FlashForward

Since I"ve got a DVR now, I might actually be able to follow a series! Alright! FlashForward starts this Thursday, Sept. 24, 8-9 p.m on ABC. The only problem is that my wife's favorite series Bones is on at the same time. Definitely need to make sure that nothing else is set to record at the same time!

Where were you on April 29, 2010? Maybe you can't remember your future, but the characters on ABC's enigmatic new series glimpse theirs when they black out for two minutes and 17 seconds. After awakening to the chaos—freeway collisions, plane crashes, rogue kangaroos—resulting from this "global event," they must confront how their "flashforward" visions will influence how they act in the present.

Comparisons to Lost (also on ABC) are inevitable—FlashForward is a time-bending, mythology-oriented story told from the perspectives of individual characters in a huge ensemble cast—but both are exceptionally unique. Maybe it's more accurate to call Lost the wingman for FlashForward. If it weren't for Lost's success, ABC probably would not be as committed—financially and creatively—to this new epic series.

But the network has invested in the cinematic visions of show runners David Goyer and Marc Guggenheim (the creative forces behind Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Green Lantern). Blockbuster movie stars like Joseph Fiennes, Dominic Monaghan and John Cho are equally inspired by the ambitious concept—which, Goyer revealed to us, just "gets bigger and bigger and bigger."

As Fiennes (who stars as FBI Special Agent Mark Benford) says, "It stirs up a great conversation about predestination...if you could see a future that wasn't so beautiful, would you want to avoid it? Would you want to change it?"

"Those who change their futures," he added ominously, "do so at their peril."