Disney/Buena Vista | 2009 | 946 mins. | NR
With Lost in its stretch run, ABC realized they would need a new series to reinvigorate that fanbase. In the summer of 2009, executives thought they’d found the answer in FlashForward, a series based on the 1999 novel of the same name by author Robert J. Sawyer. Reportedly planned to last five seasons, the series begins with a complex mystery that grows more intricate as time passes. Unfortunately, it took four or five episodes for the series to really find its rhythm; and by that time it was too late. The audience had had lost interest and tuned out, resulting in the series cancellation after just one season.
On October 6th, 2009 at precisely 11:00:00 PST, without warning, the world goes black. Chaos ensues as planes fall out of the sky, cars plow into crowds and helicopters crash into buildings. Two minutes and seventeen seconds later everyone who survived wakes up to new a new world: they see their lives six months later, on April 29, 2010.
Survivors begin to refer to the event as a “flashword.” Everyone sees things differently. Given what the survivors have experienced, do they embrace their future or try to change it? And what did it mean if you didn’t see your future during the event—were you destined to die before that day in April?
It’s with that setup that we meet FBI agents Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri Noh (John Cho). Noh did not see a vision, which sets him on a mission to investigate his uncertain future. Led by agent Stanford Wedeck (Courtney Vance), Benford is charged with discovering the source of the source of the blackout. A recovering alcoholic, Mark saw himself investigating the blackout during his flashforward and the members of his team use those clues to ‘recreate’ the investigation.
The question becomes, can the future be changed, or can we be programmed and devoid of free will? As the series takes us back to April 29th, we learn that Mark’s wife Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger), sees herself living with another man. Aaron Stark (Brían F. O’Byrne) Mark’s AA sponsor and close friend saw himself talking with his daughter who had supposedly died in Afghanistan. Olivia’s surgical intern, Dr. Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton), was given a renewed will to live, despite a recent late stage cancer diagnosis. For others, such as 19-year-old student Nicole Kirby—who was being held under water—the future seems bleak.
In order to answer the bigger question, Mark and his team must discover who or what caused the blackout and if it was a specific person or persons, what did they have to gain from it? And more ominously, would it happen again? The conspiracy is multi-layered, and goes back years in time. The CIA plants double agents within the FBI to be in place for this event when it finally hits. Tortured physicist Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport) believes his experiment was responsible, but his partner, Simon Campos (Dominic Monaghan), knows the real truth about the events of October 6, 2009.
Since FlashForward was originally conceived as a five season series but cancelled after one, there are several plotlines left unresolved. So, while this is the “Complete Series,” many viewers are bound to be left wanting more. There are rumors that Starz is considering picking up the series, but as of this writing, fans will have to be content with the 22 episodes contained in this set.
The picture quality is pretty standard for an ABC-TV release, with only a slight amount of grain in daytime and brightly lit scenes and a little more (and loss of detail) in dark shots. FlashForward is presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16×9 TV monitors.
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is solid for a TV DVD release, really coming to life during crashes and shootouts–which action fans will wish were in more supply. It’s mostly a dialogue-driven soundtrack that delivers clear and distortion-free sound, with subtitles available in French or Spanish.
The set includes one commentary track and that’s found on the 11th episode. It features Actor Dominic Monaghan and Executive Producer Jessika Borsiczky. Also included are deleted scenes, blooper reel, “FlashForward: A Look Ahead,” “Creating Catastgrophe: The Effects of a Global Blackout,” “Kangaroo?,” “FlashhForward on Set” interviews with cast and crew, “Meet Yuko” (one of Japan’s three biggest stars, as she plays Keiko in her first role on American television), and “Architects of Destiny,” a pilot-to-last-episode look at how the series was conceived and shaped.
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