PASADENA, Calif. — ABC’s “Flash Forward,” a new serialized Thursday night drama, has been dubbed “the next ‘Lost,’” and there are similarities.
A large international cast tells an unfolding story that begins with a cataclysmic event: Everyone on the planet blanks out for a little more than two minutes. During that time the characters flash forward and see a few moments from t heir lives on a specific future date: 10 p.m. on April 29, 2010. Some like what they see in the future, others do not.
Is the future they see their destiny? Can they change the future? And why does a kangaroo — a stand-in for the “Lost” polar bear, perhaps? — hop down a Los Angeles street after everyone awakens? These are questions viewers will be left to wonder about after the pilot airs at 8 p.m. Sept. 24.
“By the end of the first season, most of the questions raised in the pilot … will be answered,” said executive producer David S. Goyer (”Threshold”). “The cause of why the blackout happened, that’s our background radiation mystery for the whole series.”
“Flash Forward” follows an FBI agent (Joseph Fiennes, “Shakespeare in Love”) and his partner (John Cho, “Star Trek”); the agent’s surgeon wife (Sonya Walger, “Lost”) and assorted other characters. “Lost” veteran Dominic Monaghan will have a role in “Flash Forward” beginning sometime in the first six episodes after the pilot. Details of his character, Simon, remain under wraps. He said the show is less mythology-driven than “Lost.”
Although there have been recent TV seasons with a plethora of serialized shows (”The Nine,” “Day Break,” etc.), this fall “Flash Forward” has that space largely to itself.
“We have only succeeded when we’ve been ambitious and taken chances and pushed the limits,” McPherson said, naming “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” as past high concept successes. He emphasized the importance of a portfolio approach that mixes big shows such as “Flash Forward” with smaller projects. “For me, there’s so much great drama out there, you have got to be ambitious. You have to break through the clutter.”
SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
