Oh, FlashForward, it's not you, it's me

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Joseph Fiennes (right, with Courtney B. Vance) ditches the doublets of the Shakespearean stage for the Kevlar of TV thriller. (CRAIG SJODIN / ABC)

Have you ever found yourself on the threshold of a new romance, with thoughts like this spinning through your mind?:

He/she's way too good for me. Too smart, too attractive, too literate, too colourful, too clever. I'm out of my league. If I get involved in this, I'll be in too deep, too fast, and then I'll get dumped, and my heart will be broken. Again.

That's kind of how it feels waiting for the premiere of the ABC drama FlashForward (tonight at 7), which is without a doubt the most unique, stylish and seductively intriguing new series of the 2009-10 TV season. It's one of those shows whose pilot really, really makes you want to invest in its complex and highly intelligent storyline and its compelling cast of characters -- but you just know, way down deep inside, that if you make the commitment and add it to your must-see list, you'll be part of a small but loyal following that's deeply frustrated when the show gets cancelled before its too-cool-for-prime-time tale can be fully told.

Sadly, I've got the feeling that FlashForward is one of those series that's too smart and too challenging for its own good; it's probably doomed simply because it asks too much of a TV-viewing public that prefers cookie-cutter procedurals and easy-to-digest stand-alone episodes.

FlashForward, which is based on the speculative-fiction novel of the same name by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer, imagines the possibility that the entire planet suffers a mysterious blackout -- two minutes and 17 seconds -- at the same time. Obviously, there's massive chaos and carnage to be dealt with when people awake; freeways are a tangle of burning wreckage; airports are a mass of crashed planes and mangled humanity; hospital hallways and operating rooms are filled with dead and dying patients.

Everywhere anyone looks, it's a disaster of unfathomable proportions. But as the panic subsides and order begins to be restored, another factor emerges -- this wasn't just a worldwide, simultaneous fainting spell; during their two-plus minutes of unconsciousness, people everywhere seem to have experienced a brief glimpse into the not-too-distant future.

L.A.-based FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and partner Demetri Noh (John Cho) were in the midst of a high-speed pursuit of a truckload of suspected terrorists when the blackout occurred; having somehow survived the subsequent freeway pile-up, they're able to capture one of their targets and provide assistance to some of the thousands of injured and confused roaming the pavement in the aftermath of the mass mini-coma.

Benford's wife, Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger), was in the middle of a complicated surgical procedure when she lost consciousness; her patient, of course, died, and now she and her hospital colleagues are grappling with the guilt of having failed so many, so quickly.

Meanwhile, at the Benfords' home, the teenage babysitter charged with caring for their young daughter was in the throes of a passionate entanglement with her boyfriend when they both blacked out; once awakened, she scrambles to locate the youngster, make sure she's safe and, perhaps, come up with a cover story that will explain why she and a teenage boy were half-clad when the lights went out.

Mark Benford is the first to suggest there's more to the blackout than a simple loss of consciousness; in his vision of the future, he's the head of a task force trying to unravel the mystery behind the global phenomenon.

That one quickly comes true. And as he and other agents begin to collect people's stories and visions, some disturbing trends begin to emerge. Some future glimpses are deeply personal; others have wider political implications. A few contain clues that suggest there's something, or someone, behind the blackout.

FlashForward accomplishes a heck of a lot in its hour-long pilot, and lays out a fascinating future-minded mystery that will obviously take many months and many episodes (seasons, even?) to unravel.

The sad part is that most TV critics' glimpses into the future include an ABC schedule without FlashForward in it.

* * *

A sense of Community: The promotional tagline for the new NBC comedy Community (tonight at 8:30, NBC/Citytv) sums it up pretty nicely: higher education; lowered expectations.

This sharply written single-camera sitcom, from creator/producer Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Program) and producer/directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Arrested Development), is surely the best of a slim crop of new comedies in this fall's lineup. Starring smoothly appealing cable-TV wiseacre Joel McHale (The Soup) as a fast-talking lawyer who's forced to enroll in community-college classes after his dubiously achieved law degree is revoked, Community is a smartly constructed ensemble piece that focuses on a small, dysfunctional "community" -- in the form of a bogus study group created by Jeff Winger (McHale) as a smokescreen for his not-so-subtle advances toward an attractive classmate -- within the larger student body.

Last week's pilot started out focusing on Winger's weak scheme, but soon expanded its focus to include all the misfits who made the mistake of signing up for his group. And it's a decidedly wacky bunch with tremendous comic potential -- led, of course, by original SNL cast member Chevy Chase, who has wisely decided that this material merits his making a return to weekly series TV.

Community gets an A-plus for its first assignment (last week's premiere), and it's fully expected that this series will be on the 2009-10 honour roll.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 24, 2009 D3