(This was originally a tweet, before I realized I have a blog again. If you can imagine all of the below in 140 characters, good for you.)
If FlashForward wants to be the next Lost (which, according to them, they don’t, but c’mon… who wouldn’t?), they need to stop and recognize what makes Lost so successful. It’s not just mysteries, it’s great writing and above-average acting. FlashForward has great potential, but they should make the characters a tad more in-touch with reality and tone down on the cheese-o-rama, like having the main guy get upset with his wife for being with another man in the future? That’s just not believable.
“Hey bro, you ever realize it might be you that fucks up?”
But with Brannon Braga as executive producer, being in-touch and avoiding cheese-o-rama is difficult… this is the guy who created Star Trek: Voyager, which officially out-cheesed the cheesiest Star Trek joke. (It’s ironic that Voyager happens to be my favorite of the Star Treks, but it’s not necessarily because of the stories, rather the characters–which Braga did not create–were so human.)
As of right now it’s feeling like it’s going to go the Heroes route. I think I’ll give it another week or two to find out for sure.
The next Lost? I thought they were trying to be an adaptation of the Robert Sawyer novel. Which was okay, but what you describe is pretty much what happens, and it only gets weirder.
Right, it is an adaptation of that novel — but the hype around the show (or at least from those anticipating the show) was that it was going to be “the next Lost” in terms of scope, feel and following. The producers of FlashForward have said they aren’t trying to be “the next Lost,” but with Lost ending next year, no doubt ABC is trying to retain that niche audience somehow.