The Racialicious Roundtable For Flash Forward 1.11 & 1.12

Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

SPOILERS AHEAD

Call it injury piled onto insult: not only did ABC choose to bring Flash Forward back opposite the opening day of the NCAA Tournament, but it ended up being arguably the best – and by best, I mean “bracket-shredding” – NCAA opening day in history. Seriously, my particular bracket looked like L.A. on Blackout Day.

That said, the two-part “Revelation Zero” gets points for at least trying to seem important, as the creative team busted out seemingly every narrative trick at its’ disposal and brought in more characters to bolster its’ biggest revelation: that the man we’d come to identify as Suspect Zero was in fact Charlie The Hobbit – which made the shot of him wielding a ring somewhat funnier than it probably should have been. But what did your Friendly Neighborhood Roundtable make of all these revelations? Well, we’re glad you asked …

I’ll say this about these episodes: at least the show looked more forceful than it had been before its’ extended hiatus. Even if very little of the plot holds up if you think about it for a minute (more on this later). What’d you think?

Diana: I was surprised to see the Hobbit’s storyline step up a bit. But honestly, I’m not sure if the show is going to last for much longer.

Andrea: I agree, Diana, that Charlie Hobbit’s storyline is stepped up, but his villiany–and to a lesser extent, Lloyd’s–make my eyes glaze over because their evil, be it intentional (Hobbit) or by abbetting (Lloyd), seems to stem from the fact that they have British Isle accents and are erudite. That makes spotting Teh Baddies just that much easier ’cause ya, know, that’s how stereotypes rock.

jen*: Evil Brit tropes might be tired, but they’re more fun to watch than what-really-should-be-side-story-Benford (IMO). Maybe that’s why I was more into the first half than the second. I’m not really into the Hobbit, but I can’t not love Steve.

That was the good. Now for the bad, starting with Gil Bellows’ “preacher” character. So far, this guy seems like a melding of the worst aspects of Heroes and Battlestar Galactica. And brace yourself for faux-outrage if he’s revealed to be a swindler (notice how he never told anybody what his FF actually was.)

Diana: Quite frankly, his sideburns were freaking me the hell out. That and the fact that the he is not aging well. Also I think the evangelist with a evil motive is a bit played out. Can you tell I didn’t really like this character or plot line?

Andrea: And his character did a wretched platitude mash-up of Christianity and Eastern philosophies. I cringed just listening to his faux-synthesizing blathering. But I think FF has been trying — and failing –to reconcile these ideas since the first episode. The Matrix (the first flick; the other two can kiss my behind) did a much better job.

jen*: This guy seemed so see-through, I didn’t really get what his whole storyline was for. For the 1 1/2 moments he spent with the babysitter-who’s-pining-over-the-resident-who’s-pining-over-his-FF-Japanese-girlfriend … it seemed a lot of background. Especially considering the babysitter and the resident already seem like minor characters.

Tough night for our boy Demitri, but what’d you think of Michael Ealy stepping fully into the story? (Even if it was *sigh* Mark who made the Big Break in the case.)

Diana: I had double the eye candy with those two, so I was happy.

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