'Heroes' fourth season joins the carnival
With the big bad government off their backs, Claire and Sylar and company are going back to having normal lives this fall. But what does "normal" mean, exactly?
"Do you hide? Do you assimilate?" asks Tim Kring. "It's a chance to go back and strip away some of the story elements that make the show harder to relate to. With Claire in college and Parkman is a detective and Peter is a paramedic, it's an entry point into the show that's easier for the audience."
Or do you join the circus...
A major new element will be a traveling carnival with an earth-moving leader who convinces heroes to join his group for some mysterious purpose. NBC Uni screens a trailer, which shows a couple major characters looking mortally wounded -- not that such images mean much on "Heroes." The trailer also showed Claire kissing her college roommate, a lesbian love interest story line worked into next season.
Despite the show's ratings drops and some critical bashing, fans were rapturous with enough screaming to make a fan think they wandered into a "Twilight" panel by accident.
Here's how the cast describes where Season 4 finds their characters...
HRG: "I'm in a place where I think we're setting up this new company, but my marriage is falling apart, my world is falling apart around me..."
Hiro: "He has a terminal illness and his powers are going in and out... he has a bucket list and is fixing mistakes ...there's a lot more time traveling this season."
Claire -- "College freshman year, she becomes friends with a very interesting girl -- C'mon we can have fun right? We have a very interesting relationship as you just saw..."
Nathan -- "Zach and I are sharing a body ... [becomes a] Jekyll and Hyde thing."
Peter -- Peter's gone back to being a paramedic.... he's got a lot more humor about everything now... but he's still a guy if he gets swung at he's gonna swing back harder."