Boy, it’s hard to come up with something pithy about Heroes — in a lot of ways, it’s been a bit of a TV cautionary tale, starting off fantastic and then getting knee-capped in its second season, due in part to scuttled characterization in tandem with the Writer’s Strike.
So it’s perhaps no surprise at NBC has officially cancelled Heroes, after fun ideas like time-travel and Claire having “girlie fun” didn’t boost viewership. The Hollywood Reporter has the full scoop, saying that the high production costs combined with dwindling ratings did it in — that said, the door remains open for a film.
Yet superhero fans will be getting another lease on serialized life, as NBC has also ordered episodes of The Cape, which sounds about as interesting as this logline:
“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape” his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands.
Once you get to the part about a “circus gang of bank robbers,” I’m pretty much in ROFL heaven. Or at least skeptical. But who knows, this show might actually wow us… right? What say you, Rama readers? You sad Heroes is finally over? Let us know what you think!
May 17th, 2010 at 11:17 am
That blurb for The Cape leaves out that the show features Keith David, best known for both his work on Broadway and his voice work in things like Gargoyles; and Summer Glau.
Just to see those two, I will try this show if and when it airs. (NBC planned to run Day One as a midseason series, after all, and it was downsized to miniseries and then TV film, and might never air.)
And yes, this does sound silly, but it also sounds better than anything else NBC is adding to the fall lineup. I can see why they wanted to go with Leno, given the blandness of the 10 pm shows. (Law and Order LA? Seriously?)
May 17th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Heroes was never fantastic. It averaged out to pretty good at its best. You have to consider the handful of actual cool moments against the wealth of boring moments, and smattering of really bad ones.
May 17th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Good riddance to the craptacular Heroes… I read a quote somewhere that the show came off as a “comic book show” written by people who hate comic books, or perhaps had never read one in their lives. That kinda sums it all up for me.
And no, the show wasn’t “fantastic” even in its first season. It was watchable, and there were a handful or strong episodes that made me come back for more, but the season finale was the pits, and it never got any better. In fact, it got much worse. I finally gave up in season 2. A shame, since the show had loads of potential. It just never realized that potential.
May 17th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
The lesson here is that you can only rip off comic book storylines from the 80s & 90s for so long until your show becomes redundant & stupid.
That being said, I did enjoy season 1.
Not sure about the quote Shaun referenced considering Jeph Loeb wrote a bunch of episodes, as did people who worked on Marvel’s Ultimate line.
–J.
May 19th, 2010 at 12:41 am
Not completly suprised by the news. Even since the WGA strike during it’s second season, everything went to hell.