Monday 22 June 2009

Heroes: Bryan Fuller flies away... again

Monday 22 June 2009
A few moments ago, an anonymous source emailed AICN's Hercules, claiming that Bryan Fuller had once again quit Heroes.

This exclusive was swiftly confirmed by EW's Michael Ausiello on Twitter, who elaborated that Fuller is expected to develop new shows for NBC.

Right now, we have no idea why Fuller decided to leave the show he returned to in late-season 3 following the cancellation of his own series Pushing Daisies.

Did he just get itchy feet? Did he realize after some sessions in the writers' room that Heroes just wasn't exciting him? Has he received an offer to develop his own show that he couldn't pass up? Was there some internal politics that forced him to part company, as his ideas weren't being acted on? No idea.

All I do know is that I'm a little bit less excited about Heroes' fourth season now. And I wasn't even particularly excited to begin with. I just hope Fuller didn't leave because he realized Heroes was creatively exhausted and no fun to work on.

But, to end on a positive note: maybe fans have been overhyping Bryan Fuller, anyway. I've never been convinced that he was the sole reason that everything after season 1 has been quite poor. He was definitely one of Heroes' better writers with a clearer focus on what makes a good TV show, but he has been deified beyond his talent. Pushing Daisies had a pretty terrible second season itself, remember...

Update: Fuller spoke to Ausiello, saying: "I'm crafting two pilots right now and it's a lot of work. It was just too hard to [juggle] Heroes and my development and something had to give." So, a purely career-minded decision, it seems. Can't say I blame him. Once you've been a showrunner on a big show like Daisies, it must have felt a bit constricting on Heroes -- not to mention something of a backwards-step. Well, good luck to him! Hopefully he left enough of an impression on the Heroes staff to ensure a decent fourth season without him.