Here's the opening teaser-paragraphs from a long, exquisitely beautiful piece from Editor in Chief Brad Munson, running in its entirety over on ScriptPhD. Start here ... then check it out!
It goes without saying that pretty much every work of fiction begins with the "what if" question. "What if I knew the world was ending tomorrow?" "What if my wife was secretly plotting to kill me?" "What if this article wins me the Pulitzer?" What separates the great (or simply enjoyable) work from that which cannot be accepted is a second level of consideration: actually thinking about the "what if" and seeing if it has any real value, any weight, beyond that first fleeting thrill that comes with the High Concept. FlashForward -- the ABC TV series or the 1999 novel by Robert J. Sawyer upon which it is loosely, loosely based -- is a perfect example of exactly that: the cool but ultimately unsatisfying idea that really can't stand the stress of storytelling. Because hiding behind the spotty acting and cliche'd characters -- on screen or in print -- the whole concept has a serious problem: it just doesn't make a lick of sense.
A quick reading of the novel (which is all it warrants) won't provide you with any background or spoilers on the TV series. In fact, it will only confuse you even more. The two have almost nothing in common, except the most basic of High Concepts and a character name or two. But both versions do share one other thing in common: they could have ended just a few pages/minutes after they began.
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