Flash Forward - Page 2

There are gonna have to be more flash forwards in order to progress the show. It is in the title after all. What was with all the LOST jokes?

BEHROOOOZ!

Yeah, theyre spending too much time on the flashforwards weve already seen. Homeboy starts drinking again...we get it. Lets see some other flashforwards.

They zoom in on a REALLY wide shot at the stadium. Whether that's a security camera or maybe a television camera that panned up when the operator blacked out isn't clear, but it's a really weird point to nitpick at.

The stuff with the little girl was annoying, as is the stuff about the impending affair. "Millions dead, cities in ruins, but gee, my wife might screw some other guy. I can't cope!"

You got it backward. The book is crap.

well I actually like last night's episode but it was a weird one. 1st half was light hearted and a little too funny, while the second half dealt more with the mystery at hand.

John Cho's character sounds like he is screwed, but I think the lady on the phone said she was looking at his records about his death and not actually seeing his dead corpse in person (so there may be something fishy going ons).

Second ep seemed a little scattered to me. I imagine there are potentially loads of directions they could go in and they're trying to figure out what the best pace would be to reveal pertinent info. I do like the conflict regarding wanting certain things to happen and hoping other things don't. Hope it doesn't fall apart when they're forced to get into the science (fiction) of it all. The kids are really annoying me though.

She was obviously in the intelligence community in some capacity, though. You don't just find an FBI agent's cell phone number 5 minutes after he posts something online without certain connections. She also mentioned that she saw his death in a file she was reading I believe. It could certainly still be a swerve but with what little we know she seems to have credentials.

I agree it is crap, but if you think the show is better than the book, you are crazy. Like I said the book may be crap, but it is far better than this horrid show. I don't even think it is debatable. It just goes to show how little I think of this show. It might be the worst new show I've seen the whole year.

Well thanks for letting us all know we're not allowed to enjoy the show. That'll save us all some effort. Maybe you could make a list of all the entertainment that's not debatable and post it here somewhere for us. Save us all that darned thinkin' and judgin' for ourselves and all.

You're a moron. You either didn't watch enough TV or didn't read enough to know quality. The book is crap, the show is average at best, but better than the fucking boring book.

They reeeeaally need to get along with the doing and ease up on the saying. There were at least three conversations last night that were simply people recounting the pilot's plot points. They're going to have to trust the audience to either keep up or pay attention to the "Previously On" opener. I keep hoping this'll be my LOST methadone, but I'm still feeling the shakes.

Well, I think this is just supposed to hold you over until the new V starts.

My wife and I both laughed last night when the Deputy Director (I think?) showed up at the FBI and go that insanely long-winded introduction even though every person in the room certainly would have known who she was already. It really would have been less jarring if they'd just stopped the scene and somebody had looked right in the camera to explain who the character was.

I won't bother doing something as idiotic as trying to guess how much tv or literature you consume, as if this somehow determines tastes (a seriously retarded notion). You're a genuine imbecile. Regardless, how would watching more TV improve my impression of Flashforward? Nothing is going to change the fact it sucks hard. Ranking it amongst other shows certainly won’t. It's an extremely stupid statement, but I guess that is to be expected now.

Yes because that is exactly what I said. That no one is allowed to enjoy the show and no one is allowed to think for themselves. That is exactly what I was driving at, thank you for reading my mind. Anyone who hates anything is saying exactly that. Good job.

Yeah, you're being so generous here.

I'm not picking on you, just saying that these kind of blanket statements seem kinda condescending and unappreciative of your fellow commentators. Obviously the quality of the show is debatable. You may make your argument and win the debate, and if so, good for you. Cutting short the discussion by declaring the value of the show beneath discussion kinda says you think you know best. That's all.

They focused far too much on the whiny children for my tastes.

And I think that the future Pregnant FBI chick is totally going to be pregnant with Noh's baby.

Agreed.

Yes, and she was sad becaus Noh is dead. Kind of obvious.

I was thinking the other night, wouldn't millions of people have been dreaming during the blackout? Then that FBI website should have entries like "I was having sex with Angelina Jolie in a hot air balloon!" or "I was a Jedi Knight fighting zombies with a lightsaber in my grandma's kitchen!".

It's too obvious an issue not to address and since the show wanted to point out a lot of obvious stuff in the second episode I have to assume they'll address dream flahses at some point.

It's surprising at how fast they're burning through the notecards on Drunk Agent's board. I guess there's a lot of stuff on the wall but they keep focusing on the same four things.

OK, just caught up with this. First episode was solid and compelling--didn't have the atmosphere of Lost's pilot, but it's about on par in terms of pulling me in. (Remember, the characters were all pretty one-dimensional and cliched in the first episode of Lost. It took the flashbacks to flesh them out.) I really liked that the characters actually talked about stuff and worked hard to put the pieces together, and the only two characters who aren't talking about aspects of their flashforwards have pretty good excuses not to do so. Unfortunately, as everyone has already said, the second episode was pretty annoyingly expository and pedantic, and I thought the score as really heavy and melodramatic as well. I laughed my ass off that we kept reliving every flashforward, and then we got to the boss on the can, and we watched his flashforward again too. Thank God new viewers are up to speed on that important information!

