Is FlashForward a flash forward to disappointment?

I am almost afraid to watch the new series, FlashForward because I know in the end there are more than even odds I'll be disappointed. They've set up a situation in the pilot episode that is attention getting, and now they have to unravel a mystery week by week, the solution of which they promise at the end of the season.

Uh huh. But will it be a solution that is worth the set-up?

The show started with a real bang. Two FBI men, played by Joseph Fiennes and John Cho, are pursuing some terrorist suspects when they, like everyone else in the world, black out. When they awaken their car has rolled and carnage surrounds them.

During the blackout everyone except Cho's character, Demetri Noh, has a vision from the future, April 29, 2010.

The show is told from the viewpoint of the FBI and (in the pilot, at least) Olivia, the physician wife of Mark Benford, the FBI man played by Fiennes.

In tone this show reminds a lot of viewers of Lost, which in my opinion lost its way. The first couple of seasons were great, but in the middle of season three my wife and I gave up because of too many characters, too many things going on, and not enough sense of any of it. If we're wrong I'm sorry...and maybe we can catch it on DVD someday, but right now we don't want to spend any more time on Lost.

I liked Harper's Island, the murder mystery on the Pacific Northwest island, which turned into a slasher flick dragged out week after week. Then it was revealed the one really good guy was also the killer. What the hell...?! I switched it off and didn't watch the final episode because after that revelation I didn't care what happened.

I have a problem with shows that have a very promising beginning, and then let down the audience at the end. We'll see what happens with FlashForward, but what happened in my house is that after about a half hour my wife got up and went in the other room. It didn't hold her interest, and we'll see if it holds mine.

From Wikipedia:

The official cast list for the show, as of July 28, 2009, is:

* Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford
* John Cho as Demetri Noh
* Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe
* Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley
* Peyton List as Nicole Kirby
* Dominic Monaghan as Simon
* Brían F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark
* Gabrielle Union as Zoey
* Courtney B. Vance as Stan Wedeck
* Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford
* Christine Woods as Janis Hawk
* Adam Tsekhman as Vlad Petrov

Seth MacFarlane, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Alex Kingston have been cast in recurring roles.

Synopsis of pilot episode:

A mysterious global event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously see, for two minutes and seventeen seconds, his or her life six months in the future. When it is over, many are dead in accidents involving vehicles, aircraft, and any other device needing human control. Everyone who survived is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen.

A Los Angeles FBI agent named Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) tries to figure out what exactly happened and why it happened. Along with his team, he creates a database of people's flash forwards from around the world called the Mosaic Collective (for which a website has been launched). Apart from the various catastrophic visions, people also see themselves engaging in unexpected behavior; for example, Benford sees himself drinking again, and his wife Olivia has a vision of herself with another man.

...and another thing:

What is it with British and Australian actors playing Americans? Joseph Fiennes, who is a great actor, is British. We have House, who is played by Australian actor, Hugh Laurie. The list goes on. Is this a fad, or is this because there aren't any Yanks capable of playing these parts?

Or is it that British and Australians don't ask for as much money? What is the story on this, anyway, and why aren't the immigrant-haters amongst us complaining? It's because these guys are great actors who do a great job with American accents. No one can tell they are actually not Americans. Very clever of these guys to infiltrate us this way. Very clever.