Is FlashForward seeing Starz?

There are unconfirmed reports that the US cable network Starz is angling to pick up the rights to ABC's cancelled sci-fi drama FlashForward, with a view to financing a second season. This rumour comes from a fan posting to one of the FlashForward campaign sites, claiming a Starz representative has let slip that they're trying to get the show picked up.

How likely is this? Well, there's certainly a precedent for such things happenings. Only today, DirecTV have stepped in to rescue FX's cancelled legal drama Damages for two more seasons. Starz are also making more of an effort to boost their original programming output, following the likes of Spartacus: Blood & Sand, Crash, and the recent co-financing deal with the BBC for Torchwood. FlashForward was an in-house production from ABC, and I see no reason why they wouldn't want to make some money off a dead show by selling the intellectual property, either.

But what about the cast? I'm sure many of them have moved on already to pursue other work. Joseph Fiennes is working on Camelot, which is production for Starz, so that's handy. Would his co-stars be able to come back for a revived second season at this point? I guess it depends if they were freed from their contracts following ABC's cancellation. If so, Starz will have to persuade them back, and how many would be willing to continue with a critically-derided TV series that's moving to a network with a much lower audience? Some perhaps, but all?

Whatever happens, it's an interesting rumour. I rather like the idea that axed TV show's have a greater chance of continuing in some form these days, given the array of broadcasters out there. Primeval was likewise revived by ITV once they managed to secure international financing. Will FlashForward be back in 2011? And if so, will it be a major hit for a network that would kill to get 4m viewers per episode, which it was pulling in for ABC? Spartacus's record-breaking premiere only managed 553,000, after all!

'FLASHFORWARD' 1.22 - "Future Shock"

WRITERS: Scott M. Gimple & Timothy J. Lea
DIRECTOR: John Polson
GUEST CAST: Hira Ambrosino, Genevieve Cortese, Michael Ealy, Neil Jackson, Dominic Rains, Blake Robbins, Yûko Takeuchi, Lennon Wynn & Ryan Wynott

[SPOILERS] As promised, my response to FlashForward's highly-anticipated series finale: sigh. To elaborate; what a dull disappointment. The show was always going to run into problems trying to make its finale feel exciting, as we've spent the entirety of the series knowing what the key moments will be. The only characters who never had a flashforward (Demetri and Simon) thus had freedom to do unpredictable things in this finale, so why were both tied into a predictable story about accidentally causing the next blackout from Simon's lab? Bad move.

We got was an hour of piece-moving everywhere else, with the script trying desperately to give us some surprises or subvert expectations. Nicole's flashforward about her being drowned by someone and feeling like she deserved to die? Well, she just crashed her car into a river and was being rescued by someone. Olivia wanted to stay away from her house and Lloyd, to prevent their vision of a full-on affair coming true, but smoothie Lloyd played the "I need circumstances to be recreated exactly to elicit a breakthrough with some equations" card. I'm just surprised he didn't insist they have sex, for the sake of accuracy. Anyway, it turned out it was Lloyd's son Dylan who actually wrote the equation on Olivia's bedroom mirror in lipstick. That kid's nothing but a creepy plot-device.

Bryce went to the restaurant to meet his "true love" Keiko, who likewise rushed to join him after her mother took pity on her daughter's predicament and caused a scene at the airport during their deportation. A laughable moment, with Keiko giving a dozen airport officials the slip by just ducking under a table and walking away. But hey, Bryce and Keiko together at last! It was the meeting we've been waiting months to see! The romance of the century! Right? All based on two people with little in common, from different cultures, who've only ever seen each other in a two-minute vision. I bet Keiko's ensuing conversation in pigeon-English about her criminal behaviour at an L.A garage was a let-down for Bryce.

The big action set-piece was seeing a half-drunk Benford released from custody by Wedeck, only to enter the FBI building against orders during a bomb scare and single-handedly dispatching an entire armed team (the lack of peripheral vision on those masks were to blame for their ineptitude, I think), before realizing that savant Gabrielle had spelled out the exact time of the next blackout on his clue-board: giving Benford a ridiculous three-minute window to alert his boss, the President and the world to get ready for another vision. In other words, get everyone to stop driving, operating machinery, carrying babies and trimming hedges incase they have an accident. I know information can spread like wild fire in the information age, but I doubt a three-minute warning helped very much.

And lo, everyone in the world had another vision -- this one stretching forward to New Year's Day 2015, where Benford's now-adult daughter Charlie exclaimed "they found him!" I assume she means her father, who appeared to be "killed" during a slow-motion run to jump out of his office window from a bomb's explosion. Was it always the intention for this finale's vision to jump so far ahead in time, as the source novel did originally? I have my doubts. I think we'd have been give some individual flashforwards for the regular characters if a second season had been assured, instead of some vague visions worldwide. It also strikes me nigh impossible to keep much of a narrative drive if the future everyone's seen wasn't going to happen for years, particularly as we've learned from season 1 that it can be avoided or tweaked. But maybe the writers would have included greater regularity of flashforwards, so a few could be closer to the current time period.

Elsewhere, Wedeck's vision of sitting on the toilet was humorously played out in an action context, Janis had her fated ultrasound, and Aaron's daughter Tracy (whom nobody but himself cares about) survived her life-threatening wounds in Afghanistan. And the few viewers still watching this show wondered why the Presidential coup never amounted to, and why the writers appeared to have such misplaced belief they'd be picked up for another season.

It's all academic now, anyway. The show was axed and it's over. Why did FlashForward fail? Oh, you know why: its interesting concept eclipsed the uninteresting characters, but a show can't survive solely on a cool idea; ABC's "next Lost" hyperbole raised expectations too high; the fact they hired the wrong Fiennes brother to do "brooding"; reckless, choppy narratives; the writers throwing malformed ideas into the mix to give the illusion of complexity; reliance on a "who caused the blackout?" mystery nobody truly cared about; and way too many characters to tackle.

31 MAY 2010: FIVE, 9PM

Chuck & V saved, FlashForward axed

NBC's spy-comedy Chuck has been renewed for a 13-episode fourth season, despite a recent drop in ratings in its competitive Monday night timeslot. ABC's alien invasion remake V is also back for 13-episodes, more surprisingly given the poor critical reaction and low ratings, but doing so spares the network's blushes that (otherwise) all of its 2009/10 drama failed.

ABC's big sci-fi hope FlashForward, heavily promoted as "the new Lost" last year, won't be returning for a second season. Critical reaction was terrible, audiences grew bored quickly, there were creative challenges at every step, a difficult turnaround of showrunners, a debilitating four-month hiatus at mid-season, and recently the show has been getting its lowest ever ratings. So, no surprise it won't be back for more. I hear the last episode is something of a cliffhanger, which will be frustrating for the few people still watching.

Are you still watching FlashForward?

I just wondered if anyone wanted to chime in with thoughts on the recent batch of FlashForward episodes. I stopped reviewing the series awhile back, but have still been tuning in every week at UK pace (four days behind ABC.) There's been some terrible moments that made me groan, but also some surprisingly effective sequences (usually action-orientated.) I think it's clear the writers have a decent nucleus of ideas, but the characters aren't strong enough to make them fly.