Most of this feels like network concessions, though, and the plot's certainly ticking along at a good pace. As long as this was just "second episode jitters" we should be OK.

Oh, one thing that's bothering me slightly: they'll probably address this at some point, but if we take it at face value and assume every flash forward is going to happen the way we saw it play out, then shouldn't most people, in their flashforward, have been aware that they were reliving the events they'd foreseen six months ago? Shouldn't that have altered their behaviour? It seems like either they've already altered the future by viewing it, or it's a Kurt Vonnegut situation in which people are forced to re-enact certain events for those few moments. I mean, if Penny wanted to, aside from not sleeping with Simcoe, she could just make sure not to be in that particular house on April 29th. Likewise, people could have spent the moments in question shouting or writing down information for their past selves, because they knew it was coming.

Man, I'm already bored with mopey Joseph Fiennes mewling about his pre-cheating wife. This guy makes me long for angsty Jack Shephard in comparison.

This one is still just riding on premise for me.

Yep. It's even more frustrating because I generally like most of these actors, and somehow none are playing even slightly compelling characters, with possibly the exception of the British dude from Ultraviolet.

Maybe because I watched both shows back to back, but I'm not as sick about Fiennes' mopiness as everyone else here. I don't see how it's affecting his investigation or professionalism, as opposed to Jack, who can't notice Kate and Sawyer making eye contact without having an episode-long nervous breakdown. (If anything's affecting Fiennes' character's work, it's his apparent need to step out of high-level meetings every time his daughter gets a boo-boo.)

This show relies way too much on music montages and long existential speeches.

Premise and the Mosaic Website idea are good. Also, it tends to climax midway through the episode and throw you off.
To recap, i'm still watching, but barely. They need to step up their game.

German Nazi dude was pointless.

I hope the Nazi dude adds more to the story later on.

Yeah, they need to kick it up a notch if they want to plant me on the couch every Thursday night. Otherwise I'll drop it, and "Wiki" the cause of the blackout later on down the road.

This. They seemed to think that the moral conflict regarding the Nazi was compelling enough to carry a whole episode, but after 5 minutes I was just like FUCK, set him free and get the info already. I swear if the only relevant piece of the puzzle coming out of that episode is the observation regarding the dead crows, I'll be very sad.

Flash-bore-ward

i'm done with this moronic show

See, I actually like the idea that they just did something horrible because they're playing along with the visions, and they got nothing out of it whatsoever. Again, it seems like a bit of a reposte to Lost--"bad things happen when you just go with the flow".

That doesn't mean the execution wasn't pretty terrible. Actually, thematically, there was a ton of interesting stuff there, but somehow all it did was piss me off. Nazis? In 2009? Seriously? Why not just make the guy a fucking serial killer or something, thereby skipping over the implausibilities raised by having them have to fly to Germany, get permission from the government, etc. etc. And the ease with which they fell for it was ridiculous. There would have to be a ton of criminals who've thought of this dodge--are they going to let all of them out if they claim to know something?

Also, having Joanie Stubbs act all skeptical of the ex-drunk's visions of their daughter is...geh. I mean, I know they have plenty of psychological issues between them, but still, when you yourself just experienced something miraculous and everyone in the world can verify the phenomenon, being all "you saw what you wanted to see" is pretty dickish.

I really admire this show's thematic ambitions and intellectual reach, I just hope it can pull it together as a coherent drama soon. I'm going to give them a bit of a pass on the ridiculous piles of exposition for another episode or two, since I'm assuming it's a network mandate, but they'd better knock off the flashbacks to the flash forwards soon. The show's doing OK in the ratings, right? They don't need to fret too much about losing viewers, right?

Last night was a doozie. I mean a snoozie. If every episode only relies on the last 5 minutes for new information, this show might as well become a youtube webshow.

This show is way too plot oriented and boring. The thing that made Lost so intriguing from the get go was that they would littler little bits of mythology across the episodes but basically spent the whole first season letting us get to know these characters. I know nothing about Joseph Fiennes except that he used to be an alcoholic and sees himself becoming one again. But I have no clue why he went down the spiral to begin with, I know nothing about Kno and his woman except that they love each other. The characters are all caricatures of people and I just can't get behind it.

I'm going to give it another week or two to see it can get its feet under it but it's just not a terribly interesting show. You need good characters to go along with an interesting premise.

You didn't find the scene in which Random Stranger asks her for her name, occupation, and reason for travel was particularly helpful? Cause that's pretty much all it was there for.

This show's killing me. There's not much at all I'm watching on TV right now, so it showed up at the right time to hook me. But it's doing everything it can to shake me loose.

