NBC's Heroes may have had its fair share of critics of its third season so far, but new writer/producer Mark Verheiden wants fans to know that their complaints aren't entirely falling on deaf ears.
Talking about ways in which the writers are trying to improve during the upcoming Fugitives arc, Verheiden explained that both the form and content of the series is about to change:
What we tried to do with the show as a group, people will notice that we’re not doing as many stories per show and lingering a bit on the stories we’re doing... I think in going forward what we’re probably doing is leaving some of the stuff of “Villains’ behind. You’ll see that Primatech and Pinehurst aren’t viable anymore. So those entities will be dissolved and a couple of characters have decided to, one in particular, taken a dramatic new turn that will set off where we’re going with “Fugitives’ very clearly. The Nathan character played by Adrian Pasdar, a great actor, he has some really fun and emotional turns coming in the “Fugitives” arc. There’s also a great arc with Sylar coming up. Very fun.
Such changes, he explained, aren't just the result of fan complaints or network notes, but self-correction from the people working on the show. But that doesn't mean that criticism and complaints go unnoticed:
[W]e’re not deaf. We listen to what the general drumbeat is and as we go forward, I think we’ve made some adjustments. But they were adjustments that were being made before all this stuff really came down. One thing I’ve learned after doing this for a while is that you can’t really control that sort of thing. You can just do the best you can do. That’s what I’m about, trying to do the best shows we can do. I was reading somewhere where someone suggested that, “well they must not care about the show.” [laughs] Critique it all you want. You can have all the issues you want, but in terms of caring I’m telling you we care about the show. Not just the writers, not just the producers, the cast, the enormous crew, everyone. It’s a little absurd... You don’t stay in the office until midnight and work seven days a week and all this stuff because you’re just knocking it out... [E]verybody who’s there is killing themselves to make the best show possible. You can’t fault us for lack of trying.
Heroes returns to NBC in February.
Image from Greg Beeman.
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