As the television season begins its inevitable wind down to summer, attention is usually turned toward season finales and an early look to next year. With that comes the question that is on the minds of all TV fans: is my favorite show going to be coming back next season? It seems like there have been a ton more early renewals this season than usual, which is a good thing to be sure, but there are some shows still on that proverbial “bubble.”
Two of those shows are on ABC: FlashForward and V. The ratings for both have been less than stellar, and it’s completely plausible that ABC will cancel both series. However, I’m hoping that ABC will keep at least one of them. The question then becomes: which one should ABC keep? I cover both of the series here at CliqueClack and I have a pretty strong opinion about which show I would rather see next season. I think V is the much better show at this point. For the most part, FlashForward has become a huge disappointment and V has become a pleasant surprise. There is an argument for both shows though…
FlashForward
FlashForward definitely had a ton of potential and one of the best TV pilots I had ever seen. Since then, however, the show hasn’t really lived up to the promise. The characters (and unfortunately some of the acting) have become flat and unlikable. The pacing has been off, with the show unable to get any positive forward momentum. It seems like for every good episode there are two bad episodes right after it.
There are some positives. A lot of the mysteries are still compelling and keep me coming back. There are some likable characters in the bunch. The incredible potential is still there, along with impeccable production value. This could still be a great show, even now.
V
For me, V has been a pleasant surprise and a show that has constantly improved. I was a little wary after ABC decided to air only four episodes in November and then take a huge hiatus, but I think the show has come back stronger than ever. The focus has been honed to follow the Fifth Column battling against the Visitors. The pace has been brisk and exciting with a lot of action. The show knows exactly what it is: a fun action sci fi adventure, and doesn’t try to be anything else.
Certainly there are still some areas for improvement. A little too much logic applied to the plot exposes a bunch of holes. The teenaged Tyler is still an enormously annoying character. At the end of the day, though, if you just sit back and watch, it’s a great escape.
Clearly, my vote is with V, but which show would you throw your support behind?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on May 11, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
V is so much fun. Nothing too heavy, just pull up a seat and enjoy. This gets my vote.
Flashforward blew it. Unlikable characters, and boring story killed it for me.
I voted to cancel both, for the simple reason that they are both last place shows, and the serial nature of the stories will make it tough to improve very much from that. If you just throw two new shows in those spots, the worst case scenario is that they are also last place shows. But you also at least have the chance that you’ll find that next hit.
If we are choosing one or the other though, keep V. The numbers for FlashForward at this point are laughably bad. It’s getting beat by the CW, and that should always be followed by cancellation.
I wonder if Brett can ever answer a question as a viewer instead of the Ratings Guru that he is :P
Which of these shows do you like more, man???
Haha. I was thinking the same thing. This isn’t about the ratings…it is about which show you like more. So, Brett, regardless of ratings, which would you prefer stay on the air? Or both? Take neither off the table :D
“Regardless of ratings” seems a bit of a fantasy land to me, because clearly the question is only being asked because of the ratings. Still… if I had to pick one, it would be V. Although it is home to the worst haircut on television, they also had the good sense to hire Alexa Doig, and that’s reason enough to keep watching.
The shows are just not very good. Evil aliens trying to take over the Earth, did we really need a remake of V.
FlashForward had so much promise and should have been a great show, but they screwed it up way too badly and it just needs to end.
I’ve always found FlashForward to be interesting, even the episodes most call dull. I also watch V, but it has never caught me like FlashForward has. I don’t really care what the aliens’ agenda is, they refer to themselves as “the V” even amongst each other, which I always found ridiculous. Surely they have a name for their race other than V.
My entire family gathers to watch FlashForward and for us it has become the next LOST, unfortunately I think both shows are going to be goners no matter which one you prefer. I would be ecstatic if either show got renewed, just a little more so if it were FlashForward, but my tastes have always run counter to the majority when it comes to television. It used to make me angry, but now all I muster is quiet resignation. After all, there’s no point in getting angry about something I can’t control.
