FlashForward fizzles out

     ABC tried a bold experiment this year with FlashForward, a show we were told would be wrapped up in one season, should it be canceled, though I am having trouble locating the interview where that was promised now, and I've wasted too much time already on the show to keep looking.  The season, and series, finale, "Future Shock", did anything but tie it all together.  Part of that could be because it was not known at the time to filming if the show would be coming to an end, or getting another season.  However, since the ratings weren't strong, it should have been assumed.  It would have been easy enough, with a few different scenes at the end, to finish it nicely, but the producers chose not to.  And so anyone that invested twenty-two hours into the show has had their time wasted.

     The entire season was uneven, walking a fine line between cheesy and brilliant, but frequently teetering onto the former side.  The cast was packed with wonderful actors - John Cho, Sonya Walger, Jack Davenport, Dominic Monaghan, Courtney B. Vance, Christine Woods.  It was almost worth watching the whole series to see Battlestar Galactica's James Callis deliver his newest crazy-man, and prove that he has even more range than has been known.  But the writing was frequently weak, and did not do justice to the talent involved.

     The the last episode, for instance.  Much of this season has been about choices, and if fate is more powerful than free will.  So far, every time, free will has won out.  And then, each character, one by one, made it to the place they saw in their vision way back at the beginning of the season.  Sure, there were differences.  Lloyd (Davenport) and Olivia (Walger) didn't sleep together.  Janis (Woods) was pregnant with a boy instead of a girl.  But the basics were all there.  The only one who seemed to have twarted fate, for now anyway, was Demetri (Cho), because he was alive at all.  But in the episodes leading up to the finale, it seems fairly likely that he will soon be shot to death anyway, as fate has a way of catching up.  It's like Final Destination the series.

     The ending of it all was the most disappointing.  First, it was established that December 2016 would be the end of the world.  Did a show that had such a hard time catching on really think it would get more seasons than the far more intelligent Lost that it was trying to replace?  The bad guys who caused the flash forwards were never caught, and so remain at large to stir up more trouble.  In this case, they caused another flash forward to end the series on.  This time, though, it appeared that different people flashed to different times, all between 2010 and 2016.  I say this because I freeze framed through the various images and caught at least three different dates.  What does it all mean?  We'll never know.

     I don't have a problem taking a chance on something complicated and involved.  I loved Lost.  But when the show promises not to leave you hanging if they're canceled, it looks likely they are going to be canceled, and yet, they film a cliffhanger anyway, I am not please.  Sadly, it will make me much less likely to trust ABC on the future.

Lost leaving viewers more... well, lost

     Four hours of the final season of ABC's Lost have already been aired in the last three weeks, which is about a quarter of the season.  Despite being promised many answers as the season progresses, so far there is much more confusion than explanation.  We saw the island on the bottom of the sea, and as many expected, Oceanic 815 landed without problem at LAX in 2004.  However, our favorite castaways are also still on the island, clearly not at the bottom of the ocean, and I have no idea why.  Gone are the flashbacks, flash forwards, and time jumps, but here to stay is presumably either alternate realities or parallel dimensions.

     The people that landed in Los Angeles are clearly not the same ones we met throughout the series.  There are a number of differences in their lives from the ones we previously saw.  Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is lucky, not unlucky.  John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is planning a wedding to his fiance, Helen (Katey Sagal, Married With Children, Sons of Anarchy, Futurama) and seemingly getting along with his father.  And the paths of our beloved characters keep crossing uncontrollably.  Kate (Evangeline Lilly) unwittingly kidnaps Claire (Emilie de Ravin) during her escape from the police.  Locke talks to Jack (Matthew Fox) at baggage claim, then after seeking work from Hurley and Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), he runs into Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) while substitute teaching.  Seemingly it is destiny that they meet.

     Also curious is that the episodes featuring certain characters are airing in the same order as in the first season.  First we had a hodge podge in the two hour premiere, then Kate was the first standard episode, and Locke was second.  Following that logic, Jack and then the Kwans (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim) should be next.  Of course, not every character from the first season is still starring, and there are plenty of new ones, so it seems doubtful this pattern will last.

    Back on the island in 2007, the Smoke Monster posing as Locke showed Sawyer (Josh Holloway) a list of names of the survivors that Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) had written on a rock, and most were crossed out.  All the names left were people Jacob was shown visiting throughout their lives in last season's finale. Except he visited Kate, and she wasn't on the list.  And all six of Hurley's lottery numbers were taken, so it must be significant that she isn't there, not just a simple edit mistake.  Is she something special and different, or did Jacob just not find her worthy when he visited her?  And does Kwon refer to Sun or Jin, and if it is Jin, is that why Sun wasn't tossed back to the 70's with everyone else?  Not only that, Jacob had a thing for J names, as the numbers in question name Jack, John, James, Jin (maybe), and Jarrah (Naveen Andrews).  But that leaves out Hurley, though Hugo can be spelled with a J for Spanish names.  All are male, too.  Also, screen caps reveal Claire's last name as #313, Charlie's (Dominic Monaghan) as #195, and other last names from island characters, including Linus and Goodspeed, which could refer to several people.  Why?  Weird.

     Lots more questions and answers await, and Lost will continue to air Tuesdays at 9pm on ABC.

FlashForward shows only flash of ingenuity

    ABC's new show Flash Forward, while starting with an exciting and interesting pilot, has become mostly dull.  Maybe that's why it's rumored to be one of the shows facing cancellation soon.  Don't get me wrong.  There are still moments of excitement.  The show just needs to step it up.

     First, let's look at the plots that are exciting.  Demetri's (John Cho, Star Trek, Harold & Kumar) murder coming up in March, which was starting to drag, got a shot of adrenaline in the fall finale when Nhadra (Shohreh Aghdashloo, 24, House of Sand and Fog) revealed that his would-be killer is best friend and fellow agent, Mark (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love).  It was also kind of cool that Demetri's fiance, Zoey (Gabrielle Union), actually saw his funeral, not their wedding, in her flash forward.  The other neat twist was when Al (Lee Thompson Young) committed suicide, proving that what everyone saw was by no means set in stone and could, indeed, be changed.  It was unexpected, and gave a boost to an otherwise boring episode.

     The problem is that the rest of the cast aren't sparking the same interest that those couple of agents are.  For instance, despite their desire to avoid ending up in bed, Olivia (Sonya Walger, Lost) and Lloyd (Jack Davenport, Swingtown) can't seem to stay away from each other, and that was before the kidnapping at the end of the fall finale.  Aaron's (Brian F. O'Byrne) plot involving his daughter has unfolded so slowly that it is hard to keep interest.  Ditto pregnant lesbian Janis (Christine Woods).  Even the much-publicized arrival of Simon (Dominic Monaghan, Lost, The Lord of the Rings) failed to add to the intensity much.

     Flash Forward still has a chance.  Thus far it has allowed itself to get caught up in the too many characters with too much going on syndrome, but Lost escaped it, and so can this show.  If it gets it's act together quick.  It is probable that if it doesn't return from break strong right away, it will not live to see a second season.  More likely, flash forward to the handful of loyal viewers finishing the drama during a summer burn-off of the last few episodes.