I don’t know about you, but the first hour of FlashForward flew by. That’s a good sign. I could tell from the previews that this was most likely going to be my type of show. There are a lot of comparisons to Lost being thrown around the zeitgeist, and knowing my passion for Lost, you probably won’t be surprised that I’m holding back when it comes to parroting the same opinion.
I’m sure that ABC is hoping that FlashForward will fill the void that Lost will be leaving at the end of the season. Heck, they even convinced Lost alum Dominic Monaghan to join the show (though he didn’t appear in this pilot episode). There is certainly the same sense of intrigue and mystery that’s found in Lost, but one hour does not a TV series make.
In any case, my curiosity is piqued for sure, and I’m looking forward to more of this show. A lot of people seem to be wondering if the show can live up to the promise of the pilot, and with the obviously large budget that was used on the first hour, I can see why.
Lots of folks (including some of our very own Clackers), are drawing comparisons to the notorious flop The Nine. I’m not an expert on that show, but from what I understand the real problem was that the pilot focused on a tense bank hostage situation, and the rest of the series followed the victims dealing with the fallout. I think the expectation was that the suspense and mystery of the pilot was going to continue throughout the series, but it really just became a character drama.
I don’t see that happening with FlashForward. For one, the team behind it, Brannon Braga, and David S. Goyer, are sci-fi veterans, so I think the whys, hows, and whos of the event are going to continue to be a huge focus of the show. With such a high concept drama, I think anything else would be a complete mistake.
If you’ve read any of my Lost coverage, you know I’m not shy about crazy theories, and fresh off the pilot of FlashForward, I’ve already got a few:
What did you think of FlashForward? Did you enjoy the pilot as much as I did? Are you intrigued? Do you think they can keep it up?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Sep 24, 2009 @ 21:28 EST5EDT
Read the book, loved it. The show is awesome. Loved the Seth MacFarlane cameo, the Oceanic Airlines billboard, the “coupling” of two Coupling alum and the edge of your seat pacing. Two Lost vets so far…Thursday is full of them (Vampire Diaries). In spite of having read the book, I have absolutely no damned idea where they are going, and no theories at this point. And I LOVE IT. Sometimes I get bogged down in theorizing and forget to just enjoy. This, I enjoy. Yay!
great catch on the “Coupling” connection, one from the UK version and another US version to be exact. There was also a very obvious “desperate housewives” promo on the bus too.
My theory before reading anything you said and only 17 minutes of the show….
I think government scientists trying to make time travel work using a super conductor made the jump happen. :)
That’s definitely a decent theory, and with all the doomsday talk that went on for the past couple of years regarding the Large Hadron Collider, I could totally see it being related to something like that.
You know, Keith, I read a book about two scientists that worked at the Large Hadron Collider who had an experiment go completely wrong.
What was the name of that book again …. Um ….
Oh yeah, FlashForward, by Robert J. Sawyer :)
The most I ever read is this site, so I never even heard of the book until about a week ago. :-p
But it fits, I think it’s clear it is man made. Plus everyone always freaks out whenever scientists do things with supper conductors. :) However I don’t see the show being such a hit that we ever really figure what is going on. They will explain a lot if they get a 22 episode season, but they won’t explain exactly what was behind it. It’s why I think the show would be better off as a British series, 22 episodes and that’s that.
I didn’t know it was a book until last night when modwild said something.
I think it could follow the Lost trajectory, though. As long as there is an end in sight, it could probably drag on 3 or 4 or 5 seasons. Eh, well see. I’m just excited for the ride at this point. If they’re clever enough they could solve the flashforward while presenting other mysteries… it could be a small part of a bigger picture. I don’t know. A little early to be talking about the end game for the show, imo.
Hmm… I think it was mentioned in both the Pilot Script review and the Pilot Screener Review.
Because I’m a nerd :)
spoiler alert, the book points to a man made connection…………….
what is the book and who wrote it?
I liked episode 1 … though it should have been 2 hrs long to properly immerse everyone into the story.
Odds are that at least one of the 823 flights that went down in the US was an Oceanic flight …
loved it!
for those who missed it there is a rerun tonight
Good of you to point that out! Two basketball practices in a row, and a ballet lesson, and forgot to set DVR!
I’m wondering if it was a joke or if it means something that Oceanic had a billboard advertising a perfect safety record in the background of the stakeout scene. Just a joke, or are they making a point of saying there will be a lying corporation in the show, perhaps Red Panda?
Am I the only person who thought that the guy who showed up at the hospital as the boy’s “father” (he was also in the woman’s flash forward, waiting on the couch) was the man in the stadium at the cliffhanger?
: ) Nope. I totally thought that too. I’m glad someone else thought it too.
Theory:
Man Made? Most Likely considering the “Man in Black” at the baseball stadium is the only one awake…but he’s probably not the only one not to black out. So everyone has their “Flash Fowards” right…i don’t think they are flashes to the future. One mans flash is of his wife who is dead. The dude who was gonna shoot himself saw himself in a whole new light. Wifey saw herself being w/ another man. You would think the one about the Husband losing his wife would bother me the most but actually its the soon to be cheating wife that bothered me the most. In her flash she is at her current home laying in bed looking all sexy. Then she checks downstairs and see’s douchebag on the couch chillin. She calls him “Honey” and he’s there with his shirt off like he bought the damn house in his own name. So this lead me to believe that this might not be a scene into the future but more of a scene to another dimension. But since they are so convinced its part of their future they are going to fill that void of curiosity and do things to make that alternate reality come to be. So thats it. Jumping to other dimensions theory. Now i just wait and watch the rest of the season to find out i was completely wrong in my thinking.
