FlashForward – More treat than trick

After last week’s episode of FlashForward I was pretty concerned about the show. This week, I was pleasantly surprised with this Halloween episode. I thought it was a return to form and offered many more treats than it did tricks. There was good mystery, some actual tension, and the flashes were used in a meaningful and interesting way. That’s pretty much all I’m looking for in this show, and it hasn’t been delivering lately. Hopefully, with sweeps kicking into gear next week, the show will continue with more quality episodes.

Even though Simon wasn’t in the episode a lot, I thought that his true introduction was a bright spot for the show. Clearly there is a lot of intrigue and mystery surrounding him, and hopefully he will be a catalyst for some more quality as the show moves forward. I have to wonder if the “experiment” that he and Lloyd were involved with actually caused the flashforward, or if they just believe that it did. It would be a wacky coincidence, and honestly, a bit of a cop out on the writer’s part if that were the case.

The only “trick” in this episode for me was the deterioration of Mark and Olivia’s relationship. I thought that the scene when they, along with Lloyd, connected all the dots was excellent. It was a great awkward and very strange moment. The fallout, however, fell more into the melodrama category for me. I just thought it was awfully sudden for the two of them to give up on the relationship (although I’m not sure if they went quite that far). Heck, all they had to do was make it through six months together to rebuild the trust.

In any case, I’m back to looking forward to more FlashForward.

Here are some other things that I noticed:

• I think that Demetri still might be involved with the event, as I first theorized. Sure, he does seem pretty broken up about his death, but I still have my doubts about his motives. He was “acting strange” in the morgue with the dead assassins. Is it because he was thinking about his own death after being attacked, or was it because he knew the assassins personally? I think this theory is tenuous at best, but it would make for a great twist.
• If Charlie’s flashforward consisted of talking to Dylan in her kitchen, then why did she come out of it saying things like “there are no more good days,” and “D. Gibbons is a bad man?” I’m confused.
• I wish the writers would have been a little more aggressive with Janis’s condition. If they really wanted us to be thinking about whether or not the future was going to come true they should have gone with a complete hysterectomy. With the highly ambiguous “extremely limited chance,” there is plenty of space open for her to be pregnant in six months.

What did you think of this week’s episode. Are you back on board?

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 29, 2009 @ 21:32 EST5EDT