Heroes / Heroes Reborn: Discussion Thread

[King]

OK! So, clearly, I love this show. It is amazing. And it is hands down the best new show of the year. There are so many good things about it...the writers are amazing, the casting is brilliant - even the minor roles. It's so innovative, even with little things, like the little captions, like giving us the title of the episodes. Just so many good things about this show.

But as the season went on and on, I kind of did start to get annoyed:

- Hiro and his subtitles. My God, please let him learn English for next season! The subtitles work on LOST with Jin and Sun because they're not on every episode, and they use it every now and again. With Heroes, it's like gahhh enough.

- Some things just kind of WERE with no real explanation. And as a writer, I've been taught you cannot leave things up to writer's convenience. Did they say why Sylar was killing all of these people, despite showing regret and hesitation over it in the episode with his mother? And why was this power the one thing Peter cannot control? Why didn't he just train and work to control the power like he did all the others?

I don't know. It seems to me some of the writers just thought we'd pick up on things and assumed we'd be following it. They really should not have left some things up to interpretation.

I also, HATED the "Cliffhanger." I thought it was silly and didn't make much sense. It was another "Huh" moment, and I don't think the show needed another one of those.

Like I said, the show was amazing all season long so can you really blame it for having a mildly disappointing finale? I can't. I hope the show watches next season with revealing too much too soon with all of the premonitions. We kind of knew everything that was going to happen. It lacked a surprise factor. I thought the Fall Finale with the Cheerleader was a better episode and The Company Man. The good definitely outweighed the bad.

I hope Claire's birth mother will be coming back next season. I looove her both on this and on Nip/Tuck.

I loved the COMPANY MAN episode, Kev, but I did not like the Future Episode.

[WTGH]

I don't know why he started killing, but after we met his mother he kept on doing it since he'd seen himself as President.

What WAS Sylar's initial power?

Also... Isaac Mendez needed to be high to tap into his power. Yet... Sylar can use it at will and without any substance?

What?!?! He's alive? How?!?!?! He looked pretty dead to me.

[King]

Sylar was dead, but then his body was missing and the sewer drain was kinda opened. GAG!

[daysboy]

This may not be right but, I think Sylar started killing because he wanted to be special. So he went to, I believe, Mohindar's father who told him no way. Then, he somehow found a person with power, killed him and "learned" it. He then, became power hungry and more so after every kill.

Please someone tell me that makes sense.

[Toups]

Sylar's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylar#Character_history

Sylar was able to quickly adapt to his new abilities because of the way his brain works.

[Sylph]

‘Heroes’ welcome for Kring

By Nellie Andreeva

June 7, 2007

NBC's hero of the 2006-07 season, "Heroes" creator/executive producer Tim Kring, has inked a new overall deal with NBC Universal Television Studio, the studio behind the hit freshman show.

Under the two-year pact, said to be one of the biggest in television, Kring will continue as the showrunner on "Heroes" and will shepherd its upcoming spinoff, "Heroes: Origins," as well as the various "Heroes" offshoots in print and digital media. Kring also is expected to develop new projects for the studio.

This marks the first major talent deal to close since Katherine Pope took the reins of NBC Uni TV as president several days ago. That couldn't be more fitting as Kring and Pope are close friends going back to the early days of NBC Studios, which the two joined within months from each other in 1999-2000.

Kring came to the studio to work as co-executive producer on the family drama "Providence" and soon became one of the first writers signed by the studio in an overall deal. He went on to create and run the long-running procedural drama "Crossing Jordan."

Pope, who has been rising through the ranks of the studio and NBC, has been involved in all three NBC series on which Kring has worked.

"NBC Studios has grown and changed as I have grown, and Tim has too -- he's grown to show more of the absolute diversity of his talent," Pope said. "The reason this deal is so important to us is because of Tim's absolutely extraordinary ability to write all types of characters with such authenticity. He can find the humanity in the characters and everything he writes."

Also playing an important part in NBC Uni TV's commitment to extend its relationship with Kring is "his incredible strength as a producer," Pope said.

"He is a brilliant writer, and he also runs one of the tightest ships in town," Pope said of Kring's handle on his shows, which she said is especially impressive on "Heroes," given the scope of production on the high-concept sci-fi series.

Kring called Pope "the one consistent face of the studio for me for all (three) shows" at NBC Uni TV.

"There is a tremendous continuity in my relationship with NBC," he said, "and with Katherine Pope coming back to the studio, it's coming full circle to my original relationship with her."

The main focus in Kring's new deal with NBC Uni TV will be running "Heroes" as well as "Origins," an anthology-type series about people around the world discovering that they have extraordinary powers.

That in itself is a huge undertaking.

"Nothing about the show has been easy," Kring said. "It's become a show that defies expectations each week."

But that is just a small part of the challenges he's faced since the blazing entry of "Heroes" into primetime last fall.

"That has been one of the big changes in my jobs, going from showrunner who oversees writing and production on a show to a person managing a brand and everything involved in that," he said, noting that he relies heavily on his team to keep the "Heroes" armada afloat.

As for the latest top executive changes at NBC: "I'm excited about the new faces, and I'm excited to get to know them and work with them," Kring said. "NBC clearly has some of the most interesting and highest-quality shows on television. It's exciting being at a place that is willing to take bold risks with innovative shows like 'Heroes.'"

Kring is repped by Endeavor and attorney Jeanne Newman.

