Quite the media blitz leading up to the premiere of Flash Forward, eh? We were tempted by old faces, new ideas, and the possibility that larger answers could be found in Earth’s shared trauma.

Flash Forward had everything going for it, in my book. What the premiere delivered, however, has me tuning out for good. After an impressive disaster scene (which I had grossly underestimated in my narrow view of what Earth would resemble after everyone blacked out for 2:17), everything went downhill. The pacing seemed off, not frantic enough perhaps. We got a few glimpses of key players’ flashes, but even those were boring. As a matter of fact, I found the whole thing to be the most boring show in recent memory.

This kind of show works if the audience wants to stay onboard to learn the fates of the cast, but there is not one person I care about enough to see what their future holds. “Tormented, dedicated, alcoholic, law enforcer”, “Strong, beautiful, doctor, adulteress”, “Scared child”, “No-vision having sidekick”, etc. all adds up to BORING. Who cares what happened? Who cares who or what caused it? Who cares if the future is changed for any or all of the key players? These are questions that we should be asking after a strong premiere episode. All I asked myself was, “How fast can I delete this from DVR?”

The sad thing is, this show will probably get to finish its run, while the vastly superior Defying Gravity struggles to get the remaining episodes aired. Sometimes I hate network television.