FlashForward, 1x06, “Scary Monster and Super Creeps”

Episode Title: Scary Monster and Super Creeps
Writers: Seth Hoffman and Quinton Peeples

Director: Bobby Roth

Originally Aired: 10/29/2009
Grade: A-

Sometimes I don’t know what to do with this show. I enjoy it, and I think it’s well-plotted, but there’s something missing. I find myself with so little to say about it much of the time. I don’t hate any of the characters (though Mark is getting there…), but I don’t really love them, either. I like Janis and Demetri and Wedeck and Lloyd a great deal, but if the show were to be cancelled, I wouldn’t miss them, wouldn’t mourn them. When the episodes are over, I’m left with little random tidbits, like this:

I’m glad they gave Dem and Janis some back story together, because I thought they had nice chemistry at the beginning of the season. Wedeck also seems to care about her a great deal—I think he cares about all of his agents, but it feels more personal with her, like he sees her as a daughter.

How on earth did Dylan know which bus to get on to get to Olivia’s house? I know that other people may have helped him out, but he still had to pick a bus to get on in the first place, and it’s a bit of a stretch that random strangers, or even the bus drivers themselves, would hear the address Dylan was reciting and know which direction to send him in.

I’m going to have to assume that the little faux pop culture greeting between Dylan and Charlie was also in their respective flash-forwards, but in a part we didn’t see/haven’t seen yet. There’s been no indication that people can remember things from the “future” that weren’t in their flash-forwards.

Apparently there’s a note on the Benford’s fridge that says “D. Gibbons is a bad man” (I couldn’t find it myself, but I’ve seen screen caps of it). This would explain Charlie’s initial comment to Mark in a time loop sort of way, and it would also explain my question about why she’d know him as D. Gibbons. One thing that’s still not explained is why Charlie thought her flash-forward was scary, because there was nothing of the sort in what we saw, and in fact, she seemed happy.

My notes also tell me that I would rather not have seen Ashley Jones again so soon after her stint as Daphne on True Blood, that Simon is creepy, and that Mark acted like an asshole (though at this point, I don’t remember why).

I don’t think I’m imagining that most of the above isn’t terribly compelling, and yet I keep watching because a part of me finds it relaxing that the show isn’t trying to give me a heart attack in every episode or make the characters overly cutesy to the point where they lose their realism. I think they’re doing a good job with the plot in that it all makes sense so far, it all fits together. Most of the questions I’ve had have been answered or at least acknowledged. What they need to work on is making the “filler” between plot points a little more exciting and engaging.