FLASHFORWARD: THE COMPLETE SERIES
(not rated)
MOVIE: **** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
On October 6, 2009, the entire world suffered a mysterious black-out. Every person lost consciousness for less than three minutes, then woke up with a vision of their future on April 29, 2010. This global black-out caused massive destruction and the death of 20 million people through accidents and crashes. The FBI assigns a task force to study the black-out and its ramifications. In the process, we see the man lives of the people touched by this phenomenon – from the people who think they caused it to the authorities working on the case and even the people who didn’t see a glimpse of the future. The full season realizes some answers to what caused the blackout and hints at greater things to happen in years to come.
WHAT I LIKED
“FlashForward” was one of those shows meant to replace “Lost” in the minds of many TV viewers. Did it accomplish this? Of course not, considering it was canceled at the end of the first season. However, it was probably the closest we’ve gotten to a worthy replacement. (Yeah, I know there’s those out there who love “The Event,” but that show is simply awful.)
The best part of “FlashForward” is that there is a real mystery there. Most of the main characters are in the same boat as the audience is… not knowing anything about what happened. And even those who know some secrets don’t know all of them.
For the most part, I like the macro character developments. There are only a few characters that I really don’t enjoy watching, but at least they are secondary or have smaller roles. I’ve always enjoyed these long-form novels-for-television, and “FlashForward” gives a nice beginning for what could have been a great series.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
While “FlashForward” was a decent replacement for “Lost,” it didn’t have the same overall appeal for me. There were some characters I just didn’t like, including anything involved with the suicidal doctor (including his two love interests, American and Japanese). I also could not stand the characterization of kids in the series, in particular the poorly written child with autism. At least these folks were balanced with some pretty good characters.
As the series wrapped up and made sure it was open-ended enough for a possible return, we get left with a decent cliffhanger. Sadly, the show was canceled, and we’ll never see how it turned out.
DVD FEATURES
This DVD is beefier than the first half of the season, which was released about a year ago. The features from the first release – “Creating a Catastrophe: The Effects of a Global Blackout” and “FlashForward: a Look Ahead” – are preserved in this set.
Additional features include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, bloopers and several new featurettes. “Architects of Destiny” examine the development of the series from pilot to finale. “Meet Yuko” profiles Japanese star Yuko Takeuchi in a guest role (a role which I did not like, personally, but now see why it was featured so heavily in the show). “FlashForward On Set” gives some stories from the cast and crew. “Interviews from the Mosaic Collective” show some embedded interviews played in the background of the series, which are shockingly poorly acted. Finally, “Kangaroo?” asks the question of why a kangaroo makes an appearance throughout. It’s not quite the polar bear from “Lost,” though.
Sadly, there’s no additional features in this set that gives any real answers, which would have been nice since the show isn’t continuing.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of ensemble character dramas with a fantastical element to the story.