” After all, there’s no point in getting angry about something I can’t control. ”
Wow. Who are you? :)
So if you’re not too hot about it. Let me make a PASSIONATE plea for V. :)
“Wow. Who are you? :)”
You almost got me in trouble at work with that one! I literally laughed out loud when I read it. Let’s just say I’m learning to mellow out, pick my battles and try to avert death either by heart attack or gunshot! :o)
Well, I’m very passionate about my love for FlashForward, but not being one of the aliens on the mothership, AKA Nielsen family, I have no control over which shows live and which shows die. I’m not hating on V at all, though, because I like it, too. With both Morena Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell in it, the show has two of my favorite female actors, so my decision wasn’t made lightly.
I’m just a sucker for an intricate, sci-fi laced conspiracy story and, believe it or not, I like and care about many of the characters on FlashForward. I haven’t seen much of a downside to it and like it as much as LOST.
I’ll end with a lament oft repeated about many genre shows facing extinction: “Too bad SyFy wouldn’t pick it up.”
…they have to make room for their new cooking show and Professional Wrestling. Indeed, SyFy is heading in a new, far less exciting, direction…
https://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36698985/ns/today-entertainment/
Very upsetting.
Yes, Bob, that’s very upsetting indeed, although not surprising. I was aware of this news and I read an article that explained the upside of it. Now, the article could’ve been total BS, but the overall point was that these shows bring in a huge profit compared to the shows we expect and love on SyFy and that those profits will allow the network to develop new sci-fi series as well as keep the current ones financed. Probably bull, but if it’s true I guess I can stomach some rasslin’ and cookin’ for a while, but did they have to move our shows off Friday nights? That’s the part that gets me the most.
Both have diminished their potential, and both dramas have people doing really stupid things in order to create drama (I mean, seriously, who orchestrates breaking into a spaceship just to deliver the dumb message “John May lives” when you could have been much more informative, subversive and destructive to the Vs?).
Flashforward seems the more interesting to me. The questions it asks are broader: should our current lives be the way they are now? are we meant to be doing what we’re doing or did we get thrown off course? These questions make Flashforward much more than the action drama that V can never escape.
Netither show is perfect, and I think many viewers can make a case why both should be trashed, but when it comes down to it, characters are what keep a show going, and I care for the characters on Flashforward more. They don’t seem as dumb as many of the characters on V do.
Well, they also speak exclusively in English among themselves, which is a convenience for the viewers’ benefit, so perhaps the name of their race actually means “Visitors” when translated into English.
Another possibility, fitting in with their complete disdain and disregard for all other lifeforms, is that they don’t have a name for themselves and just call themselves people, which humans are not. In which case, they are merely appropriating the human name for their species for clarity.
Although I like V, I’m not so attached to it that I would be terribly upset if it weren’t renewed. I agree that it has a lot of problems, with character stupidity chief among them, and that the two lead female actors are the best part of the show, along with Chestnut and Gretsch. But Bob’s right about the show’s pace having accelerated to an enjoyable degree since it came back from hiatus. It’s a good action-adventure show, not a mystery. I have no feeling about FlashForward one way or the other.
As to Syfy, who stays home on Friday nights? My friends and I’ve always time-shifted those shows to after midnight or the next evening, so the move to Tuesdays won’t affect us in the slightest.
As long as FlashForward has planned to bring some of their storylines together in a coherent way this season, I’m fine with seeing it end. V, I think, has a much better long term potential to tell great stories.
I wanted to write a similar post on why I’d want to see Heroes back for 13 episodes to create an end to a story than see Chuck renewed for 13, even considering I am a much bigger fan of Chuck at this point.
At the end of the day, I’m so sick and tired of seeing serialized shows cancelled leaving the narrative unfinished.
I vote for V.
I think if it was a choice between the two, I’d rather see Flashforward return, mostly because I already know the story of V. One way or another, the visitors will either be defeated and forced to retreat, or Anna’s hypnotic control over her minions will end, and the visitors will be liberated. It’s such an overused scifi concept, its actually surprising the writers went with it. FF at least has an original concept.
