FlashForward - Queen Sacrifice, S01E15

I am very tempted to stop watching FlashForward after the last episode, where the mole in the FBI was revealed, and it turned out to be one of the most sympathetic characters. Not the most sympathetic character anymore.

Janis (Christine Woods) saw herself pregnant on April 29th. She has wanted that pregnancy more than anything, fighting for it even after she got shot and her womb was nearly destroyed. She even went so far as to sleep with Demetri (John Cho) to conceive the child, even though she is a lesbian. And after all that, it turns out that not only was she feeding information to the bad guys, but she's quite evil herself. And I don't like it.

Maybe if she was straight, and there was the whole hot sexual tension between herself and Simon (Dominic Monaghan), and she conceived the baby on a passionate night, even though she hadn't really been planning on having one, I could believe it. But I just don't believe that the woman who so desperately wanted to become a mother to Willa could also be part of such a nefarious scheme. She is helping make the world a horrible place, doing it on purpose, but she still wants to bring a baby into it? The two things are contradictory. And if she changes her mind about her roll in all of this as the baby grows inside her, then I will believe it all even less, and clearly she had the time and the confused emotions to have already considered all the ramifications.

This show is lacking in credibility. It's lacking in hot sexual tension. It's lacking in everything that makes a show desirable to be watched week after week. So, I ask, why should I stick with it?

FlashForward - Better Angels, S01E14

Although one important development took place back home for our characters, the focus of this episode was on the events and discoveries of Somalia. A bit exciting, definitely attention grabbing, but possible including a mistake?

Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger) discovered both why their daughter would not speak about her flashforward and what started their separation. The little girl had heard a man, whom we learnt was Marshall Vogel (Michael Ealy), telling another agent that Mark was dead. No wonder the little girl was scared. Olivia, wanting to protect her child, her husband, and her family, again pushed the idea that they could simply pick up and leave. When Mark finally refused, she determined that that was likely what would lead to their break up.

The thing is, I don't understand Olivia. Mark doesn't want to leave, can't leave, because he is the centre of something he considers important. He would be far more likely to start drinking again if he ran like a coward. She is the one putting the wedge between them by deciding that his determination to see things through, something she must once have loved about him, means that he wants to see the end of their marriage. She is making the choice to say there is a rift where one does not have to be

Meanwhile in Somalia, a whole lot of people were dying. Pretty much anyone who went with them who wasn't a lead character was riddled with bullets. It was lovely. What was also lovely was learning that this weekend was Janis (Christine Woods)'s window to get pregnant. Since she is gay, and they ended up in a very violent and dangerous part of the world, despite the nature of the show, I was certain she was going to get raped. There was a part of me that knew FlashForward was NOT going to go there, but the possibility of it happening if the situation were real was too poignant.

Luckily, Janis saved herself and the remaining members of the team, Vogel, Demetri (John Cho), and Simon (Dominic Monaghan) by revealing the meaning of the flashforward of the warlord who was holding them prisoner. He was supposed to bring peace to his land. And here is where the mistake happened - This man, who had had a flashforward, was killed to prevent him from killing Simon. And while Simon did not actually have a flashforward, he did send a text message to someone during theirs, and they did not react because it was from beyond the grave.

The question is, what was supposed to happen, if neither man was supposed to die, but somehow, in circumstances which I find hard to imagine could have played out any other way, the choice was either the life of one or the other. Perhaps it means that now that some of the flashforwards have begun changing, they all will. Perhaps Gough, who is not supposed to have died, went on that mission and things went differently?

In the end, two exciting things happened. 1. Janis (probably) conceived her baby, using Demetri as a sperm donor in what was the most nonsexual and friendly offer of the use of a man's sperm ever. 2. D. Gibbons has a message for Demetri which is dated 1981.

Makes me very excited about the upcoming episodes. How about you?

