In a recent interview, Masi Oka, better known as Heroes‘ time-hopping lovable geek Hiro, assured fans (what few of us are left) that the Heroes‘ fourth volume “Fugitives,” which premieres on February 2nd, is going to bring the show back to the first season roots that made it a hit with fans and critics alike.
(Wait, didn’t they promise the same thing about “Villains?”)
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According to Masi Oka:
“Volume four, “Fugitives,” is another completely [new arc]…We’re going back to the grounded characters and the central characters, [and] people trying to live their ordinary lives being hunted now. And that’s a completely different story than we’ve been trying to tell. So it might take a while to get us accustomed to the “usual heroes,” but it still has the core ensemble drama. So I’m not sure if it’s lost its way, it’s just always different. Some people will respond to the way the story is told in the one volume and maybe not to another.”
He makes a good point. Despite the general consensus that season one was the best, there have been some Heroes fans who were totally into the second volume, “Generations,” and other fans who were psyched about the super-powered, time-travel madness of “Villains.” (I thought both turned out less than good, but that’s just me.)
So can “Fugitives” really hope to reclaim a lot of the Heroes fans that have strayed away from the show, or will this latest volume once again split the base? In Masi Oka’s assessment:
“I think with all our volumes we’ve sometimes have slow starts, but we always pick it up at a high gear towards the end. And I think because a show like this takes such risks and makes bold choices…It takes a little bit of time for the audience and the critics to get accustomed to this kind of new kind of journey that we’re starting to take. And once everyone is on board, we hit the ground running. So, you know, we do ask [for] maybe some patience from the fans and the audience. If we can ask for that, that’d be great.”
Not to be mean, Masi, but at this point you would have to time-hop back a year or two ago when thirty-million people still cared about Heroes to get that kind of leeway. After the “Villains,” debacle, Heroes has a shrinking pool of fans left; depending on how “Fugitives” goes, our word of mouth is either going to be the saving grace or the death knell for Heroes (IMHO, of course).
At the end of the interview, Oka let fans in on some of the things they can expect from “Fugitives”:
“In the beginning, Hiro’s powerless, and Ando has a kind of supercharger power, so Hiro is trying to nudge him on…He becomes Alfred in many ways. He’s trying to make a Batman out of Ando, but Ando is reluctant, and he only cares about girls right now. So Hiro is trying to make him use those powers for good, to save other people. And of course, Hiro ends up getting in trouble, and Ando ends up helping him. But then, you know, then it’s about them trying to work together and find new ways to get [Hiro’s] power back.”
Sounds awesome…
Are you going to give “Fugitives” a chance? Or did “Villains” put you off of Heroes forever? Let us know what you think.
Source: Slice of Sci Fi
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21 Comments
I think the writers of Heroes have an impossible task ahead of them. I say impossible because I honestly don’t think there is any possible way to get this show back to the high quality of Season 1 (minus the crappy finale).
I think a lot of their dispair roots from this idea of using separate Arcs and having each season self contained. It’s silly, and LOST has proven that you don’t need to reinvent yourself each season.
The writers need to sit down for a good session of serious thinking and decide when this show is going to end (let’s say Season 6). Do the following:
- Stop introducing new characters
- stop using stupid cliches, eg. Ando is only interested in girls etc.
- make the show believable, i say this in the sense that make us believe that these are normal people who get these random powers.
- take a page out of Supernaturals book and inject a little morbidity into the show. sometimes shit just turns out bad.
- kill off as many people as you can, and quickly.
- GET RID OF NICKY, or TRACY OR Whatever the hell her name is this season
I honestly have no “hopes” for this season. Lost’s top notch quality has made up for the lack of quality in all other shows this season.
just my 4 cents.
It’s sad, really. Season one I never missed an episode, and it was the only network show I made room for in my schedule. (I’m not a network tv fan, either, and as it stands now I don’t watch any show with regularity anymore.) Season two was hit and miss and then I started missing too many episodes to catch up, and now I find I really don’t care too much.
