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Post by The Doctor on Oct 10, 2009 22:11:46 GMT
Watched the first 3 eps but there I shall stop. Intriguing premise, but the flat dialogue and characters knock it dead. It's TV wallpaper when it should be shocking and intriguing. Bloody awful music too.
-Ralph
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Post by Dark Stranger on Oct 10, 2009 22:35:49 GMT
Saw the first episode and quite liked it actually, think I might stick with it for a bit, see how it develops. I love the premise.
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Post by The Doctor on Oct 11, 2009 16:34:08 GMT
Oh, it's a fantastic premise. Human civilisation undergoing an unknowable catastrophe for 2 minutes and 17 seconds that affects everyone on Earth similtaneously: you could get gripping and shocking drama out of that alone, nevermind that you have the 'flash forward' premise layered on top. But that is brushed away very quickly, other than the odd shot of slightly burned buildings. How would human society deal with such a large amount of the population being wiped out so suddenly and randomly? This show does not seem interested in asking this question. And it felt like a show treating its audience with utter contempt as if they have very low attention spans, with scenes apparently repeated endlessly. During the flash forward people's sense of time was as usual during it. So can the show just have us see that time properly? No. It has to have gimmicks, so it's all broken up and repeated with crash zooms and colour grading effects. Which would only make sense if the people experienced the time jump that way. But they didn't!
And it just gets more and more stupid as it goes on. Lead FBI Bloke apparently has photographic memory as when prompted by Plot Twists he can suddenly remember Important Facts from his flash forward. Now this is ludicrous, as he was looking at a wall covered in dozens and dozens of bits of case info. His recall only makes sense if he has photographic memory, which hasn't been mentioned in dialogue.
Then you have what is the investigation into the most significant event in human history since, say, the birth of Christ and the case is handled by...three FBI agents. In one office. In one country. One of which thinks he is dead in the future and is having trouble focussing, so should be yanked off the case straight away.
Oh for fuck sakes!
Then you have Lead FBI Bloke's wife who says the man she saw in her flash forward didn't see her. Even though we are repeatedly shown her POV from it when the man clearly turns. We see his eyes looking at us, the viewer. Unless he has a sight problem, he saw her. I could let this go if it wasn't constantly referenced as A Major Plot Point.
And then we have the Nazi Bloke in episode 3. He won't tell his Great Secret unless he is given freedom from German Jail. Lead FBI Bloke (who is a moron) engineers him getting it on the grounds that it is the lesser evil, etc.
No. No. For fuck sakes no.
This is the greatest event in human history. All he had to do is bluff, get the info, then tell Nazi Bloke he can rot in jail anyway. In such a scenario, world governments would not have the slightest problem with over-riding rules of law, etc. Nazi Bloke's lawyer would be quietly dealt with if necessary.
ARGH! WHAT A STUPID FUCKING SHOW!
I only get annoyed because the potential of the premise could have promised genuinely striking drama. But no. What crap.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on Oct 11, 2009 17:50:03 GMT
Oh, it's a fantastic premise. Human civilisation undergoing an unknowable catastrophe for 2 minutes and 17 seconds that affects everyone on Earth similtaneously: you could get gripping and shocking drama out of that alone, nevermind that you have the 'flash forward' premise layered on top. But that is brushed away very quickly, other than the odd shot of slightly burned buildings. How would human society deal with such a large amount of the population being wiped out so suddenly and randomly? This show does not seem interested in asking this question. And it felt like a show treating its audience with utter contempt as if they have very low attention spans, with scenes apparently repeated endlessly. During the flash forward people's sense of time was as usual during it. So can the show just have us see that time properly? No. It has to have gimmicks, so it's all broken up and repeated with crash zooms and colour grading effects. Which would only make sense if the people experienced the time jump that way. But they didn't! And it just gets more and more stupid as it goes on. Lead FBI Bloke apparently has photographic memory as when prompted by Plot Twists he can suddenly remember Important Facts from his flash forward. Now this is ludicrous, as he was looking at a wall covered in dozens and dozens of bits of case info. His recall only makes sense if he has photographic memory, which hasn't been mentioned in dialogue. Then you have what is the investigation into the most significant event in human history since, say, the birth of Christ and the case is handled by...three FBI agents. In one office. In one country. One of which thinks he is dead in the future and is having trouble focussing, so should be yanked off the case straight away. Oh for fuck sakes! Then you have Lead FBI Bloke's wife who says the man she saw in her flash forward didn't see her. Even though we are repeatedly shown her POV from it when the man clearly turns. We see his eyes looking at us, the viewer. Unless he has a sight problem, he saw her. I could let this go if it wasn't constantly referenced as A Major Plot Point. And then we have the Nazi Bloke in episode 3. He won't tell his Great Secret unless he is given freedom from German Jail. Lead FBI Bloke (who is a moron) engineers him getting it on the grounds that it is the lesser evil, etc. No. No. For fuck sakes no. This is the greatest event in human history. All he had