[Sylph]

'Heroes' set a challenge for crew

Multiple locations, difficult effects make for a complicated shoot

By THOMAS MCLEAN

Saving the cheerleader to save the world is the high-stakes onscreen mission for NBC's freshman series "Heroes," but it's even more challenging for the cast and crew to bring it to life.

"It's as big as two shows in some ways," says Tim Kring, creator and exec producer.

Globe-trotting stories aside, the show has yet to venture beyond the studio zone, shooting on location nearby as much as half the time and maximizing its resources to re-create the look of Tokyo, Las Vegas, India, New York and Texas.

"The intention was always to make it feel like it was bigger in scope than it really was by having a story that took place in a global environment," Kring says. "And so we now have the ability on a TV budget to place us in downtown New York with a virtual back lot that is reasonable to do on a television budget."

For the final episode of its first season, the cast and crew set up in downtown Los Angeles in the courtyard at Arco Plaza -- redressed as Kirby Plaza in honor of comicbook artist Jack Kirby -- to film the final showdown with the villainous Sylar, played by Zachary Quinto.

The large production at Arco Plaza gets under way after dark. Exec producer Allan Arkush directs, referring constantly to a large binder of storyboards -- many of them marked with colored tags indicating visual effects. They start with actors Ali Larter, Leonard Roberts and child actors Noah Gray-Cabey and Adair Tishler. Later scenes involve a showdown between Sylar and Masi Oka's Hiro Nakamura.

A veteran TV director, Arkush says the biggest challenge on "Heroes" is its complexity. "It feels like you're shooting four or five different shows a month because the cast is so split up," he explains.

It's complex technically, too. The previous night's shoot at the Arco Plaza included a scene of a parking meter flying across the courtyard that will be done in CG, and later scenes will feature more visual effects with a glowing, explosive character named Ted. "And you still have to do 25 to 35 setups per day," Arkush notes.

For the cast in particular, this was a special episode because their disparate plotlines rarely assemble them all in one place. In addition, other actors were wrapping up their commitments to the show's first season.

"For us, it's really fun," says, Greg Grunberg, (Matt Parkman in the series), who has shown up on set even though he has no scenes to shoot. He adds the show is complex for the actors as well: For example, in this episode, he notes, his character is shot and wounded but his scenes were shot in reverse order.

Other cast members mill about the set awaiting their call, including Sendhil Ramamurthy, Malcolm McDowell and Jack Coleman. Roberts, made up with fake blood, says not knowing what the other actors are doing has its benefits. "That's what great about the show: I can watch it like a fan."

Co-exec producer Jeph Loeb hovers over the shooting, doing such things as answering Arkush's questions about dialogue. Loeb comes to the show from stints on "Lost" and "Smallville." He also has been a fan-favorite comicbook writer for nearly 20 years, turning out hits for Marvel and DC. His frequent collaborator, Tim Sale, is responsible for the prescient artwork painted on the show by Isaac Mendes.

Many comparisons are made to "Lost," but Loeb says "Heroes" is a very different show. "Because our shows are more character-driven, our dependence on plot is not as heavy," he asserts. "On a conceptual level, it's a much wider net that we can cast."

Loeb adds he is pleased with how the first season wraps up. "Ninety percent of questions asked in the pilot are answered," he says. That still leaves things wide open for the second season, which was already being planned early on, to change things up by possibly doing shorter story arcs and altering the mix of characters.

The show is a demanding one for the crew. The sets that production designer Ruth Ammon builds at Sunset-Gower studios are often as long as 80 feet to 100 feet. They also need to accommodate the show's unusual visual language, which pays tribute to comicbook storytelling by using low angles that require sets to have ceilings and extra setups to get coverage. "Every episode is an interesting new journey," she says. Kring says bringing over crew members from "Crossing Jordan" has helped the show tremendously through the efficiency that comes from working with familiar people. "This show is running in a very lean kind of way, and it's all ending up on the screen," he says.

[daysboy]

Very cool articles Sylph. Thanks for posting.

[Sylph]

Does anyone remember in episode 1 did Mr. Bennet pick up all of Mohinder's father's documentation or did Mohinder collect it before Bennet was able to take it away? I think I saw those folders in Mohinder's place in Brooklyn along with the tape Teleportation, but I'm sure also that all he was able to do back in India is to photograph the map of the world. Anyone?

[Sylph]

Who didn't see it - Season 2 promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yIAj6Tkrg

[d_wsb]

^^

aww that vid was removed.

Season Premiere tonight!

[EricaKane70]

OMG, Sark is on heroes, I mean david anders, I'm a fan for life.

[Sylph]

Why is no one commentin? I loooooove this show :

[Sylph]

The only bad thing I saw is J. J. Philbin's name as co-executive producer!!! Nooooooooooo! And all of a sudden a co-exec? Is she that much in demand?

[Toups]

Hiro and Sark.....err...I mean Takezo Sensei were funny. Hiro putting his glasses back on to see if he saw things correctly.

Hiro's dad is dead??!! The dude who killed him was part of the Group of 9??? Is the Group of 9 part of The Company?

The little girl who plays Molly is really good. Loved that Molly is living with Matt and Mohinder now. I take it that the man she fears will be the big villain this season.

Maya has powers that kills?! I wonder what power she has and it doesn't seem like she can control them.

So that boy with Claire can fly. I bet he's a villain.

Peter has no memory and it looks like the people behind the symbol (group of 9 or the company?) got to him.

Great start to the new season!!

Yeah, I was surprised to see JJ's name listed as a Co-EP. She was last listed as a Co-Producer (I think) on the OC. So that's quite a big jump from Co-Producer to Co-EP.