Someone needs to sit down and tell Joseph Fiennes to remove that stick from his backside, for starters. Often, the best episodes are those where characters are only needed to be instruments in service of the plot -- like the entertaining episode where Benford had to find Demetri on the day of his supposed death, as he'd been kidnapped by Dyson Frost and attached to a booby-trapped gun-firing contraption. Entertainingly bonkers, it required Fiennes run around looking fraught, and he can do that.

I also found it interesting that former-showrunner David Goyer has admitted they're burning through ideas originally planned for season 2. Maybe that was out of desperation to throw as much stuff at the screen as possible to hide its deficiencies, or the producers know their show's days are numbered and would prefer to get as much on-screen as possible before the plug's pulled.

Remember when Goyer was saying they had five years mapped out? Do you still believe him? I found it amusing when Dyson Frost's wall chart of future events indicated 12 December 2016 as "The End" -- so, what, they still believe they'll get to an eighth season? Such optimism!

So what do you think of FlashForward right now? Has it turned a corner? Is it just embracing its ridiculous nature and thus having more fun, which is enough to quell its problems? I have to admit, I like how they sidestepped the apparent misfire of revealing Janis as a mole, as she's actually a double-agent working for Vogel. Although I'm not sure why Janis doesn't tell Vogel what she knows about Simon. She's sitting on a lot of information that would aide the Mosaic investigation, so why doesn't Vogel ask her for a few breaks in the case?

And Battlestar Galactica's James Callis as a savant; is that a good performance, or excruciating?

Does FlashForward have a future?

There's a rumour, originating from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santo, that ABC's critically-derided and low-rated FlashForward might get a surprise second season pickup because it's a hit overseas and doesn't cost much to produce.

This boils down to one commentator's opinion, but could it be possible? I'm not sold. It's certainly not a bad thing that the show's doing well abroad, but would ABC really renew a series that doesn't have much homegrown support and dwindling ratings? I know people say Heroes has only survived on NBC because of its international appeal, too, but it also has excellent DVD sales. Maybe that's why ABC release a "first volume" of FlashForward's first season recently, to gauge whether the show is a Heroes-like moneyspinner on disc

I'm also surprised by the suggestion FlashForward's a relatively cheap show to make, as it's always struck me as looking fairly expensive. If that's indeed true, I at least have to applaud what the showrunners have achieved with their budget and choice of filming locations.

ABC will make their official decision about FlashForward's future on 18 May.

Finally, while I'm not actually reviewing the series now, I thought I'd just mention that the last few episodes have been hilariously terrible. An African warlord stereotype who killed someone every 5 minutes for the hell of it, but who saw himself as an ambassador for peace in his flashforward? Huh? And this week the show turned into a very dumb episode of 24, with the FBI team trying to find a mole, who eventually turned out to be a character it makes NO sense has been a villain! And sweet Japanese robotocist Keiko returned... to, um, work in a "Pimp My Ride"-style L.A garage fitting hydraulics to cars. That really happened.

Or how about Mark Benford solving the most complex "clue" ever devized, in one morning, all by himself? He actually thought to investigate enigmatic D. Gibbons' early-'90s chess games, noted how long Gibbons took to decide on each move, then converted those times into Morse Code, which spelled out a telephone number that connected him to Gibbons' modern-day voicemail? I mean, have the writers gone NUTS? Who would ever think to do that?!

It was so bad it was kind of good. Kind of. But it's making Prison Break look positively Mensa right now.

FLASHFORWARD 1.13 - "Blowback"

WRITERS: Lisa Zwerling & Barbara Nance
DIRECTOR: Constantine Makris
GUEST CAST: Gabrielle Union, Laura Marano, Robert Neary, Kavita Patil & Tim "Timbaland" Mosley

[SPOILERS] Last week, I claimed I rarely stop watching a TV show I've started, but that doesn't stretch to writing about them. I'm still going to continue watching FlashForward until the bitter end -- because it's not long until the finale airs, and I'm intrigued to see if the later episodes pick up once David Goyer left as showrunner -- but "Blowback" was poor enough to make me stop writing about it every week. I may still chime in with a few thoughts occasionally (certainly for the finale), but writing about FlashForward every single week feels like it's extending the previous evening's irritation. A few brief thoughts on episode 13 before I signoff, for now:

I appreciated the episode's emphasis on character over plot, which has been a criticism of the show since it started, but the Lost-like flashbacks to explain exactly how Aaron (Brían F. O'Byrne) was told his soldier daughter Tracy (Genevieve Cortese) was KIA felt superfluous. Why did we need to see what we already knew had happened? And then Jane was kidnapped by black ops Jericho soldiers in the present-day (hiding at home was never a wise move, dummy), meaning Aaron' decided to channel Liam Neeson in Taken and went after Jericho's General Irskan (James Remar). I also found it amusing that Aaron kept leaving voicemails for his best friend Mark (Joseph Fiennes) to pick up, who's assumedly lost interest in Aaron's predicament -- not unlike the audience.

Speaking of Mark, he forced Lloyd (Jack Davenport) to recount every second of his vision (seconds of which they shared via phone call), so now we have the extra clue of a complex formula written on a mirror in lipstick in the Benford's bedroom, and Lloyd admitted that he knows the mysterious D. Gibbons -- someone who once took the credit for his achievements.

Finally, Demetri's (John Cho) fiancée Zoey (Gabrielle Union) became intensely irritating by taking it upon herself to avert Dem's death by sticking her nose into FBI business, and there was a bizarre cameo for Rn'B music producer Timbaland as an evidence clerk.

Overall, "Blowback" was rather flat and uninspired, not helped by the fact the preceding two episodes fired along like twin rockets, so it looked comparatively dawdling. It wasn't atrocious, and a few moments worked quite well, but when FlashForward does a character-building episode and you come away annoyed by most of the characters taking centre stage, it's time to worry.

Asides

-- It just dawned on me that the female terrorist is played by Rachel Roberts, of S1M0NE non-fame.

-- James Remar is a terrible actor. I know he's a regular on Dexter, and I don't pick on him there, but that's because he's confined to standing under a spotlight and saying his lines as straight at possible. Asked to do anything more, involving realistic human emotions, and he falls apart. He was truly dire here. Check out his reaction to a birthday cake in one scene.

-- The secret to eternal life: grow a big beard, then shave it. It knocks 15 years off, as Aaron proved in his flashback jail scenes.

29 MARCH 2010: FIVE (HD), 9PM

FLASHFORWARD 1.11 & 1.12 - "Revelation Zero: Part 1 & 2"

WRITERS: Seth Hoffman & Marc Guggenheim (1.11) & Quinton Peeples (1.12)
DIRECTORS: John Polson (1.11) & Constantine Makris & John Polson (1.12)
GUEST CAST: Ricky Jay, Gil Bellows, Michael Ealy, Lindsay Crouse, James Cosmo, Brian T. Skala, Josh Kelly, Hannah Marks, Ryan Wynott, Lennon Wynn, Cynthia Addai-Robinson & Barry Shabaka Henle

[SPOILERS] I'm one of those people who find it hard to quit something they've started, even if it seems likely something's future is doomed. It may take me awhile (years in the case of, say, The Wire), but once I start a first chapter of anything, I'm usually in for the long haul. FlashForward is one such show. It arrived in a blaze of publicity last year ("the new Lost" ABC's marketing men barked), only to quickly struggle to keep anyone's attention because the characters were so thin and uninvolving. It limped to a mid-season finale and went on hiatus for many months (recently losing two showrunners, Marc Guggenheim and David Goyer, who were both assumedly unable to make this show work.) "Revelation Zero" is a two-part "restart", in many ways. You could definitely feel the writers trying to approach the material with a different attitude, but while it proved mostly diverting and had a few entertaining sequences and reveals, there was a sense of desperation to everything.

