FOR a guy whose once-invincible series is showing signs of creative limbo and ratings droop, Tim Kring doesn't sound worried.
"Heroes," Kring's comics-like confection that became a sleeper smash for NBC last year, looks mired in the proverbial sophomore slump. And it's as good a symbol as any of the networks' generally dashed expectations for what's shaping up as a crummy fall TV season.
In the case of "Heroes," critics are complaining about slow pacing and an overabundance of characters. As if last season's dozen-strong ensemble of ordinary superheroes and shadowy figures didn't offer enough competition for viewers' attention, the producers have added four new cast members, including Kristen Bell (late of "Veronica Mars").
And Masi Oka's character, Hiro, who broke through last season, has been trapped in a goofy, feudal-Japanese subplot that resembles a parody of "The Last Samurai."
In perhaps the most democratic sign of unrest, People magazine, which doesn't typically go harsh on pop-culture phenomena, recently ran a sidebar with prescriptions on how to fix "Heroes."
THE ratings seem to reflect viewer dissatisfaction. Last week the series sank to its lowest numbers yet in the key adults, ages 18-49 demographic, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research, possibly erasing the show from the Top 10 for the first time (final results for last week won't be available until Tuesday).
Yet none of this seems to perturb Kring, who sounds persuasively upbeat about the show's prospects. He says much of the nattering is to be expected, given last year's enormous success.
"People tend to look at last season and see things in it that were not in it," Kring told me by phone. "We haven't deviated that much" from last year's formula.
He did concede, however, that because he and the other writers already know where all these story arcs are headed, it's difficult to plug into the average person's viewpoint: "It's hard to gauge how it's experienced, especially when we're 10 episodes ahead of the audience."
And as for the ratings? Kring points to the now-familiar litany of alternative means of viewing, like TiVo, DVDs and online episodes, that allow people to watch a show other than when it's scheduled.
To be fair, "Heroes" is hardly the only returning series that's run into network TV's punishing new math. Last week, "Ugly Betty" slid to some of its lowest numbers ever, as did "Grey's Anatomy." The new shows aren't burning up the charts either, with many heavily publicized entries such as NBC's "Bionic Woman," ABC's "Big Shots" and CBS' "Cane" posting alarming declines.
