Heroes Gets Super

I think that a big part of Heroes (he he he, as in Lost!) is that the characters started out living in their own seemingly-isolated worlds but are inherently interconnected with the other characters. I love the ways that they are coming together more, and I think that the more the Heroes know and interact with each other, the more the divergent storylines are merging together. I think that was one of the great things about this episode - Parkman's story, Ted's story, Claire's story, Claire's dad's story, and Hiro/Hiro's dad's story were all being told within one storyline, and it was great to see how all these threads are being woven together. Even if the episodes go back to involving lots of different storylines and characters, the interconnectedness that is emerging "really ties the room together".

One more thing - I think that the presentation of material (piecemeal revelations, descriptive captions) does not necessarily imply stupidity on the part of the audience - I have really liked the way that we have just been getting tastes of each story so far - it unfolds like weekly installments of a comic book.

Jen C,

OK, before I get flamed, I said the Heroes audience was smart, not stupid. And what I mean by giving the audience more credit for intelligence is that, watching the show every week, there's such a clear sense that they're *very* consciously following these post-Lost imperatives: make sure you don't drop any story for too long! make sure it's not too confusing! make sure you give answers regularly! All of which is fine, and even a good idea, but can be taken to an extreme or seem like pandering.

The flashback this week wasn't a big deal per se; it was just visually stark enough that it makes a good short example. The audience is sophisticated enough--and has learned well enough from other sophisticated TV shows--that it could have recognized a flashback from contextual clues, dialogue, different hairstyles, the fact that Claire is now a baby, and so on. You may need some sort of bumper (e.g., that whooshing sound in Lost) but to have the cues be so blatant is distracting to me, and sent the message that they had to take extra-special care to make sure I didn't get confused.

It's just a detail, but the difference between good and great is in the details, and I would love for Heroes to be more than good.

:shrug: the black and white flashbacks didn't bug me. I thought it gave the episode more of a comic book feel, which is very inline with the entire series.
Perhaps the writers were insulting our intelligence, but I think they were just making a stylistic choice.
I mean, the orange guy in Sin City wasn't orange to let us know he was bad, right?

Making the Flashbacks B&W was my idea, I love the way B&W looks & I thought it would help us with the make up and aging of the characters. Once I picked our locations I felt that B&W was definately the way to go. The movies "Out Of The Past", "T-Men" & "Raw Deal" were all visual inspirations for the episode. "Klute", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Desparate Hours" & "Cape Fear-Scorcese's" were the thematic & contextual inspirations. I never thought about "Lost" ( a show I love & never miss) when designing the flashbacks, I've been directing shows with flashbacks for 25 years, my Crossing Jordan which was on the night before also had B&W flashbacks. I guess I just like that flavor more than any other. My research also told me that "The Power & the Glory" 1933 written by Preston Sturges & directed by William K. Howard, was one of the 1st movies with a flashback structure.
Thanks for all your insight & kind words, even if TV Critics almost never mention the Directing, we know what we do. You might IMDB me to see what else I've done. It was a big challenge to stage & shoot so many scenes with so many people in them. for more of my thoughts on the episode check out the commentary I did on NBC.com.
I love working on this show & it is our mission to make it better & better, AND smarter & smarter.
ps the dates are in there to just pinpoint the history for those fans who love that kind of detail

Allan, Thanks for posting! If you're sticking around and checking in, I'd love to know if we're going to be seeing more variation in the story structure, as in this episode which entirely focused on the Bennets. That tight focus yielded some real character payoffs.

I suppose we should all just be glad that no one introduces flashbacks using waves on the screen anymore.

Yes--like David Letterman likes to do when he "reminisces".

This episode jumped up several notches both in the context of the show so far (which has been excellent, but not uniformly so) and as a standalone episode. Who knew from the start of the series how we'd feel about HRG now?

James, Wavey lines & a theramin/moog-like sound effect for flashbacks is one of our running gags in the Heroes editing room.
The single story episode is a topic of conversation in the writer's room. Everyone liked how well it worked. Changing the course of a TV show is like turning a battle ship, it takes awhile to see the effect of the change of course. As Company Man-#17 aired, #20 is shooting, #21 is prepping & #22 & #23 are being written. Those last 2 are our last 2 of the season. #20 presents a very different view of the "Heroes" story & mythology so expect another experiment in storytelling. Looking back on the season Tim Kring liked that #10-"6 Months Ago" was an origins episode that really was all a flashback, except for the story of Hiro & the Texas waitress which was sort of real time in a space/time contiuum sort of way(does that make any sense)? It was fun to fill in the past the "origins" blanks (the birth of Sylar), & I'm pretty sure we will be doing more of that next season as well as more seemingly single focus episodes like "Company Man".
With "6 Months Ago" we dropped out of our save the cheerleader story arc to digress, a risky thing to do, but Tim had faith that the audience was very interested in how these characters got to where they are & were willing to sit thru a one episode digression (action packed as it was) to learn more about them. It added depth to #11 which ended our first section of episoides without an interuption. this coming Monday #18 is the end of our 2nd section. Then onto the season finale.
A show in its first season is just finding its way, a learn as you go gamble. This particular gamble has paid off big time. Believe me, I have been on lots of shows that lost their way.The biggest lesson is that we must ground the characters in an emotional reality. The Bennet Family works so well because it is a family with all the emotions that family life entails. Regular people with super powers(sort of) & the effect that has on their life.
The viewers reaction to what we are doing has been most gratifying, onward to #23!!!!!

Thanks, Allan. A particular thing that I liked about the episode is that it does more of what Steven Johnson (Everything Bad Is Good for You) calls "chordal" storytelling in TV: i.e., a single scene advances/illuminates two or more storylines. You see HRG with Hiro's dad and suddenly you learn more about both the HRG-Claire dynamic and about Hiro's family's connection to the story. That kind of thing. Maybe there's another post in this.

And you're right, now that I think about it, I would guess that "Six Months Ago" is probably my second-favorite Heroes. Anyway, I'll stop pestering you.