to do is bluff, get the info, then tell Nazi Bloke he can rot in jail anyway. In such a scenario, world governments would not have the slightest problem with over-riding rules of law, etc. Nazi Bloke's lawyer would be quietly dealt with if necessary. ARGH! WHAT A STUPID FUCKING SHOW! I only get annoyed because the potential of the premise could have promised genuinely striking drama. But no. What crap. -Ralph Pretty much agree with everything you say. Though spoilers please I assume your watching online because I havent seen ep 3. In defense of the flash forward visual, the chopping makes a degree of sense to me. The lead guys flash forward which we were seeing in real time during the black out probably should have been smooth, but everything after is that person remembering the events and I at least dont remember every second at least not in real time, memory is choppy. I imagine a future memory would be worse the less you understand the context of what you remember. The memory thing, I can accept some people have good memories for one. Also when he was having the vision he had been looking at that board, or putting it together for 6 months. So maybe he has a better memory of the board than those 2 minute alone would provide normally. But in the end Brannon Braga is behind it so of course it will fail to live up to the concept. Andy |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 11, 2009 18:41:38 GMT
I watched the first episode and half-watched the second, but shan't carry on with it. Like '24' and 'Lost' and soap operas everywhere it strikes me as one of those shows which doesn't really have a story that warrants stringing out over a long series but will do so because it has a formula which will make a sufficiently big audience addicts, and it will draw everything out in as protracted a manner as it thinks it can get away with without losing the audience, in order to make as much money as possible.
The story from such series tends to be one that can easily be told in a few hours, by cutting out the padding and just keeping the original, innovative ideas.
Not that I mind stories being told over long series (like Masterforce and B5). But the supplementary character development and side plots have to justify the extra time taken. And I feel sure that in this case, as in most, they won't.
Martin
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Post by Bogatan on Oct 11, 2009 19:04:23 GMT
I read that the show has a solid conclusion at the end of this season and a complete story that can be played out in three years but if it run between four and seven years the story will be expanded/stretched or extra stories added. The plus side is that it has been planned out in advance.
So I'm kind of hoping for a show that struggles through the three years without great ratings. 7 years just feels like to long to have an ongoing story especially knowing it could have been ended years earlier.
Andy
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2009 19:09:26 GMT
Judging by what people have said here I think I'll give this series a miss. I can't stand shows that have too many loose ends in them.
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Oct 14, 2009 17:53:51 GMT
I've watched the first few episodes. Love the concept but it was pretty clear from the first episode it doesn't have enough legs for a full series without serious padding. I'll stick with it because its entertaining enough and there is naff all on on a Monday but I'll be dropping it like a hot rock if there is a cliffhanger ending to the series and any sniff of a second one.
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Post by Bogatan on Oct 14, 2009 19:18:43 GMT
A full 20+ episode season has been confirmed so at least there will be an ending to this season.
Andy
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Post by Cullen on Oct 15, 2009 12:42:41 GMT
I can only see one season though. The concept doesn't generate enough material for a single season let alone many. If its popular however it could be picked up for a second. At which point I definitely won't be watching.
So the flashforward was to April 10th 2010 yes? I bet that's when the last episode will be broadcast in the US.
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Post by Bogatan on Oct 27, 2009 23:20:52 GMT
While SGU continues to go up in my opinion (and it was high to start with) Flashforward is just baffling me, if anyone can explain the final scene from this weeks episode to me, please do. Was the gunfight being played for laughs or was it meant to be inspirational dramatic moment. The boss saves the lead characters life and the lead is shocked because they'd just had an arguement. He must have a high opinion of his boss. Still the team got to have a bonding moment and show every one how cool it is to be in a gunfight after your cars been blown up.
The scene was so bad the show reached the critical so bad its good point, I'll have to keep watching now just to see if it reaches such crazy heights again.
Andy
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Post by Cullen on Oct 30, 2009 14:15:26 GMT
Yup it has lesbians kissing and random gun fights in it now. Any pretence that it might be a worthwhile story has been thrown out. It's good pop-corn entertainment though. Plus lesbians kissing! Twice!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2009 18:17:51 GMT
Channel 4 showed a series last year called Pushing Daisies starring Anna Friel and the premise of that suggested it wouldn't last long. I couldn't imagine the series lasting very long where you have two main characters who can't touch each other (if they do the character played by Anna Friel would go back to being dead - which she was in the first place).
Although I haven't seen Fast Forward yet it does seem like one of those shows which keeps on running despite all of the odds stacked against the plot. Logic just seems to be thrown out of the window in some shows these days.