FlashForward - Blowback, S01E13

Although I like FlashForward, I suspect it will not have a second season, and if you've also watched this episode, I'm sure you know why.

We still have no real idea as to when we are, except that on April 29th, Janis (Christine Woods) will be in her second trimester of pregnancy, and that means she needs to get pregnant now. Which puts us at over two months ago, sometime in January. It's sort of annoying, considering in all the Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) scenes, we jumped from the past to the present, with no actual date. I don't really think I'm going to care about what happens on April 29th, if it's actually June.

And while I'm talking about the Aaron scenes, they want me to believe that he has some military training and the anger and animalistic temper of a man who was in prison, but he doesn't have the brains to keep his mouth shut about his daughter's whereabouts, regardless of whom he is talking to? The minute the conversation started, I knew it was bad news, and if I thought that, with the sharp people skills of a sit-on-my-butt-watching-tv-most-days civilian, than he, with his training, should not have had any difficulty seeing it too.

I suppose the fact that Demetri (John Cho) and Zoey (Gabrielle Union) didn't find the gun that is supposed to kill him on March 15th should and did excite some kind of worried reaction from me, but he should have died 2 weeks ago, so...

I want to see more Simon (Dominic Monaghan). I'm glad we are finally going to Somalia and I am kind of hoping that Simon ends up fathering Janis's baby. I realize she's gay, and so there really isn't a good reason for them sleeping together, but they have a good connection. Kind of makes you wonder how well they planned things and why they made her gay, since "who's the father" speculation and the hope that she would get some next episode would get a lot of viewers to tune in.

That's the problem - there is not enough of the science/FBI investigation stuff for it to be hugely attractive to male viewers, but the romance stuff going on is just a bit more wishywashy than those of us who watch this kind of show can get into. I want passion, not lovey-dovey.

Maybe next week's episode will get me back on track, but unlike most of the time, I'm not peppering this entry with questions about what's going to happen, or comments about all the exciting things we've learnt. Did I miss something?

FlashForward - Revelation Zero (part 1 and 2), S01E11-12

Well, it turns out that Lloyd (Jack Davenport) and Simon (Dominic Monaghan) did not cause the blackout - they merely amplified it. Oops. It looks like FlashForward is going to continue to advance with the same principles as before, giving us new questions at every turn, but giving us answers along the way as well.

I was disappointed in the late return of the show, particularly in the fact that we now have absolutely no clue what the date is, and therefore how far away from March 15th (when Demetri (John Cho) is supposed to die) and from April 29th (the date the flashforwards told of) we are. Demetri should be dead by now, according to my calendar, but within the world of the show, the date has yet to be passed. Will his potential death come next week? The week after? What will happen in the episode that airs at the end of April - will it have anything to do with the flashforwards?

But, regardless of that lack of knowledge, I was very pleased with all the discoveries we made about Simon. Sure, I suspected that he was in with the baddies (Flosso the villain did not really come across with any intention to seriously hurt Simon, despite the lack of a finger. And, just so you know, Richard III and Iago can get away with declaring themselves villain, but a fat old man blowing cigar cinders in Simon's eye cannot. Especially when by the end of the episode, he's been killed so easily and so pathetically). Simon never came across as particularly innocent, and although he ought to have been 6' to be Suspect Zero, and he is not that tall, his involvement only brings out more questions. Who are the people trying to use him, but making such stupid decisions as to incite his wrath by killing his father, his mentor, and taking his sister hostage? I hope that he gives them what is coming to them, despite anything else.

The scene that began the episode was beautiful and peaceful, which was lovely in conjunction with the rest of what went on. Not that they haven't made events that took place during the blackout peaceful before, such as when the bus drove into the lake, but watching the window washer fall and fall, as every hope of his rope catching failed, until the very last chance caught and saved him, had the exact right effect on my heart. Of hope, despite the horror of everything else going on around him.

So, hopefully, next week they will let us know where we are in the time line, and soon we will find out whether or not the show has been renewed for a second season. Are you anxious for more episodes?

