FlashForward cancelled

kevin12345

ABC have announced shows such as FlashForward and Scrubs have been cancelled! What gets me is a useless show like V got renewed and FF which has real potential and great story lines got cancelled? I believe it was down to the 3 month hiatus ABC pulled - which dropped ratings. Stupid move on their part i believe :rolleyes:

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/05/14/flashforward-canceled-but-who-didnt-see-that-one-coming/

mewso

Flashforward was average at best but just about has kept me watching. V is so poor it's almost in so bad it's good territory. I suppose we can predict there won't be another flashforward or should I spoiler that prediction

tvnutz

Flashforward has been useless with bland characters and crap acting. The acting in V aint too better but I actually find it exciting and I always look forward to watching V whereas sometimes its a struggle to get the effort to watch the new Flashforward. Much happier V has survived (if it has,any confirmation on that?) instead of FF.

FreudianSlippers

Glad to hear this show was axed, just wish they took V with them

zimovain

Is FF stopped dead or do they have a few ep's to wrap it up??

FreudianSlippers

zimovain wrote: »

Is FF stopped dead or do they have a few ep's to wrap it up??

The show will complete its run of 22 episodes, which means 2 more to go with the finale on 27th May stateside.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Gave up on both FlashForward and V after about 3 episodes, with the intention to return to V during the summer when there isn't much else on...
FlashForward was truly awful... Good riddance...

Cabaal

Scrubs canceled?
Thought it was already, if it still was ongtoing its about time its gone tbh

wyndham

Flash Forward was really bad. I Barely watched 1 episode. RTE really pushed it and over-hyped it too when they got it.

Minstrel27

Flash Forward is rubbish. Good to see it cancelled

kippy

In fairness theres a lot worse than FF out there. It beats the crap out of another generic reality show for one.
That said, theres nothing worse than dragging out a show because its popular. It seriously makes a hames of it.

omerin

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Flash Forward is rubbish. Good to see it cancelled

i like it, but i'd imagine the producers knew early enough into the production that it had a limited shelf life and have had to cram it all into 1 season, so now its a mess

syklops

Is there something wrong with me that I'm loving V?

MickShamrock

Scrubs has long run its course. Never bothered with Flash Forward.

robby^5

Much preferred Flash Forward to V, but if I'm honest I care very little about both shows. They pale in comparison to most other genre shows past and present.

JonathanAnon

Flash Forward was a good idea but badly executed. The whole "fk, I know what happens" things gets tiresome, and there were serious holes in the plot...

Ironically, if those who had commissioned the show had had a flash forward, they would have known not to go ahead with it..

irish_stevo815

Ha, so much for Flashforward being THE replacement for Lost. I'm kinda disappointed it has been cancelled. The first few episodes were ok, then it got kinda crap for while just before the mid-season break. But the last few episodes have bee npretty exciting and entertaining.
Wouldn't mind if V was cancelled, that's fairly rubbish. I mean showing 4 episodes then going on a break for like 2-3 months not a great idea. Havent watched it since it came back. (That's from TV3/3e)

kevin12345

Flash Forward is better than other ABC shows such as V and Cougar Town which are....shockingly bad :pac:

Our man in Havana

It was pure drivel.

elainers

Haddockman wrote: »

It was pure drivel.

I wouldn't have called it drivel. I actually was just starting to get into it. Though to be honest, it was the more recent episodes that were aired in the states that caused that.

I wouldn't compare it to Lost - now that was a show that was drivel!

Deeper Blue

Terrible show, deservedly cancelled tbh.

Chinafoot

Whoever thought Joseph Fiennes was a good choice for that character needed their head read. Load of crap, definitely not surprised at its cancellation.

Mr.Nice Guy

It was a lot better than some people on here are making out. It had a couple of bad episodes which sealed its fate, but it was still miles ahead of most shows of its kind.

FreudianSlippers

kevin12345 wrote: »

Flash Forward is better than other ABC shows such as V and Cougar Town which are....shockingly bad :pac:

Not exactly comparin like with like there re: Cougar Town comparison. Plus I disagree, Cougar Town is at least original.

RolandIRL

seems people don't appreciate original (for TV) series. they just want predictable crap like V, which has been done to death before, the whole alien invaders story! seen it a million times.
much preferred FlashForward, but admittedly it had a lot of side-stories. if they had condensed it to a 12/13 episode series, it could have been epic.

Minstrel27

whiteman19 wrote: »

seems people don't appreciate original (for TV) series.

