Sorta rec: Flashforward
Flashforward is one of those light sci-fi shows that has a huge amount of promise in the premise and somewhat inconsistent execution.
The show takes place in more or less present day. It could be AU present day or near future, that isn't made clear, but it's pretty much the every day we are all used to so it probably doesn't matter. Suddenly, everyone in the entire world collapses where they are. For many people, that just means falling to the floor, or if they happened to be in one of those places where it was night time, staying in bed. But for the poor schmucks who happened to be, say, driving a car at the time, it was disastrous. When everyone woke up 2 minutes and 17 seconds later, the roads are littered with wrecked cars, fires have broken out, people had drowned and all those other things that you just can't take a 2 minute nap in the middle of doing had taken their toll to the tune of 20 million dead.
Those who survived this all came back with a vision of what they were doing six months in the future. The memory, unlike normal memories, doesn't seem to fade over time and remains crystal clear in all its details, including the emotions that the person felt. For some it was mundane things like sitting on the toilet, or being in a work meeting. For some it's a hopeful memory of a better life, meeting a new girlfriend for dinner. For some it's just perplexing, like being pregnant when you are a lesbian. One of the main characters, an FBI agent, just so happened to be looking at a bulletin board filled with clues of his investigation -- of the flashforward event.
Some of the people didn't have a vision. It becomes very depressingly obvious why -- they die sometime between the time they fell unconscious and the moment of vision 6 months in the future. Knowing that they have less than 6 months to live has a profound, depressing effect.
The question becomes, is this vision inevitable? Does it have to happen? If the vision shows that a marriage has broken up, does that mean that the marriage is doomed no matter what? What caused the vision? And why? In order to answer these questions, the FBI officer and his department start a project to collect a record of everyone's visions and piece together from all these bits and pieces what was going on 6 months in the future.
The result of this idea is something that is at on one end very philosophical, considering fate and free will, and how much control we really have over our lives. And on the other hand it's a cop show, with car chases and investigations and gun fights and clues. And on the other, other hand, it's about relationships between people, finding love, fighting loss, finding hope for the future. Some of the absolute best, most heart stirring moments are the moments of yearning, where one person reaches out to another because of the flashforward somehow brought them together. There was a lovely moment of absolute sweetness and hope of a man who had been suicidal because of a diagnosis of cancer throwing himself into learning about japanese so he could meet the woman of his dreams, who he'd never met, who lived across the world. And the young woman, who wakes up from her flash forward, soaking wet from an overflowing sink to hug herself on the floor with happiness that one day she'd meet that man. Knowing that all the things in her life that made her feel trapped and unhappy would be gone.
But then there are some absolute shit moments, like when the team analyzing a surveillance tape of a man at a soccer game couldn't make out any of the person's features at all, but somehow were able to enhance a fucking engraving on his ring. Seriously, they couldn't even get a fuzzy picture of his face, it's just a blank blur, no eyes, no ears, nothing, but they were able to see plain as day that the design cut into the side of his ring was an Alpha sign. WTF. No. Image enhancement does not have some kind of aversion to skin. Unless it's the One Ring, engravings aren't more easy to see than, say a person's hair style.
And that's the way every episode is: Moments of brilliance meshed with moments of jarring stupidity. On the whole I like it, though I'm annoyed by these stupid things that keep cropping up.
The show takes place in more or less present day. It could be AU present day or near future, that isn't made clear, but it's pretty much the every day we are all used to so it probably doesn't matter. Suddenly, everyone in the entire world collapses where they are. For many people, that just means falling to the floor, or if they happened to be in one of those places where it was night time, staying in bed. But for the poor schmucks who happened to be, say, driving a car at the time, it was disastrous. When everyone woke up 2 minutes and 17 seconds later, the roads are littered with wrecked cars, fires have broken out, people had drowned and all those other things that you just can't take a 2 minute nap in the middle of doing had taken their toll to the tune of 20 million dead.
Those who survived this all came back with a vision of what they were doing six months in the future. The memory, unlike normal memories, doesn't seem to fade over time and remains crystal clear in all its details, including the emotions that the person felt. For some it was mundane things like sitting on the toilet, or being in a work meeting. For some it's a hopeful memory of a better life, meeting a new girlfriend for dinner. For some it's just perplexing, like being pregnant when you are a lesbian. One of the main characters, an FBI agent, just so happened to be looking at a bulletin board filled with clues of his investigation -- of the flashforward event.
Some of the people didn't have a vision. It becomes very depressingly obvious why -- they die sometime between the time they fell unconscious and the moment of vision 6 months in the future. Knowing that they have less than 6 months to live has a profound, depressing effect.
The question becomes, is this vision inevitable? Does it have to happen? If the vision shows that a marriage has broken up, does that mean that the marriage is doomed no matter what? What caused the vision? And why? In order to answer these questions, the FBI officer and his department start a project to collect a record of everyone's visions and piece together from all these bits and pieces what was going on 6 months in the future.
The result of this idea is something that is at on one end very philosophical, considering fate and free will, and how much control we really have over our lives. And on the other hand it's a cop show, with car chases and investigations and gun fights and clues. And on the other, other hand, it's about relationships between people, finding love, fighting loss, finding hope for the future. Some of the absolute best, most heart stirring moments are the moments of yearning, where one person reaches out to another because of the flashforward somehow brought them together. There was a lovely moment of absolute sweetness and hope of a man who had been suicidal because of a diagnosis of cancer throwing himself into learning about japanese so he could meet the woman of his dreams, who he'd never met, who lived across the world. And the young woman, who wakes up from her flash forward, soaking wet from an overflowing sink to hug herself on the floor with happiness that one day she'd meet that man. Knowing that all the things in her life that made her feel trapped and unhappy would be gone.
But then there are some absolute shit moments, like when the team analyzing a surveillance tape of a man at a soccer game couldn't make out any of the person's features at all, but somehow were able to enhance a fucking engraving on his ring. Seriously, they couldn't even get a fuzzy picture of his face, it's just a blank blur, no eyes, no ears, nothing, but they were able to see plain as day that the design cut into the side of his ring was an Alpha sign. WTF. No. Image enhancement does not have some kind of aversion to skin. Unless it's the One Ring, engravings aren't more easy to see than, say a person's hair style.
And that's the way every episode is: Moments of brilliance meshed with moments of jarring stupidity. On the whole I like it, though I'm annoyed by these stupid things that keep cropping up.