Picking up where we left off, if you can remember that far back, or bothered to watch the "What Did You See?" catch-up special, Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport) has been kidnapped by a gang posing as paramedics, and is being kept in the basement of an old fast-food restaurant by their leader, Teddy Flasso (Ricky Jay), who wants to know how many electron volts were generated by the plasma wakefield experiment Lloyd conducted on 6 October. It appears that Lloyd's experiment wasn't actually responsible for the blackout, but it did amplify its effects worldwide. Meanwhile, Agent Benford (Joseph Fiennes) has lost his badge over his exploits in Hong Kong and has been ordered to see a therapist, who helps him remember more of his inebriated flashforward vision using a special drug. And, after the injection, Benford remembers receiving a phone call from Lloyd about the fact there's going to be another blackout. Dum-dum-duuuh! Despite being benched by Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), Benford is nevertheless continuing the investigation into Lloyd's abduction himself, using photos he's taken of his office's evidence wall.

CIA Agent Vogel (Michael Ealy) joined the FBI's Mosaic investigation, teaming up with Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) to find Lloyd's kidnappers and their fake ambulance. Cutie babysitter Nicole's (Peyton List) prominence on the show took a step forward, too, as we met her crazy mother (she wears a bathrobe adorned with angel wings and spends her day gluing pennies to the wall, so she's clearly cuckoo.) Nicole's increasingly worried about her flashforward showing her being drowned by a man (as you would be!), so she went to see Timothy (Gil Bellows), the leader of a motivational support group called "Sanctuary" that helps people deal with their visions. Timothy used to be a lowly window washer but, as we saw in a beautiful opening sequence, survived a near-death experience while cleaning a skyscraper's windows as the blackout struck, and has now come to embrace his vision of helping people embrace theirs. Anyway, he theorizes that Nicole was actually being baptized in her flashforward – although I've never heard of a baptism where adults are submerged and struggle for 137 seconds, so that theory felt like a stretch!

Egotistical scientist Simon (Dominic Monaghan) is also now part of the Mosaic investigation, but is later kidnapped by Flasso's men while at Lloyd's apartment with Janis (Christine Woods) looking for clues on a laptop. Simon finds himself detained with Lloyd in the basement and tortured as a means to force Simon to tell Flasso what he needs to know about their experiment – which, it turns out, Simon didn't actually attend himself. Fortunately, a "HELP US" note Simon managed to scrawl on an old menu, manages to become a vital clue for Mark (who remembers said note being pinned on the evidence wall in his flashforward) and traces the menu's restaurant to where Lloyd's being held.

The first half of "Revelation Zero" actually contained a decent amount of fast-paced fun and, if a little unwieldy at times, it did a decent job of reminding us about the show's premise. I liked seeing Vogel take charge of the FBI's investigation, and we got some insight into Nicole's family, but perhaps the biggest surprise was learning that Simon's actually part of Flasso's outfit. Indeed, the only reason he was kidnapped and tortured by Flasso (losing his pinky finger to a cigar cutter, ouch) was to ensure nobody at the FBI will suspect he's in league with the bad guys. On the downside, Joseph Fiennes continued to give a tiresome performance that feels like he's sleepwalking through scenes. I think he's aiming for brooding gravitas, but he's hitting stoicism at best.

The second half of "Revelation Zero" packed in more answers than I was expecting, even if I didn't swallow too many of them. It was a Simon-centric instalment that revealed his back-story and role in Flasso's gang all these years. We learned that Flasso is the Campose family's "Uncle Teddy", beloved of his mother and brothers living in Toronto, Canada, and a man who's been masterminding child prodigy Simon's career since the age of 13. Flasso's men apparently killed Simon's father just to give him an alibi for his whereabouts during the blackout (the funeral), and he now has Simon's missing sister held captive to ensure his continued obedience.

During the blackout, Simon was actually ordered to a sports stadium by the mysterious D. Gibbons (another of Flasso's cronies) and given a front row seat on the world's blackout. This confirmed he was the ambulant "Suspect Zero" seen on security camera footage back in the "Pilot", having been spared the K.O effect of the experiment thanks to a special ring provided by Flasso (one of the finger rings we saw Flasso take receipt of earlier in the season, you may, but probably don't, remember.

The curious thing about Part 2 was how it basically amounted to watching Simon escape custody from the startlingly inept Janis, only to be caught again by her in literally the next scene. It became rather comical watching him feign allergic reactions and escape out windows every few minutes, actually. Still, "Revelaiton Zero: Part 2" at least managed to turn Simon into a more interesting character, which Dominic Monaghan seemed to relish playing -- particularly when he got to kill the annoyingly calm Flasso with heart-compressions to the chest after he called his bluff about threatening to kill his sister.

Overall, FlashForward's in a period of transition, that much is clear. You could almost view these episodes as a fresh start, and they definitely had more of a superficial grip by virtue of all the answers, information dumps and twists that were thrown into the melting pot. The downside is that the second part felt too preposterous to me; the kind of episode that's entertaining to watch, but has you questioning its logic every few minutes, and becoming aware that the writers are throwing everything they've got at the screen in a desperate bid to keep your attention. On ABC, these episodes sunk to a low 6.49m in the US, the show's worst ratings since its premiere achieved 12.47m last September, so I doubt FlashForward has much hope of being renewed now, but maybe it can build on this energetic second wave of energy and craft something worthwhile out of the debris. There were certainly signs that there's life in the show yet, if they can just find the right way through the story.

Asides

-- Simon's flashforward of strangling a man turned out to be a falsity, because he'd killed that man (his dad's killer) shorly after the blackout. Quite why you'd claim that was your flashforward vision is beyond me, though! Isn't it much easier to claim you were just watching TV or cooking a meal? Y'know, something normal that's not going to draw attention to yourself!

-- I have to say, it's been a fun idea casting real life magician Ricky Jay as a man in some way responsible for the biggest "magic trick" ever.

22 MARCH 2010: FIVE, 9PM

FlashForward's back... will you be?

FlashForward returns to ABC tonight (18 March) with a two-part mid-season premiere, and Five are showing that double-bill this Monday (22 March) in the UK. It had slipped my mind that it's back, but I still plan to continue my reviews -- well, for the time being. I don't expect FlashForward to return next year, but maybe the writers don't either, so the latter-half of season 1 will have a sense of direction. I still say FlashForward could have made a good feature-film or miniseries -- but the concept isn't pliable enough for a continuing series, and its high-concept premise just overshadows the characters.

