The question has been on all of our minds: Why did Nathan have to fly Peter away before he exploded on the Heroes season finale? Why couldn’t Peter just fly away himself? Luckily, in a recent interview on TVGuide.com, creator Tim Kring provides an explanation.
In terms of show logic, his response doesn’t bother me: As most of us assumed, Peter was, according to Kring, simply “incapacitated” because of his nuclear power and unable to control his other abilities. Ok, fine, I buy it.
But then Kring mucks it all up: “You know, theoretically you’re not supposed to be thinking about that…the real explanation is that we wanted Nathan to show up and [save the day]!”
Now you done did it, Tim Kring. Now you’ve gone and pissed me off. If there’s one thing I hate more than House, it’s when creators of entertainment, especially in television, don’t respect their fans. It’s the CBS mantra: audiences are dumb, we can put anything flashy in front of them and they’ll love it. I expect it from Ghost Whisperer, but not from Heroes. It’s not for you, Kring, to determine what I should or should not be thinking about. Maybe if the finale hadn’t been a steaming pile of horse crap, I might’ve been a little more absorbed in the adventure. Maybe it’s you, Kring, that wasn’t thinking about what he should’ve been. Doesn’t he know that fans of cult tv shows, series like Heroes that have enormous storyworlds to explore, are the most inquisitive and attentive of all viewers? In fact, if there were ever a show, other than Lost, in which fans are most definitely not thinking about merely what they see on-screen, its Heroes.
What did you expect, Kring? That people would just eat whatever garbage you put in front of them without questions? Are you saying that you don’t want people to ask questions about your show? That we should just be mindless drones who accept any and everything we see on the tube? Have you not been paying any attention to the success of your own show? Heroes has thrived mainly because of its devoted fans who flood the internet with websites, discussion boards and forums to disect every aspect of the show. And now Kring wants us to just shut up and take it because he wanted Nathan to save the day?
Moreover, not only did Tim Kring treat us viewers with zero respect, but he didn’t even treat his own narrative with respect. Last week, I praised Lost for its willingness to follow the organic progression of its narrative, killing off one its main characters because the narrative demanded it. What Tim Kring did with his finale was the exact opposite. Rather than follow logical or natural narrative progression, Kring took Nathan’s square peg and jammed it into the story’s round one. Why didn’t DL use his power to temporarily kill Peter? Why didn’t someone punch him in the face (it worked for Claude earlier this season, right?) I think it was a nice move to have Nathan save the day, but it was clearly forced and came across as such.
So before you go and tell us fans what to think, maybe you should keep your mouth shut, Kring, and do a little thinking of your own.
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Nice site!
a pleasant suprise
I’m a believer that he didn’t have the ability to fly himself away… he was too busy concentrating on not blowing up.
Hello?! Is anyone out there?
It is a tv-show. It is a story. It is only a story. And yes there are some people out there they can do both. They can throw themselves absolutely into the story, into the world that has been created; and still they can go one step back and think of the whole thing as that what it really is: just a story that someone has written down and that has been produced.
Tim Kring is the man behind the story. He is not part of the world he has created. His creation is not reality. And he has no responsibility whatsoever.
Because the people, the audience can think for themself, he can tell how the story works for him, he could even tell how he had to change the names or the whole storyline because his dog accidentally ate some pages or that the swordfighting is only in there because he thought it would be cool to have some swords in there.
At least some people have to be out there, who can tell fiction (the story and the world that has been created) from reality (the whole process of authoring and the industries behind a tv-show, a film or a simple book) and still enjoy both.
I am a believer too despite I know that because of the “drama”, because of an more dramatic storyline , Nathan had to come back to fly his brother out in the sky.
Hello, Alex. I’m here! Thanks for your comment. Though I appreciate what you’re trying to argue, I’m afraid I don’t agree with you.
I don’t think you can safely argue that a creator or writer “has no responsibility” whatsoever over how his creation is written or received. If the guy who writes isn’t responsible for the content, who is? Do you think we’d have any sort of quality in the media if writers and creators weren’t responsible for their content? Frankly, the industry would not exist.
The entire purpose of programming on television is to give something people to watch in between commercials. And how do you get people to watch your commercials? By making the shows in between them of a high quality. So as a writer hired by a network who wants eyeballs, don’t you think its the writers responsibility to deliver? And if the fans want legitimate, unforced plot points, and the writer does not provide them, don’t you think he should be held responsible?
I just don’t see how you can say that the creator of any work, no matter what field, is not responsible for that work that he/she has produced. I guarantee you that if all the episodes of Heroes received the kind of critical backlash the finale got, Tim Kring would most certainly be held responsible and would most certainly be out of a job.
Also, Claire could have shot him, and he would have regenerated after the bullet was pulled out, as he had absorbed Claires power.
Thank you, Media Maven! Everything you said was what I was thinking and more. I also agree with Sandy. I was so confused as to why Peter couldn’t just fly into the sky and why he couldn’t heal himself, among other things. Everyone was just standing around with very useful powers and they weren’t doing anything in that supposed time of crisis.
This show can be so confusing but the interesting thing about it, is that you can kind of look back and put it together like a puzzle.
However, when the selling point of the show is the twisting believable plot and then the plot just ends up like this… it’s no better than a soap opera. The audience has a sense of logic and progression, I’m not one to throw everything that makes sense out the door because of some flashy ending.
That finale really disappointed me.
You’re very welcome, Caroline– and thank you for commenting! I’m guessing you’ve been watching on DVD– take my advice– skip Season Two. Ain’t worth the time. Watch Lost instead.