First of all, if these really are the show’s bad guys, they’re about the least sinister-looking baddies in the history of television. And I highly doubt that these guys can pull off Michael Emerson creepitude.

Here’s a nice featurette recently released by ABC that shines a little light on the Lloyd character. (Minor spoilers.)

In other FlashForward news, it was revealed overnight that the co-showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, is leaving the show. The Hollywood Reporter says that this was not a creative decision, that this was always the plan, as Guggenheim, of Eli Stone non-fame, was brought in to show David S. Goyer, the creator with little television experience, the ropes of running a serial.  THR says those ropes are learned, and that Guggenheim’s talents are no longer needed going into the back nine.

Others are reporting that this reflects ABC’s displeasure with the way the series is unfolding thus far. I can’t say I don’t agree with their concerns, as these first four episodes have felt a little dragging. In my opinion, this show is surviving on the last ten seconds of their episodes (Somebody was awake during the blackout! D. Gibbons is a bad man! Crows down in Somalia! Charlie and Lloyd did it!), while the rest of the plots struggle to make connections and use the large ensemble effectively.

It’s still too early to say, really, but I wonder if we’ll look back on FlashForward as a show that would’ve made a better miniseries. It would’ve allowed the stories to be told more economically, to avoid digging unnecessary plot holes, and to completely avert the upcoming trap of what happens after April 29, 2010.

step one: get off the car // abc promotional photo

I share an opinion of FlashForward with a lot of its audience, it seems–although the pilot was gripping, the characters nuanced and likeable, it’s difficult to imagine what this series is really going to be about, especially after April 29, 2010.

During both the first and second episodes, I’ve gotten through 55 minutes of the episode feeling pretty meh about the whole thing.  But then in the last five minutes, something unfolds and I spend the next six days and twenty-three hours waiting for the show to come back.  In the pilot, it was the surprisingly reveal that somebody was awake during the blackout (perhaps our own Charlie Pace?).  In the second episode, “White to Play,” it was little Charlie Benford’s simple declaration, “D. Gibbons is a bad man.”

Goodness, that one sent chills up my spine!  (What is about kids than can be so freaking creepy when they need to?  It takes an extremely talented adult actor to pull off Benjamin Linus on Lost, but just about any kid could be that creepy with the right lines.  Have you seen Torchwood: Children of Earth?  That shit makes you want to get your tubes tied.)

The thing is, everyone wants this show to be the new Lost.  The producers want it to be Lost, the network wants it to be Lost, even a lot of Lost fans want it to be Lost.  And although I see potential in FlashForward, it ain’t Lost.  In the pilot episode of Lost, there were a hefty handful of epic questions asked:

How did the plane get off course?  Where did that polar bear come from?  What the hell was that monster?  Kate’s the fugitive?  Where’d that French transmission signal come from?  And who’s the woman on the other end of it?

There were also smaller “questions of intrigue”: What’s gonna happen when this baby is born?  What’s Charlie going to do when his heroin runs out?  When are Jack and Kate going to hook up?

FlashForward, however, seems to be operating primarily on smaller questions.  Although we do have the big questions in there–What or who caused the blackout? Who is D. Gibbons? What are the circumstances of Janis’s pregnancy? What did Charlie see in her flashforward?–the show is populated much more by smaller questions at this point, as we wonder what other people saw in their flashforwards and whether or not their visions will come true.  It’s interesting, for certain, but as of right now, I’m doubting that it can really come anywhere close to Lost‘s epic narrative.

But honestly, I’m not so sure that anything ever could.