mattbriançon

I just recently finished catching up on the first season of Heroes. A friend had watched it the whole year and suggested nagged me until I watched.

I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed. I watch a fair amount of TV but lately all of the shows I used to watch have made seemingly irreversible turns for the worse. Prison Break for instance is just ridiculous. How many times can they just barely escape from the cops or one of the several other groups out to get them (all of which just want to kill the Scofields off)?

And Lost. Oh man, Lost really makes me mad. For the first two seasons the writers kept introducing crazy plot twists and mysteries that left you with the feeling it was all going to tie together in the next episode. The third season tried to do that, but at this point I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to tie up all the loose ends (and you know none of the die-hard fans are going to be satisfied until everything has been explained).

House is another show I’m starting to hate. Sure, Hugh Laurie is always witty and good for a couple laughs but it just gets old. How many times can they get down to the last 10 minutes of the episode having no idea what is wrong with a patient then BOOM! They have the cure and the little kid we were supposed to be oh-so worried about is fine. It’s a good show but it needs some spicing up.

I could go on but I think I’ve danced around my main complaint long enough so I’m just gonna say it: something needs to be resolved!!

I know, crazy, right? Take a second to think about it. When was the last time you watched a show and actually felt satisfied? As fun as those cliffhanger endings are, they become less cliffhanger-y the more you see them until all of the suspense is gone. “Oh wow! Lost just had the craziest ending! Now I have to watch next week.” Um…nope.

Heroes is different (and better) than the above shows because in the end something significant is actually resolved (I’m going to try really hard not to give anything away but consider this your ***WARNING*** that there might be spoilers). In the beginning of the season we find out about some big explosion that happens in New York sometime in the future (November 8th of that year - not an important detail). Throughout the season we learn that the explosion is caused by someone with powers, but it’s pretty much up in the air until the last episode as to who it is (real suspense!).

At the end of the season everything comes to a close. I know, I was looking for some ridiculous plot twist too, but it never came. The writers did an awesome job, though, in setting up next season. If you didn’t catch it, go back and listen to what Molly says while she’s lying in the bed with the map (that other guy, not Sylar). Obviously I don’t know for sure that this is the direction the show will go in, but it’s my best guess.

This type of ending should be the model for all other shows. There is no reason to keep people hanging in suspense all summer because people just don’t care enough when the show isn’t on. Networks know that, for the most part, everyone who watched last season will come back in the fall by virtue of how much of a pain it is to start watching a new show (think about it - new time slot, old seasons, etc.). Even if every network exec reads this (ha!) there wouldn’t be any reason for them to change their ways. The current biggest threat to TV is the Internet and losing a few viewers to bad endings is nothing compared to what they’re about to lose to services like Joost and YouTube.