It was doubtful that Heroes would be able to make a full recovery after the mid season strike. It turns out that even after a huge publicity campaign to get everyone talking NBC still couldn’t bring back to life it’s golden series. The 2-hour season premiere on Monday had ratings that came to 25% less than the season 2 premiere last year and it turns out the lowest ratings of any original Heroes episode.

This could spell disaster for the show as considering the number of special effects required unless it’s kept for brand recognition it would be hard to justify a show that costs so much to produce being kept around for a small audience. Given it’s only just hit season three it’s surprising to think that it could be the beginning of the end already.

When you look back at the antics of Hiro and his friends perhaps it could be a warning to those who try and make a superhero television show in the future. One thing is for certain, if Heroes fails so soon then another network won’t try a similar show for many years to come.

After Lost, Heroes was the next big thing, the ratings winner everyone wanted. With the disaster that was the “boyfriend orientated” storyline of Claire in season 2 it lost viewers faster than…anything else. Even the show’s creator said sorry for the story publicly during the writers strike which mercifully ended the season quickly and provided time to retool the show. Things were desperate. On Monday (9/8c in the US, Oct 1st UK) we get to see what the much darker third season will bring to the table.

There have been promotional trailer leaks on this one for a long time with even award ceremony trailers getting stuck on the net but soon it will be here officially. If the show can’t be rescued in terms of story or quality then no doubt viewers will turn away and it will receive the ever present axe. The best part about season 2 was where Hiro went into the past, that element made the season a must-watch even with the soap opera elements to it. Granted, there was some comedy in the second season also. As someone in Ireland who was only a few miles away from Cork at the time of it’s broadcast the Irish parts were some of the best unintentional comedy going. As something to
watch out for next time, down here in The Republic (aka Eire) we don’t have London style Black Cabs with UK yellow licence plates The only way to get any kind of possible explanation on that one basing it in real life would be to somehow find a cab in Northern Ireland and take it all the way down to Cork, a bit unlikely. It’s little factual errors like that which make things fun from a personal perspective. Oh, and the accents.

Just like the Dark Knight trailer a week ago a high profile trailer has been leaked onto the net. Plus, just like before it’s in a bad cam quality. For those of you that don’t want any spoilers for season 3, we won’t be putting up details here, but it does appear that season 3 is going to be the darkest yet.

The source for this trailer’s showing was the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival where the show was being honored. What we can say is this season 3 trailer in its current format doesn’t spoil too much as the audio is of a terrible quality but the picture is clear enough to make out key characters and interactions between them.