Your Favorite Show Was Cancelled

Aw, shoot

By jameslileks

April 6, 2010 at 4:22PM

. . .if your favorite show was "Flash Forward," that is. Likely to be nixed for a re-up, according to people paid to worry about these things. V has an even chance of making it to next year. Here's my theory on why FF might not be back:

1. After setting everything up and getting the audience interested in the story, it went away. Hiatus, break, I don't know what they call it, but poof! Gone. This is a new idea in TV programming - when I when growing up, shows came on, stayed on, maybe had a few repeats, repeated all summer, then ended. Forever. They did not have cliffhangers, they didn't move to other networks, they weren't turned into movies. They just either kept going or died. I prefer our modern flexibility, but it has its disadvantages. I went from thinking:hey, what happened to Flash Forward? to thinking did I miss it coming back? to oh, it's back. Maybe watch that.

2. The acting isn't very good. Joseph Fiennes glowers and scowls and looks like he's trying to pass a Chore-Boy through his digestive tract. He's gloomy because he knows he'll start drinking again. You can't wait for him to start. He might be more interesting then.

His wife I can't stand, because I keep thinking she was Penny on "Lost," and I didn't like here there, and then I realize she was Penny on Lost. So she's not Penny on Lost anymore, or will she be back for the final season? This is another thing that never happened on TV when I was a kid: people on two shows at once. No one expected Telly Sevalas to have a part on "The Streets of San Francisco" as well as "Kojak." It simply wasn't done.

There's also former Hobbit Dominic Monaghan, and he's a super-evil bad guy here. He was Chawlie on "Lost," of course. He looks mean. Also Seth MacFarlane as an FBI agent, which says a lot. You say: but Ricky Jay was on! True; I love Ricky Jay in anything, but here he was just an old guy in a suit who looked like he smelled of cigars.

I thought the premise was great, and the initial reveal of the mystery was occasionally chilling. Now we know why it happened, more or less, so I don't worry it'll end and leave us completely hanging, like "Twin Peaks." But this is why I don't start watching TV anymore. I like anything, it's gone. Didn't watch "Lost" or "24" the first season, and they survived.

You're welcome.

about the writer

jameslileks