FlashForward: new showrunners announced

Days after the announcement that David Goyer has stepped down as showrunner of FlashForward, comes news that the final four episodes of season 1 will be overseen by Jessika Borsiczky (Goyer's wife, already an exec-producer on the show), Lisa Zwerling (ER) and Tim Lea (Law & Order). I doubt those three will have enough time to change the creative direction of the show (which is already filming its final batch of episodes before its 18 March return to ABC), so it seems they're just three pairs of safe hands to guide things to an end.

FlashForward: Goyer's gone

I think FlashForward's days are numbered. After losing showrunner Marc Guggenheim last October (who was hired to help launch the show because co-creator David Goyer had limited TV experience), Goyer himself ascended to the throne. However, now Goyer's decided to step down from his position, and no replacement has been announced by the network. FlashForward is scheduled to return to ABC with the second half of its season on 18 March, and the finale's already scheduled for 27 May (outside of the all-important "sweeps" period...)

So, the four-month gap between episodes... the generally poor critical reviews... the falling ratings (12.47m - 7.07m in 10 episodes)... the fact its real-time "end date" of 29 April can't serve as the ideal finale because of its scheduling turmoil... and now the loss of Goyer... well, it doesn't look good! I'm certain FlashForward won't be back next year now, and it'll become a prime example of writers trying to launch a show on the back of an attention-grabbing concept, but forgetting that it's the characters you have to nail.

FlashForwardBack

FlashForward was set to return on 4 March 2010, but ABC have announced that it's been pushed back two weeks till 18 March. See the network press release below to learn ABC's reasoning:

January 8, 2010

"FLASHFORWARD" TO RETURN TO THE ABC SCHEDULE MARCH 18, 2010

Return Date Allows Viewers to Experience the Show
Without Repeats Through the End of the Season

ABC's critically-acclaimed hit drama, "FlashForward," will return to the schedule on Thursday, March 18, 2010. This will allow the Network to air the show with original episodes through the end of the season, and viewers can experience this exciting drama week to week with no repeats or pre-emptions. The series will air on Thursday nights from 8:00- 9:00 p.m., ET.

"FlashForward" stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Brían F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.

David S. Goyer, Brannon Braga and Jessika Borsiczky are executive producers. "FlashForward" is from ABC Studios.

Again, this provokes speculation about how the writers will deal with the fact their built-in "climax" of 29 April will now arrive six episodes into the show's belated return. Have they factored that in? It seems unlikely given the lateness of this news, so will the show be out of sync now?

And does anyone care?

FlashForward's run cut short, loses timeslot

We already know that ABC's FlashForward has gone on mid-season hiatus until 4 March 2010, but now it's lost one episode from its scheduled 22-episode run and is being moved from its Thursday 8pm timeslot. New law drama The Deep End (starring Billy Zane and True Blood's Mehcad Brooks) will be replacing it, so FlashForward is likely to be bumped to 9pm. Considering the fact The Deep End is only six episodes long, I guess it's possible this move is only temporary and FlashForward will be back at 8pm by 15 April, but nothing's been officially announced. Update: ABC have now decided to premiere The Deep End on 21 January, so it will no longer clash with FlashForward.

FlashForward flashes to March 2010

FlashForward is now on mid-season hiatus, and ABC have announced that the series won't be back in January (as expected), but will actually be off-air for three months until 4 March. The reason given is that this will allow the show to air its remaining 14 episodes without any frustrating breaks, while also avoiding February's Winter Olympics.

I dare say it will also give the writers the opportunity to sit down and work out how to win back lost audiences, as FlashForward has been hemorrhaging viewers since it started. It will also be interesting to see how this affects the built-in climax of 29 April, as the series will now broadcast an additional 5 episodes past that date. Will they perhaps air some double-bills towards the end?

FLASHFORWARD 1.10 - "A561984"

[SPOILERS] What makes a great episode of FlashForward? Well, considering the fact it still has a tough time making us care about anyone on a personal level, it's primarily whenever the show gives us big answers or bigger questions. The mid-season finale certainly delivered in terms of surprises, unpredicted development, some straight answers, and a decent cliffhanger, but it still didn't really connect on an emotional level. Nevertheless, "A561984" offered so much information that it all went down very smoothly...

The first surprise was seeing Lloyd (Jack Davenport) and Simon (Dominic Monaghan) hold a worldwide press conference and take the blame for the blackout, having been conducting a cutting-edge experiment at the exact time the event occurred. Assumedly they'll now be sued and financially ruined? Lloyd's a clever guy, but he has no common sense. Simon's actually not convinced they're to blame for the blackout, but Lloyd is adamant and determined to offload this burden in public. Needless to say, the news is greeted with a lot of anger and Lloyd becomes an immediate hate-figure, while Simon scurries to the FBI and offers Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) his expertise in proving the blackout wasn't their fault. Wedeck reluctantly agrees to egomaniac Simon's help, as it's only matter of time before Mosaic is shutdown now culprits have stepped forward and promised no further blackouts will occur.

Adding to the mystery, while Simon recognises the FBI's aerial shots of those enormous towers in Somalia as something he theorized in 1992, such equipment has never been built to his knowledge, and the photo predates his idea by a year! Was someone else simply ahead of the curve, and has been willing to stay anonymous rather than bask in glory? That's what the FBI believe, and hypothesize that the enigmatic "Deacon Gibbons" is probably the man they're after. But, hey, he's an alternative theory for you all -- did someone, perhaps Gibbons, simply hop back in time with Simon's unmade invention, to use the technology to prevent a forthcoming global catastrophe? I'm just throwing this stuff out there. There's too much discussion about many-worlds theory and parallel dimensions to ignore the possibility that FlashForward's universe is actually a divergent reality someone created by altering the timeline in 1991.

In the major storyline, Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri (John Cho) arrive in Hong Kong to find the mystifying Persian lady who called Dem to warn him of his murder on 15 March. It's an unofficial mission that Benford accepts responsibility for, angering Wedeck nevertheless, and when they eventually track down their mystery caller, Nhadra Udaya (Shohreh Aghdashloo), she gives them a worrying addendum to her warning: that Demetri's killer will be his best friend Benford. She even proves her prediction by telling Benford the serial number of the murder weapon, his own Burea-issue handgun. Sadly, nobody thinks to ask how Nhadra knows all of this, but we do see her office has a similar wall of "clues" to the one Benford's piecing together in Washington? To my mind there's only one possible explanation for Nhadra's knowledge: she, like Gibbons (whom we see in her office in the closing scene), is a time-traveller and has painstakingly pieced together the events of 2009 for some reason. Any advance on that?

Like I said, FlashForward still isn't a show with character you feel particularly invested in, but there was better chemistry between Olivia (Sonya Walger) and Lloyd in this episode -- and it helps that Benford has proven to be so dull that I'm actively willing them to get together, just to make Benford cry. The scene where Lloyd realizes that, under slightly different circumstances, he may have met Olivia while he was at Harvard (but instead met his wife), was especially good work. And, again, it reinforces this idea of a "multiverse", which I'm now convinced is the explanation behind FlashForward on some level.

"A561984" leaves us with plenty of tantalizing notes: Benford and Dem's relationship now has a level of mistrust built-in (what will Dem do to make Benford want to kill him?); Simon will probably become the FBI's resident quirky scientist, determined to pin the blame for the blackout on someone else to save his career; Nhadra is in league with the chess-obsessed Gibbons (so why was she helping Dem by warning him about his murder?); Zoey (Gabrielle Union) went to see Dem's parents, and it was revealed that their shared vision of a wedding was actually Dem's funeral; and Lloyd's son was kidnapped by fake paramedics while being transferred by ambulance (who didn't see that coming, given how friendly-yet-shifty those medics were?)

