FlashForward is a show that I've been enjoying more and more. It's got a lot of plot points going at the same time, but so far most of them are fairly easy to follow as they unfold. There are payoffs in pretty much every episode, unlike in LOST, where you can watch half a season and only have more questions pile up. (Don't get me wrong - I like LOST, but it can be confusing and difficult to follow, and I can't help but wonder if they're going to be able to wrap up all the questions floating around when season 6 airs next year.)
FF's performances are convincing and realistic. The characters are being fleshed out nicely as the season develops. I liked this week's episode, in which a regular character commits suicide rather than fulfill his flashforward, which saw him discovering that he was responsible for the death of a single mother of two boys. I was disappointed that the character died, because I liked him quite a bit. But while the suicide was a bummer, it showed (I think) that one isn't stuck in a destiny with no choice of changing the outcome. That was the first time we'd seen something not happening as revealed in a flashforward, and it brings interesting new possibilities to some of the other characters' lives.
Two other shows I've been watching for some time that I'm not enjoying as much this season are The Office and Ugly Betty. The Office has, in the past, struck a nice balance between situations and behaviors that make you cringe, and touches of humanity and humor and, now and then, awesomeness on the part of certain characters. Michael Scott is a prime example of a character who can make me cringe, but who also makes me laugh and sometimes really kicks butt with something he says or does to save the day or take a person down a peg. But this season, it seems like there is very little about him that's redeeming. When he tried to help Jim during the wedding reception dinner, I thought "Cool! Michael's about to turn things around!" and instead, he just made it worse. When he went to lunch with Pam, Jim and Pam's mother, Helene, whom he'd been dating, and Helene revealed her age while Michael blanched, I said to James, "Oh, please let him not break up with Helene at her birthday lunch." And that's exactly what he did. He's just become a big turd this year, and I'd like to see him do something good again, but the writers are not balancing his character at all. Dwight is also becoming too much for me to stomach at times. Thank goodness for Andy, who I just love and who they've done a wonderful job of turning around from a totally obnoxious person to one that I like and with whom I can empathize. I'm still enjoying The Office, but I'd like the writers to stop making me cringe so much. I don't like to feel that uncomfortable when watching TV.
In a similar vein, Ugly Betty is a show that I used to really like. It has, over time, become more and more of an overwrought soap opera with a little humor thrown in, rather than a dramedy showing an ugly duckling learning to become a swan. Betty is getting so beaten down this season, struggling to earn respect in her new position as assistant editor, finding out she won out over Marc by a simple coin toss between their bosses, being replaced as Daniel's assistant by someone who seems to be turning Daniel against her, in love with her new boss, an ex-boyfriend, who is taking a friend of Betty's as his date to a work event...and it seems to go on and on. There has always been drama on the show, but there's also been lightness and humor, and that seems in short supply this season. I may end up dropping the show if I don't start to enjoy it more again.
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