TV: FlashForward (S01E02)

Wikipedia Fact: "FlashForward originally was developed at HBO, which sold its option because it thought the show would be a better fit for a broadcast network."

Year of Broadcast: 2009

Starring: Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Jack Davenport, Zachary Knighton, Peyton List, Brían F. O’Byrne, Courtney B. Vance, Sonya Walger, Christine Woods

*Spoilers Follow*

Summary: Everybody struggles with the revelations of their visions and the idea that they may not be able to change the future; The FBI makes a potentially important break in the case.

Thoughts: I don’t know exactly what I was expecting from the second episode of this series, but apparently it wasn’t what we were given.  The investigation into the blackout and Subject Zero (the only person found to have avoided the blackout and as such is suspected to be involved) went slowly and achieved little more than adding a possible Subject One to the mix (and seeming to confirm to Agent Noh that he’ll be dead within months, which was also dealt with at the end of the episode anyway), and everything else just seemed to be about people railing against the idea that they are powerless to influence the future they’ve witnessed for themselves.

There was an odd bit of forced comic relief too that felt out of place, as I don’t recall any hint of that in the first episode.  It probably didn’t help that it was toilet humour (as in, literally humour about a toilet incident –  somebody had to give mouth-to-mouth to a man covered in toilet water/urine! Ho ho).

This episode might have worked better in fact if it had come as a double episode with the first, taking more time to flesh out the characters and set a few things in motion.  I was interested and very entertained by the first episode, but felt this was one stretched a little thin.  I don’t know, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, and we’ll see how the next episode goes.