FlashForward Fubar

It's kind of a bummer when a TV show's plot is so complex that the writers confuse themselves by the second episode.

The premise of the show is that everyone on the planet blacks-out, and has a shared two minute vision of the future. This means that in one character's vision, he is in a meeting in London with a known co-worker. The co-worker's vision is that the other guy is in London, and they are in a meeting. In other words, the visions correlate.

Ok... So lets take two families of characters:

Family 1
Dad = Mark
Mother = Olivia
Daughter = Charlie

Family 2
Dad = Greg
Son = Brandon
Mother = dead

Mark's vision is that he's at work. Olivia's vision is that she is in her home, with a man other than Mark. It seems that the visions can carry feelings back from the future, so she feels that she loves the other man. Mark feels fear. The important thing is that Olivia gets a look at the man's face, but he does not see her.

Shortly after the blackout and the vision, a child, Brandon, arrives at Olivia's hospital. She tells the child he'll be fine, and he says: "I know, Olivia." This means that in Brandon's vision, he knows Olivia... yet he is not in Olivia's vision. No correlation. Brandon's father, Greg, arrives at the hospital, but does not recognize Olivia. That correlates, since Olivia doesn't think the man saw her.

Then there's the daughter: Charlie. She visits the hospital, and recognizes Brandon. This would be okay if she and Brandon are together in the future.

Here's the problem. Brandon "knows" Olivia, but Olivia does not know Brandon. Olivia "knows" Greg, but Greg does not know Olivia. Charlie "knows" Brandon, but Brandon does not seem to know Charlie (but he hasn't seen her yet, so there maybe some flexibility on this one.)

Charlie, who is holding out on information, also knows a potential bad guy named DGibbons. Let's imagine that Charlie and Brandon were kidnapped by DGibbons. Lets say that DGibbons holds up a picture of Olivia and announces "Brandon, do you know this woman?" At this point, Charlie says, "That's my mother, Olivia." This works.

Except... Why isn't Brandon concerned with DGibbons, like Charlie? Why isn't Olivia concerned about her daughter? Did she send her-- and Brandon-- off to a sleep-over so she could bonk Greg? And why would DGibbon kidnap the children and then interrogate Brandon about Olivia? He already knows who they are because Mark is chasing him.

The writter's are stuck on a Mobius strip and are depending on you to forget these details. The good news is that ABC will cancel the show in a few episodes. Their executives have less of an attention span then you do.