FlashForward

Ravi Kapoor has landed a role on FlashForward.

As first reported by TV Guide, the actor will portray Kapoor Malik, a man with a connection to Brian F. O'Bryne's Aaron Stark. They come into contact with one another when the latter travels to Afghanistan later this season.

Kapoor played Dr. Mahesh "Bug" throughout Crossing Jordan's six-season run. More recently he's guest-starred on 24, Fringe and Heroes and he's signed on for one episode of FlashForward.

The drama returns on March 18.

Despite its quality, engrossing 2009 finale, we've seen the future of FlashForward - and it doesn't look bright.

Following the exit of its biggest name behind the scenes (David S. Goyer), the ABC drama has named a trio of new show runners: Jessika Borsiczky, Lisa Zwerling and Timothy J. Lea.

The group will take over the main writing duties on the mysterious series, which returns on March 18. Goyer will continue to serve as executive producer on the show, but not be involved in any day-to-day operations.

Another sign of bad news?

The network has reduced FlashForward's episode order from 23 to 22. Is this a very big deal? Not for an established series.

But for a first-year drama that's based around specific dates and events and which viewers certainly hope has planned out various reveals weeks in advance? It's a troubling sign.

This is not a good sign for FlashForward.

Over a month away from its return to ABC, the mysterious drama has lost its best-known creator and producer: David S. Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins, is stepping aside.

The series premiered to decent ratings, but tailed off once it failed to establish interesting characters and could never make much sense of its enormous, globe-encompassing plot. 

Goyer will still be "involved" in the show, sources say, even retaining an executive producer credit. However, he will not pen any episodes or be involved in day-to-day operations.

This makes the second behind-the-scenes shake-up on the show. In October, Mark Guggenheim also exited as a writer/producer.

FlashForward returns on March 18.

Darn you, American Idol!

With the Fox juggernaut returning to the air next week, other networks are changing around their schedules to avoid matching up against the ratings machine.

The latest switch involves FlashForward: ABC has pushed back its return date from March 4 to March 18. In order to make up for this delay, the series will air a two-hour episode on that latter date; as well as a two-hour season finale.

What will this change mean to the important show date of April 29?

"We don't know," said producer David Goyer. "That may be one of the casualties of American Idol."

Really?!? Seems like a drastic measure for FlashForward to take - essentially changing around its major storyline and the focus on that key date - out of American Idol fear. Doesn't seem like ABC has a lot of confidence in this show, does it?

FlashForward doesn't return to ABC until March 4.

This leaves viewers will plenty of time to debate who took Lloyd, whether Mark will kill Demetri and many other pressing storylines.

But co-creator David Goyer spoke to Zap2It this week and supplied a few answers to a series of burning questions. What can viewers expect when the show returns this spring? Goyer confirmed the following:

• Lloyd and Simon definitely had something to do with the global blackout;
• "Simon is pretty much on the Mosaic team" going forward;
• There are three "massively great twists" on the first two episodes back;
• We'll find out the identity of Suspect Zero;
• We'll be seeing more of D. Gibbons.

In conclusion, Goyers says there will be "reveals that will change the whole playing field."

Consider us intrigued. The final FlashForward episode of 2009 definitely hooked us on this show. What are the main questions you wish to see answered when it returns?

Season one of FlashForward has a long way to go still.

(This would have been tragic news until the exciting, game-changing final episode of 2009. But we digress.)

However, the drama doesn't return with new episodes until March 4, an eternity in the world of television.

To help fans remember where the show left off, and to introduce the series to potential new viewers, FlashForward will actually release a DVD of the season's first 10 installments. Look for it in stores on February 23.

This is a similar approach as taken by Glee.

That TV Fanatic favorite is off the air until April 13. But it will also release a partial season one DVD on December 29. Take note, belated Christmas gift shoppers.

There was great news for fans of FlashForward last week: the drama delivered a suspenseful, well-paced, intriguing episode for the first time in a long time.

The installment, however, was quickly followed by bad news: the series won't return with new episodes until March.

Why the delay? Where does the show go from here? Producer/writer David Goyer spoke with Entertainment Weekly about it all, revealing a few FlashForward spoilers along the way. Excerpts follow...

On the new schedule: "We originally planned to come back in January, but about three weeks ago we sat down with ABC scheduling and looked at what our programming schedule would be like. And I think on serialized show like 24, Lost, and Prison Break the most important thing is to air consecutive episodes without repeats or preemptions... We’d rather bite the bullet, come back in March, and air all 13 episodes consecutively without preemptions."

On the second half of the season: "We feel like we have all the chess pieces on the board and now we can just knock the dominos over and watch them fall in interesting ways. I kind of feel like we did when we got into working on The Dark Knight after finishing Batman Begins: we got done with the origin story, we don’t have to do that anymore, we can now hit the ground running."

On upcoming reveals: "We’ve only seen part of Mark’s flash-forward so far, but when we come back in episode 11, you’ll see all of it. And you’re also going to find out pretty early on when we come back who Suspect Zero is."

You can read the full interview at EW.com.

We had almost given up on FlashForward.

Our staff hasn't gathered for a Round Table discussion on the show in weeks because we were too let down by each episode to muster the energy.

