The Idiot Boxers Review: FlashForward
TV review by Merrill Barr, co-host of The Idiot Boxers
Show: FlashForward
Airs: ABC, Thursdays, 8/7c
Episode: “Revelation Zero” (Season One, Episodes 11 and 12)
So at the beginning of this year’s TV season ABC gave us a show that is essentially their business plan after LOST ends. The show was called FlashForward. A high concept scifi/action/adventure series about an event that takes place on October 6th, 2009 that caused the entire planet to black out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During the blackout, most saw a vision of themselves 6 months from that moment, others saw nothing, which, is apparently meant to indicate that in 6 months time that person is dead.
The show took its winter break in December leaving us with a shocking finale that showed our hero, FBI Special Agent Mark Benford being stripped of his badge and weapon after pulling a gun on a foreign agent who had information into his partner’s inevitable and forthcoming murder. This is also the finale that showed us the kidnapping of Dr. Lloyd Simcoe, who, as far as we know right now, was the person that caused the black out. But apparently, that was just the beginning.
The spring premier of FlashForward starts off with another random person’s storyline during the blackout. This time it’s a window washer. This is one of the things I am getting sick of in this series already. Every episode we need to see a new person’s blackout moment, it’s becoming the flashbacks in LOST. But unlike LOST, these flashbacks are not needed. In this case the character had a vision he was speaking to a large audience about, well, the blackout. Did I mention this guy starts off as a window washer? Yeah, I know, I don’t care either. Throughout the episode we learn a bit more about the character and are left believing that he might be starting a relationship with the angst stricken Nicole who had a vision that she was being strangled and drowned. But this episode has two much more compelling story lines than that.
The first involved us finally learning what the rest of Mark’s vision was. Up till this point, all we knew were vague facts because during his vision he was drinking and since the visions are from a first person perspective all Mark knows is pieces of the puzzle. But, during his mandatory shrink visit, he is given a drug that opens up a whole new can of worms. I don’t want to go into spoilers because it’s a big twist in the series but, thanks to what we know now, we know Lloyd is not as honest and forthright as he claims to be.
Speaking of Lloyd, we also find out what happened to him after his kidnapping. The events of his kidnapping also end up involving his partner, Dr. Simon Campos. By the end of these events a whole new picture is painted for Simon and at the start of the 2nd half of the premier we get another question answered, we now know the identity of “Suspect Zero.”
Overall the premiere of FlashForward, while answering one question, opened up the door to a hundred more. It’s becoming more and more clear that ABC wants this series to be the new LOST (going so far as to cast a LOST alumni in it), but if they intend on going down that path then they better start focusing more on the overall story. I just want everyone to keep in mind that David S. Goyer is not J.J. Abrams.
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Tags: David S. Goyer, FlashForward, J.J. Abrams, LOST
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http://www.merrillbarr.com/2010/03/the-idiot-boxers-review-flashforward/ The Idiot Boxers Review: FlashForward- MerrillBarr.com
