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.
Dateline: Sydney! It seems a fickle Frenchman, nicknamed “Spider-Man” was nabbed by Aussie Police after he scaled a 57-story building in Sydney, with his bare hands! Alain “So not Peter Parker” Robert is a noted building climber… having scaled over 70 buildings, (as only a spider can.) including the 41-story Royal Bank of Scotland building in Sydney, The 
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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.
The Harvey Awards, named for famed writer/cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, once again hit the Baltimore Comic Con in style. Emceed by PvP’s esteemed artist and writer Scott Kurtz (not only because his name is close to Harvey’s, but because he’s genuinely funny!), is held in tandem with a celebratory dinner and ceremony. Our intrepid Glenn Hauman was on scene tweeting the winners to us all, and shucks, he even joined the folks for the after-party. We here at ComicMix congratulate all this years nominees and celebrate the victories for this years winners! Did your favorite take home the ole’ Harv’? Find out below!
According to our fine friends at 
What started out as a joke between editors of the 
