.  And if you do tease then deliver soon.  I remember in Smallville how long it took after the tease for something to occur and it wasn’t good.  That is why I quit watching.  Cliff hangers are OK just don’t drag them out over five episodes (or multiple seasons in the case of Lost).  Lastly, TV shows need to take a page from movies and resolve some things quicker.  Dragging things out causes tension which is good but too much tension immediately kills what you were trying to create.  Don’t let it get to that.  Timely resolution will create a content audience.  There may need to be a few more ideas present if you resolve them quicker but that is well worth it.  A content audience is much better than a frustrated one.

So far Heroes has done these things mostly well and because of that I am really looking forward to watching season 2.  Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite TV shows are and why.

Brian