FlashForward - A561984, S01E10

FlashForward has come to then end of its Fall run, now off the air until March 4th. The final moments of the episode had my heart racing, but up until then, the plot development was no different from previous episodes, and I lack the urgent need to find out what happens next.

That may not be a bad thing. With so much time to wait before a conclusion is revealed, built up urgency may well simply burn itself out, leaving me uninterested because I've gotten over it. But the questions I still want to have answered will continue to nag at my intellect, and though I will not count the days, when March 4th does arrive, I intend to be watching.

Despite many issues, particularly the writers not allowing the proper time for characters to turn on emotions, there is a mystery that I want to see develop. It may lack the need for immediate answers, but there is nothing wrong with an informative walk through the park.

And Zoey (Gabrielle Union)'s storyline gave me the emotional tie-in to the characters to really care whether Demetri (John Cho) survives. Frankly, I'd rather see Mark (Joseph Fiennes) die for all the ridiculous actions he has performed of late.

When Zoey realized that she had not seen her wedding, but a memorial service for Demetri, she was devastated, and we were devastated right along with her. We also learnt that, though it was only 2 minutes and 17 seconds, not everyone remembered every detail of the entire situation. Perhaps Zoey blocked it out because it was too painful, perhaps one day we will find out.

And so, if you have stayed with FlashForward for its first 10 episodes, I suspect you will be willing to return to it in March. Am I wrong? Are you abandoning ship? Or are you staying, and far more nervous and excited about what will happen next than I am? Give me your thought.

FlashForward - Believe, S01E09

This is the second to last episode of FlashForward before the winter hiatus. The hiatus, if you have not yet heard, is supposed to last a whole lot longer than originally planned, with the show resuming March 4th. There will then be less than 2 weeks before Noh (John Cho)'s supposed murder, and we will be a whole lot closer to April 29th than originally anticipated.

After watching episode 9, that may well be a good thing.

The main arc of the episode followed Bryce (Zachary Knighton) and Keiko (Yuko Takeuchi) from before the black out to present day. I really enjoyed following their story, seeing the pain they suffered and the hope they felt. They're warmth does not even have to be romantic really, because they entire relationship and attachment is based on the hope of a future where they are not stuck where they were when the black out occurred.

But while this storyline was charming and appealing, there were some major flaws. We learned that Bryce has severe cancer, that he'd been getting psychological help, and yet his co-workers had no idea. The hospital would have been informed after he smashed his car repeatedly into that of a jerk who pissed him off. And there's no way that no one would have noticed his previous reactions to the kemo. They knew from the beginning that they wanted to explain his plan to commit suicide, and yet I had had no idea; the plot device seemed only to come to life when it was wanted and needed.

And do I even want to mention the rest of the episode? The other scenes were equally emotional, only they reflected high stress, anger, and fear. Unfortunately, the scenes were kept so short that there was no believable build up. One minute context was being established, the next, someone - Noh, Olivia, Aaron, Mark, etc - was losing their cool and it was near impossible to believe.

But in the end, Bryce and Keiko's story won out. Really, take away all the mystery, the intrigue, or anything else you want and make me feel for the characters, and I will be stuck. Plots can be strong motivators, but if the characters aren't interesting, it doesn't matter. On the other hand, take the most boring storyline, but give it fantastic, appealing characters and they will be the centre of attention.

And so I go to watch the last episode of FlashForward of 2009, and I wonder if I'm going to be breathless with anticipation for March 4th, or simply tune in.

FlashForward - Playing Cards with Coyote,S01E08

In Playing Cards with Coyote, we saw how the world was affected by Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young)'s decision to commit suicide. Clearly, nowhere in the world had someone taken it in hand to prove in such a dramatic way that the future was not set in stone.

