FlashForward: Playing Cards with Coyote

by Jenn Kim

So I’m usually a sucker for the development of an onscreen father-daughter relationship. Everyone has their Achilles heel when it comes to the tugging of the heartstrings, and I don’t know why, but father-daughter relationships are IT for me. They almost ALWAYS get to me, whether in the form of overly sentimental commercials (seriously, I can’t not tear up when I watch the bride dance with her dad in that shameless credit card advertisement), movies or TV shows. It’s the reason I cried through half of Beauty and the Beast and Mulan (she did it all so her father wouldn’t have to!!), and one of the big reasons why Veronica Mars is still my favorite show of all-time. I guess that’s why it boggles my mind (“It’s mind-bottling!”) why I could SO NOT CARE LESS about FlashForward’s plotline revolving around Aaron and his daughter Tracy.

I suppose it has a little something to do with Genevieve Cortese. Ever since her stint on Supernatural, I’ve kind of seen her as a waste of space. She talks funny (is that a lisp?), has lots of blank stares, and holds almost no on-screen charisma whatsoever. (She has nice lips, though.) I know I’m supposed to care that her character’s actually alive, and that she witnessed something she wasn’t supposed to, and that she can’t trust the Military, and that she lost an entire leg, and blahblahblah. But frustratingly enough, I find her and Aaron the weakest and least interesting part of FlashForward. And that’s including Joseph Fiennes’ portrayal of Mark Benford.

Even though it started off promising enough (with a happy little montage sequence showing the effects of Al’s sacrifice, set to a sweet Pearl Jam song playing in the background), “Playing Cards with Coyote” quickly turned into a pretty mediocre episode. Aaron and Tracy talk about the meaning of their flashies in boring fashion, and Mark and the FBI gang hunt down the tattooed man they believe is the assassin in Mark’s flashie. Meanwhile, Simon and Lloyd bicker over whether they should tell the world that they’re responsible for causing the flashforwards + the deaths of 20 million people. Their scenes together, including the poker game, were the most entertaining of the night, but admittedly, my blinding bias towards British accents tends to cloud my judgment. Sigh. Both Dominic Monaghan and Jack Davenport make me wish all of FlashForward was spoken in British speak. Yep. I think that would save the show. Or at least Joseph Fiennes’ scenes. Why is he playing an American FBI agent again?

More Flashie thoughts:

• “I’ve had to check myself into the hospital to have my bruised ego x-rayed.”
• “Don’t you get tired of being a self-righteous prick?”
• So is Dominic Monaghan the coyote? Am I missing a key reference here?
• Who were the random people Lloyd and Simon were playing poker with?
• I’m pretty sure Janis deserves some more time off, Agent Wedeck.
• So I’m assuming these are the worst FBI agents ever. Nobody stopped to think that more than one person could have the same tattoo, hmm?
• Man, it must really suck to have to go into Witness Protection. Makes me hope that I’ll never witness a murder and record it on my cellphone.

About Jenn Kim: When she’s not attempting to fangirl in an organized fashion, Jenn enjoys stalking celebrities and getting over her totally rational fear of zombies. She also idolizes Joss Whedon, and is crossing her fingers that Nathan Fillion and NPH will accept her friend requests.

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