Heroic Apology?

It appears that Tim Kring has sent out an email to select bloggers (not me, and no, I wouldn’t expect him to send me one… small fish syndrome, and all) apologizing for the comments he made in the article I linked to in this post. You can read his note in full here (among other places, no doubt). I’ll let you go there and read it and make up your own mind about it before I comment.

Read it? Yes? ok…

I think the first commenter (Anna) to that linked post has it pretty much right… It’s damage control, and it just reeks of insincerity. I’d actually lay odds that the studio called him on his cell, asked him if he was out of his mind, and demanded that he apologize. I mean, he says his quote was mangled, but it’s pretty damn tough to mangle:

So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and the dips**ts who can’t figure out how to watch it in a superior way.

But in the end, I really don’t care much. It’s frustrating that a TV show that was so good has turned so sour. I’m sure he’s frustrated about it as well, and that his comments were born out of that frustration. But the simple fact of the matter is that Kring has demonstrated that he doesn’t really care about his fans, regardless of what he says in his apology. I’d actually wager that the concern he has for the show itself is somewhat feigned, but the artist in me finds that difficult to believe so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

Whether he cares about it or not, though, the bottom line is that ‘Heroes has gone downhill for over 20 episodes now. That much is an undeniable given. Is it still good television? I’d call it borderline, at best. Winter is perhaps the one thing that will save it as the northern climes retreat indoors to escape the colder weather. Assuming I don’t run out of DVR space, I’ll probably still record it, but I likely wont get around to watching it again until next summer, and it will be the first thing to go if Lost , Monk, and Burn Notice episodes start stacking up come January.