FLASH! FORWARD! Saviour of the universe!

(Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Flash Forward, glaring inconsistencies in logic, and just a hint of tapioca.)

Since I last talked about television, Scrubs has come to an end (according to reports, it's a permanent end--there will not be a second bastardized season), The Office has retreated a bit from its stance of not having a single likable character, and V has...just returned after a four-month hiatus.

Flash Forward, on the other hand, has been back for a few weeks, and I've been...well, enjoying isn't the right word, but I've been laughing at every moment of it. It's good that the producers took the time to do (I assume) some retooling during the hiatus. It's good that I still find the show entertaining. It's not so good that I only find the show entertaining in a "this is how you do not do television" way.

If there's one thing Flash Forward does well, it's plot--provided of course that "plot" means "plots twists" and "well" means "very often but not particularly well". In the two-hour return, for example, we learned the following:

-Lloyd has been kidnapped

-Simon has been kidnapped as well

-Simon intended to get kidnapped so he could find Lloyd

-The captors are more interested in what Lloyd has to say than anything Simon can offer them

-The kidnappers' plan goes astray when the FBI finds their location

-Simon works for the kidnappers

-Simon's kidnapping was faked to divert suspicion away from him

-The head kidnapper is Simon's uncle

-Simon kills his uncle

See my point? It's not just that characters are introduced and then killed off in the same episode, it's not just that major plot points aren't revealed until the episode where they come into play, it's not just that plot twists are used in place of character development, it's not that side plots featuring minor characters seem to exist for no reason other than to draw in viewers who would prefer stories about war or religion or hospitals to another FBI drama. It's all of that, combined. Flash Forward is a complete exercise in how not to write a television serial--and yet I'm still watching it every week, partially because I want to know bad the plot will get but mostly because I'm interested in the overarching idea.

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Saw Clash of the Titans this weekend. Liked it overall. Can't complain that the fight scenes were too long.

--Ryan