FlashForward focuses on a medium-sized cast of characters. Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes of Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth fame) is an FBI agent for the Los Angeles branch. His partner is Demetri Noh (John Cho from Harold & Kumar and Star Trek), and the show begins with them pulling themselves out of a massive pileup on the interstate as they try and figure out exactly what has happened. They learn that it wasn't just their city that blacked out, but the entire world.
Among the main characters is Mark's wife, Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger from Lost) who struggles with her vision of being with another man. Needless to say, this glimpse of the future puts both Olivia and Mark on edge, especially since Mark refuses to tell Olivia that he saw himself drinking after seven years of sobriety. To make matters more unnerving, the man that Olivia saw in her vision, Lloyd (Jack Davenport), walks into her life as the father of a child-patient she has been treating who was injured in the black out.
Partnering up with Olivia is Dr. Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton) who we are first introduced to as a potential suicide until the vision causes him to put the gun down and live life anew. Varley isn't quite as center stage as the Benfords or Demetri. Other second-string characters include Mark's boss, Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), Mark's AA sponsor and friend, Aaron Stark (Brian F. O'Byrne), who sees himself with his long-lost daughter and the Benford's babysitter, Nicole (Peyton List) who actually saw herself being murdered. Another character joins the cast about halfway through this volume, and that's the genius and arrogant Dr. Simon Campos (Dominic Monaghan from Lost and The Lord of the Rings trilogy), who seems to know something about the black out.
While this volume is only 10 episodes long, a lot happens in it. Since Mark's vision was of him investigating the black out, he got glimpses of the leads that will be discovered over the next six months. In a theme of self-fulfilling prophecies that litters the entire series, Mark recreates the notes he saw and uses them to find the leads he will find later in his investigation. With this information, he tracks down a few names, he notes some distinct tattoos and he even gets a few leads off of a newly developed website designed to collect everyone's visions and piece together the state of the world in six months.
FlashForward: Part One Season One comes with only a couple of special features. One is a behind-the-scenes featurette about the show's opening scene which is filled with wrecked cars, bloodied bodies and destroyed buildings. This featurette covers everything from the logistical nightmare of blocking an L.A. interstate for the shooting, to layering in the different background scenes and making the destruction seem much more extensive than it actually was. I have to say, I enjoyed this short featurette quite a lot. The other special feature was a glimpse at the show's 11th episode, and in that five minutes, we get to see a bit of the aftermath from this volume's events.
FlashForward is a compelling story that only borders on science fiction enough to get both fans of the genre and those who wouldn't normally watch a sci-fi series interested. This is definitely a must-watch show, and with the first season only half-way over, this DVD is a great place to jump in and get caught up right at the start.
