When I first read about the concept of FlashForward, I found it to be highly interesting, asking questions about knowing your future, questions of faith and the urge to change the path of your possible destiny. The idea of touching on all of these items made me want to be in on the show from the beginning, unlike Lost, where I missed the boat, and then felt underwhelmed watching it on my own, after the fact. However, after watching four episodes of FlashForward, I feel like the show is missing on all cylinders when it comes to answering the major questions, instead focusing on cliches and confusing plot points.
At the beginning of the show, I loved watching the destruction of what happened to the world when everyone just stopped functioning for two minutes and seventeen seconds. Things that had not even crossed my mind happened, and it had me realizing what kind of disaster this event would cause. Planes falling from the skies, cars crashing, people drowning and all other kinds of mayhem brought the world’s populace down a peg or two. It was a sight to behold, and made you think about the chaos that would ensue.
The setup then brought forth several sub-plots to the blackout event, with people that did not see anything, like John Cho’s character, or Joseph Finnes character wanted to prevent the future, by using it to stop events. With all of these plot events, you keep waiting for the reel that will keep you on the line, wanting to watch more, but with each plot point, someone does something that is completely asinine. Again, Joseph Finnes character is so blinded by the future, he lets a major nazi war criminal go, getting little in return. Or John Cho’s character finding out about his death, but doing absolutely nothing to stop it from happening at every turn.
John Cho’s plot is especially grating, because he actually has the possibility to change an event, that could end up saving his life, and he just passes over it. Why would he do that? It completely goes against man’s nature of self-preservation. Why doesn’t he just resign from the FBI, or go to an uninhabited area of the planet on or around that day. None of these options are explored. He just blindly goes on his way. The same goes for Sonya Walger’s character. She sees her future, and she is with another man that is not her husband. She actually meets the man from her flashfoward, and does nothing to change it. She does not transfer to another part of the hospital, or even when she does have the man’s son transfered, he ends up back in her department, and she just shrugs it off, like she cannot change fate. What the hell! Again, you would do anything to change events that are damaging to you, but none of these characters seem to want to do that.
I think in the end, it just seems more like the team is not sure where they want to go. The blackout takes the team six months into the future, so are we going for a huge shooting arc over several seasons, or is this a one shot show, where they are only in it for the six month haul? I am not sure if ABC has put a lot of faith in this series as of yet, but I do think they are looking at it as a full on replacement for Lost, as the network in on the verge of losing its major cash cow. The show has the FlashForward event, but I am not sure if they can drag it out over several seasons.
I plan to give the show a couple more episodes to grab me, but as of now, FlashForward is more like a flash in the pan, rather than a solid hit.