And yet, despite this prove, the characters still drift towards April 29th and the possibility that what they saw might still happen. Aaron Stark (Brian F. O'Byrne) clings to the hope of what he saw, even more so since his daughter Tracey (Genevieve Cortese) showed up in his living room, while Olivia (Sonya Wagler) opens a gift from Mark (Joseph Fiennes) to discover the package contains the lingerie she was wearing in her vision with Llyod (Jack Davenport). She proceeds to throw that gift in the trash, which is a mirror to Mark shooting a man who might later shoot him.

Meanwhile, Lloyd continues to be wracked with guilt over the flashforward and murder of 20 million people. He wished to come forward and take responsibility. I can't imagine what he thinks that might accomplish - save getting himself thrown in jail - but he is insistent. So insistent that he cheats at poker to beat Simon (Dominic Monaghan) and therefore get his way. Monaghan continues to be deliciously one-minded about everything. He's got his plan and that's the way things are going to be. Love it.

And so that lesson that is learnt is that the future may be able to be changed, but you have to want it. It's as if, instead of the flashforward being the only possible future, it has become the most likely one, and if anyone wishes to alter that, they must make a great effort or a huge sacrifice. Throwing oneself off a building can change the course of time...can throwing out a pair of panties?

What do you think?

FlashForward - The Gift, S01E07

We have learned more, and we have even more questions to which we want the answers. That is the continuing premise of FlashForward, and I continue to be intrigued by the questions and satisfied with the fullness of the answers.

In Thursday's episode, we finally learnt that the future is not set in stone, as Simon (Dominic Monaghan) indicated last week. It can be changed; those future 2 minutes and 17 seconds are not a guarantee.

The proof was huge, when Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) decided that he was going to kill himself, despite having had a flashforward. He could not bear the guilt of a future act in which he would accidentally kill a woman, a mother of two, and so he threw himself off the top of the FBI building.

The scene was moving, and brilliant, the pain of his fellow agents mixed with the hope that his act offered. Now Demetri (John Cho) knows that he can avoid his own murder, after all the British agent will not end up meeting with Al over the Rutherford case this April. Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Wagler) can try again, knowing that it is possible that Mark will not drink and Olivia will not leave him. Even Nicole (Payton List) and Bryce (Zachary Knighton) hint at a different future, with a mutual interest that may replace the importance of the girl Bryce saw in his flashforward.

The point is, of course, that action must be taken to change the future. Al made a decision to end his own life, despite having the hope of knowing he was to be alive in April. The Ghosts, as the people without flashforwards call themselves, have been dying without consideration of the future, possible killing themselves, but when April 29th comes, some of them might still easily be alive. It is not something anyone could prove until that date came. And it is hard to conceive of anyone thinking they would live ending their lives any sooner - but Al did. He did change the flashforward, which means that all our expectations have to change.

Anything is now possible.

FlashForward - Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, S01E06

Funny to think that in a world where over 20 million people just died and countless billions of dollars of damage was caused that Hallowe'en would continue as normal. I suppose, if it was possible, the first things that anyone, any government, would try would be an attempt at normalcy. And I guess that must mean that despite the devastation and the terror, it's not that bad. I mean, 20 million people out of 6 billion...compared to the Black Death, that's nothing...even if it was all in one day.

But life goes on, trains continue to run, and we finally get to meet Simon (Dominic Monaghan) good and proper. He is on a train, in the dinner cart, flirting with a beautiful woman (non other than Ashley Jones; Daphne from True Blood). He explains to her the idea of Schroedinger's cat and how that applies to the flashforward. That the cat is both dead and alive is true until the result has been observed. Now that the population of the world has observed those 2minutes and 17seconds, they are true, and cannot be undone. Which just leads me to hope that Cho is in a coma, and the FBI released that he'd been murdered...though it still does not explain who exactly his fiancee was marrying at the time.