It worked well as a mid-season finale, it has to be said. There was more than enough developments you keep you happy, and quite a few were surprising enough to lure you back for more. Indeed, the saving grace of FlashForward has been how it's had a steady stream of enticing reveals up it sleeve, ready to put them into play just when you grow exasperated by its haphazard plotting and generally bland characterizations. Sadly, audiences are falling away fast (on both sides of the Atlantic) and I somehow doubt ABC will be keen to greenlight a second season if the ratings continue to dwindle and the critical response remains very mixed, at best.

But I'm still watching. It's not great TV, but it's not totally boring, and the premise has its hooks firmly embedded in me now. I need to see how this ends, and it's fun to theorize about. I think the CIA are somehow involved, perhaps in league with that Jericho outfit, using technology created by Gibbons and financed by a cabal of rich Arabs who are perhaps related to Nhadra's character. I just wish I liked the people as much as I like the concept.


30 November 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: David S. Goyer & Scott M. Gimple directed by: Michael Nankin starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Zachary Knighton (Bryce), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Genevieve Cortese (Tracy Stark), Barry Shabaka Henley (Agent Vreede) & Peyton List (Nicole)

FlashForward blacks out for six days

According to Michael Ausiello, the ABC sci-fi series FlashForward has temporarily shut down production. The series has been picked up for a full season already by the network, but they've suffered the departure of showrunner Marc Guggenheim, the critical response has been largely negative, and last week's episode marked an all-time low in the Nielsen ratings.

A spokesman for ABC has claimed that this shutdown was always part of the agreed schedule (as FlashForward started production earlier than other shows), and the break will only last six days. So, maybe it's nothing to worry about, but any disruption is ripe for discussion. I somehow doubt the writers will be taking days off to hit the beach -- rather, they'll be discussing how to revitalize the show as interest wanes.

FLASHFORWARD 1.9 - "Believe"

[SPOILERS] See, just give us a few decent characters and a human story to follow, and you naturally draw us into your world. Now, when those people are threatened or forced into tough situations, we might actually give a damn about them. It's just a shame Flashforward applied this fix to a secondary character, and not one of the misfiring leads...

"Believe" focused on hospital intern Bryce (Zachary Knighton) and revealed his back-story four weeks before the blackout. It turns out he was diagnosed with terminal cancer but decided to keep his illness a secret from friends and family, fearing he'd just be a burden to them. Of course, on the day of the blackout, Bryce had gone to a pier to commit suicide with a handgun (see "Pilot"), but his flashforward made him change his mind because he saw himself meeting a beautiful Japanese woman in a restaurant. So, now Bryce has something worth living for, and has started to learn Japanese with the help of co-worker Nicole (Peyton List).

This romantic tryst is many months away, but "Believe" was all about seeing how both parties are slowly inching towards their shared destiny. In Japan, we met the girl from Bryce's vision, an ambitious woman called Keiko Arahida (Yûko Takeuchi), who makes her family very proud by getting a job at the country's foremost robotics firm and fulfils a childhood dream in the process. Trouble is, as the only female employed by the department, Keiko's disillusioned to find her duties barely stretch beyond serving businessmen tea during their meetings.

A little disappointingly given the strength of Bryce/Keiko's narrative, the other storylines weren't that great. Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) realized his daughter has "inherited" his alcoholism after years on the run from Jericho assassins, and Benford (Joseph Fiennes) alienated his friends Aaron and Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) when he questioned them about the text sent to his wife (Sonya Walger), that alerted her to the fact he was drunk in his vision. Of course, as neither of them told anyone his secret, what does that tell you? Was someone capable of snooping on Benford's vision? Or was he just overheard discussing it with Aaron or Wedeck? Either way, I felt sorry for Benford having to deal with his friend's totally out-of-order reactions (Aaron smashing up chairs, Wedeck quietly boiling with fury), as none of that felt called for. It always bugs me when characters on TV shows show no ability to get some perspective and empathize with anyone else's situation, so they just act like dicks for the sake of a bit of quick drama.

Demetri (John Cho) also got a lead on the mysterious woman who called him to say she knows he'll die on 15 March, via the somewhat unlikely fact that the CIA recorded his suspicious call. The FBI techies clear up the audio and deduce from the unique background music that the caller was standing near Hong Kong harbour. And later, despite the fact Wedeck denies them the opportunity to go abroad to solve the case, Benford decides to go behind his boss' back and accompany Dem to Asia.

Indeed, Asia is a hot ticket this week, as Bryce also decides to embrace his fate by travelling to Japan in search of the girl from his vision. Keiko's likewise become charmed by the idea of a handsome American entering her life, but her family believe such a thing would only be a distraction to her career, so when Bryce eventually tracks down where Keiko lives her mother sends him packing. The course of true love never did run smooth. But, not to worry, because just as Bryce touches down in LAX with his tail between his legs, Keiko has decided to throw away her dream job in pursuit of the man from her vision, and was on the same flight to L.A.

Overall, I can understand why some people will take umbrage with this episode, because it dedicated the majority of its time to one character we've never met before and another who's barely featured in the series. But, y'know what, Bryce proved himself a far more relatable person than many of the more prominent characters, and Takeuchi was marvelous in how she managed to make Keiko so instantly sweet and compelling -- a modern and intelligent woman hamstrung by Japanese custom and prejudice, unable to live out her dreams, but willing to go to extraordinary lengths to meet a man with imagination, no matter what her family think. A guy who hopefully digs Jimi Hendrix, too. My only concern is that it's difficult to see where their story could go once they meet, but perhaps the fact Keiko's a whiz at robotics will come into play somehow?

"Believe" wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It was commendable to focus on simple human drama for once, even if doing so gives FlashForward a slightly schizophrenic feel. One week it's all high-octane action and big ideas, the next it's all slow-burn naval-gazing. I wish it all hung together better, and the pacing of how the subplots develop was brisker. I mean, Bryce was introduced as a main character in the "Pilot", but it's taken nearly half the season just to get around to him? On a similar note, will we get any movement on Nicole's vision of being drowned by someone soon? She doesn't feel particularly concerned about that horrific vision, and is instead spending her time teaching Bryce how to speak Japanese!


23 November 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: Nicole Yorkin & Dawn Prestwich directed by: Michael Nankin starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Zachary Knighton (Bryce), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Yûko Takeuchi (Keiko Arahida), Genevieve Cortese (Tracy Stark), Barry Shabaka Henley (Agent Vreede), Peyton List (Nicole), Hira Ambrosino (Yuuka Arahida), Rizwan Manji (Maneesh Sandhar), Cory Blevins (Neil Parofsky), Noah Greenwood (Kakkoii), Gina Hiraizumi (Riko) & Selena Johnson (FBI Agent)

FLASHFORWARD 1.8 - "Playing Cards With Coyote"

[SPOILERS] If the self-sacrificed Al only knew Celia by her first name, how the hell did a postman manage to deliver his suicide note to Celia's home address? I'm very close to ditching FlashForward from regular reviews now, although I'll probably continue watching while biting my clenched fist, because I like to see things through to their end. I'm a glutton for punishment, yes. After the season high last week, we're back with a frustrating and dumb episode here, sad to say...

