Something's not right about Lloyd Simcoe. (ABC photo)
Five quick thoughts on last night’s second episode of “FlashForward” (warning, spoilers ahead):
1. Please tell me the writing will improve. We saw the first episode, so we don’t need to be retold what we saw last week. That’s what the “Previously . . ” intro is for. A little less exposition would go a long way. And I really hope the dialogue gets better. It’s too clunky and cheesy.
2. This show really knows how to do creepy, and it needs more of it. The opening scene with the kid slowly singing “Ring Around the Rosey” — now that’s a formula that’s never not chilling. Innocent childrens’ songs get really freaky when slowed down. The dolls? Totally gave me the willies. Headless dolls, hanging dolls, burned dolls . . . yikes. And the final scene sent a shiver down my spine, when the daughter revealed her vision, that “D. Gibbons is a bad man.” In fact, the daughter has been in almost every creepy scene so far in the series (there was also her hospital freak-out when she saw the injured kid). Let’s see more of her.
Think maybe she gets kidnapped by D. Gibbons? That’d sure drive Mark to drink.
3. The series needs better lighting. Or worse lighting, as the case may be. For a series about a foreboding, sinister future, everything is way too bright and lush. There needs to be more darkness, more shadows, more mysterious, moody, atmospheric muted colors. Look at “X-Files.” Or even “Fringe.” The basic look imparts a sense of mystery and danger. Just turn down the darned lights.
4.The bathroom scene was awesome. It’s one thing to be passed out on the toilet, but face-down in a urinal? And then need mouth-to-mouth? Nice bit of comic relief.
5. I might have solved the mystery. OK, here’s my theory. In her vision, Olivia sees the mystery man, Lloyd Simcoe, in her bed, then he gets up to take or make a phone call in the living room. But he doesn’t recognize her at the hospital. If everyone had a vision of the exact same moment in time, why didn’t he see himself leaving her and taking the call? Simple. He’s in on it. He’s immune to the flash forward so he didn’t black out and never had a vision. And in Olivia’s future, he’s on the phone with D. Gibbons, or one of the other mystery people who are immune. (Or maybe he is D. Gibbons.) I think he got close to her so he could get closer to the FBI agent investigating him.
Simcoe doesn’t seem quite right either. Doesn’t know much about his son, has never heard of a Happy Meal, and is way more concerned with seeing the surgeon who saved his son than the attending physician who has the most current information? It’s like he needed an “in” to meet Olivia, and this was it. Verrrry suspicious.
By the way, I almost didn’t recognize Jack Davenport as Simcoe. Wow, he looks a lot older and chunkier than when he was on the BBC’s “Coupling.”