Simon was deliciously evil, seducing Camille into his bed, and while entangled he told her his flashforward - he had murdered someone with his bare hands. He also had a flare for the dramatic, showing up in the back of Lloyd (Jack Davenport)'s car wearing a Hallowe'en mask, to talk to the man who had helped him with the devastating experiment.

It is interesting to note that both Simon and Lloyd had flashforwards, despite having caused the incident in the first place, so who was the man who was not rendered unconscious by the experiment and did he have anything to do with Simon and Lloyd or is it something else altogether?

Other events included Janis (Christine Woods) surviving the operations, with very little chance of getting pregnant because of the damage. But not no chance. The question remains, when will she decide that she wants to try to get knocked up artificially, or will something strange occur that will have her sleeping with a man and therefore pregnant. I really want to know how exactly that is going to come together.

Demetri (John Cho) and Al (Lee Thompson Young) followed the clue of the blue hand from Mark (Joseph Fiennes)'s flashforward to discover what will become the Rutherford case, which Al will be discussing in April.

The most important event was the crack in Mark and Olivia (Sonya Walger)'s wedding. Dylan, Lloyd's little boy, remembered Mark and Olivia's house as his house. He escaped from the hospital and went there. Soon, Lloyd was in the house, thanking Mark for finding his son and being quite confused about his familiarity with the living room. Then Olivia comes home and everything fits into place. Suddenly, the husband, the wife, and the future lover are all aware of the future situation, and no one is particularly comfortable. Mark asks Lloyd to leave with his son and never to trouble his family again. The men part of a very awkward but polite handshake.

Unfortunately, all is not well for Mark and Olivia. Despite have said earlier that they ought to live in the moment, and cherish the time that is now, Olivia cannot deal with the lack of trust she has for Mark who has seen himself drinking, and Mark believes so easily that Olivia will leave him. They end the episode with their marriage in rubble.

Again, we learned something important. Charlie, Mark and Olivia's daughter, was at home with Olivia, Dylan and Lloyd in her flashforward, so how does she know about the bad man who caused all this. I thought for sure she'd been kidnapped, and that Nicole had had something to do with it - which was why she was being drown. But her flashforward told her nothing of the kind.

What questions did this episode raise for you? Do you think the flashforwards cannot be undone?

FlashForward - Gimme Some Truth, S01E05

FlashForward continues to generate questions, though this episode did not really answer any. And that's okay, because heaven forbid that we run out of questions.

We got a big reveal though, Agent Janis Hawk (Christine Woods), who saw herself pregnant in her flashforward, is gay. That's right, she likes to date women. So, how she got herself knocked up is a bit of a mystery and explains why she is so surprised by the idea. Her colleagues are also unaware of her sexual orientation because apparently the FBI does not trust homosexuals with guns...okay...

We don't really need to get political right now.

But the episode itself got very political. Agent Standford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), the head of our branch of the FBI, Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) went to Washington DC to gain permission and funding to head up the mosaic investigation. Things look a little hairy at first. Wedeck has some old connections there - apparently he helped get the President into office - but he also has some old enemies. In the end, he bribes his friend, the President, into letting his team have the funding.

Only afterwards does he take the questions to Mark which prevented them from getting the funding through clean channels. And Mark finally admits that in his flashforward, he was loaded. He was drunk off his ass.

Olivia (Sonya Walger) also finds out that Mark was drinking from a mysterious text message. Who sent it? Will we ever find out? She is worried about his return to the habit, and it would certainly explain why she saw herself with another man 6 months in the future. This is likely the beginning of the rockiness of Olivia and Mark's marriage.

Finally, as the episode ended, Mark & co were attacked by some Asians. They fought off their assailants and were unharmed. Janis, who was back in LA, was also attacked. The episode ended with her shot in the stomach, bleeding on the ground and thinking of her flashforward when she was told her baby was a girl. Will she survive? Or will she die, proving the future can be changed? Or will this event convince her to get inseminated?

