Heroes, the comic

This week the Heroes hardcover, which collects the online comics that were done while the first season of Heroes aired, arrived. I think it's a really nice production and think that fans of the show will like this book as it is a good supplement of the characters and we get some back stories that reveal how things on the show have gotten to where they are (most of the stories, if not all of them are written by writers of the tv show). I hadn't read the online comics (I don't really like reading comics on the computer) so all of the stories were new to me. My favorite story was the second one in which we learn how Hiro got his name.

Speaking of Heroes, the tv show, this season has been a little off. I thought it was just me that was feeling this way, but recently I've been hearing more and more of the same reactions and that ratings haven't been what they were last year. Kate told me that one of the head writers even admitted that this season has been off. I was surprised to hear that because usually one doesn't hear a writer say anything negative about their work, especially while the work in question is still being produced. Hopefully this will lead to a correction that will re-strengthen the show. At the same time I wonder if the writer is just coming out and saying this in reaction to what more and more of the audience is saying and if opinions weren't so negative, would he have said anything and what were the writers original plans with where things were going (if in fact writing changes will be made to swing things around)?

Here's what I think is wrong with Heroes: Too many new characters and or characters in which there's no progression from episode to episode (the new characters, the Wonder Twins, for example), New York City looking like it's been destroyed again, time travel with its countless paradoxes (Hiro's story), and too many plotlines going on that just seem to be teasing viewers each week in hopes that there'll be some resolutions to them and or how they all fit together.

I think the same thing happened with Lost (the tv show), with its introduction of new mysteries and new characters without giving viewers any payoffs and that show started losing it's audience (they lost me). I've heard that Lost turned things around and I think this was because of it's shrinking audience voicing the same complaints, but for me it was too late, because the show I once enjoyed (Lost season one) was gone and it seemed like they were just making up things as they went along.

With Heroes, I'm giving it until the end of this season (who knows when that'll end though with the writer's strike) and if it doesn't have a really strong conclusion wrapping up a lot of what's been introduced this season thus far, I won't be back for the next season. I thought most of last season was really good, but felt the conclusion wasn't very satisfying and probably could have used another episode or two. How long should a viewer or reader keep watching or reading a creative production before that production goes south or until it gets better?