People appreciate good acting and decent writing. Neither of which were present with Flash Forward. Breaking Bad was a great show when it began and it still is so to say people don't appreciate original tv series is clutching at straws.

Optimalprimerib

my problem with flash forward and alot of shows like it is they dont have an end in sight, hoping to continue their story for seasons and seasons ala lost. Thus the very question or premise raised by the opening episode will never get answered.

I would like a show like this to stick to a single season format. It would tighten the story line and keep the viewers hooked.

Harpers island did this and although it was cliched it stuck to its guns and was a better show for it.

calex71

I was actually quite enjoying Flashforward :cool:

I thought it would have been better to have wrapped it up in one season though and kept it focused on the April date for the flashforward, the longer it went the more convoluted it got and the "no end in sight" thing reared it's ugly head. As much as I enjoyed it I shudder to think what it would have become given 2 or 3 more seasons :eek:

Edit: Good point Optimalprimerib re: Harpers Island

stevenmu

I like the main story arc to flashforward, but the acting and writing is just terrible. It's a good concept, just executed terribly.

ixoy

Could've been done a lot better given it had an interesting concept. However, the acting was generally woeful as were the charcters. There were far too many "soap opera" moments, particularly in the first half. They seemed more concerned about who might sleep with who rather than who was causing the problems. The second half of the season did try and move away from this, but it was too little and too late.

It also really bugged me that people took the future as inevitable and it took someone leaping off a building to make them think "Oh gee, it could be changed". I thought of that thirty seconds into the show. Why does nobody go "Oh I was being drowned in that time window in my house... hmm maybe I'll go elsewhere that day then". The fatalism is just dumb. That and something siginifcant is happening to everyone during those two minutes? Gah.

Elmo

Did they get to finish the series? Is there an ending?

Our man in Havana

Final episode is next week in the States. So only 2 remaining to be shown stateside.

zimovain

Did they manage to film some sort of an ending or will it end on a cliffhanger on unresolved??

zimovain

Digitalspy.co.uk

Sonya Walger has admitted that the upcoming finale of FlashForward will leave several questions unanswered.

The show was recently cancelled by ABC, meaning that it will not return for a second season.

Walger, who plays Olivia, admitted that the series' abrupt end means that some things about it will remain mysterious.

"There's some closure to it," she told E! Online. "But there's an awful lot left unexplained."

However, Walger promised that fans will enjoy the last episode, saying: "It was so satisfying to read the finale because there are still glitches in the system. There are anomalies - it's like a beautiful map puzzle that just rounds itself out.

"There's another flash-forward brewing, but it remains to be seen if it happens or not. The finale is just brilliantly written. It's so satisfying to watch how everybody ends up - or doesn't - in the positions that they saw themselves in the pilot. Watching these chess pieces move into position so that everyone is where they saw themselves being is ingenious. And by the end of the penultimate episode, they've pushed everyone as far away from their final positions as they could possibly be. It's a brilliant device."

FlashForward continues on Thursday at 8/7c on ABC in the US and tonight at 9pm on Five in the UK.

Ping Chow Chi

I quite like FF, I will be sad to see it go =(

herobear

if you're interested in the concept,its worth checking out the book that the tv show is based on, its different in certain key aspects(the flash forward happens more than 20 years later as opposed to a few months for example) and is pretty short, but its interesting enough.

Mr.Nice Guy

herobear wrote: »

if you're interested in the concept,its worth checking out the book that the tv show is based on, its different in certain key aspects(the flash forward happens more than 20 years later as opposed to a few months for example) and is pretty short, but its interesting enough.

Is it available over here do you know?

herobear

its easily available online at play or amazon, and ive seen it in hmv and im sure its in stock in most bookshops

Richard Dower

No surprise here...be nice if we got a two hour special, just to wrap things up.

anotherlostie

I thought this was a good summary of the show - must try harder. And I particularly agree about the multiple strands. The whole Aaron and dead daughter plot, and everything Bryce (except Keiko) bored me to tears. At this stage I much prefer V. If you're opinion of V is based on the first pod of episodes, my advice is to stick with it - if nothing else you'll get to see Laura Vandervoort in her bra several times!


