Is FlashForward a Flash in the Pan?

It was billed as the natural successor to Lost, which shall finish in May 2010. It has a plot that got people excited, a list of actors and creative team that had people’s mouth watering, but has FlashForward been a disappointment so far.

The show started with 12.4 million viewers but this week only 8.3 million watched. This was the first time this season that Bones beat it in the same hour, with the Fox show being watched by 10.2 million.

The first episode was high packed with information, some would say a bit too much as lately the story has been stumbling along slowly. Replaying the same flash forward in practically every episode has become annoying. I don't need to mention which one as a lot of people have been commenting on it already.

I can't really put my finger on it but there are a few things that seem to be wrong. It's not just the pacing but some of the direction of each episode. I've made a point of not mentioning Joseph Fiennes accent as his character as a whole bugs me.

One thing that does come to mind was the introduction of Dominic Monaghan's character, Simon. He came in at the end of episode 4 and then wasn't shown again until 6. He wasn't shown during episode 7 until the last couple of minutes in a scene that lasted a few seconds with no dialogue.

In episode 7, titled The Gift, a particular act was shown to help the characters believe that their flash forward doesn't necessarily have to happen the way they saw it. Are we to believe that the characters never thought that they couldn't possibly change their outcome and what makes them think that what they're doing now isn't leading them to exactly what they are trying to avoid. I could go further into this but I'll probably be here all night.

The last couple of episodes, I've putting to the end of my list of shows to watch, preferring to catch up on shows aired on Friday before watching it. The episodes don't leave me excited to watch but the idea itself, is the thing that's making me stick with it. Also wondering what will happen in the episodes towards the end of the season.

It's a shame, as this was one of the new shows that I was the most excited about seeing this season while those that I watched just to see what they were like, have surprisingly impressed me more.

A couple of people that I know, have shared my opinion that it only seems to be the last 5-10 minutes where anything interesting happens and for them, it's become background noise or something to watch when there's nothing else on.

I like to think that it's early days but the question is, what can they do to make people stop turning this show off and what will happen once we get to the point of the flash forward.