Thu Nov 20, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

'Heroes' to Simplify for Volume Four

Tim Kring Talks Process

At the Screenwriters Expo in Los Angeles, Heroes’ creator Tim Kring addressed the criticism heaped on not only the second but the current third season of the NBC series.

“The problem is you run into a whole series of issues,” he said. “Where show and business run into each other. The network falls in love with characters, the audience falls in love with characters, the press falls in love with characters. And it's contractually hard to get people onboard for a brief period... You find yourself writing for characters you thought would be gone.”

As a result, characters intended to be short-lived have gained prolong life. He does like having a large cast of characters to work with since it allows storytelling flexibility. “An hour of television should have the vibe as a day of your life,” he said.

He assured fans that the oft-used time travel elements would be dropped after the current volume, “Villains”, concludes next month. Kring called the serialized format, which he was working with the first time an “absolute bear of a thing. The serialized story is so Writers Room-intensive and requires an ‘all hands on deck’ quality to it; you’re often just carrying the water for the next storyline.”

After discussions with NBC and the dismissal of Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb, Kring said the series would continue to break the season into volumes to ensure compact storytelling and allowing different characters to be spotlighted.  As a result, viewers who might have found the mythos off-putting can sample each new arc.

“You can hop on the train and you won't have missed too much."
 

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