FlashForward: "Queen Sacrifice" 4/8/10 - Grading & Discussion

[Trent Roman]

Yes, an odd turn, and not in a good way. Doesn't really meet with the character we've seen so far, including in her unguarded moments. Then again, perhaps I'm biased--Janice is one of the few characters on this show I like, and I don't want to lose her to death/jail/whatever. I'm hoping there's more to this than is immediately apparent; after all, if Campos can play both sides, why not Janice?

That Marcie person just tore through the building--how many people did she gun down? I think we had seen here before, but it wasn't a particularly noticeable role. The old agent and Seth McFarlane make return apperances, and McFarlane takes a bullet (though off-center enough to bring him back). Loved the whole Lords of Avalon bit; wonder if it was his idea.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Anwar]

So, if Frost was staying away from the Mosaic investigation because he was afraid he'd get killed, then who are the bad guys the mole was feeding info to if not him and the persian woman?

 

[startrekwatcher]

Above average. The show has been holding my attention these last few weeks. The characters are still not very compelling and certainly isn't the draw for the show--that would be the plot. Didn't see that twist with Janis--that was a great cliffhanger moment. Janis would definitely be the last one I would have suspected--made the Marcy being the mole reveal more acceptable otherwise had it been her and only her a bit of a letdown.

Keiko/Bryce/Keiko meh and enough with the Lost-esque crossing paths stuff-here it just feels gratuitous.

Still can't stand Simon. Definitely intrigued by Dyson Frost.

 

[stj]

First, there's more support for Trent Roman's explanation of how they are working the premise. There is no logical way to reconcile just one timeline to flashforward to with the prevision of a future that never happened. Nor (if there's more than one timeline,) is there any logical way to guarantee that they all see the same timeline, or for that matter, the timeline they see is the relevant one. Personally I think it makes the show's Big Story much harder to take seriously. Others can accept it as just what the writers say, I suppose.

Second, there is no good reason to think that Janice is the only person who noticed that Simon murdered Uncle Teddy. Which means, she could be posing as a double agent to lure him into trusting her and they play him against his masters. But this show has a weak grasp on logic and maybe she is supposed to be the only one who noticed. Which makes it an illogical turn for the character as shown.

 

[firehawk12]

Shitty 24-like heel turn for a main character. Yawn.

I can't imagine they planned for this stuff, because it makes the character seem inconsistent. Oh well, I just hope they're trying to set up some kind of meaningful finale with the turn anyway.

 

[Bad Bishop]

TV writers prove over and over again that they know nothing about chess. In the episode, Benford says that a queen sacrifice is one of the most "effective" plays. If this were true, it would be played more often. "Risky" is a better word to describe the move.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

How is it Marcie can execute half a dozen FBI agents and five minutes later everyone's acting as if nothing happened and the janitor is cleaning up the evidence? None of them were friends of those people or gave a shit about them?

Hey, Wedek, you just lost a bunch of your employees. Don't you have paperwork to fill out, superiors to report to, families to visit with the sad news? Nah, go make jokes with Benford. Fuck it.

And no one's going to collect evidence or secure the crime scene? Seriously?

Just because the crime spree was witnessed by law enforcement, doesn't mean there's no trial or any procedure to follow and Marcie is convicted instantly.

Jesus Christ, shit like this is as WTF as Janis suddenly being LOLEVIL.

Janis has done absolutely nothing to imply she was a mole. Not one damn thing. I seriously hope she's just acting like a mole to get in with DownOnePinky. At least that would be plausible, what with her being witness to his interactions with his "Uncle" and following him around all the time. Course, this being TV, I fully expect her to be a straight up mole.

Whatever. Won't be surprised if consistently meh V get's picked up again and this gets cancelled right when I actually get invested in the story.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Below Average. This show is see-sawing between the implausible and the irrelevant.

Keiko's whole story - implausible. No heterosexual male on the planet would react to a chick that hot with a knee-jerk "get lost." The whole scenario smacked of some white Hollywood liberal screenwriters inane notion of idealized LA multiculturalism. None of it rang true.

Keiko and cancer guy not hooking up - irrelevant. I had zero emotional investment in that scenario, so why does Keiko exist in this story at all (other than eye candy for the guys).

The mole turning out to be some character we'd never heard of before - irrelevant.

Janis being a bad guy - implausible, unless she turns out to be a double agent, in which case this becomes cliche. Is Braga picking up bad habits from 24?

The biggest problem here is that so much of the emotional set-up and payoff falls flat. Unless the audience cares that Keiko and cancer guy get together or whatever, there's no point to the entire plotline, since storywise it goes nowhere.

I'm watching too, such a good show. I do wonder if the show continued if it would be like heroes where the first season was so great then the remaining seasons suck because they did not know what to do with the show after the first season.

Heroes first season was far better than this! FlashForward has never been anything but a mangled mess. In the early episodes, it was easier to be in denial about the scope of the mess, but now it's becoming too apparent to ignore. That's why the ratings have fallen through the floor. The only way this plotline - in which characters yammer about destiny and fate but then the flash forwards fail to materialize time and again, so how much were they ever "fated" anyway? - is to make the audience care a whole lot whether the visions come true, so at least it matters when they don't. But it doesn't matter because these characters are soulless mannequins being maneuvered around by the story.

