Heroes on the verge of collapsing with its own self over-hyping?

SoSueMe

Boston.com:

Sometimes, only a true-blue friend tells you when you have food on your teeth.

And so the time has come to hold a mirror up to "Heroes," to show NBC and series creator Tim Kring that their smile isn't quite as pretty and inviting as they seem to think. It's too unflaggingly broad, and it's marred by a big chunk of something -- is that grandiosity? vanity? need? greed? -- lodged smack between the two front incisors.

As the fall TV season approaches, and we wonder which series will shame themselves, "Heroes" is looking increasingly like a prime suspect. Since the Monday night show is NBC's only newish non-reality hit, the network and Kring have spent the summer heaping tacky expansion gimmicks onto it with abandon. "Heroes" has been turned into a relentless and tiresome source of merchandising, casting, and spinoff hype -- hype about how the show will grow as a product, not media-generated hype about how good it is.

To me, it's as if NBC is pressing "Heroes" into child labor. The network is working the show like a mature blockbuster -- on the order of "CSI" or "Lost" -- too soon. Underneath all the great expectations, there is just a wee sci-fi TV series whose unformed back is carrying too much weight.

"Heroes" has great potential, based on much of its first season, to be special and enduring. But, like many new series, it still needs refining and tender loving care before it deserves to be turned into a synergistic linchpin. Its Emmy nomination this summer for outstanding drama series came too soon.

Every week, it seems, NBC releases yet another tidbit of obviously targeted casting news, to reach the cult- and comic-book-minded. The latest name is Kristen Bell (from "Veronica Mars"), who follows David Anders (from "Alias"), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura from "Star Trek"), Dominic Keating (from "Enterprise"), and many others onto the show.

Viewers who've watched the series loyally know that if there's one thing "Heroes" emphatically does not need, it's more characters. By May's abysmal season finale, the plot had sprawled too far and too wide to fit together satisfactorily, and the rules governing the many characters' magical abilities had become convoluted and random. The hour was busy, crowded, and empty all at the same time.

"Lost" tried the same trick in its second season, trying to open up the story to new viewers by adding new characters, and it failed miserably. Older fans wanted to see more of the original ensemble, and most of the newer faces did not entice. Now, "Lost" has wisely returned its focus back to its core group. With too many come-and-go characters such as Claude the invisible man, "Heroes" will only become more chaotic, and more diffuse.

The only benefit of "Heroes" overpopulation: More action figures to sell when they hit stores early next year.

NBC has also announced "Heroes: Origins," a six-episode spinoff series that will air during the "Heroes" mid-season hiatus. A spinoff series after a single season? How inflated is that?

The idea of "Origins" -- which former NBC chief Kevin Reilly requested as part of an effort to "bulk up" the NBC lineup -- makes me cringe. "Origins," whose premiere will be directed by Kevin Smith, will introduce a new character in each episode, and viewers will get to vote one of them onto "Heroes." In other words, while "Heroes" was NBC's only scripted series in the Nielsen top 25, the network will now tack reality-show stratagems onto it. Come on. Let the storytellers -- and not the viewers -- tell this story.

Along with the fall arrival of "Heroes" apparel, the "Heroes" magazine, "Heroes" trading cards, and, of course, the "Heroes" video game, we are about to get another burst of promotion with the beginning of the Nissan-sponsored "Heroes World Tour" next week. The tour, which will land cast members in London, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, and New York, will promote the DVD release of season one.

The tour comes only a few weeks after the show's huge presence at Comic-Con, where "Heroes" solidified its play for "Star Trek"-heads when news emerged that actor Zachary Quinto, Sylar from the NBC series, would play Spock in J.J. Abrams's "Star Trek" feature. With Nichols, George Takei (Sulu) and Keating in its cast, "Heroes" is going for the heart of geekland with very little subtlety.

These days, it's hard for networks -- particularly a hungry network like NBC -- not to succumb to instant gratification. Rather than waiting for "Heroes" to grow up, thereby risking that the show will lose its juice this year, NBC is "growing" "Heroes" as fast as possible. Alas, by the time "Heroes" returns on Sept. 24, it may have grown only tiresome.

Goodshape

I share most of those concerns. All this hype is actually making me forget what a good show Heroes is/was.

I always thought the show was slightly subtle in the way it did things, and that was part of the appeal. Like "yes, we're potentially mad-cool super heroes, but lets focus on the real character issues instead". The recent hype and (in particular) promos don't reflect this at all. I hope that's not a sign of things to come.

I will of course reserve final judgement until the new season starts.

iguana

I agree, ever since it's started on BBC all the promo stuff has been driving me crazy. It's all starting to feel a bit like the X-Files. I hope I'm wrong.:(

LFCFan

Look at it this way though. If they don't hype it up and promote it to the gills then it could go the way of previous great shows that died because people didn't know it existed. Take Arrested Development as an example. Top class show that only lasted 2 and a half series because not enough people knew about it. I just ignore the hype and promotion and get on with watching a very good show. As long as the show itself doesn't suffer, who cares if they promote it like there's no tomorrow. If it results in it lasting the distance and not getting canned, then promote away!!

Overheal

the hype is a big problem though: it used to be last season that heroes was more or less spread through the word of mouth and the internet: ****ting all over it with this NBC-hype is throwing it all to crap.

And yeah I havent seen the new one yet but this accent thing has got me worried: less time casting big budget guests, more time finding somebody... y'know... Irish?

All this pressure is going to fall on the shows producers and it will not be good. Same thing happened to Battlestar Galactica: it was like 'cool! remake!; then 'cool! Series!' then season 2 was just brilliant up to a point and with all the momentum the producers were under great strain to keep it that way - and dropped the ball in a big way.

very bad news for heroes.

all I can say though is I do want to see some more x-men style action: the Future episode in Volume 1 was a big disappointment for me.

its not as if NBC will fall off the face of the earth if they give the production team their time space and budget to produce a proper show. It happened last year: they got 2 (admittably frustrating) breaks. Granted the story kinda flaked out ultimately but still - the idea of breathing space is a good one.

janeemac

Agree somewhat, although, the hype is what got me watching it.