If the world were to expire sometime before Friday, the debate between free will and determinism would trace its history from the Greeks, through the battles between Augustine and Pelagius, Erasmus and Luther, the writings of Hobbes, Hume and William James, ending effectively with the questions posed by big-budget American serial television. In the years since 9/11, producers have found rich thematic material in the arguments for and against preordination, resulting in series like “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Lost” and now “FlashForward,” which begins in such a spirit of bracing suspense that I am challenged to recall another pilot that lured me so quickly into addiction.
Joseph Fiennes, Lennon Wynn, center, and Sonya Walger in a scene from “FlashForward,” based on a science fiction novel.
Loosely based on a clunky science-fiction novel of the same title by Robert J. Sawyer, “FlashForward” (starting Thursday on ABC) imagines a global blackout in human consciousness — lasting precisely 2 minutes 17 seconds — when billions of people around the world experience visions of their lives six months into the future. Specifically they’re seeing themselves on April 29, 2010. And while “FlashForward” seems to avoid (at least so far) the geeky pretensions of “Lost,” which invite so much circuitous decoding, the date hardly seems arbitrary as it carries the symbolic weight of historic incident.
It’s tempting to go down the rabbit hole; this is, after all, a post-“Lost” world and who could resist the temptation? April 29 is the day Joan of Arc, after receiving visions calling her to divine mission, relieved the siege of Orleans. It is also the anniversary of the riots over the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, where “FlashForward” is set amid the mayhem, looting and fires that transpire in the immediate aftermath of the collective expulsion of memory. In one sly turn during the premiere, crowds stampede into the streets with Circuit City boxes, as if that bankrupt consumer electronics company hasn’t suffered enough.
Again, the reference seems almost purposeful. “FlashForward” is similarly a behemoth, a drama on network television, and yet one primed to exalt the hold of new media. The Web and its spirit of collectivism are immediately deployed to guide the F.B.I. agent Mark Benford, played by the appropriately moody Joseph Fiennes, through his efforts to unravel what happened. Benford and his colleagues quickly set up a Web site — Mosaic — to allow visitors to post details of their futuristic visions so that agents can analyze them and extract clues.
Like so many contemporary television thrillers, “FlashForward” works just as powerfully as a domestic drama as it does as a mechanism of apocalyptic intrigue. Benford is a recovering alcoholic, devoted father and husband of an attractive, hard-working doctor (given to us by Sonya Walger, Penelope on “Lost”) who has clearly tested her commitment in the past. During their lapses in consciousness, each is privy to unsettling images of their relationship half a year hence, and the question remains (as it does for all the characters in the ensemble cast) whether the outcome is fated or subject to change depending on their ministrations.
The Benfords have an unusually pretty nanny who quietly wears a cross, which implies where she will stand theologically in the debate. After dallying with her boyfriend on the Benfords’ sofa (while in charge of the couple’s young daughter) on the day of the blackout, she extrapolates from her own perceived deviance that the bizarre cataclysm might be God’s punishment for an immoral world.
“FlashForward” has the sobriety and charge of the best, early days of “24” but builds its tension more gracefully and feels reluctant to be get subsumed by its own philosophizing. And like “Battlestar Galactica,” its has a presumed message that is humanistic and uplifting: No single messiah can save us; it takes a village to save the world.
FLASHFORWARD
ABC, Thursday nights at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.
Created and written by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga; Mr. Goyer, Mr. Braga, Marc Guggenheim and Jessika Borsiczky, executive producers. Produced by ABC Studios.
WITH: Joseph Fiennes (Mark Benford), John Cho (Demetri Noh), Jack Davenport (Lloyd Simcoe), Zachary Knighton (Bryce Varley), Peyton List (Nicole Kirby), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Brían F. O’Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Olivia Benford) and Christine Woods (Janis Hawk).
Source: NY TIMES
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