http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/14/flashforward-r-i-p-farewell-to-a-weird-wonderful-show/

calex71

V inherited more than the 4400 cast it seems, it also inherited it's knack for axe dodging

zimovain

The Guardian

's the time of year when the enormous axe of doom swings down on US television shows – and anything that hasn't lived up to its promise or produced decent ratings finds itself axed. For those who've been watching it thrash about like a dying fish in the bottom of a boat, FlashFoward's cancellation does not come as much of a surprise. (Presumably, it won't be a shock for those involved either – surely they must have seen that coming...)But where did it all go wrong? When it launched last autumn, TV executives and an audience facing the prospect of the end of Lost had high hopes. Perhaps FlashForward would bethe kind of high-concept mystery sci-fi series to incite conversation and loyalty in the same way as Lost had. Sadly, it turned out not to be so. In fact, the main questions Flashforward seemed to prompt were: why are there so many characters? Which plotline is least interesting? Will you bother watching next week?
Some of us stuck with it, doggedly believing that given a concept as interesting as a worldwide leap into future-vision – and the potential political, personal and moral questions that would result – there had to be a decent payoff at some point. Maybe we just had to stick with the show for long enough. Turns out we were wrong. :
Five reasons FlashForward will soon be little more than a flashback

1. It was too concerned with how it was going to progress
FlashForward would have made a brilliant single season concept, or miniseries. If there had only been one flashforward, one blackout, one date to dread and one set of consequences to aim toward or avoid, it would have been fine. But the writers seemed to spend so long trying to open doors to continue the concept beyond season one that the tension slipped away.
2. Who cares about one marriage?
In a situation where the whole world has been affected and millions of people meant to have died, we had no time to get to know or like characters before suddenly being thrown into a situation where we were supposed to care deeply about whether their relationship could survive. Result: complete apathy.
3. Acting straight from the scowly school
Joseph Fiennes is, I am sure, a nice man and a great actor – but he makes a duff leading man in this context. A single character note of scowling urgently and growling without moving his lips is not enough.
4. Too many characters
Not that the blame should be placed on just one person. Let's face it, it was increasingly difficult to give a donkey's bottom about the rest of them, either.
5. The huge gap in the middle
There are well-established, well-loved shows that would have found it hard to survive the huge gap imposed by crazy American scheduling decisions and the Winter Olympics. FlashForward was neither, and the fact that the show's team had too much time to think and seemed to be trying to rejig the entire concept and start again when they came back didn't help either.
6. And a billion other reasons.
We'll still be back watching it on Monday, of course – because with only three more episodes to go, there's got to be some kind of payoff or satisfaction to those of us who've hung about this long. Right?

robby^5

Well that sucks. I watched both V and Flashforward, much prefered the story arc to Flashfroward. Had such high hopes for the show too as it was getting progressivley better. I was hoping Dyson would become this awesome villain from beyond the grave by taunting the team with videos and other clues and Gabriel's (Baltar ) flashbacks could have been very interesting.

I think this situation echoes what happened with Dollhouse and Terminator last year (although arguably both of those show were of a higher quality than V or Flashforward) and again, imo, the better show was cancelled first...I dont see V lasting much longer than two seasons.

FreudianSlippers

Terminator deserved another season, but I'm glad Dollhouse ended when it did - thought it wrapped up nicely.

RolandIRL

typical Fox executives. Terminator did deserve another season. i didn't bother watching the rest of season 2 cos i didn't want to see the cliffhanger ending.
dunno about dollhouse...never seen it.

FreudianSlippers

whiteman19 wrote: »

typical Fox executives. Terminator did deserve another season. i didn't bother watching the rest of season 2 cos i didn't want to see the cliffhanger ending.
dunno about dollhouse...never seen it.

Dollhouse is quite awful for the first few episodes, but it really gets a lot better and the last season is great!

Average-Ro

This is something that was lightly touched upon earlier in the thread, just want to give my views on it and see if anyone agrees or not.

I think something that would help American TV shows quite a bit would be to shorten the length of the seasons for an hour long show. Stuff like Heroes and Flashforward tend to suffer from 20+ episodes per season; more filler episodes, less time for the writers to spend on each episode, forced arcs to fill time, story arcs that go nowhere because they then don't have enough time etc.

House suffers from an enourmous amount of filler episodes, the first three seasons being the biggest suspects. Lost (which I am actually a fan of) could have been improved if the episode count was reduced.

The only ones (IMO of course) that get away with long seasons are the half hour shows eg: Entourage, The Office, Modern Family.

Dexter and True Blood are good examples of short seasons that work very well. Even in the UK; The IT Crowd and Misfits only had 6 episodes per season, and were stronger for it.