Yes, an odd turn, and not in a good way. Doesn't really meet with the character we've seen so far, including in her unguarded moments. Then again, perhaps I'm biased--Janice is one of the few characters on this show I like, and I don't want to lose her to death/jail/whatever. I'm hoping there's more to this than is immediately apparent; after all, if Campos can play both sides, why not Janice?

Janis' plot twist is straight outta 24. Braga works on both shows but maybe I shouldn't blame him in particular. Anyone who watches 24 could come up with that plot twist, too (not to mention recognize it). Janis will turn out to be a double agent because it's the only way the plot twist makes any sense. Then again in a show this sloppily written, maybe it's just the writers flailing around for something to deliver cheap shocks. In a show where almost all of the characters are unsympathetic and boring, it's a very risky move to make one of the few genuinely likable characters an unmotivated villain.

Maybe that's the "Queen Sacrifice"? The show's going down in flames, let's just pull some crazy shit while we can!

 

[The Habs Fan]

Average

I didn't like the Keiko storyline, because as someone pointed out above, it is way too implausible. I did like the Bryce/Nicole storyline and I think they have good chemistry. Marcie being the mole was fine. Janice being bad was kind of unbelievable, but IMO it's more believable than the Dana Walsh is a mole on this season of 24.
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Braga works on both shows but maybe I shouldn't blame him in particular.

Even though Braga co-created this show and is credited as an Executive Producer, I read in an article that he is not involved in the day-to-day operation of the show because he is too busy with 24. I think his role is more of a creative consultant and is an Executive Producer in title only.

 

[stj]

Keiko's whole story - implausible. No heterosexual male on the planet would react to a chick that hot with a knee-jerk "get lost." The whole scenario smacked of some white Hollywood liberal screenwriters inane notion of idealized LA multiculturalism. None of it rang true.

There are in fact heterosexual males who would not find a chick of another race that hot. White Hollywood liberal screenwriters may have had the inane notion that a wide audience might find an emotional interest in a Japanese character's hopes for an interracial romance.

And the same goes for Bryce/"cancer guy." A would be suicide is a loser. People like winners.

The whole notion that an audience could be interested in what happens to more or less ordinary people is not a sensibly cynical stance. The revamped show is revising most of the characters to something more acceptable. Aaron is now Bad Ass Ex-con Aaron. Janice is no longer sexually active but fixated on motherhood. Mark is the decisive key to the world's salvation who nobly sacrifices his personal life, instead of a mopy guy who somehow wants to have a future in which he is the Big Hero but still keeps his wife and sort of floats along indecisively, like most people. Wedeck no longer has a story line, taking away the need to pay serious attention to an African-American character. Olivia is now a bitch. Demetri, despite his serious motivation, is still a secondary player in the story, as befits a nonwhite character.

The insane plot twists are what is to be expected from a producer of stuff like Dark Knight Returns. Why ever that should be a drawback when everyone raves about DKR is a question, isn't it?

I don't think there's much doubt that FlashForward just didn't have enough winner characters, whose supposed flaws were actually kinda cool. There were too many characters who were just ordinary. (I thought maybe it was because it started as if it might revise the novel for a causal loop scenario, but the people who bitched about predestination now bitch about how the free will plot line doesn't make any sense!)

The paradoxical plot might work in shorter form, like a single movie or a single novel. But serialization, as is so often the case, demands such contortions as to make the plot ludicrous. It's a shame because, unlike V, FlashForward had some real style and originality. V was always stupid and confused.

 

[Starbreaker]

A little behind on this, but I thought this was these last two episodes have been the best since the pilot. There is still a little too much going on though. They could drop the Keiko/Bryce thing and I think things would flow better. This really has become something that could have been wrapped up in 13 episodes dragged out to 22-24, though.

I'm gonna watch it until the end, though. I imagine this show is still a lot better than Jersey Shore or Gary Unmarried.

 

[DevilEyes]

RPG guy

I'm not a chess player, but if you 'sacrifice' your queen, don't you lose?

Um... I'm not a chess player, but I'm not sure what you mean here... That you definitely lose, or that you're likely to lose because you think it's not a good move? I'm guessing, if you make a decision to sacrifice your queen, you probably have the next moves planned where you check-mate the other player. So, I would say, based on the little knowledge I have, it depends on whether you've planned badly or the other player has read you and has a better move lined up.

Keiko's whole story - implausible. No heterosexual male on the planet would react to a chick that hot with a knee-jerk "get lost." The whole scenario smacked of some white Hollywood liberal screenwriters inane notion of idealized LA multiculturalism. None of it rang true.

I have no idea what the above passage is supposed to mean so I'm guessing you just had to include the phrase "white Hollywood liberal screenwriters" somewhere in another one of your posts. Is it a bet, or are you trying to break a record?

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

And the dead shall walk again.

 

[DevilEyes]

And the dead shall walk again.

No, that's season 7 of Lost.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

That man is not John Locke.

(It's a sapient nanoswarm/ancient evil/collection of damned souls!)

Everyone in the AltUniverse doesn't count. They're not the same people.

Evil Sayyid, on the other hand, is the walking dead, so you've got me.