Heroes
Heroes is a sci-fi/drama created by Tim Kring, and it premiered
on the NBC network on September 25, 2006. Heroes tells the
stories of people who discover that they have the powers of
superheroes, and how these newfound abilities affect their
lives. The show uses some design and plot elements from comic
books (namely, using multi-episode story lines that build
an overall theme). The show is filmed mostly in LA and the
surrounding area.
So far, four seasons have aired with the last one ending
on February 8th of this year. Heroes has enjoyed critical
and popular acclaim, with almost 14 million viewers per episode-
the highest rating for any NBC drama of the past five years.
The second season of the show attracted an average viewership
of 13 million people, and Heroes was NBC’s lone entry into
the top 20 programs of the 2007-08 season. Heroes has won
Primetime Emmys, People’s Choice Awards, and Golden Globes.
The show has also expanded to the Internet, with an offering
called Heroes Evolutions. It was created to explore the show’s
universe in greater detail. Other official Heroes outlets
are websites, magazines, mobile phone games, books, clothing,
toys, and other merchandise. In Fall 2008, NBC released a
lot more web content, such as graphic novels and webisodes.
Originally, the show’s creator intended to have a revolving
cast. However, Kring changed his mind when he realized how
emotionally attached people were to the original cast, so
they were brought back with a few key additions. In the first
season of Heroes, there were 12 main characters (making Heroes
the second-largest cast behind Desperate Housewives).
Heroes episodes have a structure. First, there’s a recap
of relevant and recent events, which is usually a scene that
was in the previous week’s show. Then, there’s a voiceover
by Mohinder Suresh, concerning the episode’s theme. Then,
the screen fades to black and shows the earth turning into
a solar eclipse, along with a musical number written by producer
Kring. Each episode gets a chapter number, and the opening
credits appear alphabetically over the next few scenes. Most
end with a cliffhanger which encourages us to tune in the
next week.
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