FlashForward on ABC
 

Did anyone catch this last night? I thought it was interesting and has some great potential. Was a little slow and out there, but the ending brought up a lot of potential storylines. Seems to be taking the same approach Lost has and should be a nice replacement for the show when it goes off the air.

For those who missed it, they have an encore tonight.

LOL, just posted my own thread on this after not seeing one.

I thought it had a lot of potential, but I also thought they gave way too much away in the preview at the end.

Pretty good. A little over dramatic at times and cheesy, but I'll give them that since it was the pilot.

I enjoyed it. It definitely addresses a good theme right off the bat: fate vs. free will. It has definitely caught my interest, so I'll be watching (unless it starts to suck).

don't give the storyline away,

it starts in the UK on Monday evening :-)

The book is good although the timeframe is much longer than 6 months (believe it's like 23 years).

The one thing that annoyed me was how cavalier they were all about essentially millions of people across the world dying. I mean 800 planes down in the country? The guy just went home and slept in his bed like nothing happened. The hospital wasn't filled with tons of people who hurt themselves in car crashes, falls, etc.

May I suggest to not open this thread until you see it then? ;)

I agree, the hospital was very calm and orderly considering all the dead and injured people we saw in the preceding scenes :)

And would we really lose 800 planes? Unless they were just about to land or take off, wouldn't autopilot just kick in?

I was thinking the same thing with the auto-pilot thing. I also thought most planes kicked into auto-pilot if the pilot was unresponsive or dropped below a certain level.

where's PilotMan when you need him for a discussion of autopilot features?

I liked it but if it goes with the plot from the book, I'll feel like I'm wasting my time. I don't remember every detail from the book but I remember the why.

I agree the first episode showed potential and I'll be tuning in. Here's the problem though... Lost was throwing everything against the wall and packing the early episodes with action to ensure they were picked up, then had that fall off in S2 until they confirmed a series end date/episode run and were able to make the show great again. So I'm worried that this show will either end before they finish the story if the ratings aren't there, or have a long lull/holding pattern where they aren't sure how much to stretch things out.

Plus the logistics of the "one man walking" scene annoyed me :) - why would Detroit be playing a baseball game at 12:00pm CST? Even if they scheduled it to be a 1pm EST start, they're still doing 1st pitch/national anthem/lineups at the hour and only starting the game around 7 minutes past.

I thought the premiere was ok. I didn't think the writing was very strong and thought the show spelled out too much (like the possibly reason why the main character starts drinking again). All that being said I will give the show a few more weeks because a pilot typically is written only to help the show get on the air. The next four episodes or so should be especially strong or at least I hope that will be the case. It felt like the first episode was already moving too fast as though the characters were putting things together too quickly given the timeframe with relation to the actual blackout itself. Also I wish TV execs would stop casting drop dead gorgeous models as terrorists or potential terrorists. It isn't the least bit realistic and just looks ridiculously out of place.

Pretty sure Detroit is EST, and I have seen plenty of games this year start in the 12'o'clock hour in different venues (although they tended to be Sundays).

You can take your classical, ugly, gap tooth terrorists and shove it. I want me some models! :D

Oceanic Airlines was on the billboard. I also saw several mentions of Red Panda, which also appears on a viral website for the show. Seems like they want to make this show a companion to/replacement for Lost.

the kangroo thing was odd

Not sure what was up with kangaroo. The LA Zoo isn't close enough to where he was supposed to be for there to be a kangaroo from the zoo already there...

I haven't seen the show, but wasn't the "outage" a couple of minutes or so? I wouldn't be surprised if across the U.S. alone 800 planes would be taking off or into their descent in that time period, depending on the time of day.

This show has been primed to be the replacement for Lost at the end of the year. They ran the premier two nights in a row and have been on a massive advertising push. I think they've made the investment into this show to give the writers enough confidence to feel they can write it how they want.

But I agree with your point in regards to most shows. It's sad that writers have to essentially make the show worse for the first two weeks to draw the dumber audiences. A show like Mad Men which is widely labeled as the best show on TV would never make it on network television.

I made the case in another thread that it would be nice if shows were given 2-3 year contracts. Perhaps a contingency plan could be put up if the show fails so that it would switch to a cable network. For instance you sign Friday Night Lights to a 3 year deal. If the show bombs in the ratings, you put the next two seasons on USA. It probably makes no financial sense, but I do think it would create much better TV. It's kind of obvious these days to see writers enter storylines too carefully and feel rushed to hit a moment that should otherwise take a season or two of buildup.

House has done so well in the ratings that they can take their time building up to something such as the Cuddy-House romance. I wonder if the show was on the bubble during the first year if we would have seen their romance in episode 8.

Watched it online. Thought it was pretty good. Definitely has a lot of potential.

Agree with others here that they showed us to much to quickly. I really think the surveillance tape of the man seen walking at Tigers Stadium should have been revealed a few episodes down the line. Also would have liked to see more normal joes then a cast mostly of doctors and FBI agents.

I hope his marriage ends not because of his drinking but because he starts boning the babysitter.

The 800 planes thing is weird to me because there would be so much death anyway that there seems no need at all to exaggerate. Everyone in cars/busses, etc, many people in any kind of water(pool/ocean/bathtub for some??).

