Pilot Review: FlashForward

ABC just premiered their biggest SciFi drama since LOST. A prime 8:00 Thursday slot, the show features some pretty heavy hitters- Shakespeare in Love’s Joe Fiennes stars alongside John Cho (Harold or Sulu, depending on your preference), Broadway megastar Brian O’Bryne, Dominic Monagahan (Charlie from LOST), Sonya Walger (Penny from LOST….ABC doesn’t stray too far from the genre actors they know, apparently). The premise of the show kicks in about minute 6, when everyone IN THE ENTIRE WORLD blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Then it turns out, they didn’t blackout, but had some sort of collective vision of the same hour six months from when the blackout occurs. It’s a very interesting plot, and incredibly unique, especially for network standards. I’m certainly all for shows based on crazy apocalyptic events, but this one left me a little underwhelmed. Let’s explore, shall we?

Jaceface’s List of TV Show Pros and Cons, Flashforward edition.

Pro: Unique idea.

It’s not a medical drama, it’s not a cop drama (though our hero/heroine couple are an FBI agent and a surgeon, respectively). It seem like episode will build around one character’s “flash forward” (the vision they had when blacked out), but still contribute to the central story- Why did the blackout happen?

Con: Decidedly non unique dialogue

The screenwriters obviously spent a whole lotta time watching classic scifi and film noir movies, cause holy geez is the script laden with cliches. We had a lot of “It happened one late night. It was dark, raining. Something was about to change,” and “We will start an interagency task force. You will head it.” “It was April 9th. 10:00am” type lines repeated a gazillion times directly into the camera. We get it. It’s serious.

Also, the pilot was really more of a compilation of 30 second mini-scenes, which made it difficult to get hooked on any particular character or storyline. Hopefully that was just for the first episode, to get all the exposition in, and it’ll be more fleshed out as we go one.

Pro: Joe Fiennes!

He is just as smolderingly sexy and intense as he is on the big screen, and definitely can carry the emotional weight of the story. A lot of the personal drama is set up to happen between him and his wife- who’s vision was her sleeping with another man.

Con: Joe Fiennes

I love him, but homeboy doesn’t have a lick of comedic sensibility in this character. At least not that he showed during the pilot. Brooding is good, but our leading men need charisma and humor to carry hour after hour of a network drama. Hugh Laurie, anyone?

Pro: John Cho!

Cause he’s awesome!

Con: John Cho

Cause they  might kill him off…. (he didn’t have a vision when he blacked out, which leads us to believe he doesn’t exist in the 6 month near future)

Pro: Cool Chicks!

Our heroine- Penny from Lost, appears to NOT be a cliche for once. She’s a tough surgeon (she saves a little boy!), but also a devoted wife, devastated by the idea that she’ll leave her husband for another guy (Keira Knightly’s other fiance from Pirates!) Hooray for women with depth!

Con: I don’t have one for that. Yay cool chicks!

Pro: Jett Jackson!

Lee Thompson Young is on. His vision has something to do with London… I wasn’t really paying attention, cause it’s Jett Jackson!

Con: Seth MacFarlane

is also on this show. Ugh.

Verdict? I’ll keep watching. Yay SciFi!

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Tags: stuff we watch that you don't, Thursday

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