"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

Note to self: Send Mr. Silencio a copy of "How to Win Friends and Influence People"; also send copy of "Miracle of Tact".

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Why? Does liking Heroes not make you a 'social success' or win you friends.

Anyway, I'm a bit behind as I'm watching it in the UK, and the series does seems to be at a real low, which it won't be able to ever fully get out of IMO. I still watch it because it is enjoyable just to see how crazy the writers have got this week. It just makes absolutely no sense any more! Why is everyone so frantic to save the world when they could just turn back time anyway? And characters are making insanely out-of-character choices. Such as Hiro killing Ando!! I'm sure there's more to it than that, but still! And future-Daddy Sylar almost seemed like a self-parody.

Last week's episode got somewhat better. At the beginning, I was thinking, "I'm bored" and a few minutes later, Kelly said, "Are you bored with this now?" "Yes," I replied. But we kept watching....sigh.....

Luckily last week's episode with Sylar meeting his father, etc was pretty good.

But I agree - it just doesn't have the magic of season 1. however, I think we're close to not watching it anymore. They sat the bar so high in Season 1 that you could only go downhill from there.

Jordan .

I hate having to explain my jokes.

It was in reference to the fact that Mr. Silencio basically bashed Americans on an American-run, American-based message board. It was my way of saying "Wow, way to exhibit tact and make nice with others."

Anyway, fully agree with what you've written here. Sometimes I wonder if the writers are just sitting around a massive hookah all day long. They set very firm precedents in Season 1 that they turned around and set fire to throughout Season 2, and now they're just sifting through the ashes to see what still works in Season 3. It has gotten frustrating and sad. I'm not asking to be spoon-fed anything. I may be American, but I'm not impatient nor ignorant (sorry to disappoint, Mr Silencio). I don't think it's indecent of me to demand that a show at least remain CONSISTENT. They can throw whatever kinks they want into the series, but for Pete's sake at least keep it coherent and consistent. And BTW, I'm seeing far more than just American audiences lodging these complaints.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Jordan .

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

Now...

 First of all, I'd like to know something. How do the ratings in the U.S. get their count? I mean, what is the system? I'd really like to know, thank you, because it's bugged me for quite an eternity.

Second thing: I was so harsh to the point of insulting you poor guys because I love this series, no matter how it gets worse, and I wanted to show my disgust. I mean... Why does this overall good series risk to be cancelled when there are at least another dozen american shows produced today that didn't even need to see the light of day? Because everyone watches it for some reason. And that's not right. It's not everyone's cup of coffee. Plus, you guys have too many shows in America. They are sort of handed to people, who don't even say 'Thank you for the entertainment'. They also have to make an infinite list of idiotic things they don't approve because they think that one only logic exists and, in some ways, maybe they are better writers than the ones who created and wrote, thus love the show.

For example, why air an episode per week? I know, it's the system. But with a series like "Heroes", people need to be teased and a way of doing that is making them wait longer, so that they can watch an episode one more time with re-runs or downloads to find new things, maybe start appreciating the show instead of just 'digesting' it because it's shoved down your throats.

I make my apologies again to those who were offended, but my anger was talking

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

1. Rating system - its' called Nielsen. A select few of Americans have a box that keep track of their watching behaviors. This select few is a large number of people from all aspects of the American makeup so it's statistically sound, I believe.

2. too many shows? We have 4 major networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX (and that doesnt' include cable). You have around 3 hours of prime time that you have to fill up - that's 12 hours of potential TV showing (FOX does 2 hours of primetime so it's actually 11 hours). Time 7 days of week, you have 77 hours of TV that have to be filled up. Throw in cable and it really changes. FX has 3 hours a night of prime time it needs to fill up. As does a few other cable networks. They often air reruns and old movies but you still have new TV shows especially on HBO and Showtime.

3. Why once a week? One of the reasons why ratings for Heroes went down was because of the time we had to wait due to the writer's strike last year. The series 24 (wonderful, IMO) didn't even get a chance to air last year. If you don't air shows each week, I think you'd find a higher number of showing getting cancelled because people don't want to wait more than a week. A lot of people hate waiting an entire summer for new shows! :)

Jordan .

I watch more English programming than anything else. :) You have some fantastic shows that I just can't get enough of, though the only way we really get these things is via BBC America, which in the last year or two has really screwed up its programming basically catering to the mindless daytime TV-watching masses. You can go to their website (www.bbcamerica.com) and see what the daily viewing schedule is like. It's frustrating...there used to be so much more variety, to the point where I wouldn't watch anything but that channel because it was just one great show after the other. Now it's dismal at best. I miss the old days...

I'm trying to think of good recent English dramas. Hm. I know your crime dramas are superb...I was a fan of Cracker back in the day...MI:5 (earlier series' of it)...um...Jonathan Creek...that sort of thing. Really liked Ballykissangel and when I was super-bored, watching the Eastenders Omnibus on Saturdays was a hoot, though I'd be hard-pressed to call that "good drama". LOL There's loads more that I used to watch back in the day. I'm going to need to sift through my imdb My Movies list to see what I can recall.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

 Yeah, it's not just impatience either. It is hard to follow the more complex shows if there is longer than a week gap. It just loses the flow, and for a lot of people, they may think, for example, Wednesday evening is Heroes but when they start showing reruns you just forget about it. I actually think that even a week can be too long, as something like Lost is always better when you watch like an episode every day (on DVD).

Life on Mars is fantastic. I wish we hadn't remade it though. The American version just pales so badly in comparison, IMO. Kind of like almost all shows of yours that we remake (The Office being a notable exception...I think idiot bosses and the bizarre nature of corporate workplaces makes something like that extremely universal and easy to adapt to the different style of humor that American sit-coms tend to have).

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

 You can watch The Prisoner as a 7-episode season perfectly well. Arrival, then some kind of combination of Dance of the Dead, Checkmate, Chimes of Big Ben, Free for All, and then Once Upon A Time, and then Fall Out were what McGoohan originally intended to have. I think it's great to have the choice in this case. Obviously normally, shows are so plot-driven that you can't skip episodes like you can with The Prisoner.

I didn't know they'd begun airing the American Life on Mars. Are they following the same story exactly? I suppose 1973 American would be quite different to England. I thought that a remake of The Office would be a terrible idea, and I didn't like the first series, as it just seemed like they were doing the same scripts but with worse actors (except Steve Carell of course). But now, I admit I was completely wrong, it's turned into one of my favourite shows, and all the actors are great, much more faceted than the British version.