No Future For You: The Last Racialicious Roundtable For FlashForward

Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

FlashForward sold itself on the promise that it could become the next Lost. Instead, it bowed out as ignomiously as Heroes, canceled after only one year, and guilty of the same major sin: failing to capitalize on a multi-cultural ensemble.

But this show actually blundered on a greater scale than Heroes – not only was it created by sci-fi faves Brannon Braga and David S. Goyer, but its’ primary POC players – John Cho, Courtney B. Vance, Gabrielle Union, Michael Ealy and Barry Shabaka Henley – were already known quantities going into the show. In a disturbing omen, you had Cho coming off Star Trek and two successful Harold & Kumar movies, but still in second-banana status behind Joseph Fiennes, who hadn’t had a hit in any medium in more than a decade. Fiennes didn’t do himself many favors with the mostly listless character of Mark Benford, who only seemed to come alive until after his marriage dissolved sloooooowwwwwlllyyyyyyy over the course of the season. Worse yet, the creative team chose to shunt these actors and their characters to the background and burn screen time on nothing characters like Aaron Stark; a pair of Magic Autistic Saviors; and star-crossed, bird-brained near-lovers (more on them later), among others.

Not that the series finale, “Future Shock,” didn’t try to redeem its’ ever-beleaguered protagonist, as Mark went into Army of One mode and

ohbytheway finally solved the riddle on his wall – that the show and the series would end with a second flash-forward. In this regard, he got something denied to his his counterparts on more-ballyhooed contemporaries like BSG and Lost – a sense of agency. Here, Mark chose to literally walk into the assault he always knew was coming, and to fight his way out. Similarly, you had Wedeck figure out why his flash-forward had him, literally, on the toilet – because and Vreede chose to go in and save Mark’s ass. (Wedeck, by the way, got the episode’s only “F-CK YEAH” moment in shooting the guy in the bathroom).

As for Demetri, he ended up outliving his own flash-forward, and choosing to experience another one as the series ended. Of course, it made him look like an even bigger ass for cheating on Zoey in order to fulfill Janis’ own vision. (At first, I thought this was almost elegant; Dem’s flash-forward was blacking out in the midst of the second event. But I would be corrected, as you’ll read below.)

In retrospect, The show-closing final montage is so open-ended it becomes funny, in a sad way. Despite Pre-Teen Charlie excitedly telling us, “They found him!”, this show in fact went off the rails awhile back. I know someone remarked on this in an earlier ‘Table, but it really is true: as a BBC production, where 6 or 8 episodes are the norm, this show might have rocked as a procedural mystery with a sci-fi bent (think Life On Mars or Ashes To Ashes). And more importantly, the characters who we wanted to see in the spotlight might have gotten to stay there. Including poor Al.

Now let’s get the Roundtable’s final thoughts on this episode, and the series.

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