Before I review the first episode of
FlashForward - which I thought was splendid - I should tell you, in the spirit of full disclosure, that the novel
FlashForward
upon which this ABC-TV series is based was written by my good friend,
Robert J. Sawyer. That said, I should add that I'm especially delighted
that I enjoyed the premiere of this series so much, because I would
have had no choice but to be honest with you if I did not, or I might
not have reviewed the series at all. And I promise to give you my
candid views of every episode that I review.
The second
preambling point I should make is that the series story is different in
many ways from the novel, and at the same time it draws upon many of
its powerful themes, but I won't spend any time here at all with
comparisons pro, con, or otherwise to the novel. Instead, as I have
been doing with
True Blood - based also on a series of novels - I'll be reviewing the television series
FlashForward totally on its own terms.
So here goes ... (as with all of my reviews, expect spoilers) ...
Everyone
in the world (or, as is revealed near the end of show, everyone other
than at least one) blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seventeen seconds.
But it's not really a black out, because almost everyone (again, minus
at least one, and not the one indicated above), has a vision of the
future six months into the future.
The first important point in
the plot, confirmed in a variety of effective, emotionally compelling
ways, is that the vision is proven as in some sense real, not a mass
hallucination. An FBI guy in Los Angeles recalls being in a meeting
with his counterpart in New Scotland Yard six months from now, and she
confirms it, too, down to the detail of a bird flying into a window.
The
most compelling confirmation comes from Mark Benford (well played by
Joseph Fiennes), an FBI agent married to a doctor, Olivia. She's played
by Sonya Walger, who is always a pleasure to see in any role on the
screen, including The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Tell Me You Love Me,
and, of course, as Penny in Lost. Mark's vision provides the foundation
of the investigative part of this story - he sees himself in the future
looking at names on a board as part of a case, and this gets the case
started in our present (more on this in the next two paragraphs).
Olivia's vision sees her happy and in love with another man - a vision
which upsets her, to say the least, since she is very happily married
to Mark, and this in effect sets her and Mark on a path of making sure
the future she saw does not come into being, even if it might have
benefits for other people. A part of Mark is hoping that the vision may
somehow not be real - but the hope is dashed when his young daughter
asks him in a quietly wrenching last scene to put on a friendship
bracelet she made for him. Mark has seen this on his hand in the future.
The
issue of pre-determination versus free-will is always on the table when
people see the future, either by traveling to it, or somehow viewing
it, in science fiction. Indeed, one of the reasons I think
time travel
is impossible, though I love to write and read and see it, is that I
believe in free will. If you know the future, and that has any meaning,
that must mean you have no free will - you cannot change what you saw
or otherwise know about the future.
An appealing intellectual
game for people who like time travel is a future, which hasn't happened
yet, causing itself to happen by influencing the past.
FlashForward
has this intriguing reversal of cause and effect, in Mark's
investigation in the present ignited by what he saw in the future, and
that in itself makes it exceptional television.
Lost
has some of this, too, and there are some similarities - for the good,
I'd say - between the two series (as well as a billboard for Oceanic
Airlines in an early
FlashForward
scene). A kangaroo running through Los Angeles, a mysterious hooded
figure who did not black out (he's caught on a video taken at a stadium
- I suspect he's the character played by Dominic Monaghan, by the way,
but that's just a guess), and of course people who know what's going to
happen (obviously just about everyone in FlashForward) all have echoes
of
Lost.
But
FlashForward
has a multiplicity of powerful stories all its own, including one
character, Mark's partner Demetri (John Choe), who has no vision of the
future at all. Does that mean he's bound to die? The answer will no
doubt not be even close to that simple, but the tableau of conflicting
interests, ranging from wanting to ensure to wanting to prevent the
glimpsed future, makes for an irresistible story.
I'll be back here next week and every week
it's on - which I suspect will be years - with a review of
FlashForward.
You might enjoy my in-depth interview with Robert J. Sawyer from last week.
10-min podcast review of FlashForward 1.1