FlashForward Series Premiere Review
ABC's Mega-Hyped New Drama Apes Lost's Mood, But Not Yet Its Mystery
Oh, FlashForward, how can we compare thee to Lost? Let us count the ways.
Opening on a man awakening only to find startling chaos around him. An immediate flashback. Sonya Walger (Penny) and Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) in recurring roles. A shoutout to Oceanic Airlines. Exotic animals in atypical environments.
FlashForward – in which everyone in the world simultaneously blacks out for 137 seconds and sees a vision of April 29, 2010 – so completely evokes the mood of Lost that it’s shocking no one envisioned themselves on an island with healing powers.
Or did they?
FlashForward Boasts Tantalizing Premise That Could Play Out Well or Flame Out Big-Time
Sure, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but if FlashForward insists on the comparison, it’s got some slack to pick up. The plotting is perfect, even if the pacing is not, and the pilot’s opening third is an energetic attention-grabber.
FlashForward’s first episode is stuffed with convincing carnage and chaos, but better yet is its use of the primal thump of Mos Def’s Quiet Dog. It establishes a repetitive rumbling rhythm to the human life interrupted just before the blackout.
FBI agents Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri Noh (John Cho) are embroiled in a wicked terrorist-suspect chase just before the flash. Mark’s wife, Olivia (Walger), is scrubbed up in surgery.
Mark’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Aaron (Brian F. O’Byrne), is readying for repair work. The Benfords’ babysitter (Peyton List) is in the middle of a sultry tussle in the sack. A promising doctor (Bryce Varley) is about to take his own life.
When everyone comes to, plane and auto crashes abound, explosions roar, helicopters ricochet into buildings and people are screaming, on fire or both.
Led by Mark, the FBI tries to piece together what’s happened, but Mark’s haunted by his own vision – frantically drinking, piecing together clues from a board of bizarre leads and chambering a round to fend off masked assassins.
FlashForward Carries an Impressive Cast Who Hopefully Have Reason to Be There
There are many more good actors in FlashForward – Courtney B. Vance, Jack Davenport, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Barry Shabaka Henley, to name a few. The breakneck pace will hopefully slacken to grant them leeway to show their character-actor chops.
A big distinction from Lost is that at the end of this pilot, most of the characters feel like chess pieces. Some are less stereotypical than others, but most seem like pawns for the endgame concocted by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) and Brannon Braga (Star Trek: The Next Generation).
Galloping exposition and glossed-over resolutions are problems in the pilot. (Mark fixing his garage door on the same day as apocalyptic accidents all over the world is a particularly idiotic device, and the Feds likely would start a Web site to gather information on loved ones rather than what everyone saw.)
FlashForward’s Pilot Ends On Perfect Note and Its Central Conflict is Tantalizing
If FlashForward isn’t going to be Lost, it could at least aspire to Jericho’s weight – a show that emphasizes coming together as a community in crisis. And what is the course of the world when everyone has seen its future? Is it a warning, or is it destiny? As one character says, is everyone now a prophet?
Ending on a wonderful cliffhanger bound to pique interest in the second episode, FlashForward will flourish if it focuses on the characters’ present as much as it hurtles the action forward to their future.
Joseph Fiennes in FlashForward
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