FlashForward; the wrap up
Jun. 13th, 2010 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessSo I finally got around to finishing up FlashForward. Alert readers will have noticed that the show actually ended a few weeks ago, which kinda illustrates the many problems right there.
As I've said earlier, FlashForward had a marvelous dual premise: first, what if nearly everyone in the world did know what would be happening in about nine months? (One of the minor irritations of the show was never addressing the concerns of the multiple people in the world who were asleep during the initial event and therefore missed out, unless they just happened to have unusually vivid dreams and managed to remember them after waking up and not merely dismissing them as, look, even in nine months mushrooms are not going to be talking. [Er. That was my dream last night. They were genetically alerted mushrooms although I know many of you are going to point out that even genetically alerted mushrooms a) aren't too likely to actually talk and b) probably won't have that much to say other than, "Shade. Awesome. More of that, please," but I have never claimed that my dreams are models of logic and possibility. But I digress!] The dream part might have been true, but it was never, as far as I know, actually addressed.) How many people would be desperately trying to stop those futures, and how many would be actively creating them? And could the futures be altered?
That could have been interesting enough, but the show added a second dimension: the FlashForward event killed millions (which should have created more disruption and panic than it actually did) what with cars and planes and electronics everywhere failing, and nobody knew if a second event might be coming. How do you act knowing that another event that might kill millions is coming?
If you are Olivia, YOU BECOME AN ANGST RIDDEN IRRITATION. But I anticipate.
So, awesome premise.
And after the first episode, shoddy execution that could be best described as a disorganized mess. Sideplots popped up only to be abandoned by the next episode. A woman angsted and angsted and angsted over saving her marriage, only to dump that by the next episode. (Also, for the record, "trying to save several million people from dying in another blackout" is generally considered a worthwhile reason for your spouse to risk his life, but I digress.) Unlikeable and boring characters were replaced by….unlikeable and boring characters. Rings were found and fondled by hobbits. (Ok, ok, just one ring and one hobbit, but that sentence leapt into my mind and would not be killed.) Characters headed to Afghanistan and found stunning cell phone/satellite phone reception. (The most inexplicable part of that whole plot is why they weren't using that phone to update Facebook.) Bits of medieval art were introduced in a failed attempt to keep the show, um, intellectual. Cliffhangers leapt up only to rapidly flattened. And, lo and behold, a Miracle Autistic Child appeared. He wanted cookies. I think he spoke for all of us.
I did like the kangaroo.
I can't blame the actors, or the camera work. I can blame the writers and producers, for forgetting that just having the idea isn't enough. You also need something – a tight, twisted plot; likeable or, failing that, watchable characters, villains that you love to hate, solid dialogue, creepiness, something. And although no one wants static, unchanging characters in drama (sitcoms thrive on the idea), that's not a license for having everyone act inconsistently from week to week. (The major problem with both of the love triangles in this show wasn't the love triangles, but the fact that everybody in both of them kept acting out of character. Well, and they were both fairly boring.)
Other comments about the finale:
1. You know, I realize that when Dmitri finally gets around to explaining that while she's been running around desperately trying to save his life, he was busy sleeping with his lesbian best friend because, you know, why fight the future, we are meant to think that Dmitri is massively in the wrong here, and, well, yes, he is, and you know, with anybody else, I'd be yelling, go, Zoey! Go! Leave him in the airport because, well, Worst Excuse For Cheating Ever, but, you know, I found Zoey, what with, "Sure, everyone expects violence and riots tomorrow and you're on the biggest case ever and you need to stop future blackouts, but, what I really want is for you to head to Hawaii instead, because this needs for once to be all about us, even though for most of this show I've been making everything all about us to the point of screwing with FBI investigations and arranging situations where I let terrorists free and embarrass you in front of your bosses and coworkers and so on," so annoying that I was actually on Dmitri's side here. This is sad.
2. Ok, I get it, Alcoholics Anonymous takes this not drinking stuff really seriously. Still, you're going to be taking a "help a fellow alcoholic call" when you're bent across the body of your still critically injured daughter out in the middle of Afghanistan? I realize this is Big Flashy Day but STILL. You would think that someone else could take that call.
3. Oh, for the love of…so, the woman who helped you through your chemo and encouraged your crazy ideas and made you cupcakes has already told you that in her vision of the future, she was getting strangled, so, after hearing that she lied to you (after, I might add, you specifically told her that you were no longer interested in Keiko and didn't want to hear anymore about her) you….suddenly dump her to run after after a woman you had a two minute vision of, once. I get the anger, boring doctor, really, I do, but, would it have killed you to make sure that someone was around to keep your friend from getting strangled? (While I'm at it, massive cop out, show, on turning the strangling into a rescue attempt, and while I'm really at it, why didn't the girl ever bother to check the Mosaic project to see if someone else matched her vision, thus curing her anxieties and keeping her off the roads that night?)
(This was the threesome with vaguely likeable but boring characters who needed to play more guitar.)
4. I was delighted to see Olivia showing her kind, caring side by making out with the guy who needs to save the world and thus completely diverting his attention from Critical Math Formulas on the same night that her daughter is convinced that her soon-to-be-ex-husband is going to die which was supposedly the one event Olivia was attempting to stop some time ago. Consistency, thy name is…pardon me. Consistency is refusing to be associated with FlashForward and has run away crying because the writers treated it with utter indifference.
(This was the threesome with three outstandingly charismatic actors all known for playing deeply sympathetic characters, deeply likeable characters, or deeply fascinating villains we love to hate, that managed to become three vaguely to very unlikeable characters caught in a plot that became less and less interesting the more time they spent in it who all needed to eat more cookies.)
