FlashForward – The Complete Series
On October 26th 10PM the entire world blacked out for two minutes and seventeen seconds. During that time everyone in the world saw a flash forward of events that happen six months into the future.
When people wake up again, the whole world is turned upside down and while individuals are trying to make sense of what they experienced and whether what they saw was real, an elite task force of the FBI, lead by special agent Mark Benford sets up the Mosaic network to find out answers to questions like what happened, who was behind the FlashForward and why…
Sound and Vision:
FlashForward is presented as a big budget TV series and has a very filmic appearance. Especially the first episode has some stunning images that will blow you away but also later on the image quality remains at a very high level with little or no complaints on the transfer.
The soundtrack does a similar good job with plenty of use of the surround speakers while dialogues remain crystal clear and well-positioned. Technically everything is solid.
Extras:
– FlashForward: A Look Ahead
– Creating Catastgrophe: The Effects of a Global Blackout
– FlashhForward on Set
– Meet Yuko
– Kangaroo?
– Architects of Destiny
– Interviews from the Mosaic Collective
– Deleted Scenes
– Bloopers
Plenty of extras that are good for about 100 minutes of additional stuff
Conclusion:
ABC marketed FlashForward as their next big hit show after Lost and no costs were spared which you notice from (amongst other things) the cast list. Members from top shows like E.R., Sleeper Cell, Lost, Mad Men and Brotherhood are present and also the visual effects are at times stunning. The story is based on the sci-fi novel by Robert J. Sawyer and has a very interesting premise where we follow several people who try to figure out what to do with the knowledge gained during their flash forward.
Unfortunately, the series does as much things right as it does them wrong. The stuff with the FBI investigating the blackout, trying to find who’s responsible and preventing another one from happening (with all kinds of conspiracy theories and plot twists going on at the same time) is really cool, but the personal stories of side characters unfortunately stray us away too far from that and aren’t strong enough to keep us interested.
There’s plenty of stereotypes present and the characters aren’t interesting nor deep enough to keep things going which hurts the pace and progression of the main story. Where Lost managed to create a perfect balance between mystery and melodrama, FlashForward all too often leans too much towards the latter.
6.0
Ghost Writer, The
Robin Hood (2010)