Time is making fools of us again.
So FlashForward was pretty great this week--the characters are still varying degrees of not very interesting (Jesus, shut up, Noh; we get it, you're going to die in five months), but I think they're doing pretty well building up the mystery. I also think they're doing a pretty good job with fridge-logic (feel like kind of a jackass for offering a link for something anyone who reads this probably already knows, but TV Tropes is what I had in mind when I was thinking about this) kinds of questions, like pointing out the ridiculousness of the LA FBI office taking over the investigation and then justifying it with a combination of Mark's vision and the teams' actual discoveries, or having Stark exhume his daughter's body to verify that she's there rather than having him jet off to parts unknown--except for one major one. How exactly does the timing of the flashforwards work out? How can Lloyd and Olivia be going to bed while Janis is getting a sonogram? Sure, it's possible Janis isn't in LA--but why is Courtney B. Vance in the office toilets then? Sure, Mark's there too, but the office lights are off like it's night. And, uh, how can it be bright sun in the Caribbean (where Zoey's getting married--I guess she could be getting married somewhere else, but Hawaii's only three hours behind California--Australia? I really have no clue) if it's dark in LA? Am I missing something? Were the flashforwards asynchronous?
Speaking of Janis, Zoey, and Olivia--um, why are all the ladies' flashforwards related to relationships and kids? Mark's, Demetri's, that young doctor at Olivia's hospital's, and Courtney B. Vance's weren't. I realize that relationships and kids would make up a significant portion of people's flashforwards--but it's weird that Janis's flashforward is about a baby she didn't plan for and Zoey and Olivia's are about being with guys who aren't their current partners (probably, in Zoey's case--at least Demetri thinks so). It's a strange throwback to anxiety about cuckholding/loss of control. I wouldn't say these things are necessarily going in a bad direction--there's a lot we don't know yet--but I'm a little concerned.
How flipping great is Janis, though? I kind of feel like she's got a target painted on her back for when the show decides it needs to drum up ratings by killing people off, and it would also be nice if she had a real storyline (thanks to the Nazi's anvil-"hint," I'm guessing she's gay), but I'm never not going to like the character who's like "wtfbbq" to terrible ideas. Like deals with lying Nazis. This is what passes for "moral dilemmas" on this show. "Nazi" is like a synonym for "moral dilemma" in TV vocabulary. I am, however, impressed with the subtlety and complexity of the way Flashforward is handling the characters' sudden knowledge of the future--I feel like we're getting a broad spectrum of responses, and except for Demetri's panic about his death, those responses are being shown to us rather than told. I also like Courtney B. Vance, who is a terrible actor--but who, it turns out, is kind of perfect for bringing (in small doses) lightness to what would otherwise be a pretty grim show.
A couple of minor FlashForward predictions:
Speaking of Janis, Zoey, and Olivia--um, why are all the ladies' flashforwards related to relationships and kids? Mark's, Demetri's, that young doctor at Olivia's hospital's, and Courtney B. Vance's weren't. I realize that relationships and kids would make up a significant portion of people's flashforwards--but it's weird that Janis's flashforward is about a baby she didn't plan for and Zoey and Olivia's are about being with guys who aren't their current partners (probably, in Zoey's case--at least Demetri thinks so). It's a strange throwback to anxiety about cuckholding/loss of control. I wouldn't say these things are necessarily going in a bad direction--there's a lot we don't know yet--but I'm a little concerned.
How flipping great is Janis, though? I kind of feel like she's got a target painted on her back for when the show decides it needs to drum up ratings by killing people off, and it would also be nice if she had a real storyline (thanks to the Nazi's anvil-"hint," I'm guessing she's gay), but I'm never not going to like the character who's like "wtfbbq" to terrible ideas. Like deals with lying Nazis. This is what passes for "moral dilemmas" on this show. "Nazi" is like a synonym for "moral dilemma" in TV vocabulary. I am, however, impressed with the subtlety and complexity of the way Flashforward is handling the characters' sudden knowledge of the future--I feel like we're getting a broad spectrum of responses, and except for Demetri's panic about his death, those responses are being shown to us rather than told. I also like Courtney B. Vance, who is a terrible actor--but who, it turns out, is kind of perfect for bringing (in small doses) lightness to what would otherwise be a pretty grim show.
A couple of minor FlashForward predictions:
- Charlie's flashforward is that she and Lloyd Simcoe's kid have been kidnapped by D. Gibbons. She must have a picture of her mother with her because Lloyd Simcoe's kid knows who Olivia is.
- Stark's daughter is in Somalia and was part of some secret military team--or secret military experiment. Why trust the medical records the army had on file for her?