A Flash in the Pan: FlashForward Review

FlashForward: Complete Series

Released on DVD August 31st, 2010

ABC

  A mysterious event causes nearly everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during which people see what appear to be visions of their lives approximately six months in the future—a global "flashforward". A team of Los Angeles FBI agents, led by Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance) and spearheaded by Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and his partner Demetri Noh (John Cho), begin the process of determining what happened, why, and whether it will happen again. Benford contributes a unique perspective on the investigation; in his flashforward, he saw the results of six months of investigation that he had done on the flashforward event, and he and his team use those clues to recreate the investigation.


FlashForward is a show, much like Lost and the upcoming The Event which revolves around a mystery that needed to be solved.  In this case, the mystery was the event that caused the worldwide blackout, and the flashforwards. 

The show was entertaining and engrossing, and the writing was superb.  It was cancelled after it's first season due to plummeting ratings, the same thing that happened to ABC's other freshman show V .  Unfortunately, a number of factors were working against the show.  Its time slot on Thursdays was packed with popular shows, and ABC put the show on a 3 month hiatus mid-season.  The networks do not seem to understand (or care) that these hiatuses severely damage fan interest. 

This is one of those shows that is much easier to watch on DVD because if you miss one episode, you're likely to be completely lost.  The concept was intriguing and original, but due to the nature of show, there were many flashbacks and even more flashforwards, which made the show confusing at times.  If you followed the show from beginning to end, there was a definitive payoff at the end of the season (unlike many abruptly canceled shows).

The show had a fairly large cast with at least 9 main character threads interweaving throughout the season.  They were fairly easy to follow and all the various plot threads connected near the end to reach one cohesive narrative.  The one exception to this was Mark Benford's friend and AA sponsor Aaron Stark (Bryan F. O'Byrne).   His plot thread remained independent of the others and slowed the narrative to a halt.  It didn't connect (tangentially) to the others until the last few episodes, and when it did, it was hardly worth it. Other than that, the writing was superb and intelligent.

The characters were likable and realistic, all with their own faults and weaknesses.  My favorites were Demetri (Cho) and fellow FBI agent Janis Hawke (Christine Woods), and Dr. Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton). 

It is a pity this show only lasted one season, as the ratings may have gotten better had it been moved to a more favorable timeslot, or not given a 3 month hiatus, or given a second season. I enjoyed the 22 episodes available here, though, and am satisfied by the conclusion they offered.  


3 1/2 stars out of 5