Catalyst Castle

This post is prompted by a news article I read here. It announced that Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander, two of the original writers and executive producers of Heroes, are no longer working on the show. Apparently they were bumped because the show's ratings are continually dropping off. The article went on to relate the writer's opinion of why the show is failing.

I'm not sure I agree with all of the observations made in the article, but I will say that I have been somewhat dissatisfied with the show since the end of season 1. I'll cut them some slack because season 2 was cut short, and season 3 seems to have some good things going for it. I just thought I would share a few thoughts on what I think Heroes is doing well, and where I think they've made some mistakes.

I think that, for the most part, season 3 is on the right track. Arthur Petrelli makes a compelling new villian, and the whole family in-fighting aspect of the story is interresting. It looks like that will take off even further in next week's episode. I like what they've done with Sylar so far this season. Making Sylar a Petrelli was unexpected, but probably a good move. It makes him a lot more involved in the intricacies of the plot, and they've developed his character in unexpected ways.

The article mentioned above complains about how they've added so many new characters throughout seasons 2 and 3. I don't mind the new characters, but honestly I'd rather see more of the old characters who have sort of dissipeared from the show. I'd like to see more of the Haitian, Micah, and even Molly. What ever happened to Claude Rains?

Another thing that the article complained about was the way the show has moved away from it's "ordinary people with extraordinary abilities" origins, and has become more like the X-Men without leather jumpsuits. I think that's just a natural evolution of the show. As the characters become more accustomed to their powers, they're going to continue to be less and less "normal". I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but it certainly does change the tone of the story.

I think my biggest complaint against Heroes would be the somewhat hit-and-miss writing as of late. It seems that sometimes the writers just simply forget about what's come before. An outstanding example of this is Caitlin. After the plague of season 2 has been adverted, Peter never even attempts to travel to the future to bring her back. Did he really just forget about her that easily? Obviously the writers did. Less obvious examples are future-Peter being killed by a bullet in one episode when he should be invulnerable to that kind of thing, and Sylar missing a very opportune time to use his super-hearing.

I hope the show picks up the slack and continues to run strong for at least a couple more years, but I'm a little uncertain about it right now.

What do you think? How is Heroes doing? What's the good and the bad in your opinion?