5. Ok, I get that Bad Guys Can't Aim, but seriously: five guys with machine guns and Mark Benford doesn't even have a wound? It's enough to kill my faith in Evil Nixon Masks.
As I've said earlier, FlashForward had a marvelous dual premise: first, what if nearly everyone in the world did know what would be happening in about nine months? (One of the minor irritations of the show was never addressing the concerns of the multiple people in the world who were asleep during the initial event and therefore missed out, unless they just happened to have unusually vivid dreams and managed to remember them after waking up and not merely dismissing them as, look, even in nine months mushrooms are not going to be talking. [Er. That was my dream last night. They were genetically alerted mushrooms although I know many of you are going to point out that even genetically alerted mushrooms a) aren't too likely to actually talk and b) probably won't have that much to say other than, "Shade. Awesome. More of that, please," but I have never claimed that my dreams are models of logic and possibility. But I digress!] The dream part might have been true, but it was never, as far as I know, actually addressed.) How many people would be desperately trying to stop those futures, and how many would be actively creating them? And could the futures be altered?
That could have been interesting enough, but the show added a second dimension: the FlashForward event killed millions (which should have created more disruption and panic than it actually did) what with cars and planes and electronics everywhere failing, and nobody knew if a second event might be coming. How do you act knowing that another event that might kill millions is coming?
If you are Olivia, YOU BECOME AN ANGST RIDDEN IRRITATION. But I anticipate.
So, awesome premise.
And after the first episode, shoddy execution that could be best described as a disorganized mess. Sideplots popped up only to be abandoned by the next episode. A woman angsted and angsted and angsted over saving her marriage, only to dump that by the next episode. (Also, for the record, "trying to save several million people from dying in another blackout" is generally considered a worthwhile reason for your spouse to risk his life, but I digress.) Unlikeable and boring characters were replaced by….unlikeable and boring characters. Rings were found and fondled by hobbits. (Ok, ok, just one ring and one hobbit, but that sentence leapt into my mind and would not be killed.) Characters headed to Afghanistan and found stunning cell phone/satellite phone reception. (The most inexplicable part of that whole plot is why they weren't using that phone to update Facebook.) Bits of medieval art were introduced in a failed attempt to keep the show, um, intellectual. Cliffhangers leapt up only to rapidly flattened. And, lo and behold, a Miracle Autistic Child appeared. He wanted cookies. I think he spoke for all of us.
I did like the kangaroo.
I can't blame the actors, or the camera work. I can blame the writers and producers, for forgetting that just having the idea isn't enough. You also need something – a tight, twisted plot; likeable or, failing that, watchable characters, villains that you love to hate, solid dialogue, creepiness, something. And although no one wants static, unchanging characters in drama (sitcoms thrive on the idea), that's not a license for having everyone act inconsistently from week to week. (The major problem with both of the love triangles in this show wasn't the love triangles, but the fact that everybody in both of them kept acting out of character. Well, and they were both fairly boring.)
Other comments about the finale:
1. You know, I realize that when Dmitri finally gets around to explaining that while she's been running around desperately trying to save his life, he was busy sleeping with his lesbian best friend because, you know, why fight the future, we are meant to think that Dmitri is massively in the wrong here, and, well, yes, he is, and you know, with anybody else, I'd be yelling, go, Zoey! Go! Leave him in the airport because, well, Worst Excuse For Cheating Ever, but, you know, I found Zoey, what with, "Sure, everyone expects violence and riots tomorrow and you're on the biggest case ever and you need to stop future blackouts, but, what I really want is for you to head to Hawaii instead, because this needs for once to be all about us, even though for most of this show I've been making everything all about us to the point of screwing with FBI investigations and arranging situations where I let terrorists free and embarrass you in front of your bosses and coworkers and so on," so annoying that I was actually on Dmitri's side here. This is sad.
2. Ok, I get it, Alcoholics Anonymous takes this not drinking stuff really seriously. Still, you're going to be taking a "help a fellow alcoholic call" when you're bent across the body of your still critically injured daughter out in the middle of Afghanistan? I realize this is Big Flashy Day but STILL. You would think that someone else could take that call.
3. Oh, for the love of…so, the woman who helped you through your chemo and encouraged your crazy ideas and made you cupcakes has already told you that in her vision of the future, she was getting strangled, so, after hearing that she lied to you (after, I might add, you specifically told her that you were no longer interested in Keiko and didn't want to hear anymore about her) you….suddenly dump her to run after after a woman you had a two minute vision of, once. I get the anger, boring doctor, really, I do, but, would it have killed you to make sure that someone was around to keep your friend from getting strangled? (While I'm at it, massive cop out, show, on turning the strangling into a rescue attempt, and while I'm really at it, why didn't the girl ever bother to check the Mosaic project to see if someone else matched her vision, thus curing her anxieties and keeping her off the roads that night?)
(This was the threesome with vaguely likeable but boring characters who needed to play more guitar.)
4. I was delighted to see Olivia showing her kind, caring side by making out with the guy who needs to save the world and thus completely diverting his attention from Critical Math Formulas on the same night that her daughter is convinced that her soon-to-be-ex-husband is going to die which was supposedly the one event Olivia was attempting to stop some time ago. Consistency, thy name is…pardon me. Consistency is refusing to be associated with FlashForward and has run away crying because the writers treated it with utter indifference.
(This was the threesome with three outstandingly charismatic actors all known for playing deeply sympathetic characters, deeply likeable characters, or deeply fascinating villains we love to hate, that managed to become three vaguely to very unlikeable characters caught in a plot that became less and less interesting the more time they spent in it who all needed to eat more cookies.)
5. Ok, I get that Bad Guys Can't Aim, but seriously: five guys with machine guns and Mark Benford doesn't even have a wound? It's enough to kill my faith in Evil Nixon Masks.