Tessian wrote:Zeus wrote:SineSwiper wrote:Nono, don't make it a HBO show. Then it would follow that same formula that I describe above.
It's better than what the networks do to it. Lost is a perfect example, in better hands it would have been great. Instead, it's just horrid.
Heroes would be MUCH better off on cable. On NBC, it's just going along.
Just out of curiosity... what do you think moving to HBO/Showtime would do for a show?
A lot of pure formula crap would be gone and they would move through plot points a lot faster among other things. I've been through 5 HBO/Showtime shows (Oz, Sopranos, Six Feet, Dexter, and Dead Like Me) and seen a bunch of specials and bits of other shows. What they generally do better than regular TV shows is:
- keep the pace up much better. This is huge to me. I don't want to spend 22 episodes watching what I could see in 8 (hello, Lost). Whether you like what's going on or not, it very, very rarely moves at a snail's pace. The last two seasons of Sopranos did that which is what brought it down a notch (and something a few of us here complained about, especially me)
- don't have continuously predictible "twists". In Heroes, nearly every "twist" or surprise or revelation was easily deduced ahead of time. In particular the ending of the first season, which was a big disappointment. Not to mention the two "twists" at the end of the episode on Monday, which were so predictible it was pathetic. Sure, you have a certain very basic formula that HBO shows follow, but it's better than the crap that we see on network TV. Even 24 has fallen into this trap and it was completely opposite to it in the first 4 seasons
- a lot of unnecessary "dramatic" parts. Basically, every show is guilty of this after it reaches a certain amount of success almost regardless of network, but it's much more contained on HBO or Showtime vs network TV. Tony's family never really got too much in the way in terms of drama in his life on Sopranos ('til the inferior last two seasons, but even then it wasn't too bad) but Claire's whole thing with West (love stories are a BIG part of that) and her father is starting to drive me nuts. In fact, she really should become a secondary character in Season 2, she's just not that important right now. Yeah they can bring her back in to be important later, but the first half, she's just filler. Sure they took care of a lot of it in Monday's episodes, but that was 9 episodes too much of crap. Exactly the same with Hiro and most of his involvement in Season 2. they were very integral to the first season but the second? Not so much yet they're still the "main" characters.
Those are the main things. Not many, but they're very important to a show's depth and pacing. I'm all for any type of storyline that actually enhances a show but when it starts to get in the way of the plot/storyline (like, say, Lost's insane number and length of flashbacks) they become useless and bring a show down. In the case of Lost, they completely destroyed the show.
For a network show, Heroes has done a good job of containing the formulaic crap, but it's still very prevelant, even more so in Season 2 (thanks to its success). I look at how the great HBO/Showtime shows operate and imagine what an idea like Heroes would be like without network restrictions. Soooo much better.
I'm interested to see how they paint him out of this one. I'm just glad he's got his groove back.
