I may be the Last Man Standing on this list in terms of Flashforward. It had a very promising start, then quickly went down hill. I defended it long after it started to suck, because I really wanted it to recover. It never did - in fact it kept getting worse. And just when it seemed like it could not get any worse, in the final episode, it did. In terms of the downward arc in quality traversed from first to last episode in a single season, Flashforward might just be the worst dramatic series in the history of television.
I know there are many here who have nothing but disdain for 24, but I think we have a real divergence here. Both of these shows began with really riveting initial episodes. Both shows clearly had writers who were not entirely clear how they were going to develop and terminate their story arcs. One show found its voice and consolidated its vision and went on to produce many seasons of entertaining stories. The other never found its voice, floundered, and then sank under its own weight, never again producing an entertaining story after the first 2 or 3 episodes. What is particularly surprising is that one reason the finale sucked so much is that the producers were more interested in setting up the next season (and maybe even the next 4 seasons?) then they were in doing anything to salvage anything from the first season. This just seems so out of touch - unless they somehow finished producing all of the season's episodes before Thanksgiving, they had to know that the chances of getting renewed were looking slim. Why not at least try to payoff the first season in some way, rather than instead spend most of your finale promising viewers that if they just watch for 4 more years they may find something interesting or satisfying in the show? What is particularly disturbing is that of all the serialized dramas that the networks canceled mid-season, this is the one they decided to keep their commitment to. Kidnapped, for example, was a far superior show. There have been worse dramas on television, but I don't know if there have been worse ones allowed to go a full season in recent years, and certainly not one that fell so far, so fast. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
