Review: ‘FlashForward The Complete Series’
In 1999, Robert J. Sawyer wrote FlashForward
, a clever science fiction novel that showed how the world reacted to a suddenly global blackout and people glimpsing their futures 21 years hence. The catalytic event was centered at the CERN supercollider in Europe and largely focused on the scientists who worked there.
Interestingly, it was optioned for television and was being developed into a series at HBO, which decided it was trending more towards a prime time broadcast network show, so the rights got to ABC. With great fanfare and terrific initial reviews, the show debuted on September 24, 2009.
Maybe it should have stayed a limited run series on the premium channel. The resulting 22 episodes had lofty goals and a dynamite cast, but the sprawling story was messy, with way too many things not holding up well enough to sustain viewer interest. Ratings suffered after the show took a break at the midpoint and was finally ended on May 27. On Tuesday, ABC Studios is releasing FlashForward: The Complete Series
as a five disc set.
One of the creative problems was that the producers had no idea how much time they had to tell their story. They received an initial order for thirteen and it was a month after the debut before ABC ordered the back nine and subsequently added three episodes to the order. As the ratings nosedived, the order was trimmed from 25 to 24 and finally the standard 22. The feeling that they were spinning their wheels makes sense now that you see what they had to deal with.
Additionally, the personnel guiding the characters and storylines also shifted which led to altered tones. The show was initially being run by Marc Guggenheim, David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga but shortly after the full season was ordered, Guggenheim left the show and Goyer took over until February when he moved away from the sinking ship, letting his wife Jessika, Lisa Zwerling and Timothy J. Lea complete the series.
What should have been a limited series run made substantive changes to Sawyer’s novel beginning with altering the flash forward from 21 years to a handful of months, April 29, 2010. The ensemble cast was centered not at CERN but at the Los Angeles branch of the FBI. Over the course of the first few episodes, it was fascinating to see people react to their visions or lack of visions. The FBI team, led by an overly dour Ralph Fiennes, discovered a vast conspiracy behind the event and their investigations let us meet many people around the world and get a greater sense of what was experienced and how society was being altered.
Growing up in the 1960s, DC’s super-heroes were proud to don their uniforms and battle for truth, justice, and the American way. They had a relatively easy camaraderie with one another and they used their wits and their powers to get out the devilish death-traps they inevitably found themselves in every now and then.
Every so often there is a television show that redefines what can be done with the form and ABC’s [[[Lost]]] was just one of a string of series that have successfully gotten out attention. It also spawned numerous imitators, none of which have managed to actually build enough suspense to overcome weak writing and lackluster characterization.
[[[Wolverine]]] and [[[the X-Men]]], the fourth animated interpretation of the Marvel mutants, was the most radical and also the most short-lived. Lasting a mere 26 episodes, the Nicktoons series apparently wasn’t popular enough with ratings and merchandise to merit financing a second season. Marvel Animation clearly thought they had a hit on their hands and images from the developing second season were released. Additionally, the final scene was a teaser for the second season. But, alas, this was not to be.
One of the great joys of reviewing movies for ComicMix is being offered little gems I’ve never heard of, the movies that come and go too quickly to gain much attention. For example, take [[[$5 a Day]]], which sports a solid cast led by Christopher Walken – right there, you want to see this, right? Walken rarely repeats himself and is always fun to watch on screen. He’s backed by Alessandro Nivola, Peter Coyote, Amanda Peet, and Sharon Stone so it’s a good crew.
Movie technology needed to catch up to the imagination of author Roald Dahl. By the time that occurred in the 1980s Dahl was in his final years and barely got to enjoy proper adaptations of his works. His imaginative fiction was incredibly vivid and picturesque while also having a dark undercurrent, an edge that set them apart from other children’s literature.
How desperate does a man get before he agrees to do the unthinkable? How low must you fall before you allow yourself to get caught up in something immoral, illegal, and just plain dangerous?
Phil Silvers perfected his fast-talking, scheming promoter character during his years on the vaudeville circuit and polished it in a variety of feature films so that by the time he debuted on his own television series, it was pitch perfect. His Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko became a template for comedy roles imitated by others across the pop culture spectrum. For example, the Baby Boomers grew up with the Bilko persona imprinted on Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat. Silvers rarely varied from the character, using it to good effect in subsequent films and even the Broadway play[[[ A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]].
At least one generation of super-hero fans grew up knowing the DC Comics heroes through their appearances on ABC’s [[[Super Friends]]]. Loosely based on the [[[Justice League of America]]],[[[Superman]]], [[[Batman]]], [[[Robin]]], [[[Wonder Woman]]], and [[[Aquaman]]] teamed up in the Hall of Justice and fought all manner of menace. Accompanying them for no rational explanation were Wendy Harris and Marvin White, along with Wonderdog.
