'FlashForward' finale: Did advance planning do more harm than good for show?

Whether a show has a 5 year plan or a 5 week plan, it still needs to be compelling, week after week, to keep viewers. No only did this show lose momentum after a really intruiging pilot, but some of the characters were about as interesting as watching paint peel and some the casting decisions were questionable. I’ve liked Joseph Fiennes in other things, but he was deadly dull here.

What I found frustrating was that the central relationship in the show, that of Mark and Olivia, was supposed to be so important, so vital and in such jeopardy based on their flash forwards. Yet their fates were completely under their control. Mark – don’t drink. Olivia – don’t get involved with another man. Oversimplifying, yes, but it wasn’t as if they were trying to avoid death, like Demitri. Way too much time was spent on Mark and Olivia, to the detriment of other story lines.

A friend suggested this show needed a little Jack Bauer and I couldn’t disagree. A little action, now and then, is required.

I think there is more than one reason it failed. Regarding the planning ahead issue, I think that it forced the story into a box that didn’t take into account what the reaction to the show would be. For instance, there were quite a few characters introduced early on that just completely brought the momentum to a halt. Then they’d show up here and there to waste time when you really wanted to see what was happening with the compelling characters. Unfortunately, it takes a few episodes to figure out who is who and then because they were adhering to a five year plan, they couldn’t drop the characters or subplots that weren’t working out. Secondly, they never seem to make this a global issue: no ongoing news reports considering the devastation and loss of life, no public reaction, no evidence of any kind of societal change. When you consider the magnitude of the disaster the flashforward was, the reaction we saw was not porportionate. Thirdly, the hiatus certainly didn’t help. When you have such a labyrinthine plot, it’s really hard to just jump back into it. But, I have to say, I think the ratings for the last couple of episodes really reflect the fact that viewers knew the show had been cancelled. It’s hard to keep up your interest when you know that you’re going to be left with questions that’ll never be answered.