Heroes has received a lot of praise over the years on TV Scoop, however, the last series left a terrible taste in the mouth. The show had gone from a brilliantly confusing and ambitious body of work to something so dim that it couldn’t see its own hand in front of its face. As such, the ratings began to slide and according to early figures, it’s continued on a downward keel. The third episode of volume five – titled ‘Ink’ – pulled in 5.82m for NBC during the 8pm hour, down from last week’s two-hour premiere in the US.

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Sometimes, you get the feeling that a show should ignore the critics in the broadcasting HQ and just keep on doing what it feels is best. Heroes certainly seems like a show that should’ve stuck fingers in ears and not listened to those asking for a more accessible show.

Instruction from the top clearly filtered down to make the show ‘easier’ to watch, however, what actually happened was that the show found itself taking out all the fun and mystery… and as such, the suspense.

It’s little wonder that the ratings are being hit. Comic book fans (the most ardent of all critics) sniped at the second series, but in fairness, they would’ve sniped at anything. The show was non-linear and followed the trail left by those weird comics from the shelves.

By going more simple, the show lost the sci-fi nuts and Comic Book Guy and completely failed to get the attentions of the supposed Average TV Viewer. The Average TV Viewer pukes at the very mention of sci-fi.

Now we’re left with a programme that is having a terrible identity crisis and doesn’t know who to turn to.

Shame.