FlashForward – The Complete Series (2009/ABC/Disney DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Episodes: B-

 

 

Only lasting one season, FlashForward was ABC’s unsuccessful answer to losing LOST.  Realizing that LOST had a following that liked the week to week serial format, with questions that had to be answered; FlashForward seemed like a perfect fit.  The new series featured a diverse cast and a complicated storyline that surely would pull audiences in…or maybe not.

 

The general premise of the series is a catastrophic event occurred that caused everyone to lose consciousness for exactly 137 seconds.  During that 137 seconds, everyone had a vision of their life ‘flash forwarded’ 6 months in the future.  A team of FBI agents, Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes of Shakespeare in Love) and his partner Demetri Noh (John Cho of Harold and Kumar) are headed by Standford Wedeck (Courtney Vance) and are the main bodies investigating the events.  The team desperately seeks information as to what caused the event and would it happen again.  Benford has the most unique perspective on the investigation as his ‘flash forward’ involved the progress of the investigation 6 months down the line.  The investigators use Benford’s information, along with a host of other characters they meet to put the pieces together; all in all leading to a much entangled storyline in which every second and person matters.

 

The series has many issues up front as it starts off complicated and slow at that; something LOST never did.  The other issue is that the series is convoluted in dialogue, not action or scenic change; often leaving the audience saying, “wait. what?”  All in all, I found the series interesting and felt that if given the chance it would pan out to be something great for audiences to follow week to week, season to season; unfortunately floundering rating and decreasing viewership plagued the series from the beginning.

 

The series was intended (supposedly) to be five seasons long and (like LOST) slowly pull the curtain back on the mystery that was FlashForward.  Since the series got canceled audiences are left wondering what could have been and what the heck it was all about.  I guess we will never know.

 

The series’ technical features are nicely done, but being simply on DVD doesn’t deliver anything overwhelmingly impressive.  The picture is presented in a 1.78 X 1 Anamorphic Widescreen that projected just fine, but was merely adequate with nice flesh tones, solid colors and well done black levels.  There are some issues with crispness and clarity that would appear much better on Blu-ray.  The sound is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track that most of the time comes from the front with heavy dialogue, but does manage to break in the surrounding speakers for certain action sequences.

 

The extras are fairly plentiful, offering fans of the series one commentary track (was expecting many more), Architects of Destiny an in depth examination of the series from beginning to end, Meet Yuko a featurette that centers on the Japanese star as she joins the cast of FlashForward, FlashForward on the Set gets the inside stories from the set, Kangaroo? discusses the mystery of the kangaroo on set, Interviews from Mosaic Collective, Creating Catastrophe: Effects of a Global Blackout, FlashForward a Look Ahead, Bloopers, and finally some Deleted Scenes.

 

The series was good and I wish it had a chance, but alas the set becomes a ‘waste of time’ as there is no end.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II