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The Show:
In the summer of 2009 ABC realized that their ratting
juggernaut, Lost, was coming
to an end.
When it started, Lost was
the first real hit they'd had in half a decade
and the network wanted to replace it with another show that would keep
viewers
coming back week after week for years.
Their answer: Flashforward. Reportedly
planned to last five seasons, the
show starts out with a deep mystery that gets more complex and
intricate as the
show progresses. Unfortunately the show
starts off slow, and by the time it found its voice (and became really
good) it
was too late. The viewers had been lost
and the show wasn't renewed for a second season. Now
the entire 22-episode run is available on
DVD so fans can continue to lament that the mysteries were never
resolved.
On October 6th, 2009 at precisely 11:00:00 PST on
the dot, without warning, every person in the world blacked. This caused mayhem as planes fell out of the
sky, cars plowed into crowds, and helicopters crashed into skyscrapers. Two minutes and seventeen seconds later
everyone woke up, the ones who were still alive at least, having all
experienced the same thing: they saw
what they would be doing on April 29, 2010, six month in the future.
People started calling this event a 'flashforward' and it
naturally affected people in different ways.
To many the glimpse of what was to come was life altering, both
good and
bad. One man sees his daughter, who he
thought was killed in Afghanistan,
alive but wounded. A happily married
woman sees a strange man in her bed. An
alcoholic sees himself drinking. A few
people don't see anything. Does that
mean that they'll be dead in half a year?
An FBI agent, Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes), sees himself
investigating who or what triggered the flashforward as armed gunmen
break into
the LA branch of the FBI with the purpose of killing him.
Armed with what he can remember from the
bulletin board covered with leads, Benford and his partner, Demetri Noh
(John Cho),
head up the investigation of the event.
They start a web site, Mosaic, where people can publically post
what
they saw in their future and use the data to come up with a picture of
what the
world will look like in 6 months. They
also discover some very interesting things that are hard to explain. Like the fact that not everyone was knocked
out. Examining camera footage from a
baseball stadium they discover images of a person calmly walking
through the
thousands of unconscious people towards an exit. He
(or possibly she) is labeled 'Suspect
Zero' and finding this person is the agency's top priority. Second only to the person he was talking to
on his cell phone.
It's hard not to think of Lost while watching this
show.
It was obviously trying to ape the successful series in both
content and
format. The science fiction/fantasy story
starts with a disaster and the immediate moments after, the show ends
each
episode on a cliffhanger, includes a huge cast of main and supporting
characters (some would say way too big...), and the clues to the mystery
that are
uncovered reveal more questions than they answer. There's
an out of place kangaroo in the first
episode (like the polar bear in the first episode of Lost)
and even a billboard for Oceanic Airlines. (The
people stranded on Lost were passengers on Oceanic
Flight 815.)
Unfortunately the show doesn't start out with the bang like its
inspiration. After the initial car chase
that ends with the flashforward event, the program gets bogged down in
dialog. There's a lot of talking. A lot.
People wondering aloud, over and over, why there was a strange
man in
their bed, or why they were pregnant. The
melodramatic aspects dominate the program, which isn't good for a
sci-fi
suspense show. At first I was thinking
that the show would have been better in the half hour format, then I
was
wondering how it managed to last a full season.
In those first episodes only a few things of any import happen,
and most
of it seemed like filler (especially the riveting Senate hearings over
who has
jurisdiction to investigate the matter!)
By the end of the third episode I wasn't emotionally attached to
any of
the characters and was ready to throw in the towel.
I was sharpening my metaphorical blade to
skewer the program.
But I watched a few more episodes, just to give myself more
ammunition, and to my surprise is started to get good.
Really good.
The characters were growing and developing, the plot was getting
interesting, and the pace of the show picked up quite a bit. Soon I was hooked.
When it originally aired, the program ran ten episodes and
then took a three-and-a-half month break, then came back for another 12
installments. The show really hits its
stride in that later half and if it could have started out with shows
of that
quality, it probably wouldn't have been cancelled when it was.
That brings us to the main problem with the show: it
was cancelled at the end of the first
season. The show was conceived to run
for 5 years and when this set ends, there are still a lot of plot lines
that
are unresolved. The cover boasts that
this is "the complete series", which is sort of true... it is all of the
episodes
that were filmed, but it is not 'complete' as far as having a
beginning,
middle, and end. That's going to be
really disappointing to a lot of people who get hooked on this show. There are rumors that Starz is thinking of
buying the rights and continuing the series, but I think if they were
serious
about it they would have made the announcement before this set was
released. That this show didn't even get a
Blu-ray
release (which was rumored a while ago) also doesn't bode well for it
being
continued.
The DVD:
All 22 episodes of this show are presented on 5 DVDs that
come in a single width keepcase.
Audio:
The show's DD5.1 soundtrack is very nice. The
dialog sections are mainly centered on
the screen, but the action sequences really fill the room with sound. The dynamic range is good and the music
sounds nice, even though some of it didn't work as well as it could
have (a
cover version of Dylan's Like a Rolling
Stone during a gun battle??)
Video:
The 1.78:1 anamorphic image looks fine. There's
a little grain in some scenes but I
was actually expecting more aliasing and blocking, which was minimal. The flesh tones look accurate and the blacks
are fine. Visually, this is not an
impressive show, the opposite of Lost,
but it looks alright on in this set.
Extras:
There are a fair number of extra features sprinkled though
this set. There's only one commentary
track (I was expecting more) and that's found on the 11th
episode,
the one after the show's mid-season break.
It features Actor Dominic Monaghan and Executive Producer
Jessika
Borsiczky.
The video extras start off with Architects of Destiny
a 20 minute behind the scenes featurette where
the cast talks about shooting the first episode. It's
a typical fluff piece, but not as bad as
some. That's followed by Flashforward
on Set a group of five featurettes
that each examines the shooting of one scene.
Meet Yuko - Japanese actress
Yuko Takeuchi has a role in the show and this short 5 minute piece
shows her
first day on the set meeting the cast and crew.
The most interesting bonus item is Interviews from the
Mosaic Collective four short interviews with
people about what they saw in their flashforward. Kangaroo?
Is a two minute look at the kangaroo.
The extras are wrapped up with a reel of ten deleted scenes and
a three
minute blooper reel.
Final Thoughts:
This is a hard series to rate. It doesn't
start off very strong and you
really have to invest some time before things gets rolling. Once it does get interesting though, it's a
great show and the momentum builds until... the unresolved cliffhanger. Because of that the show doesn't have a lot
of replay value. It's worth watching,
but make it a rental.
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