I still think episodes in Season One are still mind-blowing, as I can still recall them with clarity. That’s saying something. “Company Man” was my favorite episode, and along with the episode right before the season one finale, represented some of the tightest storytelling I’d seen on television for quite a while.
I still remember the line “What am I thinking now, Parkman?” -pans right- “You’re last thought!” BLAM!
The twists and turns the characters took actually made sense back then. But in following seasons, the shifting alliances became too fast and too confusing to have it mean anything (I can swallow a character having one huge shift in their arc, but not on a regular basis. They needed desperately to just let the characters be who they became in the first season, and develop naturally instead of forcing contrived, and almost random, associations that didn’t always make any sense to a thinking, rational person.
Oh, and they needed to kill off some of the more powerful characters – permanently. You can only get so powerful before people start to question why they fail to use their powers more logically in such a way that they couldn’t be defeated even by the most clever screenwriter.
I’ll probably keep riding the train until it reaches it’s final destination at this point. I’ve invested too much time in this show to stop watching now. I’m just glad I have a dvr so I can record it. I’ll be watching 24 during that time slot live.
Mandarr,
You just brought up an excellent point, I will be watching 24 as well, since it has managed to get its mojo back (so far).
Stop promising,
JUST DELIVER!
I’ve been watching this show ever since it started, I also have it set to my DVR so I’ll still watch it and hope it rebounds from that Villains crap, but I agree with Sahil, as some more hardcore stuff in there, you know, like most comics do. This show needs help, let’s just hope those new Producers are the answer.
I’m just tired of the whole 180° turns the characters did over and over again.
I don’t have hopes left for the show.
And that is sad.
Shows like Dexter that never seem to drag or deliver anything subpar are rare these days.
I hope 24 will keep the pace and that “shows” like Knight Rider will not only vanish, but that the producers will be physically punished.
*sigh*
i will give it a chance, I sat through Villains hoping it would get better, and it showed glimpses towards the end, now with the Season 1 producers back, maybe this chapter will be better.
David Hasselbach:
Dexter is not perfect, I’d say the first 5 or 6 episodes of Season 3 were sub par, and in general Season 3 was of lower caliber than the first two. They made Dexter too pedastrian, too human, and with two more seasons to go and a baby on the way I’m worried that it will just get worse.
Granted, I like the notion of a fan driven series, which can give room for improvements by way of constructive critiscm. But in reality, things need to be thought through from begin to end, in order to create a genuine product. That, I think, is the main problem with Heroes. “oh well, that didn’t work. Lets try something else.” That’s pretty half-ass in my opinon. Season three started turning into Days of our lives with all of the twists and turns and the family intrigue. Writers please!! Try thinking ahead. Give us a story we can delve into and stop introducing new characters. Stick with the ones we watchers grew attached to in the beginning. Character development! Character development! Character development!
24 has Jack Bauer though, Heroes doesn’t have any character as awesome
Why do they call the show heroes…if there are no heroic acts? I still haven’t seen people use their powers to save everyday people in everyday problems… All we’ve seen are powered people interacting with other powered people intertwined with this horrible company vs. company conspiracy where no one has propper motivations for anything.
And Masi, they said that last season and it was not good. Contradictions, convoluted storylines and mischaracterizations everywhere!
@ JMoney
Still, you never really know where Dexter is going and that alone makes it one of the best shows on TV.
The “becoming (more) human” is part of his story, but I suspect that his fatherhood won’t make him mellow … something different will happen. Something … sinister.
@ Rob Keyes
THAT is the point that I couldn’t lay my finger on!
There are no HEROES in Heroes.
Dammit, they should team up and fight against something … with or without tights. I don’t care. Just DO something!
In spite of what I said earlier, however, if it’s true that they’re going to start a storyline that doesn’t require that you understand seasons 2 & 3 I might just give it a chance.
