Really Pathetic...

Question

...saw an ABC promo for the new series FlashForward, which seemed like an interesting idea but so far (the buzz goes) isn't really living up to the hype.
The promo included the quote/review, "10 out of 10!" which sound pretty good, until you read the attribution. The Lansing State Journal.
That's Lansing, as in Lansing, MI, as in my home town. The means the quote comes from one Mike Hughes, the longtime entertainment reporter (sic) for the 12-page rag. A man who's written about yours truely, in years past. A man who couldn't find his own ass with both hands, with the aid of a flashlight and a compass and a carefully-drawn map. A man who couldn't get laid in a whorehouse with a fistfull of fifties, and whose bread-and-butter is reviewing community theatre productions of My Fair Lady.
THIS is how deep they've had to dig, to find positive reviews of this show.
I'd thought I'd probably give the series a look, this week or next. I think I can probably give this one a pass, now.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]THIS is how deep they've had to dig, to find positive reviews of this show.[/nq]
Google "quote whores" some time!

"If you can, tell me something happy."
- Marybones

Usenet · Answer

I really want to like "Flash Forward."
But Flash Forward is not good TV. It doesn't focus enough on the scale of the disaster, and the characters don't act in a realistic way.

As you know, the show's premise is that everyone on earth suddenly blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds. During the blackout, people have "visions" of events that will happen on April 29 (six months in the future). Some visions are mundane: "I saw myself using the bathroom," and some are significant, "I was being hunted by assassins." A group of LA FBI agents tries to figure out what caused the global blackout.
The problem is, the characters act too normal. They get coffee, they take their kids to school, they go to work, la-la-la-la-la, when mere days before, all over the world, masses of people were killed by planes, traines and automobiles crashing during the blackout, and doctors passing out in the middle of surgery, etc.

So think about 9/11. The sudden deaths of 3,000 people impacted the daily lives of most Americans. In Flash Forward, something happens a gazillion times the scale of 9/11, but society seems back to normal within days.
In real life, there are people who would have to suck it up and do their jobs, like first responders, the media, etc. But the show should portray even those people as staggering around overwhelmed and haggard, gamely trying to soldier on. They shouldn't look like they're on a GQ photo shoot. It's totally unrealistic.
.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The problem is, the characters act too normal. They get coffee, they take their kids to school, they go to ... killed by planes, trains and automobiles crashing during the blackout, and doctors passing out in the middle of surgery, etc.[/nq]
Exactly. I've only seen the first episode, but that struck me at once. Even the simple act of getting into your car and driving somewhere ought to be hugely difficult: the ever-present thought should surely be "What if it happens again?". But those people just carry on as if the worldwide event had been nothing more than a momentary powercut.
And - as with the tedious "Lost" - I'm not inclined to invest time in a series which shows no real signs of heading to a proper conclusion within a properly defined time frame. As a short mini-series, fine; as something that could run for years before I find out what the devil it's all about - no thanks.
Bert

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]PJ, I think you're mistaking what I say about damage control to say that it wouldn't be a problem at all. On the contrary, it would be an unprecedented problem, but it would have its limits.[/nq]
I think you're underestimating the carnage. Not all cars weigh the same. Some stop more quickly than others. If people blacked out, there's a good chance that many of them would turn the steering wheel one way or the other as they slumped over, which means they would either go off the road or cut into traffic beside them (or across the median) causing massive pileups. There's corners, there's bridges, there's semi trucks. If everyone blacked out on busy freeways going 65 mph, you would have an unbelievable mess cars squashed, flipped over, or just head-on collisions. It would overwhelm the hospitals.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Really Pathetic...

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