Flash Forward 1x02

[slowfox]

So, I watched FF ep 2 last night - I'm still not wholly sure what I make of it just yet, and am mainly watching 'cos it's there. The script, at times, is teeth-grindingly bad, but the concept is sufficiently intriguing to keep me watching, for now.

Also, the FBI geekette, Janis, is kinda cute :-)

Comments

[glittertine]

Huh. I thought it was terrible. I mean, yes to the concept being great, and also, it has John Cho, but... the first episode was so bad that I just couldn't make myself do the work of clicking a few times to download it. Do keep us appraised of what you think as you go on?

[slowfox]

I thought it was terrible.

It is hard to argue with that analysis. I've been told it gets better, so am willing to grit my teeth and bear it a little more. Plus I'm mostly brain-dead by the evening, at the moment (work is *heavy*), so watching something completely brainless is about all I'm good for.

I will, though, keep y'all appraised of what I make of it for as long as I can stomach watching.

Episode 2 centred around elements from Mark's memory triggering him and Demetri helicoptering over to an abandoned doll-factory in Pigeon, Utah, on a hunch. There they have a firefight, a token expendable gets killed, and the director gets to go all overboard with creepy, atmospheric, sinister-suffused-with-pathos shots of burnt dolls lying abandoned on the floor in the aftermath.

It's a show that's high on gloss, completely US-centric (bearing in mind that it's a global phenomenom) and the central lead (FBI agent Mark) isn't even any use as a waste of space. It's not even clear if the script has worked out just how much authority Mark has - he's got a boss, but seems to be able to make his own decisions, and make snide remarks to his boss' superior to boot.

His wife, the (wouldn't you know it?) brilliant paediatric surgeon (just for once, couldn't the lead be married to... I dunno, someone slightly more mundane?) displays an almost complete lack of chemistry with every other living being in the show. Her assistant, the junior doctor who was contemplating suicide at the start, when he realised what his agent had landed him with has the most awful dialogue to deliver, banal treacle delivered with vapid smile.

The production has that high-gloss sheen that Heroes had - I think, when we look back at the late noughties from a safe vantage point, we'll recognise that glossiness in the same vein as the spray-on-tan and hairspray of the late 80s.

Am I selling you on it yet?

:-P

[glittertine]

Yeah, totally. But see, with S1 of Heroes, it worked, and I even started liking the show again and am watching it as it goes out now. Because behind the gloss and the facepalm, Heroes still tells a good story (if you manage to forget about the main S2 storyline), with good characters. Which FF, and I keep forgetting whether it's FastForward or FlashForward, just doesn't. I wonder if the book is better. Have you read it?

I suppose it just goes to show the eternal rule: the premise of a story can be as godawful or as exciting as can be, it's the execution that matters. FF has such a good idea, many other stories have been there time and again, and you still like being them being retold if done so by a master. That is true for fanfic (the times I have read the story of brooding solitary emo hero who finds love, I honestly couldn't tell you - must be hundreds at least!), and it's true for any fiction, I think.

[carolanne5]

There's a book?

*sidles off to Amazon*

[carolanne5]

You know I think I'm liking the gloss and the possibilities more than what is actually on screen. Episode 1 I loved, Episode 2 was indeed weak. Episode 3 is a little creepy.

[glittertine]

Apparently, the heroes in the book were physicists, not FBIers. :)

[slowfox]

Yep, there's a book

The 'About the author' spiel doesn't encourage me, however:
About the Author
Robert J. Sawyer has been described as Canada's answer to Michael Crichton. Critically acclaimed in the US he is regarded as one of SF's most significant writers and his novels are regularly voted as fan's favourites. He lives in Canada.

Not read it yet, and if I were to do so, then it'd have to be a non-TV cover</culture snob>

[slowfox]

Apparently, the heroes in the book were physicists, not FBIers. :)

Oooh, Geek heroes???!!! NOW I'm interested! :D

[glittertine]

Hey, no guarantees on whether it's good or not! David Hewlett tweeted about it, and I seem to remember him not being too enthused about the ending of the book. But I may be remembering wrongly.

[slowfox]

I thought Episode 2 had some contribution, in terms of bringing the 'mosaic' concept a little closer, and demonstrating that Demetri might be right to suspect (as was later confirmed by the agent in Hong Kong {Bank of China = impossible landmark to miss, and just coincidentally in camera-shot}) that he won't live to April 2010. Esp since the expendable in Utah also hadn't seen anything in her FlashForward.

The doll warehouse was kinda creepy - why were the dolls all hung by the neck? When the FBI could see shadows moving in the upstairs office, why did they still persist in walking across the open floor, holding torches with guns out, so that they presented easier targets to shoot at?

I s'pose it's difficult for television to convey the conviction the characters have that their Flash Forwards all spake the truth. From the couch potato perspective, it seems slightly bonkers (as Demetri thinks) that so much weight is being given to the visions.

[slowfox]

Anything with geeks (mathematicians, scientists, librarians) as heroes still demands at least a cursory glance! And I do like the concept of FlashForward, and am more than willing to suspect that the resultant television series might not be wholly doing justice to the source material...

[carolanne5]

Interestingly from reviewing the reviews it appears that in the book the flashforward was actually 20 years in the future. One of many ways in which the series diverges from the book.

I think I'll hold off the book, in case of major spoilers, but hold it in case my interest wanes with the series.