It seems morbidly entertaining to me to ponder what other situations could potentially lead to death if everyone just blacked out where they were all at once. Falling down a flight of stairs is the first thing that comes to mind, followed by all kinds of random kitchen injuries.


I enjoyed the first episode and will definitely be watching.

Charley creeps me out. Felt that needed to come first.

Secondly, the warehouse scene was great. Had a nice creepiness factor to it that I didn't really expect with this show.

We'll see where all the clues head to but so far it's a manageable amount of stuff to keep track of.

Anyway, good second episode. Not ready to anoint this an amazing show but it's intriguing and I will for sure be watching every week.

I still think the writers are giving away too much too soon. I also noticed Demetri's "death" date is March 15, the Ides of March. Foreshadowing betrayal much?

Yeah I agree not as good as the first ep. but alright. It is either the next Lost or the next Jericho could go either way.

I like the storylines and the writing of the show. The production is also great. For some reason though, I just don't like any of the characters.

I kind of need that one character that I can really enjoy watching every week. Fringe has it with Walter, House has it with House, but there isn't any character that draws me in yet with this show. I was thinking the Asian guy would be it since I think he has the most unique storyline, but he's been kind of blah for the first two episodes. Hopefully that changes as the season keeps going on.

The only character that will pull me in is the guy from Harold and Kumar. I think this show made a BIG mistake by giving away way too much in the pilot. They took away all kinds of drama so that as events unfold, they're blah.

And they keep shoehorning in reminders as to previous key points just in case you missed them the first ten times.

Definitely writing for the lowest common denominator, but the premise is good. If they smarten up the dialogue and add a bit of depth, and just let people watch and pick up the keys instead of ramming them repeatedly down our throats, it could be good.

I haven't seen the 2nd episode yet, but for me when they showed the date for the big mystery event in the first one, I turned to my wife and said "imagine that: sweeps week." took away a lot of my enthusiasm for the show.

and yeah, the way the entire world gets back to normal within hours of a global disaster was extremely off-putting.

Good episode last night. I thought the ending with the crows was a cool use of effects and of course, the fact it happened before on a smaller scale was pretty cool.

Three episodes in and I am a fan but I am still skeptical it won't turn into Season 3 of Lost eventually which would be a bummer.

I liked it although everything with the Nazi was a huge fucking waste. And really...they had to make the brother a Nazi?! No everyday serial killer that could've been used?

No idea what that was supposed to be at the end.

I think my wife has already mentally checked out on this show. She's not really interested in watching it with me on the DVR when I get home on Thursday nights any more.

I'm still enjoying it though, but I wonder how they plan on keeping the show going long term if the "flash forward" was to next April. I wonder if once we get to that point, the next season will be following up on whoever caused it, or if some other event will occur or what.

Looked like a transmitter tower.

I think he means the cloud formation.

Ah..

transmitter clouds then.


:p :D

I agree, I hope it goes the way of Jericho

Feel the same way, much of the acting just seems forced. Will give this show a fair chance as I did Lost just hope it doesn't end up being a big let down.

Show is still holding my interest although me and the wife had alot of teeth gnashing over the Benford's little spat.

Haven't seen the last two episodes (still on the DVR) but it is starting to lose my interest. My wife and I liked the first few episodes, but now it just seems like they are trying way too hard and it's just going way too slowly, and like Brownkeg said, the acting just seems to forced. Might try out the last two episodes, but I don't think it will keep me around for much longer...

Yeah I agree that it has some sloppy writing at times but I find myself eager to watch it come Thursday's. I think finally some of the characters are becoming a little more interesting which has made the show better.

The biggest strength though are the action scenes which are very well done.

I'm in the same boat. I really want to like this show and see it turn into another "Lost" but the writing just isn't that good and I don't particularly care about any of the characters. Also, it really bothers me that John Cho's character's name is Dmitri.

It feels like one of those really shitty sci-fi movies you find on TV but with better production value. I'll keep watching it just because I want to know where it goes, but I don't consider it a great show.

Hoping that V is as good as it looks.

I find myself disagreeing with this forum a lot when it comes to TV shows. I really hated Dollhouse with a passion, and think Southland is nothing special. But I think this show is very good, even though I agree with the scene mentioned a few posts ago.

I think it has actually gotten better as it progresses. I went from thinking John Cho was cast badly to now really enjoying his character.

Next you guys will tell me Modern Family isn't funny...

I continue to become less and less interested in this show. The acting is really pretty bad in my opinion. Like others have mentioned, the writing is also not stellar. I have a feeling this one is going to be a great premise that just goes by the wayside as a "woulda, coulda, shoulda"

Agree with everybody else pretty much, the acting is terrible and the writing is pretty bad but it just has enough potential that I still look forward to it every week. If it starts to go round and round in circles and never provide any answers like Lost did, forget it, but right now I'm still watching.

Agreed - this show has probably the worst acting of any show on the networks right now.

This show has gone from a must watch for me, to a DVR and watch when I get home to now being a DVR and oh yeah I haven't watched that show yet.

It had so much promise, but it just is not keeping me. I'm still watching it though, hoping for it to pick up.