10 Cancelled TV Shows That Made Obvious Mistakes
7. Having No Long-Term Road Map - Heroes
When Heroes debuted back in 2006, many felt that it was "the next Lost" - a well-crafted supernatural series focused around a compelling mystery and fascinating cast of characters.
But after a stellar first season, it soon enough became clear that creator Tim Kring simply didn't have a mapped-out direction for the overarching story and characters.
From season two onwards, critics and fans alike complained about the meandering storytelling, implausible character motivations, and generally slapdash, throw-everything-and-see-what-sticks nature of the writing.
In 2010, the very day that its final episode aired, The A.V. Club published a fascinating interview with Kring where he effectively confirmed that he and the show's other writers were basically making things up as they went along, and would routinely change things on the fly if they felt like it.
As such it's little surprise that, as the scope grew, Heroes become increasingly disjointed, until only the most die-hard fans were still with it.
By the end of season four, the ratings were only around one-third of those in season one, and so NBC decided to can it.
This is a common problem with breakout word-of-mouth series, many of which are created with an initially modest scope and quickly fall apart when the creatives can't chart an engaging, multi-season path forward.