Show, Don't Tell

Bryan Fuller is back, which was supposed to make it better. Arthur Petrelli is gone, which was supposed to make it better. Mohinder no longer has lesions/scales/web-spinning compulsions, which was supposed to make it better. Why, then, am I still so unsatisfied?

The issue, for me, is that it’s so heavy-handed. What was gripping about Season 1 of Heroes was the mix of likable and compelling characters, the incredibly well-constructed plots, and the sense of moral ambiguity that imbued all of the characters. Powers could be used for good or evil, depending on the nature and circumstances of the person who has them…and good and evil were in the eye of the beholder. The light touch of Season 1 and the sense that the writers respected the intelligence of their audience have disappeared with Hiro's power.

This tension between who is good and who is evil and who decides what good and evil are made the first season great; the most morally ambiguous character of all was actually someone without a power (that we know of, anyway): H.R.G./Noah Bennett. He alternately wants to disable people with powers and protect them from people who don’t understand. Above all, he wants to protect his adopted daughter Claire.

Now, though, when I watch the show it feels like enough people told Tim Kring that they really liked the moral ambiguity that he then he decided that to make this ambiguity the focal point of the show. Except it already was the focal point of the show, but in an incredibly artful and subtle way. Throughout Season 1 and, I would argue, Season 2, we were left to wonder what the actions of certain characters meant about their true selves and grapple with it on our own (or with our friend Amin). Since Villains started in the fall and now with the new volume, though, there’s very little left to wrestle with. In every scene every character tells us “HEY! Don’t forget that I’m morally ambiguous!” The ultimate example came in last night’s episode when Noah Bennett tells Angela Petrelli that he’s “always been comfortable with morally gray.”

No shit, but Noah pointing it out to us undermines what at one point made the show better than anything else on TV. Also, this exchange offends me because it violates the most basic rule of writing…show, don’t tell. That’s the heart of the matter. Lately it seems like Tim Kring is telling us everything, rather than letting his incredibly evocative characters and tightly woven plots reveal themselves. If I wanted to be told something rather than see it for myself I would watch reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond.

Except I wouldn’t because I want the writers and producers of whatever I’m devoting 30 minutes or an hour to to think I’m smart enough to form my own opinions and figure out what I think the story means. I guess I just I like my dramas to be like literature. Heroes is still better than most TV dramas, but I just think they could regain their Season 1 absolute mastery of “show, don’t tell” we’d all be a lot happier. Or at least this geek would be.