Flashlater

We finally got around to finishing FlashForward tonight. Pretty decent season finale overall, but definitely unsatisfying as a close to the series.

At this point I’m ambivalent to the show, but overall I think canceling it was the right idea. The first half of the season was slow moving and all over the place: we didn’t really know what was going on, and it was frustrating to watch these characters struggle to figure out anything. After the winter break the show really came together, and it was enjoyable to watch. I cared about the characters. But somewhere at the end – maybe in the last four episodes – it just went back to how it was in the beginning. And by the end I really just didn’t care anymore.

For me, getting to the point where I don’t care about a show is a big deal. In all honesty, I watched every episode of Heroes – yes, even the last two seasons – if only to see how the show came together. So to then be able to walk away from a show like this with only lukewarm feelings is fairly sad.

The other thing is that the characters got exceedingly stupid towards the end. No, Mark, don’t have that drink of alcohol even though you know it’s a terrible idea! No, Olivia, don’t kiss that guy even though you know that you’re cheating on your husband! At the end I think we compared it to Pan’s Labyrinth where all of those characters do really dumb things as well. Yes, let’s mess with the Pale Man even though everyone said never to do that. Do people in media just not listen to directions anymore?

I think the biggest loss for me is the cast. The show really did have a lot of good people on it, my personal favorite being John Cho. Maybe it’s the slight nostaglia for Lost kicking in, but Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger were pretty good too. Joseph Fiennes was fine – he played the part decently well. Oh, but big thumbs up on getting some BSG alums in there! (James Callis doing a rather strange American accent, and Callum Keith Rennie being evil as usual)

Anyway, there’ll be one less thing for me to watch in the fall, and I guess that’s kinda sad. Here’s hoping the cast moves on to bigger and better thins.