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| Tuesday, September 29, 2009 09:59 PM |
| On the Viewer - FlashForward (Episode 1 - "No More Good Days") |
 by Fëanor |
This review is done in a pseudo-live-blog style, and may contain spoilers.
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It seems appropriate that we open in medias res and then flash back. The opening sequence is a pretty horrific, almost apocalyptic vision.
Mark's babysitter is pretty hot.
Hey, I've heard that "one penis/all penises" line before. It's a pretty good line.
Very tense, exciting build up to the flashforward event. And what the FBI agent sees is pretty intriguing. They really seem to have thought hard about how traumatic and horrific it would be if everybody blacked out for a couple minutes. It's well done.
"I had a bad dream. I dreamt there are no more good days." Woah. Cool line.
Okay, the slow motion running I did not need. That's just corny.
Um, what is with the kangaroo?
Olivia: "You're gonna be okay, honey."
Kid: "I know, Olivia."
Olivia: "How did you know my name?"
The kids are the first to get how the flashforward works. I like that; makes sense.
"People probably died walking down a flight of stairs." I hadn't thought of that. Brutal! Everybody conking out for a few minutes doesn't seem like that terrible a thing at first, but yeah, it could really have catastrophic consequences.
During the blackout, they all had a vision of the same date and time, six months in the future. The scene where this finally comes out is a bit cheesy - the dialog and acting are kind of weak - but then again, I'm not sure how you could do a scene of people talking out such an idea without it sounding a little dumb.
People's visions match up. They really appear to have seen memories of the future. Very cool. The thing is, now that they know what's coming, won't they act differently, and cause that future never to come to be? I mean, certainly everybody's going to be on pins and needles as the date and time gets closer, and very aware of what they're doing. I would think a lot of people would have the perverse desire to deliberately avoid doing what they were doing in their vision. Or be unable to do it exactly the way they did it, because they were so hyper aware of what was going on.
I'm not sure why Mark doesn't mention until much further on the part of his vision wherein armed gunmen enter the office and try to kill him. Seems like that would be the thing that would stick in your head the most! And the thing you'd want to warn everybody about. Also, Mark's partner didn't see anything during his blackout. That seems like a bad sign, and a very interesting detail.
How to coordinate and cross-reference all these visions? A website! Good idea!
I love that Mark wants to start following the leads now that he saw himself investigating in the future.
We've already got one person saying the blackouts and flashforwards were a punishment from God, and another person saying they were a gift from God.
Mark's AA sponsor: "Maybe because you saw it, you can change it. Ghost of Christmas Future crap." Well said!
Mark's sponsor saw his "dead" daughter alive. "You're worried your future's gonna come true. I'm worried mine's not." Interesting variations. I also like that while a lot of people saw really important things during their flashforwards, some people didn't. One dude was just on the toilet reading the paper. A couple of other people were in a random meeting.
Ouch! Olivia saw herself with another man! A man she currently doesn't know, but for whom in the vision she had very intense feelings. Oh, it's the father of the kid she saved, of course. D'oh. Mark should find him and beat the crap out of him in advance!
There's the friendship bracelet. Prophecy #1 has come true. It's just a cute gift from his daughter, but as she puts it on him, it's like she's cuffing him to all those other things they saw: his wife cheating on him, his drinking. Damn.
Mark's partner is caving on having the bad song at his wedding! Don't do it, man! Hang tough! Oh, and a small detail they messed up: even though the video was already playing on his computer, it still had a play button beneath it, instead of a pause button.
Woah, very interesting: they just found surveillance video of a dude who was awake while everybody else in the world was passed out. Something to look into!
I have to admit, I'm intrigued. I'm going to have to keep watching this one for now, just to see where it goes. |
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