FlashForward
When I started this blog a few years ago I had absolutely no idea I would spend as much time talking about television as I do now. In fact when Mindi first suggested it I thought it a rather dull topic. Of course back then the only TV shows that got me excited was 24 and…well…Daily Show and Colbert Report I guess. Much has changed since then. Knight Rider came and went, for example.
Now the show currently on the air that I find myself most looking forward to each week is FlashForward; a new offering this season from a slowly recovering ABC. I probably went a decade without watching ABC and without noticing. But last season a mid-season replacement caught my eye in the form of Castle – perfect right out of the gate. And now comes along FlashForward, also perfect from the start.
Back in the day, like in the late 80s for example, a show tended to run for a full season before properly finding its footing. Just look at the extremely uneven first season of The Next Generation for an example – hell they didn’t pull it together to produce consistently quality episodes until the third season. But FlashForward, Castle, 24, Big Bang Theory, and Chuck all seemed to start off nearly perfect in their implementation. The cast, the theme, the conflict, and the very heart of these shows were all polished right away. Had Knight Rider been given a second season I’m sure it would have gotten there but alas that’s a complaint for another day. The point is lately I have been blown over by the amount of quality programming that seems to know what it’s doing right away. I have to admit early in this decade I feared for the future of television – with Family Guy and Firefly cancelled 24 seemed to be our only hope but that concept was so challenging no one tried to duplicate it. I’m glad to say I think we’re living in, for me at least, the second coming of television. I never thought I’d see the day; I was honestly convinced that reality TV would kill us all. To hell with Skynet, we needed to stop Survivor.
So why am I putting FlashForward at the front of the pack? It’s just so gripping. I’m not saying it’s the best thing on television (although it could be) I’m saying it’s the thing you can’t wait to see the next episode of. Big Bang Theory and Castle are great but if you had to skip a week it wouldn’t be the end of the world. But the 24-like serialized nature of FlashForward is like a constant cliffhanger since the first episode – they don’t even have to invent new reasons to keep you watching, the premise is plenty. So in that one respect it has a leg up on 24, of course they’ll need to reinvent conflict for a second season but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
Some people have been comparing FlashForward to Lost and I haven’t watched enough Lost to know how valid that is (and I’m not going to) but if Lost had replaced “island” with “time travel” I probably would have given it a chance. That said, don’t try to convince me that if I like FlashForward I should watch Lost – it just ain’t gonna happen. You’re lucky I watched Castaway once. Islands don’t do it for me.
Actually I think FlashForward has a lot in common with 24. For one thing I noticed today on Wikipedia that the episodes are directed in couplets, which is to say one director will direct two episodes back-to-back. That method created great continuity on 24 and seems to be doing well for FlashForward as the directing styles and choices are fresh and engaging but don’t try to reinvent the wheel either. Also whereas 24 had each episode last a real-time hour FlashForward seems to loosely stick to the time frame in which it airs. It’s not perfect for obvious reasons – some episodes taking place back-to-back but airing over a period of 2 weeks and I suspect a Christmas hiatus is in the offing, although I’m less than thrilled at the prospect. I can’t help but notice that April 29th 2010, the day everyone Flash Forwarded to, is a Thursday – FlashForward airs on Thursdays. That’ll be a hell of a day and you can find me planted firmly in front of my TV that night. Unfortunately March 15th 2010 is a Monday but I think it’s more the Ides Of March that they were going for with that specific date. Oh and a cast member from season 4 of 24 fills the role of soothsayer in this particular plotline. And a Shakespeare reference in a show starring the guy from Shakespeare In Love? This show has lots of fun stuff to keep you involved.
Now all that said who will come out on top when 24 and Chuck come back in 2010? Well, that will be a wonderful dilemma, won’t it? For the first time since I discovered it I can picture a world after 24 has left the small screen that doesn’t completely suck.
