[retired_sherrijacobson]

Originally posted by gavinkil:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by Bouncerboy13:
<BLOCKQUOTE>It was around this point last time it started to get good...

Shame this season ends next week </BLOCKQUOTE>

Thought it was just a break due to the writers dispute? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope, looks like being the end of volume 2

[retired_nashfine]

what a terrible volume

[trotamundos]

Tbh, if it is the end of the volume, they should have stopped it at Noah's "death". In my humble opinion. At least then you could have looked at the directions some characters might have gone in (thinking of Suresh and Claire here specifically). Just a thought anyway, as obv the other strands would have been unfinished, but still.

[michaelwoodcock]

Volume 2 was always going to end in episode 11 of season 2, with Volume 3 to end halfway through season 3. It's just that the writers strike has forced them to wrap the season early, so they have stretched out the ending a little, instead of the wrap we got on the end of season one with the start of Volume 2.

[trotamundos]

Blimey, well that's good and bad. Bad because that really isn't much cop for a volume, I was (mistakenly) assuming that there were more than a few more episodes to go. Good because at least they can move on.

Will be very interesting to see what happend with volume three. I know he said he'd already planned three volumes or whatever, but also saying they were going to take the criticism on board.

[michaelwoodcock]

Loeb has penned three volumes, but like every comic writer, it'll be an outline for the overall arcs, so adaptation for the criticisms and such will be easy enough. They did it for volume two with regards to Peter and Claire after all.

Again, and I'm really flogging a dead horse here, but Volume 2 being filler isn't really that surprising, it's very common in comics, with a hugely successful arc followed by sometimes months of just fluff, going nowhere in particular, then another strong arc will come along, building on the developments from the fluff, suddenly making them seem much more important. Civil War was a great example of this.

[trotamundos]

I'm pretty sure TV execs didn't want it to follow comic book convention that closely though. Am postive that Loeb didn't either. The fact it may have fallen foul of this perhaps highlights his problem of sticking too much to the genre, and maybe his limitations as a writer. Dunno. Doesn't reflect that well on him though. Whether it's common in comics or not.

[michaelwoodcock]

Well, if they don't then they are hiring the wrong folks. Every writer involved this season has come from a comics background, as have around 75% of the artistic staff, which are both higher numbers than last year. As for Loeb, this isn't his first foray into TV as a medium, he's done a host of movies, Smallville and Lost previously, but Heroes is designed to be a comic on TV, both himself and Kring have said this numerous times. Of course this doesn't excuse the flaws, it just needs some tweaks to get the format spot on, as some comic conventions just do not carry all that well on TV, especially with the lack of Loeb's favoured narration boxes to explain his characters various thoughts and choices.

[trotamundos]

It's one thing coming from a comic book background. It's another thing entirely to stick the genre so closely that they can turn round and say "yeah the second volume was dull, but that happens with comic books so what did you expect?". That would be incredibly patronising to their audience and I find it very hard to believe it would be a route they would follow. Don't believe for a second that this was Loebs intention.

[michaelwoodcock]

I'm not saying that's their excuse Herman, it could well be just lazy ass writing, it was simply my attempt at an explanation, as I've experienced it countless times over the years.