Also, the FBI co-worker, Al, was at the office when Mark was in the flashforward and saw himself going out a side door, though he claimed he did not know why. Might he be involved with the conspiracy and have left through that door to let the gun men in?

What more will we find out next week?

FlashForward - Black Swan, S01E04

Try to think where you will be in 6 months. Where will you be, what will you be doing? Will you be at work, filling out paperwork, or answering the telephone? How many people will be doing something important at that time? It's funny to think about, isn't it.

The most interesting part is the emotions, that in the flashforward, people understood what they felt about the people they were talking to. This man I've never met before is my lover. I am being murdered and I deserve it. I have no worries. The consciousness was not sent ahead 6 months to witness a moment, it had lived everything in between and understood all the nuances of the situation.

This week, though Mark (Joseph Fiennes) wanted to go to Somalia to research the blackout that supposedly took place there in the early 90s, Demetri (John Cho) dragged him to Indiana to follow up on the advice of the blond woman the two had been pursuing when the blackout occurred. Though it turned up to be of no use, Demetri finally told Mark of his upcoming murder. I continue to hope that it can be changed.

Mark continues to believe in the importance of the Somalia incident, and is now going to get a hacker to break into the CIA files, since the FBI can't seem to get information legally. He continues to ask the questions Who? and How? and not so much Why? But the why does not seem to be the most dangerous part.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Olivia (Sonya Walger) continues to struggle with her flashforward. She tries to have the autistic boy and his father, Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport), moved out of her wing so that she does not see the man she was with 6 months from now all the time. She still wants to believe in her marriage to Mark, as do we since they continue to be adorable.

Of course, though Lloyd seems like a real sweetheart, as he learns how to interact with his son, playing magic tricks and such, by the end of the episode, we've received another big reveal. Lloyd knows Simon (Dominic Monaghan) and helped cause the biggest catastrophe in human history.

This reveal is much more significant than Nicole (Peyton List)'s. She saw herself being drown, and felt she deserved it. I can't imagine anything I could do that would make me believe I deserved to be drown...I really don't want to die that way. We'll have to wait to find out what she does.

FlashForward does a really good job both revealing a lot of new twists and information while knotting up the plot even more. What do you think?

FlashForward - 137 Sekunden, S01E03

Agents Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Janis Hawk (Christine Woods) traveled to Germany where a Nazi (Curt Lowens) claimed to have answers as to why the blackout lasted exactly 137 seconds. He refuses to give them any information without the promise that he will be fully pardoned for the atrocities he committed during World War II. And here is the big moral question, which Janis puts to Mark, appalled that he is considering the issue: When do we stop giving pardons to criminals to catch people more dangerous than they are?

In today's society, just try to free a Nazi for any reason. Millions of people died in concentration camps and we have all been raised not only to condemn those actions, but also to hate the perpetrators. It doesn't matter that the few who are still alive are old and aren't going to live much longer, as Janis so aptly put it, there is no expiry date on evil.

But in the universe of FlashForward, hundreds of millions of people died as a result of the blackout, and billions more are in danger. If we forgive a drug dealer to catch a mob boss, can we pardon a Nazi to catch the enemy of the Earth? Apparently, it is the same. And examining the issue, we now have a better understanding of how those hurt by that particular drug dealer feel about him being freed to save all those threatened by the mob boss.

The worst part is that the information the Nazi ended up giving was seemingly pointless. Many crows were dead outside his window when he awoke from his blackout. How useful is that? And finally Mark thinks about it, and he and Janis discover that this is not the first time a blackout has occurred. It's simply the first time it affected people globally. I can only hope the Nazi's information will be very important, otherwise, it is hard to swallow his release, even though it is fictitious.

Before I ask the questions FlashForward generated this week, I must mention the appearances of Gina Torres* as the Wedeck's wife and of Genevieve Cortese* as Tracy Stark.

Now for the questions.