It's an episode where we're asked not to laugh when Simon (Dominic Monaghan*) asks Lloyd (Jack Davenport) to play Texas Hold 'Em poker to decide whether or not they should tell the world their experiment resulted in the blackout that killed 20 million people. The script tried to make it feel weighty and dramatic, by equating it to Gods playing games to decide mortal's fates, but it just didn't wash. It was just a silly idea. Even worse, after Lloyd wins he immediately admitted that he cheated with sleight of hand, but Simon lets the win stand? Huh? Re-match, surely.

Aaron's (Brian F. O'Byrne) "dead" daughter Tracy (Genevieve Cortese) is back and very much alive -- though minus half a leg -- with a story about witnessing a US contract army called Jericho slaughter an Afghan village, prompting the blue-on-blue attack on her Humvee that forced her into hiding these past few years. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to guess that Jericho** are probably the burly soldier-types with three-star tattoos that Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Dem (John Cho) spend this episode trying to catch, but FlashForward thinks that it does.

Questions of free will vs. determinism were bandied around, as the whole world has latched onto Al's suicide as irrefutable proof the future can be altered or avoided. But, y'know, some people still act like it can't be changed, or choose to believe that it can't, because otherwise there's no drama. Here, Mark decides to shoot a tattooed man he thinks may be one of the mask-wearing goons that stormed the FBI building in his flashforward; and Janis (Christine Woods) researched sperm donors to fulfill her prophecy, despite her injuries making childbirth nigh impossible.

It's becoming a struggle to review this show now. Interesting things do happen, but they're usually followed by something counteractively stupid. The premise is robust enough to keep me interested to see how things develop, but I'm beginning to hate how the FBI agents tend to be waiting around for leads to fall into their laps. And when they are actually investigating things through traditional means, it's never very plausible -- here, we're supposed to believe a monochrome security camera from the other side of a football stadium would have enough resolution for image experts to enhance details on a suspect's ring? No, sorry, even 24 would struggle to make that fly.

Still, most episode build towards a scene or moment to keep you on the hook like a dumb trout -- here, a bearded man received a box of rings and shot the delivery man dead. But there's a certain irritation about how FlashForward generally just reiterates the dilemma at the core of the show's premise ever week, in slightly different ways. I'm getting bored of this speculation about what the future will bring, and I'm not sure I care that much now -- particularly since Al has proven the future isn't fixed, and it seems very likely that this Jericho outfit basically used Simon and Lloyd's technology to black everyone out for a few minutes. I don't know why they'd do that, but that's my gut feeling right now. Maybe it was a weapons test to K.O enemies on the battlefield that went wrong, or the military tested a way to see the future in wartime and got more than they bargained for? Who knows. I just suspect that Simon and Lloyd aren't the real villains, they just feel culpable because they designed the "atomic bomb", so to speak.

Overall, FlashForward still has some merit to it, but it's incredibly inconsistent and frustrating a lot of the time. Mark must be one of the most vexing "heroes" on television, too; he only ever seems concerned for his marriage, which feels very selfish, until you remember that there isn't any other incentive to find the culprits behind the blackout for him. Sure, he wants to avoid his vision coming true -- but, hey, why not just avoid the FBI building on 29 April next year? The future can be changed, after all -- we know this with certainty now. As I suggested very early on in FlashForward's run, maybe if there was firm intel that another blackout was being planned, we could feel some the impetus behind this investigation as the clock ticks towards F-day.


16 November 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: Marc Guggenheim & Barbara Nance directed by: Nick Gomez starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Ryan Wynott (Dylan Simcoe), Genevieve Cortese (Tracy Stark), Elizabeth Rodriguez (Ingrid Alvarez), Mark Famiglietti (Mike Willingham), Julio Oscar Mechoso (Detective Rick Malchiodi), Dominic Rains (Kahmir), Erika Ringor (Harriet), Creagen Dow (Billy), Cory Blevins (Neil Parofsky),Bo Kane (High Roller #1), Sam Ingraffia (Dealer), Kent Shocknek (Hansen) & Philip Palmer (Campbell)

* Lord knows how someone so peculiar-looking wooed Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly a few years ago, but I'm glad this means I have a shot with Yvonne Strahovski. Once I star in a blockbuster epic wearing furry feet and become world-famous. Are The Hobbit auditions still on..?

** Co-creator Brannon Braga loves his US private armies, as one featured heavily in 24's seventh season. If Jon Voight turns up as the mastermind behind all of this, we can lay creative insolvency at his door.

FLASHFORWARD 1.7 - "The Gift"

[SPOILERS] Have we turned a corner? It's too early to say, but "The Gift" was FlashForward's best episode yet; there was a more potent sense of direction, firmer development, an emphasis on character, a few compelling ideas, and some real surprises...

Demetri (John Cho) has discovered the reason they found a building full of dead men with their hands painted blue hands; they were all part of a suicide pact, formed as part of a "death club" known as Blue Hand where its members are those who didn't have visions during the blackout and consequently believe themselves to be "walking ghosts". One such club is investigated by Benford (Joseph Fiennes), Demetri and Gough (Lee Thompson Young) after following instructions on the group's website, which proves to be a sordid place where hopeless people congregate to indulge sick, painful fantasies. Entrance is gained by playing Russian Roulette with a creepy doorman, where the successfully avoided bullet (stamped "NOT TODAY") becomes your ticket.*

It was certainly a striking, twisted idea, but not one I accepted as entirely plausible and logical. I mean, I don't quite understand why people would want to live their last six months (if death is indeed unavoidable) by having severe pain inflicted on them. If anything it should be the people who HAD visions that might want to start risking their lives, theoretically safe in the knowledge that they can't die because they saw themselves alive in April 2010. So, the idea felt very flawed to me, but at least FlashForward is starting to explore some of the less obvious effects that seeing, or not seeing, your future would have on society. More, please.

That notion of whether or not you can change the future also reared its head again, but this time we actually got a definitive answer to the question. Gough is growing steadily more anxious that Benford's evidence board is filling up as predicted, and now MI6 agent Fiona Banks (Alex Kingston) has flown in from London to help -- i.e. the woman he saw himself with during his vision, before taking a call that's later revealed to be confirmation that someone called Celia has died, orphaning two boys, and that he's responsible...

It all leads to quite an emotional moment when Gough decides to commit suicide by leaping off the FBI building's roof, to spare the life of this woman he hasn't even met yet. And, despite Demetri trying to reason with his colleague that the future can still be changed (which he's having a tough time believing himself), Gough ultimately process Dem right by jumping to his death. So we finally have an answer to a central question behind the show's premise: the visions everyone had aren't inflexible, so any terrible events predicted can be averted. Hence, Dem can perhaps avoid being murdered on 15 March, the Benford's marriage may still have a chance, Nicole (Peyton List) may not be drowned, and Janis has probably lost that baby after all.

