While everyone is in despair regarding the hiatus of their fav US shows
I decided to make good use of the time and catch up with FLASHFORWARD.Actually I had this planned all along. With Bones, SPN, The Mentalist and Fringe on Thursdays, I thougth I'd keep the 5th show for the winter break. Also because I hoped it would be thrill, shock, suspense so I wouldn't want to suffer from the cliffhangers. I was so naiv.
FlashForward fails on SO many levels I'm going to make it short and painless unlike the show itself:-The episodes drag on. I catch myself checking how minutes are left because the "cliff" at the end is the most interesting part of the episode
-of course the cliffs turn out to be trolls
-nobody seems to care. If I saw a glimpse of my future I wouldn't just go back to normal life as if nothing ever happened
-nobody except secret services and some journalists are trying to find out the truth. It's not like it's a big deal or anything
-for a show trying big on scientific realism, the rest is pretty surreal, starting with the cowboyish behaviour of the FBI. Oh wait that's just American TV for you I forgot.
-Chinese triads pop out of nowhere. That's #2 of the shittiest plot-devices you can possibly imagine, after #1 "Aliens" and right before #3 "Nazis". How is Hollywood going to survive in 50 years when the last nazis are dead and you can't point fingers at them anymore??
-a character-driven show with fail!charcacters can not possibly turn out well.
The characters are:50% bleak: Gay chick, Asian guy, black guy in command, like that we don't offend our audience. As if they being minorities made them characters. They're all stereotypes, why should we care? At least Fringe's black guy in command Broyles has a personality which is a luxury nobody in FF can afford.
50% clishee and unlikeable: Mark is the typical FBI cowboy, self-righteous and judgemental. He is being unfair towards his wife for something she hasn't done yet, but does not realise HE is the one pushing her into another man's arms with this jerk behaviour. The fact that he saw the investigation in his flashforward entitles him to disobey direct orders and act like, well a cowboy by taking civillians hostages and killing potential innocents? But when his own daughter has answers (D.Gibbons' ID) noooo, we're not pressuring the poor girl, leave her time, meanwhile imma go blow the budget and tour around the world.
100% predictable: Aside from Simon, who else ever surprised you? Nobody. Everybody acts according to the flashforward, desperately trying to avoid it, or to make it happen at all cost? Don't you think that's the easiest way to jeopardize things, when you try too hard?
Special mention for being disappointing: Olivia. As a blonde Olivia on TV you are OLBIGED to kick ass.
Character trivia: Hello SPN! Genevieve "Ruby" Cortese is an alcoholic veteran tracked by a super sekrit military group and Kubrik(S3) is D.Gibbons. No point intended.
Of course it's not all bad; some cliffs are semi-decent (episode 5), some characters really touching (Janis, Stan, Al), some futures I'm looking forward to see happening (Brice and Keiko's, just because it's so HAPPY for a change) and you can really see the episodes that sucked most of the budget (the kangaroo was apparently one of the most expensive scenes ever made for TV). But the black-out thing itself? I'm just mildly curious.
An apocalypse and special effects might make the success of a 3h movie, but not of a multiple-season show.
Imho FlashForward is being completely overshadowed by
Fringe that has a similar concept (scientific advancement, paranormal occurences, paralel universes etc.) and rocks it the right way. And with the finale of LOST starting, this isn't looking too well. I would not be surprised if the show got cancelled over summer/in fall).
I'd like to fast-forward to April 29th, see if the fuss about it was worth it.
But for a finale to save an entire season, it has to be one HELL of a finale.I sense this turning into the next "Knowing". Fucking awesome pitch ruined by adaptation and interpretation.
And honestly, I don't see how this show could go on past April 29th. Once the mystery is solved, what is left?
Finally, this is also the show I feel least guilty downloading, because it's broadcasted all over the world, yes even subbed in French, but only for pay TV. I think that's lame blah blah capitalism raw raw fight the power, if it's available in my language, why can't I watch it? (I did BTW, DL one episode with the subs and WTF?? Even crunchyroll gets decent subs done in one day, it should not be as painful. I bet it's a strategy to confuse viewers so they buy the DVDs to finally understand the translation)
Feel free to defend it if you think I'm terribly wrong and unfair. It might not change my opinion, but for argument's sake I'd participate in the discussion.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
happy
disappointed
calm
energetic
