A Respite from Politics: ‘Heroes’ Creator Admits to Show Confusion

Is Hiro (actor Masi Oka) a good guy or bad guy? And we forget the name of the speedy thief (and new cast member) Brea Grant. / AP Photo.

In a big mea culpa, Heroes creator Tim Kring admitted that the show has become a little lost -- confusing, too many characters, meandering storylines, etc. Over the weekend, changes were made and two of the show’s top writer-producers, Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb, were let go.

From a Variety article:

On Sunday, at the prodding of NBC execs, Kring made the tough call to let Alexander and Loeb go from the show that the duo had helped shepherd since season one. Kring has assured NBC and Universal Media Studios brass that he intends to focus on simplifying what's been criticized, even by ardent fans, as an overly complex storytelling structure to get back to the show's comicbookish good vs. evil themes and to emphasize character development more than plot twists.

Insiders close to the situation emphasize that Kring has been a hands-on and diligent showrunner. The big problem is that the show's large ensemble cast and intense f/x and post-production requirements suck up a lot of his time. And "Heroes," already one of primetime's priciest hours at $4 million-plus per seg, has been grappling with budget overruns.

We knew that Heroes was in trouble, but we’d like to think that maybe someone somewhere read our little post about how to fix the show.