I didn’t talk about the relationship stuff so much in the Ep 2 article, but I just don’t care about that marriage. I don’t necessarily want it to end and I am even less interested in the stuff with Mystery Man, but I’d rather that was ignored.

Actually, I think the writers *tried* to give us characters to care about. I don’t think they succeeded. Maybe I’m morbidly gloomy this month, but I want the writers to drop a moon on most of the characters and call the show John Cho Doesn’t Remember the Future.

That’s not true (about the moon), but I’m suddenly enamored with the idea. I do believe that the writers tried and mostly didn’t succeed with anyone remotely a major character.

Courtney B. Vance was a more interesting character during the first episode but became borderline slapstick in Ep 2. Too much so.

The characters who are more interesting are characters like the Sheriff in Ep 2. She was compelling. What was HER story? I thought she was lying about not seeing anything, but they kind of suggested why with her resolution…that builds into John Cho’s storyline a bit, but I preferred the idea that she was lying.

Actually, that’s something I’d like to see explored more. People lying about their visions in a variety of ways. Just like kids would play Blackout, we’d lie our socks off.

For me, this is a human drama that has been set in motion by a science fiction event. I loved it and the second episode as well. I think they do an excellent job of expanding the human element in the second episode. The AA mentor who looks out onto the street of people and basically says that everyone has become a prophet. The “idea” is staggering–multiply “what if you knew the future?” by Billions–everyone’s got their own version, or their own 2:17 slice. It’s rife with story ideas.

I compared it to “Knowing” the movie, saying that Knowing tried to be this kind of movie, but the writing sucked. The concept was there, but completely lost inside “Knowing”s deterministic theology. No wiggle room for the characters to try.

http://jeromestueart.com/2009/09/26/flashforward-the-excellence-that-knowing-could-have-been/

I love the second episode of Flashforward. The main couple are determined to make their marriage work no matter what the future said, but it’s got a tragic feeling to it already.

I will say that I’m starting to predict plotlines…but have no idea if I’m right or not. The nature of the show is that it showed you the premiere and the finale simultaneously and you have to patch up the narrative middle! Good stuff!