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It’s official. NBC announced today it would be cancelling Heroes. Honestly the series had never really picked up since the first season and whilst it always promised so much it delivered so little. NBC had rumoured about picking up a fifth and final season but the ratings since its third season, and its fourth were so dreadful, cancellation seemed inevitable.
TVOverMind has the details and I fully agree.
Many would trace the root of the series’ woes back to its second season. Perhaps if they wanted to go further, they could even take it to season one’s lackluster finale, which set the stage for an absolutely awful season two and the beginning of a decline throughout the next two years. Stale storylines and bland characters definitely didn’t help anything for the show, which had become a cult favorite during its stellar first season. Iconic characters such as Masi Oka’s Hiro Nakamura were featured in the show, and science fiction alumni like George Takei and Malcolm McDowell had occasional guest spots as important characters, though even they weren’t enough to keep the viewership from dwindling.
More after the jump.
Source: TV Over Mind
If I had to point out one particular reason why Heroes got the boot, I would blame it on the fact that it tried to become too much like a comic book in its later seasons. The first season was all exposition, and focused on the characters all converging to fight a common enemy. It was good material, even if the ending of that arc left a little to be desired. Of course, after every origin story was the part where they actually fought crime, and unfortunately, that wasn’t any good. Characters became stale and didn’t develop, and odd, twisting, and nonsensical storylines were developed that didn’t actually have any impact beyond their face value. If it had been my call, I would have made season two a basic reboot of the show, with a new storyline featuring mostly new characters, with perhaps a bleedover from season one with a few of the old characters showing up here and there. Because honestly, I don’t feel that these characters have gained anything, developmentally, from my following beyond season one. Also, as good as Zachary Quinto was, Sylar should have been finished after season one. Just sayin’.
In the end, though, none of that matters, because Heroes has died a death more real than those of any of its characters. And, unlike its character deaths, it’s probably a permanent one. Maybe it’ll be remade in more capable hands in a few years.