FlashForward: The Complete Series follows the lives of a team of FBI agents in the Los Angeles office, and those connected to them, following a global blackout that rocked the entire world. With each person seeing a piece of their future, and some seeing nothing at all, the team begins to reconstruct what the future may hold, with Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) at the helm, since in his flashforward, he was point man on the investigation into the blackout. Yes, a self-fulfilling prophecy indeed, but it works for the show. Mark's partner, Demetri Noh (John Cho), didn't see anything but darkness in his flashforward, leading to the premise that he could be dead in 6 months. Providing inside tech support for the team is Janis Hawk (Christine Woods), a lesbian agent who isn't really "out" at work, but who sees herself pregnant in her future. Then there's Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young), who sees himself receiving bad news in his flashforward, and he decides to do whatever it takes to change the future.
Mark's wife, Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger, Lost), saves the life of young Dylan Simcoe when he is involved in a car crash during the blackout, bringing her into contact with Dr. Lloyd Simcoe (Jack Davenport), who ties heavily into the origins of the blackout, along with scientific partner and terrific ass, Dr. Simon Campos (Dominic Monaghan, Lost). Dr. Benford's pet resident, Dr. Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton) was in the process of committing suicide when the blackout happened and saved his life and he saw himself happy, healthy and in love with a Japanese girl, Keiko (Yuko Takeuchi) in his future. Demetri's fiancee, Zoe Andata (Gabrielle Union), is an attorney who is doing whatever she can to stop Demitri's impending death, since she believes she saw their wedding in Hawaii in her flashforward. Mark's sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous, Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne), saw himself with his daughter, Tracy (Genevieve Cortese), alive but wounded in Afghanistan, when he previously thought her dead. Each person is either fighting to make sure the futures they saw come true or trying like hell to prevent them.
As the FBI's investigation grows, they create a website called the Mosaic Collective where everyone can share their flashforwards to compare what happened in their futures, and the team sets out to look for patterns, finding one man that seems to be behind it all, but he is always one step ahead of them. Can they figure out why the blackout happened and predict whether it will happen again? Well, while you do get a tiny bit of closure by watching the show through to the bitter end, you are left with a huge cliffhanger that will never pay off (unless maybe the kind folks at SyFy decide to carry on with it. Pretty please?). While FlashForward is a fantastic ride while it lasts, sadly it's a one season run only and they clearly had plans to go on much longer than that, but were cut short. Oh, but Jersey Shore was renewed for a 3rd season, mind you. Don't get me started.
As for the special features, most of what's here is worth watching and includes some on set making-of featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes, commentary on one episode with Executive Producer Jessica Borsiczky and charming Dominic Monaghan, plus some fake Mosaic Collective interviews (which I thought were kind of stupid), and one on Yuko, the famous Japanese actress who plays Keiko. What was sorely missing was anything talking about what the future may have held for the series, since it was cancelled. I would have loved to have seen the vision of the creators and where they wanted the show to go, even though it couldn't carry on. Alas, its not there.
FlashForward has tremendous momentum during the season and only falters a few times. Not everyone's story is compelling, but the acting is fantastic, the CG and special effects are great and it is a really compelling experience. When it was running last year, my DVR was broken and we'd race home each week so as not to miss even a minute of the show. It was like watching a feature movie each week, because of the superb acting, excellent script and high drama of the show. While you will ultimately be left disappointed simply because the end will leave you wanting more, if you like action, drama, intrigue and even romance, FlashForward: The Complete Series is well worth your time. I will miss it so!