There was a smattering of small subplots that were also quite enjoyable, as all revealed a fair amount of vision-related information, at the very least. Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) met an ex-soldier who served with his daughter Tracy in Iraq, but is saddened to later hear anecdotal evidence that there was no way his daughter could have survived the RPG attack on their vehicle. However, the final kick in the tale saw Aaron returning home to see his daughter alive and well in his front room! I have no idea what her explanation is going to be, but I hope it's in some way tied into the Mosaic investigation. We also saw the Benford's babysitter Nicole mingling with hospital intern Bryce (Zachary Knighton), who revealed his vision involved seeing a beautiful Japanese woman.

But this episode was really a focus on Gough, whose selfless act to save a stranger was handled incredibly well by the writers and director. Gough's voice-over reading of the note he left for Celia (who will assumedly still make her presence known to the FBI soon, in some way) was elegantly mixed to footage of Celia and her happy children. And now we know everyone's futures aren't set in stone, many of the characters can cast off their simmering depression and try to make a better life for themselves. We already catch sight of Mark embracing Olivia (Sonya Walger) with more emotion than he's shown recently (well, ever), and Fiona returned to her London office to lay tape across her window to prevent the pidgeon in her vision striking the glass.

Maybe the fact Dem's girlfriend Zoey (Gabrielle Union) had a conflicting vision is an important clue, too? Maybe naturally optimistic people see one possible timeline (a beautiful wedding in her case), and pessimists see another (a failed marriage, or just nothing)? Mind you, we've still never seen Dem in Zoey's vision as she claims, so it's still more likely she's just marrying someone else and doesn't realize it yet.

Overall, "The Gift" was definitely more the show I want FlashForward to me: strong ideas (if a little flawed, sadly) and stories fuelled by characters reactions to the troubling situation everyone's trying to make sense of. It wasn't enough to make me do a complete 180 on the show, as I still need to see some consistency before I start to relax my appraisals, but this was a much better episode than usual.


9 November 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: Lisa Zwerling & Ian B. Goldberg directed by: Nick Gomez starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Lennon Wynn (Charlie Benford), Ryan Wynott (Dylan Simcoe), Lee Thompson Young (Agent Al Gough), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Debbie), Genevieve Cortese (Tracy), Clint Culp (Jack Barrow), Gigi De Leon (Nadine), Mark Famiglietti (Mike Willingham), Gary Johnson (James), Alex Kingston (Fiona Banks), Jonathan Levit (Martin Dewey), Dave B. Mitchell (Attorney), Myron Natwick (Romanchak), Callum Keith Rennie (Raynaud), Gabrielle Union (Zoey), Lennon Wynn (Charlie) & Kiyoko Yamaguchi (Suki)

* Incidentally, I've only just noticed that the opening titles sequence always ends with a brief flash of something significant from the following episode (this week, it was the "NOT TODAY" bullet), so watch out for those in future.

FLASHFORWARD 1.6 - "Scary Monsters And Super Creeps"

[SPOILERS] Unsurprisingly, the title was more exciting than anything contained in the episode itself, but "Scary Monsters And Super Creeps" at least dished up some notable developments, introduced a fresh clue, and provided our first solid lead about who (and possibly what) caused the global blackout...

FlashForward has a high-concept premise and a season-long goal it feels unwise to reach beyond, where the protagonists progress the story by acting on obscure clues. Ring any bells? Yes, it shares DNA with Prison Break in terms of technique, so it feels only right that a refugee from that defunct show, Seth Hoffman, co-wrote this episode with a veteran director from the same stable, Bobby Roth, behind the camera.

Following the inciting, climactic events of last week's two-pronged attack on our FBI agents by Chinese assailants, this episode doesn't follow through on the promise shown. Still, it thankfully didn't feel like a totally wasted hour because a handful of situations proved diverting. Janis (Christine Woods) was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound, which she barely managed to survive, and after a relapse Olivia (Sonya Walger) is forced to take desperate measures that results in making it near-impossible for Janis to ever conceive children. Of course, this provides us with the paradox that Janis' flashforward showed her heavily pregnant and undergoing an ultrasound scan, so the show is again toying with the faith we've placed in these future visions. That's getting old now, but I don't see them settling on a definite answer until the last quarter of this season at the earliest.

The overarching investigation took a small step forward with Demetri (John Cho) noting a "blue hand" tattoo on one of the Chinese men who attacked them, which led him to follow similar symbols stuck to street signs around the city, eventually leading to a house containing dead bodies, one of which had a blue hand. Again, interesting in some respects, but knowing the mountain we're going to be climbing means I can't get too excited about what the investigation turns up until it starts paying off significantly, or a bigger picture starts to take shape. It's all just random names, symbols and phrases right now.

We also met the probable perpetrator of the blackout, self-proclaimed "genius quantum physicist" Simon (Dominic Monaghan), who's first seen flirting with a sexy woman* aboard a speeding night train -- feeding her cheesy lines that "explain" the reason behind the flashforward. Like the party game, everything Simon says should be approached with caution, I feel. It's too early to take anything he says at face value; he could be lying outright, or embellishing the truth to make himself look more important than he really is. But it's probably worth speculating on Simon's link to quantum physics and his explanation of the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment...

Both pieces of information appear to offer a valid perspective on the science that may have caused the blackout. Schrödinger's Cat is a popular thought experiment where a hypothetical cat's death inside a sealed box from random poisoning can only be determined by opening the box and viewing the cat inside -- so, in one sense, the cat is both alive and dead inside the box until an observer looks to see. There's an interpretation of the problem by Hugh Everett where he suggests both states of the cat exist in separate parallel universes: one universe where the observer sees a dead cat, one where the cat is seen still alive. Applying some of this to FlashForward's premise, were the visions merely glimpses of an alternate universe's future -- meaning our universe will follow a very similar path, but events will alter in light of this foreknowledge? Anyway, I suggest you Google quantum physics if you have some time to spare and enjoy trying to decipher sci-fi shows in-between episodes.

There was also a very uncomfortable gathering at the Benford residence on Halloween night, as autistic Dylan Simcoe (Ryan Wynott) sneaked out of hospital and crossed town on a bus to walk in as if he's lived there for months. Of course, Dylan and Charlie Benford (Lennon Wynn) both know each other via their flashforwards, and Dylan feels at ease enough to treat the Benford house as his own home. We know that his father Lloyd (Jack Davenport) appeared in Olivia's vision as her new fancy man, so it seems clear that the Simcoe's will move in with Olivia next year. But none of this explains the level of comfortable trust between Dylan and Charlie, who have surely only "known" each other for 2 minutes 17 seconds, yet treat each other as siblings.

Is that just a lapse in FlashForward's logic, or were their visions more powerful somehow? There's also a disparity in that Charlie warned her dad about the mysterious "D. Gibbons" (supposedly a frightening man she knows from her flashforward), but there was no sign of any such person in the Dylan/Charlie vision. Is this another regrettable oversight from the writers, or is there more to discover about the exact nature of these flashforwards, or how certain people experience them? For instance, is it significant that Lloyd's autistic? Or that both are prepubescent?