1. “The “bad dream” that Charlie had during the blackout is going to play a huge role. I think that she saw something that’s key to the whole FlashForward mystery. Which leads to my next theory….”
agreed. she said that “there were no more good days” which is also the title of the 1st episode. also… i think the friendship bracelet thing is definitely significant.
2. “I think Nicole saw something bad happening to Charlie in her FlashForward. After waking up, she immediately ran to Charlie in a state of panic. Is she really that good of a babysitter that her first thought would be to check on Charlie? Maybe it’s too early to tell.”
no opinion.
I think Demetri is lying. I think he’s in on the plot and wasn’t unconscious with everyone else. Why, when Mark woke up, was Demetri gone from the car? He claims that he saw “nothing” in his flashforward. I think he didn’t have one because he was awake, running out of the car and doing something…. Just like that creepy dude at the baseball game.
i didn’t think of that but it makes sense. i was wondering how he could’ve gotten out of the car and pretty far away before mark woke up.
Demetri didn’t have on a seatbelt. Maybe he was ejected from the car during the crash. But I agree, it did seem odd.
Well…right about when the actual Flash Forward happened I thought of a quick random theory…forgive me if I go on a tangent but stay with me…it is believed that if the earth’s rotation slowed by even a fraction of fraction of a second could affect the chemical balance in the brains of all human beings…the rotation of the earth and the magnetic forces that govern our planet control many things such as the flight patterns of birds…when I saw the vision that the FBI boss had of being in London with his counterpart and a bird smashed into the window…made me think that that’s a precursor that another FlashForward would occur shortly or the show is actually a doomsday clock scenario that has the earth’s rotation slowing to nothing and a secret government agency that is made to appear evil at first is actually trying to stop this from happening…only time will tell….im gonna need something to occupy my time after Lost…hope this show lasts!
OK – think about this- 2 shiny “stars”in the sky when looking out from the pier at the beginning…which are 2 shiny silver helicopters that somehow were airborn, had not crashed, and flew low over the city minutes after the blackouts…so those in the copters were part of the crew in on the secret….
I know there have been LOTS of comparisons to LOST (see what I did there?), so that is where my theory for the first episode is going. I have done some research and found that FlashForward has absolutely nothing to do with LOST. There are no connections on the writing, directing, or producing for the show to connect it to LOST in any way, but . . . here it is:
What if . . . the bomb detonated on the Island by Juliette in 1977 had sent some kind of ripple into the 2009 timeline which made everyone lose consciousness and experience events six months into the future?
Far fetch, I know, but hey . . . anything’s possible, right? Besides, what’s a billboard for Oceanic flights doing another television show if it’s not from the same “universe,” right?
I finally caught the premier on Hulu. Overall I really enjoyed it and think there’s a lot of potential in the show.
But the lead actor BLOWS. Every time he was on screen, my mind kept drifting to “overacting… tone it down… overacting.” That is an especially frustrating dream in a show that was otherwise very engaging.
I don’t disagree with you, I think he’s the worst part of the show thus far…. However, he did star in an Academy Award Best Picture winner, Shakespeare in Love, in which he wasn’t horrible.
Saw this post on a Yahoo.com message board.
Time of Blackout: 2:17
Book of Acts: Chatper 2 Verse 17: ‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Fascinating. Thanks for that.
Did you notice the douchbag sitting on the couch also started to look for her, because of his won flash forward? Also in LOST the final episode, a cataclysmic problem on the island created a huge wave of energy that makes everyone in Flashforward black out? And this is a story lead linking LOST to flashforward, there is some link somewhere, just cant see it yet.
Question: Who was the other character from lost in flashforward? I saw “Penny” but the other?
Dominic Monaghan, who played Charlie on Lost is joining the show in the second episode.
Any theories about the damn kangaroo???
That freaked me out!
To Moke: A zookeeper blacked out while transporting or cleaning the kangaroo, and it hopped off. Easy explanation. I’m sure the same happened with other animals in captivity all over the world, that either died or escaped due to the flashforward.
To Nucoma: Demetri was not that banged up when we saw him. He may be FBI but he’s not Colossus. Being ejected from the vehicle would’ve caused serious and potentially fatal injury. And barring ejection during the vision, The two men should’ve regained consciousness next to each other at exactly the same time. Demetri not having a flash is literally the ONLY explanation I could see too, and he’s just saying he saw nothing because making up a vision might cause someone to try and corroborate it against other facts which might expose him.
To Preston: Thanks for sharing that passage. Very interesting indeed.
To Wired Dragon: It may or may not be in the same “universe” but don’t let that get in the way of theories! let your imagination run wild! I like the Hatch Explosion theories. Also…consider Oceanic to be for that staff like Cid is for the Final Fantasy franchise. It’s not the same entity, just an homage to an iconic circumstance.
To Deacon: Nice interpretation of the bird hitting the window! I did not think of that but your theory holds some weight. Maybe in the television show their fears of a second black-out will be valid fears. Very creative.
Great stuff, everyone! :-D I’m definitely right along with Modwild and just enjoying the journey the storytellers want to take me on, without any pesky inquiries of “Are we there yet?” Heh heh :-p
the characters are just one of many replications of themselves that are living in parallel universes. the main character when he saw his flashforward was in the future, so he knew what clues to leave for himself in the past. example: the picture of the baby doll is irrelevant, he only put it there to get himself from the past to go in to the abandonned building. when he saw his flashforward, the man in the future had already figured out the cause of the blackout and was trying to find a way to leave himself clues to solve it sooner, and the people were coming to kill him to stop him from warning himself in the past… if that makes any sense whatsoever
Everyone has lots of good theories. I don’t have much at the moment so please keep posting!
Bee Rye : Yes very good idea!!