True, I take every opportunity to troll the internet and spew vomit all over Joey Feinnes and his bad impersonation of Christopher Lambert, John Cho’s total lack of chemistry with his on screen girlfriend, and Courtney B Vance’s random acts of furniture violence, but the wierd thing is, I keep returning to watch the show.
I think if ABC can get the Lost writers to join the production of Flashforward for a second season, if they kill off Mark Benford, cut that annoying intro where Courtney B Vance waffles about 2 minutes and 17 seconds, have new flashforwards where people start seeing more profound things than just “I was sitting on the toilet…” maybe world war 3 or a nuclear holocaust or something, and make James Callis a permanent character for the show, then FF could be a huge hit.
But judging by how busy the actors from FF seem to be, it doesn’t look like its returning. I don’t think V will return for a second season either. What ABC should really do, is create a prequel / sequel series to Lost…something set in the Lost universe.
The guys running LOST already know that ABC at some point will probably return to the franchise and continue it somehow. So just give it time.
That’s got to be the truly craziest thing I’ve heard this week :)
One thing I’d really like to see in V, is the visitors disguising themselves as key characters. They genetically engineer human suits to disguise their reptilian nature, so why not go one step further and make one of them look like Tyler’s mother, or the priest etc? Kind of like Battlestar Galactica’s Boomer / Athena and the other human cylons…Gods I really miss human cylons. THE coolest scifi concept in ages.
I wanted to like “V”, but so much of it feels amateurish:
– Every time that “Anna” does something evil, she turns to the camera and grins, like we’re supposed to believe that she’s some old-timey cartoon villain and no one around her can see her smile.
– This week, shouldn’t they have made sure that everyone in the lineup at least partially matched the sketch? They all had different colored eyes, styled hair, and of course, the patsy “Parker” kept his glasses on while everyone else had none.
– And the way “Tyler” is presented on the screen is unbelievably weak. Not only is he written like a 13 year old emo, but his face seems to have only two speeds: confused and verging on tears.
All that being said, the direction they are taking in the show seems clear… I’m guessing the reason “Tyler” was so upset about his father not being his biological father is that they are going to reveal him as half V. This would explain why the writers never had him ask his mother who his real father could be and why “Anna” is so interested in him. However, he’s been made so unlikeable, I find myself hoping that he’s related to “Lisa” and that he might have slept with his half-sister. That would be hilarious.
I remember the original V and I suspect that I’ve given this reboot so many chances despite some bad acting and bad writing because of those memories, but it’s getting difficult to justify the 60 minutes.
Well since I don’t watch Flash-Forward, I can’t comment on that. However, I can comment on V and have been a very faithful follower since this version of V started. I think that this version of the show rocks. However, if its being compared to the original V which had two mini-series to kick off the actual series, well there is no way you can compare them. The show was more thought out. Truthfully I think this V deserves a shot to continue. However changes have to be made thats for sure. However to make it work, the network has to actually want the series to work which means they need to stop long hiatuses and need to stop continued network pre-emptions so that the series has a chance just as they should with all new series if they actually want to reach their goal which is to make money from the support of their advertisers as well as get viewers to come back to watch. Lets face it how many more empty headed bimbo comedies have to air before they decide to actually support a sci fi show they launched on their network in the first place. Sorry for the long winded answer..but to answer the original question..I think V should stay.
I ABSOLUTELY love V! It is one of my favorite shows! When I heard it might be canceled I was so angry. Why would they cancel it? It ROCKS! I do like Flashfoward as well and they do come very close but if I had to chooce it would be V. I feel as if in V there is a better connection with the characters and characters is what makes a show. But if ABC could keep both, that would be GREAT!! But if they have to choose please keep V. I will be very upset if they get rid of it after only 1 season.
V ROCKS!!!!
Most defintley V! Flashforward got boring. I tried hard to like it but stopped watching. The last 5 episodes of V have been fantastic!!!!
Live Feed reports V is renewed Hooray!!!!!!!
V has been renewed … but only for 13 episodes (same goes for Chuck)