1. If Demetri (John Cho) is killed on March 15th, who is his fiancee marrying in her vision on April 29th?

2. Why didn't Demetri arrest the future customs officer because of his bong? It would have been interesting to see if he would have still become an officer, or whether it was indeed possible to change the future.

3. Why are the crows affected? Are any other animals?

4. Why are the schools open? After such great devastation, you'd think that governments, as well as institutions and businesses, would be running slightly differently...at least for a while.

FlashForward - White to Play, S01E02

How badly might you be shaken by two minutes of your life 6 months from now? How many of us would be doing something that seems impossible to us now? Would we have ended a relationship? Started a new one? Lost a loved one? Changed jobs? Who knows! And how many of us would really see something so shockingly strange.

My bet on what I'd be doing in the future at 10pm for 2 minutes and 17 seconds? I'd be watching tv. Probably by myself. And how many of us would be doing something so ordinary?

But most of the stories we've heard so far have been upsetting and life altering. My marriage ended; I'm drinking again; I'm pregnant; I'm dead. Apparently on April 29th at 10pm, a lot of important stuff is going to be happening. And does that have anything to do with the flashforward? Is it important?

This show really has me hooked. Are all the things that we've seen or heard going to take place on April 29th? Are Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger), who are so romantic with their messages of love (I adore that they express affection with the opposite words), going to break up? Is their daughter, as was potentially revealed, going to be kidnapped? Will Demetri (John Cho) die on March 15th? And I will know whether or not he will when we get to March 15th!

Can they change things? Did Mark make a difference in the way things are supposed to play out when he burnt the friendship bracelet, or does it simply mean he must acquire another by April 29th? Who caused it, and how? And why did D. Gibbons just blow himself up?

There are so many questions and I want to know the answers. I want to find out what will happen and I love that they answer some of them (like that Demetri is supposed to die), but leave you hanging as to whether it is possible to change it. And if they can change things, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Are you as interested and as hooked as I am?

Flash Forward, No more good days...but a lot more good episodes?

Now here's a question - if everyone in the world blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, how many would die? Car crashes, plane crashes, train clashes, etc, people walking then falling down stairs, people undergoing operations, people repairing electrical wires, people swimming, and I could think of more things that would be dangerous to be doing if you suddenly were to lose consciousness.

What a way to start a show, not with the question of what vision of the future each character experienced (of April 29 at 10pm), but with the global crisis of all that death and injury, as well as the huge fear that it might happen again. The true question is what caused it.

I'm already sucked in. I want to know what's going to happen. How much of what they saw in April 29th is actually going to occur that way? Will they blackout again (And I'm inclined to believe they will if the series lasts more than one season, cause otherwise the title will become irrelevant)? Does the fact that Demetri did not have a vision mean that he will die or did he blackout at all? I mean, he wasn't in the car with Mark when Mark came out of his blackout, yet did not have the kind of injuries which might indicate he'd been thrown through a car window.

Plus, on top of all the questions, I already care about the people -whether they'll stay together despite the predictions of their flash forward, or if they'll live, or whatever else may happen.

The cast is terrific. Not surprising considering that two of these stars are movie stars, not tv stars. Joseph Finnes and John Cho have made movies, popular movies, regularly...even Courtney B Vance could be put in that category. Yet they are all part of a growing trend for actors to move from movie to television, and not simply the other way around. Anna Paquin, Hugh Laurie, and Robert Carlyle are more examples of this.

It seems that being a television star after being accepted into the film community is not a back step. My best thought for why it is becoming so popular is that doing it is no longer such a huge pay cut, and it certainly is not at all a fame cut. Even more importantly, it allows actors to live with a character. Allow them to grow, change, face so many new things every week, and more or less chronologically. This almost never happens in film. I wouldn't be surprised if it has never happened.

But it is all to the good, I say. Because having talented actors where they are needed makes good shows great and great shows terrific. With all the decent shows out there...it's really important that you shine. Flash Forward made the cut.