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Will Flash Forward Live To See the Future?
By: Dennis Rayburn
11/25/2009
There is nothing harder to predict that the viewing habits of people. ABC's Flash Forward started out with high ratings, and it looked like the sky was the limit. However, a few weeks later, those ratings are falling and, despite being picked up for the full season, it may be time to begin the deathwatch for this heavily advertised show.
Too early for a deathwatch? I'm not so sure. A month ago the show's co-runner, Marc Guggenheim, left, then a week ago the show's ratings hit an all time low, and now production of the show has been halted for a week, for what they are calling a creative pause, specifically, to give the writers time to work and improve the scripts. That is always a bad sign.
Out of fairness to the show, this one week shutdown pales in comparison to the month long shutdown at fellow ABC show, V. Another factor in favor of the show is that it's rating slump is nothing in comparison to the free fall that ratings for V have taken.
Now this creative pause could result in a much improved show with higher ratings. If that is the result, then this writer will happily admit that he was wrong. I sincerely hope so as this show had so much promise when it started, but has truly lost some of its luster as the season has progressed. When it returns later in the season, I hope it will improve.
But, with the way things are going now, it doesn't take a fortune cookie, crystal ball, or a flash forward to see the signs of doom closing in on this show. Let's hope the holiday break (along with the break for the Olympics) helps out.
Photos: yahoo.com, nj.com
Author: Dennis Rayburn
Dennis Rayburn is a columnist for Roddenberry.com. His column, "Two Strips of Latinum" appears every Sunday through Thursday.
Contact: drayburn@roddenberry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/drayburn
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5 Responses
Honestly I really do think that flash forward is a really interesting tv series, the first episode made me really hooked and I was exited for the next episode. But somehow along the storyline I became well, not that exited anymore. I just kept watching because I was curious what caused the black out, John Cho is cool and I'm a fan of Jack Davenport ( though his character seems like a wimp, and what a shame for an actor like him..) But anyways I really do hope for the next season, the end of the first one just keeps running in my head!
Anonymous
01/10/2010
Flash Forward is so damn frustrating. Great premise, terrible follow through.
1. Nobody cares about the characters, except Sulu, and that's only because (a) he's a fun actor and (b) he has a somewhat interesting future, in that he has none.
2. Characters like the formerly-suicidal-now-completely-corny-believer-and-pervy-Japanese-loving-boring-bearded-man and annoyingly-transparent-red-state-character-stand-in-father-of-MIA-daughter make the viewers howl in exasperation/boredom. Nothing can be done to save these characters.
3. I thought Fiennes was a good actor. I'm convinced he saw only Van Damme films to prepare for this role, based on Fiennes' lame ass acting.
4. We don't care about the babysitter.
5. We don't care about Charlie/Hobbit, except that he's been awesome in 2 other pop culture reference points. Why waste a good actor like that? Why? What happened to character development?
6. God, I hate autistic kid and stupid dad.
7. I like lesbian FBI agent. Not sure why.
8. I Want to Love this show. I Want it Bad.
Anonymous
11/29/2009
A reliable source says, "The network is planning a huge promotional push over the holidays - rerunning some episodes and wants to tie FF into the season premiere of "LOST". After all that effort, they wanted a truly radical FF episode on that Thursday following Lost. Episode 113. A MAJOR event that had been planned for two episodes later, had to move up. That meant re-breaking four episodes that were almost finished being written. Since everything is tied to the writers room, the production got a week off while FF reorganized episodes 112, 113, 114 and 115.
These hiccups are not based on FF being in any "trouble", but rather wanting to make the most exciting show FF can and getting folks that may have stopped watching back in the game."
Anonymous
11/29/2009
V ran what, four episodes and then it's off for almost four months? That's not a problem with the show, that's a network abandoning it. The only surprise is that this is ABC, not Fox.
Andrew
11/25/2009
Well - I'll tell you my opinion. I think it's another sign that the studios have really misjudged the viewing audience once again. People just don't have the time - or more importantly - the ENERGY to commit to a series with an intricate story arc where the answers to questions don't come until the end of the season - or series...I want to be entertained for an hour - not be jerked around and Lost may have started a bad fad - but a fad is all it is - and one I think has been worn out. ME? Give me episodic television with a thin story arc - Leverage, Castle, etc. That way if I miss an episode I won't feel compelled to have to go back and watch 5 hours to catch up with the story - I can get it by inference. Just me and just sayin'....I don't think FlashForward is long for this world.
Terilynn
11/25/2009
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