We've been watching "FlashForward" since the first episode and we have this weird love/hate thing with it in that parts of it are compelling enough to keep watching-- mainly the basic concept and all the dramatic possibilities the concept can lead to-- but other parts are just awful. The writing/acting/directing are all awful and there's plot holes that are completely swallowed up by other plot holes. In reading through message boards and reviews of the show, I'm pretty convinced part of the reason people are still watching this mess of a show is because it's fun to sit there and point out all the stupidity.

Anyways, like a lot of shows out there, a lot of the plot hinges on information gathered from computers, in this case, FBI computers. And like a lot of shows out there, the user interface is incredibly high-tech and colorful and full of all sorts of cool bells and whistles. And like a lot of shows out there, the computers are able to find all sorts of random and important information (like the population of crows in the world) with just a few presses of the button.

Yes, it's easy to make fun of all of this, but, really, how should they play it. I mean, how boring would it be if all the user interfaces in the computers look the way most user intranet sites look like-- bland, incredibly boring sites. Or how exciting would it be if to find information online, they'd show something that looked like Google.

Which brings up another thing. You know how everybody complains that there's never any traffic when people drive in these shows or there's always parking? Everybody always finds there information right away. I'd love to see a scene that's more realistic, like if somebody were to type in "population of crows" the computer would spit out a bunch of ads for pet products, the Black Crowes home page, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles of a whole bunch of people with Crow as their last name, and a ten year old GeoCities page dedicated to crows featuring horrific graphics and bad midi songs. Lest you think that would be silly and boring on a tv show, imaging the suspense that could happen when say the good guy is being chased and the person on the computer is unable to find the information needed because they keep on getting bad search information. "Hold on Jack, I'm having trouble finding out ways of defusing the bomb-- apparently there's a Death Metal band in Kansas with the same name and I keep on getting their MySpace page. Let me try another search....no damnit, I don't want the lyrics to 'Drop a Bomb on You!'"

Now that's what I call exciting TV.