Flashforward SUCKS

[RJDiogenes]

^^ That's one of the two main problems with the show; not enough physical and economic fallout from the Blackout. They've done okay with the sociological stuff, like cults springing up and so forth. The other main problem is that the characters are not doing enough to alter the future. Even a bunch of little changes, like Benford relocating his office to another floor or another building could have a cumulative effect; when that one guy committed suicide, that should have opened the floodgates to people attempting changes.

Other than that, I like the show enough to keep coming back. I like the characters and the actors, and most of the plotlines, and I find the central mystery intriguing; I'm betting there's going to be real time travel involved.

 

[RobertScorpio]

^^ That's one of the two main problems with the show; not enough physical and economic fallout from the Blackout. They've done okay with the sociological stuff, like cults springing up and so forth. The other main problem is that the characters are not doing enough to alter the future. Even a bunch of little changes, like Benford relocating his office to another floor or another building could have a cumulative effect; when that one guy committed suicide, that should have opened the floodgates to people attempting changes.

Other than that, I like the show enough to keep coming back. I like the characters and the actors, and most of the plotlines, and I find the central mystery intriguing; I'm betting there's going to be real time travel involved.

..which will make it a poor LOST clone. This is going to get one more season, maybe, and better do something to keep people watching...

Rob

 

[Velocity]

^^ That's one of the two main problems with the show; not enough physical and economic fallout from the Blackout. They've done okay with the sociological stuff, like cults springing up and so forth. The other main problem is that the characters are not doing enough to alter the future. Even a bunch of little changes, like Benford relocating his office to another floor or another building could have a cumulative effect; when that one guy committed suicide, that should have opened the floodgates to people attempting changes.

Other than that, I like the show enough to keep coming back. I like the characters and the actors, and most of the plotlines, and I find the central mystery intriguing; I'm betting there's going to be real time travel involved.

It's still interesting enough to me to keep watching. Several have made attempts to change the future. Demetri tried to get the gun that will kill him destroyed, but it was stolen out of the evidence locker. Then we learned that there was a mole in the FBI who was reporting their progress to unknowns, but she was neutralized. Then we found out there is STILL a mole who can sabotage the work and promote some unknown agenda. Mark's wife wanted to move away to save their marriage but he knows he's integral to stopping the bad guys and couldn't bring himself to leave. The flashforward isn't as important as the whole planet being knocked out at the same time. I think it's interesting that this could be a bigger weapon than an atom bomb. It can affect people all across the planet. This is every Bond villain's dream.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Will she sleep with the dude now that she kissed him? You bet she will. Mark finds out, starts to drink, and justifies her bedding down with the Beatle wannbe. I feel like I'm watching General Hopsital

You predicted that all on your own?
It's as if you've seen scenes from the future or something!

 

[Scout101]

Just read the book, if you don't like the series. Much better, anyway...

 

[Spot's Meow]

I agree with pretty much everyone here, the show started out interesting but quickly went downhill. I really don't know why I watch it anymore.

The biggest problem, I think, is the characters. It is so hard to care about or like them. I still don't even know half their names. I read the TV guide description each week and go "who? I don't remember someone with that name." The main character and his wife are some of the worst characters on the show in my opinion. They are just so STUPID! One episode they are totally in love, kissing and hugging and planning their future, and then he suddenly has to move out of the house? Uhhh why? This question was never answered and it is irritating me quite a bit. So they aren't going to move away to Colorado together, why does that necessitate him moving out? Especially when they know that's what's going on in their flashforwards? Don't they want to, you know, AVOID that? The questions the show has about fate and preventing your future and all that are interesting, but these characters are just so incredibly stupid about it that it is not believable. If you don't want Demetri to die and you know that you are the one who apparently shoots him, WHY would you go looking for him when he went missing? I would think you would want to stay as far away from him as possible. Even if they can't change fate and he still ends up shooting him, these people don't even TRY to think logically about any of this. The wife kissing that guy just put it over the edge. Why go to his house? In the beginning of the season she wanted to avoid him at all costs, but now all of a sudden she's okay with her flashforward coming true? It just doesn't make any sense!!

Ugh, I really don't like this show anymore. I lost interest with that episode that took place in Washington D.C. that was all about politics and the president and other stuff that is apparently supposed to mean something even though we've gone the rest of the season without mentioning it.

I guess the only reason I keep watching is because my boyfriend wants to continue, so I guess I will until the season ends.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yeah, FF never really figured out what the premise was supposed to be. People who can't avoid their terrible fates? People who can avoid their terrible fates, but are too scared/lazy/stupid to do so? People who see good things in their future and are eager to get to them, but then get sidetracked and forget all about it? It's all too random to add up to anything worth caring about.

Here's what could have worked: People who know exactly how to avoid their terrible fates, and take immediate steps, yet their intelligent, well-thought-through plans go awry because the cosmos is conspiring against them. But I haven't seen anyone like that. Instead, they behave foolishly because the screenwriters need them to do that, or there's no story.

Well I like the show, but i don't see how it could do well after if it got a second season, kinda like Heroes in that regard.

Heroes had a great premise. It's even more inexcusible than FF. Just take the premise and the worthwhile characters and build stories around them that make sense for who the characters are, and that the audience gives a flip about. I can think of dozens of ways they could have done this (and have ranted about it so extensively I've probably written the equivalent of several seasons by now.)

FF didn't even get to the great premise/worthwhile characters stage. The premise needed a rewrite or three before anyone bothered with the pilot episode. You have to have a sturdy foundation before you can start building a house.

 

[RobertScorpio]

^^ I totally agree with that entire post Temis..you nailed it

Rob

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm seeing this show through to the end, but it's pretty much garbage now. Janice and Demetri are just about the only characters I like, but one is a mole now? Lame.