Y’know, what I find strangely compelling about how this series went haywire is that the (Quote/endqoute) “Pedigree” writers fell prey to the first rule of what not to do following the success of the first season. They took established characters and put them into situations that had no reasonable relation to thier inital motivations. As a writer myself, even I understand that without really taking the time to form a beginning / middle / end story arc that makes sense in its entirety TO ALL THE INVOLVED CHARACTERS… You wind up with a nonsensical and questionable arrray of shell game tricks instead of well concieved substance!
Let’s face it, gang, after season one these guys didn’t “paint themselves into a corner”… They didn’t even take the time to buy the brush! The very height of hubris that can often times result in great success. That’s why they began to rely so heavily on the whole rediculous time travel poop! If you don’t set up the arc on a decent foundation that has dierection and makes sense for those involved, you spend more time patching holes than telling the story.
Simply my impression of how this very cool concept unraveled. It’s my sincere hope that the show can be resurected, but the writers need to stop practicing damage control at the expense of the viewers and shake this thing out so it makes sense again.
I honestly still enjoy heroes. I first statewd watching at the beginning of season 3 and got caught up soon after. I really don’t Heroes needs a finite ending as they can have a spinoff eventually. But I do think Kring should do with Heroes what JMS did Babylon 5 (writing-wise) that way the show is a little more straight foward
I’ll be watching. I have often sighed at the logic, or lack of, and wondered where certain characters vanished to – Micah and Copycat. But I’ve still been into it and want to see more.
But yes, they talked about listening and changing it twice now. Not worked too well so far.
Like a few other folks here, I will be watching “24″ tonight, and I think the majority of people who watch Heroes will also be watching “24.” IMO, “24′ is easily the best show on TV right now, bar none. Yes, I will be putting “Heroes” on my DVR tonight, but I think that the show is going to take a significant ratings hit because it is going against “24.”
That being said, I am glad that “Chuck” is returning tonight as well, although I hate that they’re using a 3D gimmick for it.
* I will watch Heroes “live” and record 24 on my DVR, because, though 24 is portrayed in real time, I don’t want to wait one second between segments.
* Is this considered Season 4? People are saying that Season 3 is over. As I reckon, a new Volume is beginning, not a new season.
I think the reason each season of this show has gotten consistently worse is their inability to maintain or even acknowledge the events that took place in previous seasons. Seasons 1 to 2 were a fairly logical progression, but when “Villains” started it seemed like they just put all the characters names in a hat and pulled them out to randomly assign character arcs. Basically “Well, who’s gonna draw the future this time…Parkman… Well, we can make this work, right Loeb?” “How are we going to make Peter useless this time?” “How far in the future/past are we going this season?”
After the premier last night (Which was very “meh” IMHO) I have to at least give them credit for putting all the characters in the same place. They set up the follow the future-pictures thing already (although I’m really confused as to how they’re going to make that last with a speedster like Daphne following the clues). And they gave Ando a quest all his own(now if only they had given him a decent power…). I was honestly expecting much worse out of this premier. I was originally planning on dropping out once I determined Michael Dorn wasn’t in the episode, but I’m actually planning to tune in next week. So as long as they don’t isolate Greg Grunberg (Who IMHO is at his best when paired with other actors) make mine Heroes…
Heroes is the only network shows worth watching. Season one was mind-blowing, season two was good, season three was okay… I hope “Fugitives” doesn’t follow this pattern.
Just one suggestion:
Just about everybody loves Hiro, he’s the only character with any clarity or sense of purpose on this show… give him his freakin’ powers back already! He was never TOO powerful since he got his butt kicked regularly, he’s flawed and makes mistakes…
If the writers need to play down a character… It’s Sylar that bugs me, he’s got way too many powers and has been “unstoppable” for far too long. I like his character development but he’s he plays a useless role in the overall story. He’s not a superhero or super-villain, he’s just a super-mosquito, a parasite without purpose. Tone him down.
Hiro needs powers or EVERYone with powers on this show is in the “grey area” of morality. How annoying.
…Heroes was the best show i have watched but the producer must avoid taking out characters and they must still focus on helping other people with their powers
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