Jonah Goldberg on FF and V

National-Treasure-in-training, Jonah Goldberg, on 'FlashForward' and 'V': TV Update

So the word is out. Flash Forward has been canceled, V gets a last minute reprieve. I guess if I had to kill one of the two, that's how I'd go too. But the real shame is that both shows could be/could have been so, so, so much better if they were just better written and (particularly in the case of Flash Forward) better cast. There's literally no character in Flash Forward I wouldn't have been perfectly happy about being killed off. None of them had chemistry with each other or with the viewer. The only guy I was sorry to see go was that fat bearded guy from all the David Mamet movies. I could spend a lot of time dwelling on the idiocy of F.F.'s scripting, but since it's canceled, why bother? But, please, someone inform the producers that the Department of Homeland Security didn't exist in the early 1990s! That was by no means the show's biggest idiocy, but it vexed me every time they referred to DHS doing this or that in 1993 or whenever.

As for V, I just don't get why it has to be so bad not good. It, too, has huge casting problems. The Hugh Jackman knock-off terrorist character is particularly idiotic. In every episode, there are countless "that makes no sense" moments (as in last night's finale when the FBI chick asks for her gun and is allowed to wander around the ship alone). My biggest pet peeve? Every single time the alien queen hottie lies to the humans - every time! - be it during a press conference or when she's talking to the teen beat Dan Rather character from Party of Five, she then turns around and smirks her villain smirk. First of all, she's supposed to be without human emotions. Second of all, even the worst politicians know that smirking-like-Montgomery-Burns after you lie to the public is a horrible habit, particularly in this age of ubiquitous cameras. But what really, really, bothers me is how it betrays the contempt the producers have for the audience. After a whole season of telling the viewer that the Vs are evil, they still think we need to see the alien queen from Victoria's secret do her Snidely Whiplash smile lest we think she really does want to give us clean energy and cancer cures.

Argh.

Now, I don't think either show is quite so bad, over-all, as he paints them (*). But, on the specifics he mentions, and others of that sort, I cannot but agree.

No! Wait! On the "fat bearded guy" on 'FlashForward' being offed, I thought that was so deserved and well-done.

(*) I don't have a TV, much less cable, but I've watched them on the Hulu site. And, comparing the shows to what I remember watching on TV as I was growing up, shows which aired for years, I'd have to say that these shows are quality TV.