"Boost writing" is another way of saying the "writing" on the wall. At this point, the writers are being told to come up with some hijinx to sustain any respectable viewership thru the season until LOST comes back. ABC can't be excited about their options going into next year.

Toots McGee: "Boost writing" is another way of saying the "writing" on the wall. At this point, the writers are being told to come up with some hijinx to sustain any respectable viewership thru the season until LOST comes back. ABC can't be excited about their options going into next year.

Damn, I thought Lost was done, this depresses me. It also is depressing that you think both shows attract the same audience, even more so if you are right. I assume that the lost audience watch 'jackass' / 'america's funniest home videos' in their other free time.

It's only MOSTLY dead!!!

Considering FF's only had one good episode - and to be fair, it was a great episode - I can't say I'm very pissed.

ABC last seen limping down the street with a gunshot wound to the foot. These morons wouldn't know a winner if they were hit over the head with it!

Ratings for the ABC Studios skein started strongly on Sept. 24

Using terms like this is why I think every writer at Variety needs to be punched in the crotch. Repeatedly.

lajimi: ABC last seen limping down the street with a gunshot wound to the foot. These morons wouldn't know a winner if they were hit over the head with it!

Needless to say, Joss Whedon will be in talks with them very, very soon.

I disagree with Toots the only real reason I gave this show a shot was becase it was the writing team. I wanted to like it, but Im not beating myself up over having missed the last three weeks

They should have just made FF a mini series.

I heard "V" needed some re-tooling as well.

FlashForward sucks. I can't stand all the whiny characters. I can't begin to believe Nicole who wears $1000 outfits, speaks Japanese, had the most incredibly great Halloween costume ever and is a ... babysitter.

Just shoot all the farks.

On a somewhat stupid note, I especially dislike Wedeck, because he was so much better calling crazy Ivans as "Seaman Jones".

Whatthefark: They should have just made FF a mini series.

Like Harper's Island?

Hell yeah.

TheQuest35: I disagree with Toots the only real reason I gave this show a shot was becase it was the writing team. I wanted to like it, but Im not beating myself up over having missed the last three weeks

Same feeling. I would watch the episode hoping to want to see the next one but every week I just did not care to watch. Then one week turned to two and three and I just stopped caring. I really wanted to see what happens but the episodes were never very good.

Pepehomer: Next you'll tell me that ABC will take their more popular shows and, after only showing four episodes, wait for four months to show a couple more episodes...

Oh, wait...

/saw the first two episodes of FlashForward, then became very bored
/will also be writing off V, since I don't want to wait four months for four more episodes

They made that decision a long time ago, before the first episode aired.

In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea.

I've said this before:

The best thing about that show is that Robert J. Sawyer got a check for the rights to his book.

This isn't news. Last week's episode was always supposed to be the last one of the year. Hell, it even says so in TFA.

jrshull: I've said this before:

The best thing about that show is that Robert J. Sawyer got a check for the rights to his book.

I sure hope the series doesn't end the same way the book did.

Both FlashForward and V started with promising first episodes only to sputter-out afterward. V, for me, rushed way too many things in the first episode, but I'm still liking the series as a whole more than FlashForward.

FF I'm just watching now to "see what happens." It's focused on too many sappy soap opera storylines (the guy who's daughter is a soldier) -- I mean, an event supposedly killed 20 million people, and the one guy that has a chance of solving the crime is... worried about his wife cheating on him? C'MON!

I chalk it up as another Heroes-type Lost ripoff where they want to raise a lot of questions and then take forever to answer them. Except that Lost is a more original concept with better characters, loaded with crazy details and hidden stuff that has led to the creation of a legit cult fan following.

FlashForward is suffering because it's following Lost's early season formula of two character building episode for everyone one plot developing episode.

It worked early on in Lost because the characters were hugely compelling and were just as much of a mystery as the Island itself. Lost also got smart in focusing entirely on plot once it had started to exhaust genuinely interesting backstories for its characters.

FlashForward has an excellent plot and terrible characters. The plot driven episodes are great, but the character driven episodes are barely worth watching.

Lost has still done a great job of fleshing out characters in the context of stronger plot development. FF should just put character development on the backburner and get on with the story.

Lost rules, FF drools.

/2/2/10 baby!

I'm a huge Lost fan, and I also like Flash Forward. I'm always saying that the FBI Agent should yell at his wife "Why don't you go fark that guy from your vision then!!!" Whenever they argue.

The character side-plots on FF aren't nearly as bad as they are on this season of Dexter. Who the fark cares about Batista and Leguerta's relationship? What the fark, with the reporter being the daughter of Trinity? Rita and that other guy all affair like? WTF Dexter, I thought this season was the best ever (still do).