 

[Ryan]

I've been wondering about whether to get back into this show after giving up on it after 3-4 episodes. I guess I have my answer.

Yeah, I couldn't convince myself to pick the show back up after the break. Looks like I did myself a favor.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Pity, since Robert J. Sawyer is one of my favourite authors.

They should have let him be involved in the development. Unfortunately, the first rule of modern SF television seems to be to keep the SF writers out. Seriously odd. They don't even consider the possibility of letting real SF writers -- you know, the ones who actually understand the genre -- contribute creatively to an SF television series. There may be a few exceptions, but not many today. Back in the day, Theodore Sturgeon wrote Star Trek, Harlan Ellison wrote Outer Limits, and Richard Matheson wrote Twilight Zone. It was natural for producers of SF television to seek out SF authors. And even in a time when SF TV was considered cheesy kids' stuff, the stories were more imaginative.

 

[Mr Light]

For the first batch of FF I could barely pay attention, but the two hour episode it came back with was excellent and now I'm definitely into the show... which is why it'll be canceled!

 

[ATimson]

They should have let him be involved in the development. Unfortunately, the first rule of modern SF television seems to be to keep the SF writers out.

Funny, he sure thinks he's involved, and writing an episode...

 

[Agent Richard07]

The show started off good, had an interesting premise, but after the first couple of episodes just became bland. It's like everyone pretty much shrugged off the millions dying and the world-wide destruction that occured because of the "blackout." I mean if a thing were to happen we'd still be dealing with the mess left behind years later but in the show weeks passed and life is more-or-less back to normal. (Besides the scores of wrecked cars still littering the freeways, the people still mourning lost loved ones, and the destroyed buildings from thousands of plane crashes world-wide.)

I think that if something like this actually happened, things would be back to normal fairly quickly.

 

[RobertScorpio]

really? 20 million people dying all over the world? I dont think things would be getting back to normal soon at all...

Rob

 

[Trekker4747]

The show started off good, had an interesting premise, but after the first couple of episodes just became bland. It's like everyone pretty much shrugged off the millions dying and the world-wide destruction that occured because of the "blackout." I mean if a thing were to happen we'd still be dealing with the mess left behind years later but in the show weeks passed and life is more-or-less back to normal. (Besides the scores of wrecked cars still littering the freeways, the people still mourning lost loved ones, and the destroyed buildings from thousands of plane crashes world-wide.)

I think that if something like this actually happened, things would be back to normal fairly quickly.

Millions of people died in an instant, millions of car crashes, thousands of plane crashes, the world-wide horror of every person on the planet blacking out at the same time, no I don't see how things would return to normal quickly. Something as comparatively "simple" as a major earthquake or a hurricane in a major city can disrupt life for several weeks (see: The 1989 San Francisco earthquake, Hurricane Katrina/NOLA) imagine a global disaster. I don't think it'd be shrugged off quite that quickly.

 

[RobertScorpio]

which is what happened here. I know they had to tell a story, but its almost as if nothing happened...and to be honest? Here is the problem with the increasing stupid show. There is going to be another flashforward. And, if there is, its just going to set up a bunch of new mysteries that season two will plod around trying to solve...and then? Oh my gosh, there's going to be another one at the end of season two...

The flashfowards only serve to set up idiotic SOAP OPERA plot elements like the ones we are seeing now. The show isn't really about the cloak/dagger elements of flashforwards as it is about the "will she F this guy" "will he find the japanese girl" "Will he survive to marry his girlfriend" stuff....meaning..WHO CARES? We'll get three episodes a year that deal with the mystery as to "why its happening"...but then 18 or so episodes about the stupid soap opera stuff..

It's LOST, but instead of Flashbacks we have Flashforwards (with Flashbacks now). And it just isn't as good.


Rob

 

[Temis the Vorta]

They are doing the same thing as Lost - there's some combo of free will and fate going on - but Lost gets away with it because it has introduced characters who can speak for fate. They have some vague supernatural quality (maybe they're even dieties?) and if they blather about destiny and fate, we can accept that they are qualified to make those pronouncements.

With FlashForward, a scientist really doesn't have that credibility. Frost may have died in 78% of the ff's he experienced, but that is not the same as saying there's a 78% probability that he will die, because we have no way of knowing whether his ff's are representative of the underlying probabilities of things occuring, or What the Cosmos Wants, and there's no way he, a mere mortal, can know that either.

So we're left with this story: a bunch of people are making predictions that their future will go this way or that, based on their future decisions. The universe may or may not be influencing things. If it is, and to what degree, is a mystery because everyone in the story is a mere mortal and can't know things like that.

There's no sci fi in this story. Everyone's life is the same as these's people's: we all make predictions that our future will go this way or that, based on our future decisions. We may even visualize these futures that we hope will come to pass or are trying to avoid. So what's the point of having ff's at all?

The sci fi is mere window dressing, a bunch of scientists blathering about quantum particles and chronotron reflux syndrome or whatever. It doesn't add up to an interesting story, except on the most superficial, beat-the-ticking-clock level.

 

[Starbreaker]

FlashForward has increased viewership numbers for 4 weeks in a row. I guess people finally watched what was on their DVR.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Unless they're watching w/n three days of the original airdate, it's wasted eyeballs. Advertisers won't pay for ad viewings older than that. (And less than half of DVR viewers watch ads anyway.)

DVRs bump FF ratings from abysmal to bad.

The trend isn't upwards for the past four weeks. The demo is stable but not at a level ABC is going to renew:

04.01.10 - 5.04M - 1.5/5 18-49 demo
04.08.10 - 5.42M - 1.6/5 18-49 demo
04.15.10 - 4.98M - 1.4/5 18-49 demo
04.22.10 - 5.56M - 1.6/5 18-49 demo