Written by Linda
February 28, 2010
Would you want a glimpse of your own future?
The entire world of humans blacks out for just over two minutes. When everyone awakens, confused, the damage has been done. Just think of the potential carnage that would occur if everyone were to abruptly slip into unconsciousness simultaneously: there are car accidents galore, planes hitting buildings, etc. that cause over 20 million deaths across the globe. But it is soon revealed that during these two minutes, everyone had a two-minute vision of their lives on the same day, at the exact same time (yes, with time zones taken into account) six months in the future.
FlashForward is an ensemble show with at least a dozen or so characters all dealing with their visions in their own way. Two FBI agents, Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri (John Cho) have vastly different visions to grapple with. Mark sees himself grappling with a web of clues to the origin of the blackout, while Demetri has no vision at all, prompting him to try to solve his own future death in advance to try to avoid it. Mark's wife Olivia (Sonya Walger), a medical doctor, sees herself in an intimate situation with another man. Her colleague Bryce (Zachary Knighton) actually sees himself having a future, proving that he does not go through with his own suicide. And on and on.
The premise is of course a fascinating one. Have you ever been asked if you want to know the exact moment of your death, and the benefits and drawbacks of having such knowledge? Well, how about a peek at just a few months away? Maybe your life will be in the same boring pattern, but maybe you will find yourself with a new lover, or maybe you will have a more glamorous life, or perhaps an exciting unexpected job. Or perhaps you will find that you are drinking again, or your life is filled with some other unspeakable misery. Knowing this information may change how you live now. FlashForward acknowledges this conundrum, showing people who become obsessed with the future, in the hopes that it will... or will not come true.
The show benefits from a fine ensemble of actors, which also includes Gabrielle Union as Demetri's fiancée, Courtney Vance as the FBI agents' boss, Jack Davenport as a physicist and father widowed by the blackout, and the always-weaselly Dominic Monaghan as his brilliant scientist colleague who may or may not have had something to do with causing the blackout. For this first half of Season One, the plot is pulled along by the sheer will and skill of the actors involved. Truthfully, the writing in the show is not as good as it could or should be. It is not as sharply written and directed as other sci-fi serial shows like LOST or Battlestar Galactica. But the mystery and the unfolding clues keep FlashForward intriguing enough, and I'll be watching to see what unfolds in the second half of Season One.