Anyway, it was good to see the Olivia/Mark/Lloyd situation out in the open, after Lloyd tracked his son to the Benford's home and recognized the living room from his own future vision. Olivia also confronted Mark (Joseph Fiennes) about his alcoholism later, and he finally admitted he was drunk in his flashforward, so I'm glad all these secrets are exposed and can be tackled. Indeed, there was the vague sense that this episode heralded the end of FlashForward's initial arc, and we can now push on with the "blue hand" gang, the political facet introduced last week, and Simon's enigma. Speaking of the latter, the British physicist eventually arrived in L.A to speak with Lloyd, and Lloyd is still coming across as a genuinely regretful partner of Simon's. Have we been told what Lloyd's occupation is yet? If not, don't be surprised if it's physics related.

It's still an awkward show in a great many ways, and initial excitement over the premise is beginning to wane now. The writers are between a rock and a hard place -- withhold information and audiences grow tired with the stalling, reveal too much and the core mystery is drained of its appeal.


2 November 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: Seth Hoffman & Quinton Peebles directed by: Bobby Roth starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Christine Woods (Janis Hawk), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Lennon Wynn (Charlie Benford), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Debbie), James DiStefano (Ernesto), Jason Duplissea (Dad), Stacy Hall (Security Guard), Curtis Harris (Kid #2), Ashley Jones (Camille), Rachael Lee (Trick or Treat Neighbour), Jonathan Levit (Dewey), Vinicius Machado (Gang Member), William F. Nicol (Masked Figure), Will Poston (Bartender), Amy Rosoff (Marcie Turoff), Robbie Tucker (Kid #1), Ryan Wynott (Dylan Simcoe) & Lee Thompson Young (Agent Al Gough)

* You know the face? It's Ashley Jones, recently seen playing barmaid Daphne in True Blood's second season.

FLASHFORWARD 1.5 - "Gimme Some Truth"

[SPOILERS] Bad title aside, this was a marked improvement for the beleaguered series. Pertinent questions were asked, new relationships were revealed, the investigation took a notable step forward, the melodrama was excised, and an imperative threat was unleashed. It still had some problems (like the fact Joseph Fiennes sleepwalks through his scenes), but "Gimme Some Truth" was a decent hour of TV...

The crux of the episode concerned a political hearing in the Senate about the government's response to the blackouts, chaired by Senator Joyce Clemente (Barbara Williams), a derisive skeptic who has a bad relationship with Agent Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) and ridicules his office's "Mosaic Project" and wants block the multi-million dollar funding his team need to continue their investigation. It doesn't help that the expensive undertaking is based solely on the flashforward that Benford (Fiennes) experienced; full details of which he can't remember because he was inebriated at the time, although to admit as much would damage his credibility even further.

We also get to meet President Dave Segovia (Peter Coyote*), who has a close relationship with Wedeck because he aided his succession to the presidency by covering up an indiscretion with a woman called Renee Garrigos six years ago (paying her $125,000 and getting her out of town). Wedeck's efforts got Segovia into the Oval Office, to the chagrin of his competitor Senator Clemente, hence her animosity toward Wedeck. In a fun dramatic turn, Wedeck decides to play dirty to keep Mosaic up-and-running, so he tracks down Renee and blackmails the President with photographic evidence of their affair, and forces Segovia to push his financing through the Senate.

In supporting stories, the Mosaic investigation gets hold of 18-months worth of satellite footage over Somalia (supposedly the scene of a blackout test in 1991), and they notice the sudden construction of five bizarre towers in the desert. I wonder if those towers are still there? Hopefully a trip to Africa is in order. It seems likely these towers sent out some kind of "pulse" that causes blackouts, so were towers used in 2009's global blackout or has the technology progressed beyond their need?

The main character-based storyline focused on Agent Janis Hawk (Christine Woods), whom we learn is a closeted lesbian engaged in a healthy relationship with a woman called Maya (Navi Rawat). Suddenly, Janis' bewilderment that her flashforward showed her heavily pregnant getting an ultrasound makes more sense. Maya herself discovers the truth of her girlfriend's vision by searching the Mosaic online database, and the couple ponder what it could mean for their relationship. Do they decide on artificial insemination? Or does Janis have a drunken fling with the hunk at her martial arts class?

The whole episode was actually a flashback to 39 hours earlier, as the teaser showed Mark, Wedeck and Demetri (John Cho) being attacked in their car by a gang of Chinese assailants carrying sub-machine guns and RPGs. The story actually did a very good job of making you forget this attention-grabbing teaser, so by the time of its encore at the end of the episode, it still came as a surprise. It was just a shame the director (Prison Break's Bobby Roth) thought it necessary to totally undercut the drama by playing a karaoke tune over the top!

Still, I found it slyly amusing that the CIA earlier blamed the Chinese for the blackout (as they only suffered 0.5% fatalities, as most of their population were asleep), and while that seemed an utterly ridiculous, xenophobic theory... this episode later gave us Chinese assailants as the show's first boogiemen. Even stranger, they may have been sent to assassinate Wedeck on the orders of the President, no? But perhaps not, because some Chinese men also attack Janis in the street, leaving her shot and bleeding out on the road, as a novelty alarm clock gift from Maya painted circles in her blood. Would the President have ordered a hit on all of Wedeck's team? That doesn't seem likely to me, so I'm more inclined to believe someone within the government heard about Wedeck's funding success and sent in the heavies. Maybe Senator Clemente? It was also fun to hear that her flashforward showed her as President -- but was she lying to unsettle Wedeck, or is she a more dangerously ambitious character than we expect?

Overall, "Gimme Some Truth" was definitely the best episode of FlashForward yet, certainly in terms of giving us juicy drama that felt compelling and pushed the story along in a fresher way. Maybe there's a correlation with the fact the Benfords were somewhat along for the ride, with Courtney B. Vance and Christine Woods shouldering most of the narrative. The latter was especially good, making Janis far more plausible, interesting and likeable away from the office -- where she was just the cute, practical, power-suited FBI chick cliché. Oh yes, and a mystery texter reveals to Olivia that her husband was drunk in his flashforward -- and the only person who knew that was Wedeck, yes?

There could be hope for this series yet; I'm actually excited about the next episode. Did everyone else get a kick out of this?


26 October 2009
Five, 9pm

written by: Dawn Prestwich & Nicole Yorkin (story by Barbara Nance) directed by: Bobby Roth starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Christine Woods (Janis Hawk), Barry Shabaka Henley (Agent Vreede), Lee Thompson Young (Agent Al Gough), Omid Abtahi (Bureau Agent), Talia Balsam (Surgeon General Anita Ralston), Emerson Brooks (Connelly), Michael Cavanaugh (SETI Chairman Warren Moore), Peter Coyote (President Dave Segovia), Nilson De Macena (Tae Kwon Do Instructor), Scott Kelly Galbreath (Jim), Mieko Hillman (Renee Garrigos), Frank John Hughes (Press Secretary), Christopher Mack (Little Boy with Renee), Micole Mercurio (Maureen), Michael O'Neill (Director Keller), Navi Rawat (Maya), Mel Rodriguez (Oscar Obregon), Amy Rosoff (Marcie), Michael J. Silver (Randy), Glynn Turman(Senator Noland), Michelle Tuzee (Broadcaster) & Barbara Williams (Senator Clemente)

* Best known as the dad in E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial; the suburbs of which look suspiciously similar to those being used as the Benford's neighbourhood to me.