It has shown flashes of being good, yet they've borrowed a bit from Heroes - the surprise lesbian plotline, at least one appearance by a Star Trek (original timeline) actor - and a nice chunk of 24 - Chinese bad guys, top secret paramilitary contractor trying to take over the world. Hell, when the surprise lesbian FBI agent was gunned down by Chinese agents, I half-expected Jack Bauer to run out of the alley, screaming to Chloe on his cell to send an ambulance and patch into the satellites to find where the Chinese bad guys went, and then end with the clock ticking to the top of the hour!

But otherwise, I am hooked. Also re: V, they had already planned on the first few episodes airing in November, then going to break until next year.

But I want to know what's the deal with the kangaroo, why are the crows dying, what the daughter saw in her flash forward, etc.

FF needs more sci-fi and less 'Melrose'. The show had a lot of promise in the beginning. I walked away from it 3 weeks ago or so. The main characters are poorly cast.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener: Like Harper's Island?

Hell yeah.

That was thirteen episodes which to me is more a half season. I'm talking a mini series of four or five two hour episodes. They could have easily told this story in that format.

Whatthefark: That was thirteen episodes which to me is more a half season. I'm talking a mini series of four or five two hour episodes. They could have easily told this story in that format.

Ahhh, so noted...

... but aye, the less-is-more approach would have worked much better for this whole shebang.

Meh, I've PVR'd several episodes so I can fastforward (pun not intended) through the boring bits. The good bits are actually decent.

I watched a couple episodes, but couldnt get over the fact that everyone driving during the "event" got into an accident (and many many many fatalities), but the nurse made it home from work that day (drove home even), the kid went right back to school, and the whiny arse FBI guy couldnt think about anything more important than the fact that his wife was going to maybe boink some guy 6 months from now.

The show completely glossed over the effect that the blackout would have just to get to the whodunit portion of the show.

The whole thing is a trainwreck. I certainly wont miss it.

Yea, and the piece of crap that is Flash Forward is why they moved Ugly Betty to Fridays, essentially killing it even though the writing this season is really good.

Ugh.

I hate you ABC.

Keep on giving in to Shonda Rhimes on her crap writing too, morons.

Flashforward isn't great, but its 9 episodes in. I also don't really give a fark because its TV and if it ends up being bad, my life continues. Article sucked also, last week was episode 9. I'm not even a big fan of this show and I know that.

also, for the millionth idiot submitter/approver

Shooting will start again on Monday with episode 13.
Shooting will start again on Monday with episode 13.
Shooting will start again on Monday with episode 13.

Shouldn't they have already known what was about to happen?

robsul82: Considering FF's only had one good episode - and to be fair, it was a great episode - I can't say I'm very pissed.

Did it have a good episode? I watched the first 5 or 6, and in total it had enough good scenes and ideas in those 5 or 6 episodes to make a single good episode, but I never actually saw a good episode.

Last week's episode was great, specifically because it ditched the boring procedural crap. Instead it focused on the least developed character, introduced a new one, and spent 90% of the episode looking at what would happen if two people who had never met saw each other in their visions.

The episode two weeks ago was pretty good too. It seems like they alternate between decent and awful. Not looking forward to this week's episode, then.

I thought the pilot was engaging enough to continue watching FlashForward, but I just kept being angry at the writers for not dealing with the mutability of the future, because all of the characters were acting like their futures were set in stone episode after episode. I would've thought the whole idea of defying your future would've been the first thing on some peoples' minds, but they kept following step-by-step things that would just fulfill that future instead of taking opportunities that were right in front of them to change it. But spoilers now has me actually tuning in every week, though I can't tell you how much I didn't care about last week's episode. Who honestly cares about what are essentially background characters?

I expect to tune in for a while longer, unless they lose me entirely with something incredibly retarded.

Courtney Cox-Zucker: robsul82: Considering FF's only had one good episode - and to be fair, it was a great episode - I can't say I'm very pissed.

Did it have a good episode? I watched the first 5 or 6, and in total it had enough good scenes and ideas in those 5 or 6 episodes to make a single good episode, but I never actually saw a good episode.

"Believe" - the episode about the once-suicidal doctor's attempts to track down the girl from his FF and her own life in Tokyo - is the one good episode so far.

texdent: what the daughter saw in her flash forward

They still wont talk about it !All this time investigating garbage leads and garbage storylines and they STILL WON'T SAY WHO D GIBBONS IS. It is getting ridiculous. My wife and I are now taking bets on how long they will continue to drag it out without actually revealing anything. If it werent for dvr I would not have come back after week 2

A mini-series would have worked. All that soap opera crap they used as filler (a doctor with terminal cancer who sees his true love in Japan in his vision and then travels to Tokyo to find her only to be turned away by her thoughtless mother at the last minu...wait - what? Are you farking kidding me?) sucked the air out of the entire project.

I really think they should do more mini's and fewer long form dramas. The audience needs to know there is an ending in sight - that is why Lost's numbers are going to be through the roof this season.

