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 Flash Forward

(October 2nd, 2009. - Editor)           Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Jack Davenport, Sonya Walger, Courtney B. Vance, Brian O’Byrne, Christine Woods, Zachary Knighton and Peyton List star in the dramatic thriller Flash Forward.

When a mysterious event causes the entire world to black out, humanity is given a glimpse into its near future, and every man, woman and child is forced to come to grips with whether their destinies can be avoided or fulfilled. For two minutes and seventeen seconds, the entire world lost consciousness. Those who were not killed in vehicle accidents, plane crashes or other disasters, experienced an unexplained phenomenon. Most people saw a vision of their own lives, six months in the future. A vision that was not always to their liking. For FBI agent Mark Benford (Fines) his future involved heading an investigation to try and explain the event. For his partner, Demetri Noh (Co), there was no message at all, leading him to wonder if he will be here to witness events six months from now.

An adaptation of the novel by Robert J. Sawyer, this ambitious series uses computer imaging, amazing sound and great dialogue in the pilot episode, where we witness "The Event". The production values of those scenes are among the highest I have witnessed on the small screen. But now that they have such great footage of the event, they can make return references to the pilot episode throughout the rest of the series. Once we are past "The Event" the rest of this show is a simple character drama that is set in the present day. That makes the cost of future episodes low and allowed them to get the "Wow" up front.

I can already see this show becoming "Event TV", provided enough people get to see and understand the pilot episode. It would serve this series well to replay the pilot a few more times to help bring in viewers who may not find this one right away. The added option of viewing it on line will help this drama gain a word of mouth audience and allow that audience to catch up during the first run of the series, instead of being forced to wait months for the reruns if they want to see the show in episode order.

If there is a down side to this series, it is in some of the dark visions of the future that are offered by some of the characters. People don't watch television to become depressed. They watch to witness something better or more interesting than their own lives. If this series dwells on the ordinary or the negative, they will create their own downfall.

I like this series. I like that I have to think about the events on the screen. For that reason, I'm sure this series will find a loyal following. What I'm not sure about is if that following will be large enough to keep this drama on the air. I like what I see so far and I want more. I just hope there are enough others who feel the same way about this one.

 

- Editor

 

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