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Post by Cullen on Nov 10, 2009 11:36:04 GMT
Last night's episodes was good! Although why its taken them so long to explore what happens if people who had a flashforward kill themselves I don't know. It was one of the first things I thought about when watching the first episode. |
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Post by Bogatan on Nov 10, 2009 11:59:35 GMT
Agreed, I assume the world is full of enough lunatics that it would have happened much earlier.
Andy
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Post by blueshift on Nov 10, 2009 12:01:34 GMT
What happened then?  |
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Post by Cullen on Nov 10, 2009 13:00:32 GMT
Agreed, I assume the world is full of enough lunatics that it would have happened much earlier. Andy Yup. I can see myself getting more annoyed with the plot now though. Now its been proven that they can change the future all the events in the flash forwards should be null and void, due to the butterfly effect. However I suspect some of them will still play out exactly. |
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Post by Bogatan on Nov 10, 2009 13:08:07 GMT
In the long run it would but at least in this I think the writers were fairly smart. 5 months is close enough that the ripple effect wont have reached that many people. Alex Kingston and the woman he would have killed being the first. So most visions will be unchanged, though I suspect they will try to get too clver and show that some of the flashforwards we've already seen only make sense because the agent is now dead.
Andy
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Post by Bogatan on Nov 10, 2009 13:10:18 GMT
What happened then? One of the agents knew from his flashforward that he would accidentally kill a mother of two young children, so killed himself to prevent it. Or possibly he didn't like the though of spending a lot of time with Alex Kingston in the future. Andy |
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Nigel
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Post by Nigel on Nov 10, 2009 14:10:12 GMT
Last night's episodes was good! Although why its taken them so long to explore what happens if people who had a flashforward kill themselves I don't know. It was one of the first things I thought about when watching the first episode. Prior to yesterday's episode, the assumptions and indications were that the events of the flashforwards (which surely should be flashesforward) were fixed. I thought yesterday's episode was really clever, turning all the series' assumptions and apparent self-fulfilling prophecies and paradoxes on their heads, especially with that twist in the final scene. |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Nov 11, 2009 6:51:23 GMT
Hang on a sec. I only watched the first episode and a bit so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I thought the future depicted in the Flash Forward was supposed to be the _consequence_ of the Flash Forward - the healthy characters who had no FF end up dying only because of the FF investigation, that bloke's wife only meeting the guy she has an affair with _because_ of the FF event, that bloke seeing himself looking at evidence from the FF investigation in the future. So the FF was supposed to be the future that is _caused_ by having the FF in the first place. So surely it should take into account the deaths of anyone who would kill themselves as a result of the FF?
Are you now saying the FF future is neither the future that would have occurred if the FF hadn't happened, _nor_ the one that results from the FF? Cripes, that's stupid.
Martin
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Post by Cullen on Nov 11, 2009 12:29:54 GMT
Yeah pretty much. If one person can change the outcome of the flashforward it means every other person can too. And probably by not doing something as extreme as killing themselves. If the flashforwards are not fixed then every action taken since seeing them is moving further away from them. The butterfly effect would cover everything and everyone.
The plot is starting to wear paper-thin. If the flashforwards were fixed then everyone who had one is essentially invunerable until April (which was aluded to in this episode when the character who went on to kill himself played Russian roulette with a gun and survived). That could get pretty ridiculous (in fact I was convinced some Deus Ex Machina would save suicide guy). Now that they aren't, every event since the blackout has been diverging from that future because everyone has knowledge of it. The only visions that are panning out are for the characters who are trying to make that future come true.
Like I said I suspect from now on we'll have some kind of hybrid where some things are fixed and some are not. Which would make little sense. Shame really as the episode was really good.
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Nigel
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Post by Nigel on Nov 11, 2009 13:32:58 GMT
Of course, we're assuming that he's not going to make a miraculous recovery. No one actually pronounced him dead on camera.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Nov 11, 2009 19:24:12 GMT
Sounds like it would have been much better if the original FF had just shown everyone what would have happened if there had _been_ no FF, instead of trying to show a future in which there _had_ been an FF. It sounds like the future that they all saw is some impossible future that would result neither from there being an FF and people reacting to it, nor from there not being an FF and people going on as they were.
Why can't every time-travel story be as well plotted as 'Back to the Future' or 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure'?
Martin
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Post by Cullen on Nov 12, 2009 11:59:33 GMT
Thanks Martin. Now I'm humming the Back to the Future theme and have overwhelming desire to watch Bill and Ted again.
'Hey, it was me who stole my dad's keys!'
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Nov 12, 2009 18:44:46 GMT
"Remember the trash can..."
40 seconds into this:
Martin
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Post by Dark Stranger on May 30, 2010 11:01:45 GMT
Gutted! Just watched the finale there and loved it, total shame it won't be renewed, as there were a load of new plot outlines brought up at the very end.
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