FF, of course, suffered from more than just bad planning and writing. What a dreary, humorless show. Tune in to see a recovering drunk phone worker bicker with his peg-leg vet daughter? No, thanks. (Also, when two major plot lines revolve around booze abuse, you should know you have a problem.) Cho had a constipated mask of death plastered on his face from ep one. And Fienes was a disaster casting choice - no wonder his acting career never really quite took off.

Oh, and Charlie has to be about the least convincing villain in history; about as menacing as Crackle from Rice Krispies.

Just kill it - maybe issue a quick one sheet (along with an apology to anyone who was duped into watching) explaining where they were planning on going with it to satisfy the die hards and then shoot it in the head so we can let the healing begin.

last week has a twist worth being twisted and now everyone is biatching like it was awful because it wasn't as useless as the other episodes were...weird.

lajimi: ABC last seen limping down the street with a gunshot wound to the foot. These morons wouldn't know a winner if they were hit over the head with it!

This show would like to have a word with you.



/best new comedy this season so far easily


This ones not bad either

Meh, I don't hate it. Fringe and Flash Forward combined are keeping me going until Lost comes back. :)

im still mad they killed the famous jett jackson.

TheGhostofFarkPast


Those shows are the sort of bland, dullest common denominator programs we get when ambitious (and expensive) alternatives fail. Look - a bunch of grinning, middle class white folks! Hysterical! Look - they threw in a buffooning, stereotypical gay couple! Genius! Laughs all around!

/groundbreaking entertainment
//like a Home Depot commercial

I have three unwatched episodes of FF on my DVR. I just can't suffer through 40 minutes of soap opera shait to get the 6 minutes of plot development I actually care about.

Great idea for a show. Horrible, horrible execution. The same problem that Stargate Universe has.

ferioritycomplex: I thought the pilot was engaging enough to continue watching FlashForward, but I just kept being angry at the writers for not dealing with the mutability of the future, because all of the characters were acting like their futures were set in stone episode after episode.

I thought exactly the opposite about the pilot - all the characters were acting as though the future was set in stone and made the same stupid mistake. "In the future I'm investigating the flashforwards so by investigating my investigation I can find the answer!" He already knows that when April rolls around he won't have solved the case, so why the rush?

I had nothing else to do after moving into a new place and I watched the following 6 episodes. It was a rewardless grind until Jett Jackson killed himself, which I think really opened up possibilities for writing. It's too damn bad the acting is so bad. If I were Ralph Fiennes I would disown my brother or make him change his name.

Why don't they just tie it in to Lost and be done with it. aside from the usage of common actors, I think it could work...perhaps the event is related to another Dharma Initiative-event?

robsul82: "Believe" - the episode about the once-suicidal doctor's attempts to track down the girl from his FF and her own life in Tokyo - is the one good episode so far.

At the end of that episode, as a way of my interpretation of the show, I started singing softly:

"She's here because she's here because she's here she's _heeeeeerrre!_"

--

IOW, without the flash forward, they wouldn't have met. They're meeting because they had the flash forward about meeting up. The ep was about them trying to rush things. Which would screw up their meeting up.

It's like saying you meet your self, find out it's your _future_ self, and your future self tells you the instructions to make a time machine. To make it all work, the first thing you do once you make the time machine is to go back in time to tell yourself how to make the time machine.

--

No, I can't stand the soap opera-y nature of the show.

FF's problem is they're spreading themselves too thin, and leaving too many unfinished questions laying around. Had they focused on just a small handful of characters they'd have done better, but now we've got:

Terminal doctor and his Japanese girl
FBI man and his surgeon wife
Cho and his fiance'
Drunk vet and his daughter
Lesbian FBI agent and ???
The surgeon wife and her future boyfriend
The physicist and his partner
The babysitter

That's just too many people with visions to follow in a one hour, once a week program. It gets diluted and people lose interest.

It doesn't help that the FBI man with the surgeon wife are so distrustful of each other now every time they speak both my wife and I want to smack them upside the head.

The writing on the show is bad, and shutting down production for a week isn't going to help make it better.

I do find the show mildly interesting, and I often tune in to see if the FBI agent will ever unfurrow his brow.

Dredge: TheGhostofFarkPast


Those shows are the sort of bland, dullest common denominator programs we get when ambitious (and expensive) alternatives fail. Look - a bunch of grinning, middle class white folks! Hysterical! Look - they threw in a buffooning, stereotypical gay couple! Genius! Laughs all around!

Please explain how "Modenr Family" represents the middle class?

Bendal: That's just too many people with visions to follow in a one hour, once a week program. It gets diluted and people lose interest.

That and it seems like they add character backstory because someone told them that the sort of people who like shows like >> like character backstory. While I would like to know how the gimmpy vet got home from Afghanistan, and I'd really like to know WTF with the crows in Africa, the TV show needs to spool things up a bit tighter, IMHO of course.