Flash forward past this release

“FlashForward” sucks.

Everything that follows the pilot’s first 20 minutes is driven by terrible writing, nonsensical logic and porous acting. It wants so badly to be the next “Lost,” but it’s actually the next “Heroes”—disappointing on every level.

An interesting concept — the whole world blacks out, sees a vision of the future and has to deal with the consequences — is ruined by an over-reliance on melodrama disguised as “character drama.” Joseph Fiennes’ Mark Benford has no chemistry or believable relationships with anyone, including his wife (Sonya Walger) or partner (John Cho), and yet the writers spend most of the season’s first half trying to get us to care about the probable dissolution of those two relationships.

The links to a global conspiracy are partially interesting, but consistently stupid logic — yeah, a group of five LA FBI agents are going to be the only ones working on a WORLDWIDE CRISIS — and lack of consequences or gravitas in the aftermath of an event worse than 9/11 undercuts the few moments of writing intelligence.

This release also signals a terrible trend in television: releasing partial sets of a season that’s not even done. For that alone, do not buy this.