Flashforward

[Crothian]

It was pretty good. A lot of good set up but the real issue will be where it goes from here. Plenty shows start out well and never go anywhere.

 

[EricNoah]

Seth MacFarlane was a pleasant surprise.

 

[Richards]

Having read the (excellent) novel by Robert J. Sawyer, I'm finding it difficult to hide my disappointment that apparently the only thing taken from the novel is the basic premise: everybody on earth blacks out and sees a vision of themselves at a distinct point in the future -- and that's it. And they even changed that, with the guy walking around during the blackout event. And the fact that the future seen is that of 6 months from now, instead of 20+ years.

I'll be giving it another couple weeks, but I'm really starting off on a bad footing.

Johnathan

 

[Darth Shoju]

Having read the (excellent) novel by Robert J. Sawyer, I'm finding it difficult to hide my disappointment that apparently the only thing taken from the novel is the basic premise: everybody on earth blacks out and sees a vision of themselves at a distinct point in the future -- and that's it. And they even changed that, with the guy walking around during the blackout event. And the fact that the future seen is that of 6 months from now, instead of 20+ years.

I'll be giving it another couple weeks, but I'm really starting off on a bad footing.

Johnathan

Apparently the 20 years thing was because the network was really hesitant to show anything futuristic-looking. Supposedly they have market data that says X percentage (60%? More? I can't remember) of viewers will change the channel if they see something that looks like science-fiction. That and it's cheaper to shoot the visions in the present day and such.

 

[stonegod]

Also, the payoff is more immediate if the timeframe is w/in one season or so.

 

[theT0rmented]

I liked the show, even if there were some parts I thought were poorly written (such as the head FBI agent not being suspicious of the agent who didn't share his flash forward and quickly changed the subject). I am a bit weary, though, as this is a Brannon Braga show, and I'm still bitter about Enterprise...

I thought the destruction was a bit much; I don't know where all the fires can come from in a building if people lose consciousness for 2.17 min. They showed a helicopter, which explains some of the destruction. But there seemed to be fires all over the place. On regular city streets, would cars really flip over that much at 40-50 km/h? On the freeway I can understand, but in the city centre? Also, 890 (IIRC) planes crashed in the US alone... autopilot would prevent most of those, except maybe those about to land.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I liked the show, even if there were some parts I thought were poorly written (such as the head FBI agent not being suspicious of the agent who didn't share his flash forward and quickly changed the subject). I am a bit weary, though, as this is a Brannon Braga show, and I'm still bitter about Enterprise...

I thought the destruction was a bit much; I don't know where all the fires can come from in a building if people lose consciousness for 2.17 min. They showed a helicopter, which explains some of the destruction. But there seemed to be fires all over the place. On regular city streets, would cars really flip over that much at 40-50 km/h? On the freeway I can understand, but in the city centre? Also, 890 (IIRC) planes crashed in the US alone... autopilot would prevent most of those, except maybe those about to land.

The amount of destruction seems a little too much to me, too. At least the burning buildings felt wrong.

I might see car crashes. Blacking out could lead to you touching the gas pedal and increasing your speed before you crash into another car, so traffic chaos and some extreme crashes seem "okay" to me.

Though I suspect that a pilot blacking out during landing or starting might indeed cause a crash and the autopilot won't help there. Question is how many planes are in this stage of their flight in the US at any given time?

 

[Crothian]

Another thing with the destruction is it came out 11am Pacific time, right? So a lot less people should have been on the road across America since most people are at work.

 

[Elodan]

I enjoyed the show enough to keep watching.

Minor nitpicks:
I have to say I was really impressed by the agent who was able to find the guy in all that video feed at a ball game way on the other side of the field (I'll chalk that one up to the human eye picking up on motion).

Maybe this is just the D&D player in me, but if I were that worried about the future coming true, I think I would have purposely put a notecard or two in a different place than I remembered it in my vision.

 

[Mistwell]

The amount of destruction seems a little too much to me, too. At least the burning buildings felt wrong.

I might see car crashes. Blacking out could lead to you touching the gas pedal and increasing your speed before you crash into another car, so traffic chaos and some extreme crashes seem "okay" to me.

Though I suspect that a pilot blacking out during landing or starting might indeed cause a crash and the autopilot won't help there. Question is how many planes are in this stage of their flight in the US at any given time?

Well, it was Los Angeles. If you look out above LAX airport at any given moment during the day, you see probably 50 planes either in the process of landing or in the process of taking off and getting up to altitude. So yeah, a lot.