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FlashForward: The Complete Series
Other // Unrated // August 31, 2010
List Price: $59.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
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
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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