SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

“Heroes” is getting dangerously overpopulated _ and creator Tim Kring says he’s well aware of the problem.

“On a show like this, you have to be able to fold people in and fold people out,” Kring says. “So the audience should fully expect to see characters leave, soon.”

One person not leaving any time soon is new character Ella, played by “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell.

“It’s been so much fun,” Kristen says. “She (doesn’t have) the brightest and shiniest of intentions. She’s so conflicted and comes across as such a vixen. She’s so much fun to play with.”

Kristen says she can’t reveal her secret powers, “but it’s a very cool power.” She has ties to HRG and Claire and to Suresh.

“(She’s) a little messed up in the head, manipulative, out to get what she wants. She doesn’t have many boundaries,” Kristen says. “All first season about good natured people, conflicted about how to deal with them. Elle enjoys her power and the power she gives over other people.”

Tim says they are tying Elle to The Company that HRG was involved in.

“Elle was actually raised within The Company,” Tim says. “It’s a cautionary tale about how (the other heroes) would have been if they lived with The Company their whole life.”

Tim says once again this season will be filled with plenty of answers.

“We actually are not a shot that tries to keep answers away from the audience,” Tim says. “No answer so precious we can’t tell the audience what it is. But something to be said for drawing out interest.”

Questions are answered by Episode 11, which Tim says ends the second “volume.”

“Last season was all one volume, so at the end of the year, we were dragging out a lot of story so expectations were so high, it was hard to meet,” Tim says. “This (season has) multiple volumes. Every question raised (in the first volume_ will be answered, then the next (set of questions) swings us into another volume. People say they want answers, but like the twists and turns.”

Kristen is signed on for 13 episodes, but says it is up to the discretion of the producers as to how many episodes she’ll actually appear in.

“I start in Episode 5, I’m not in episodes 6 or 7, then episodes 8 and 9 expose a lot of Elle,” Kristen says. “At the end of 13, we’ll have a pow wow and see if it makes sense for me to continue.”

Kristen says she’d love to stay on “Heroes.” So what about a “Veronica Mars” movie or animated series?

“If (creator) Rob (Thomas) asks me to mow his lawn, I would do that,” Kristen says.

Actually, we’re hoping he opts to do more “VM” with Kristen.

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