But that changed with this week's episode, as it's given us plenty to analyze until FlashForward returns on March 4. We encourage viewer feedback on the topics below...

Which cliffhanger has you more excited for FlashForward's March return: Lloyd's kidnapping; Mark's firing; or the D. Gibbons sighting?
M.L. House: Lloyd's kidnapping because it serves a duel purpose: first, there's the intrigue of who took him and why. But there's also an answer to a pressing question. We now know how Dylan is familiar with the Benford house, via his flash forward. I assume Olivia will now take him there to stay.

Dr. Shepherd: Mark's firing. I'm excited to see how this changes the future, so to speak, but not as excited as I'd be if Joseph Fiennes himself got fired. Writing off the main character would be a great twist ... especially in this case, since he's kind of a stiff.

The Barnacle: D. Gibbons! Finally, after introducing mystery bad guy after another and then having them fall off the face of the earth, the producers provided us with a D. Gibbons sighting AND a link to Demetri's mystery phone caller! That was, dare I say, a Lost-esque twist at the end, leaving me wondering just how those two are connected.

As Lloyd hinted at, might the flash forwards be related to his alternate reality theory?
M.L. House: No chance. He just used that theory to get closer to Olivia. The guy isn't Tiger Woods. He has to go with romantic, highfalutin flirting in order to get into women's pants.

Dr. Shepherd: At first, I felt Lloyd and Simon's "confession" was a bit abrupt and once again provided little explanation of what the hell happened. But his alternate reality theory was truly intriguing. If the flash forwards weren't glimpses into the future at all, but rather alternate realities, that would alter the entire nature of the show, providing the viewers an alternate reality of our own.

The Barnacle: While confusing as all get-out, this might actually make more sense than a flash forward of human consciousness. If their experiment was meant to harness the same kind of energy that caused the Big Bang, and thus created the universe, perhaps what we saw was a two-minute, 17-second window into some other reality. Olivia's story about almost going to Harvard (where Lloyd met his wife) would fit into this as well. In some weird, alternate universe, maybe she and Lloyd got married and Dylan is their son. Fascinating. 

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It took weeks of frustration, inconsistent character development and slow-moving storylines, but FlashForward finally followed up on its incredible pilot this week.

The episode "A561984" was exactly what the series needed, especially as it now heads into an extended hiatus that lasts until March.

We never thought we'd say this a week ago, but we're suddenly anxious for the drama to return, as it left us with actual, intriguing cliffhangers. Below, we sum up why this was - by far - the season's best hour of FlashForward...

Hello, world: The show finally gave us an idea of the global scale of panic and violence that has resulted from the blackouts. For too long, it had centered on personal storylines (Mark's drinking, Janis' pregnancy) that were difficult to care about in light of 20 million deaths. Olivia's possible affair with Lloyd was still a focus this week, but only within a much larger, more dangerous context.

Welcome, Michael Ealy: As a foil for Mark, the character delivered instant charisma and intrigue. It's a problem for the series that Marshall Vogel already seems like a more interesting individual than supposed hero Mark Benford, but we're excited about Ealy's long-term presence on the show.

A return to Somalia, D. Gibbons: Again, "A561984" got right to the heart of the blackouts. We saw D. Gibbons; we visited Somalia. We spent time with characters that cared about solving the greatest catastrophe mankind has ever seen, instead of whining about their visions. If FlashForward can continue to intertwine the personal with the global, it may really be on to something.

More Simon, please: A mysterious, shady scientist that offers nothing but mysterious, shady lines of dialogue? Boring, cliched. A mysterious, shady scientist that works with the FBI and is intent on tracking down the person that stole his design and may have caused a previous blackout in 1991? Fascinating.

What did you like about this episode? Are you as excited about the show's March return now as we are? Follow the jump to watch ABC's preview of FlashForward in 2010...

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We really want to like FlashForward.

With Lost preparing its final season, we need another drama to fascinate, confuse and entertain us every week. Hyped as such, FlashForward has been stuck in neutral since a great series premiere.

Almost nothing happens each week, the lead character is a bore and the show doesn't seem to have any idea what it's trying to accomplish. Where's the suspense? The intrigue? The shocking developments? According to producers Jessika Borsiczky and David S. Goyer, they're all coming.

In an interview with TV Guide Magazine, these showrunners delved into a number of topics and told viewers that things are about to pick up, in a major way...

Goyer, on Mark's future vision: Goyer There may be another reason why Mark drinks that has nothing to do with Lloyd or Olivia. And it may be a much more interesting reason. But we won’t explore that until the second half of the season.

Goyer, on Simon: Simon is gray for now, but we learn exactly what he knows on December 3. What’s important is how he and Lloyd differ on their philosophies regarding the flash-forwards... Simon has new information about Somalia and the crow die-off there.

Borsiczky, on Agent Cho's fate: We get crucial information [on December 3] about his murder that radically alters our perspective of his future. We’ve seen already that the future can be changed, but Demetri’s question will be: How difficult is it to change it, and if one person’s future changes, does everyone’s change?

Goyer, on Janis' baby daddy: There’s more than one potential candidate. In fact, there’s still debate among the show’s writers on this question.