Funny how the most cardboard staple of the Law & Order universe has this series' most weighted moment 4 episodes in. (Vance's memorial speech) but the rest of this cast are just line-readers so far. And the Africa reveal at the end? Just underwhelming.

I also don't appreciate them trying to ruin my favorite Jeff Buckley song. Assholes.

Yep. So far it's a very distant show. It's somewhat fun on a cerebral level to try and figure out what the whole secret is, but there doesn't seem to be any heart to the show. It might as well be MYST: THE TV SHOW.

I've really wanted to like this show, but I can't for the life of me dredge up an interest. I'm just not engaged with any of the characters. I like that Sonya Wagner is there, but hell...they're not doing anything of interest with her. The rest? Could not care less about them.

My wife likes it, so I'll likely watch it with her. But my interest level has plummeted.

So it turns out that FlashForward is a show with an interesting premise that's not living up to its potential, has one-dimensional characters that are too stupid to be believeable or dependable and deals with boring topics on morality that have been done to death. Doesn't that sound a lot like two other shows Brannon Braga worked on?

I agree with most that has been said, especially those endless speech/musical montages. Hell even the characters remark about how ever since their flashforwards that there's been an abundance of dramatic speeches.

I thought his THRESHOLD was the exact opposite problem. It had interesting characters (Gugino, Dinklage, Spiner), but a lame, by-the-numbers alien invaders plotline.

Your comment about Braga make me not want to watch this. He always comes with flawed products.
Also, renewed full season.

I just watch to see John Cho in a suit, walking in slo mo.

This show is dreadfully boring. They need to do something. NOW.

I have officially booted this show off my DVR. I may catch up via the ABC website, but it is just not appointment TV. So boring.

Also, I was half paying attention to the last ep because it was such a snoozefest, but did the DNA on the alki sponsor's daughter come up positive (meaning she was dead)? Between that and Kno's finacee's vision of seeing him alive, it seems that not everyone's flashforwards seem to be the future. Or rather, they maybe an alternate dimension future.

I just can't buy the basic premise that these visions are fact based on what we saw in the pilot. While there are many people who can corroborate each other's flash forwards, its not clear to me that there aren't just as many people who can't have theirs corroborated. I can't imagine anybody going forward with this investigation based on one guy saying he saw a vision of himself leading the investigation.

They have to put somebody on it, and it might as well be that guy, since he's a qualified FBI agent and all.

I find the AA guy with the dead daughter to be the only compelling plot on the show.
But if they cheapen it and turn it into some long lost twin story, I will never watch again.

I don't think this show has the smarts to venture into alternate timeline territory.

I've been trying to forgive his entire plotline so far, give it the benefit of the doubt. I mean, besides locating Suspect Zero the FBI has quite literally not done anything that wasn't driven by his vision of the future. Every lead they have gotten was achieved by him remembering his board in the future. This is the same issue I had with Minority Report, actually, that the vision of the future is causing the vision to come true. It's lazy, unless they come up with some compelling reason that the FBI agent would get some sort of pass that nobody else got. I mean, it's one thing if he investigates, finds leads, puts them on his board and realizes how everything lines up. But he put shit on his board ONLY BECAUSE HE SAW IT ON HIS BOARD. So unless they can explain that away, it's stupid.

But I tried. I thought maybe he was special for some reason. Then last week we got the pothead who applied to be a customs officer only because he had a vision where he was a customs officer. So his vision is actually what is causing his vision to come true as well. Without the vision he never even applies for the job and obviously never becomes a customs officer. It's just lazy.

Right. There's no compelling argument that the visions are actually of the future. And the whole show hinges on that assumption. I'm not convinced.

And Kno has every right to bust the pothead. Hell, in that circumstance it's his duty to do so. Busting the pothead insures that he never becomes a customs agent which breaks the chain and possibly keeps Kno alive. But instead, the guy appeals to him to be cool and he's like "Sure, sounds good!".

Not quite true--the leads are coming to them, but he knows which ones to follow up on based on the board. That's how the nazi guy caught their eye.

While I agree this is potentially a huge crutch for the writers, it's also, thematically, a potentially interesting thing to explore. As I said above, the ultimate message of the Nazi episode was that following along with the visions can lead to really horrible things happening. I think the reason the show's been sort of bleah so far--well, aside from the awkward dialogue and constant recapping--is that we haven't seen anyone really dig in their heels yet and insist "OK, no, I'm going to do everything I can to prevent this future from happening" (throwing a bracelet in a fire doesn't count). Even Noh seems to still be letting it sink in. That's going to be the make-or-break point for this show--the point where the characters really start taking steps to fight the future. And presumably others will fight them because they want the future to happen.

But at the very least, I think the writers are coming down on the side of "following along mindlessly with the visions of the future isn't really a good idea."

They then completely pull that punch though when the 'murder' of crows provides them with a new lead.