ABC's 'FlashForward' Flashes into Oblivion

Man, I've seen some serialized programs end without closure before, but maybe never one any worse than the season (and it turns out, series) finale of ABC's "FlashForward," which wheezed into the night on Thursday.

The show was a steaming mess in terms of developing its intriguing premise, but I still watched every episode, and I'd sort of like to know if the producers really had the foggiest clue as to where any of this was going.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but this is a textbook example of a gee-whiz pilot that simply went nowhere, despite fine talent both behind and in front of the camera. The one major foul-up was a miscast Joseph Fiennes as the central character, an FBI agent whose fate was sadly left about as much in limbo as possible -- apparently leaping out a window of an exploding building while the world came to a screeching halt.

Man, I hate it when that happens.

Then again, if the series had been executed better, maybe it would have gotten an extra season and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Oh, and one footnote: This was the series that started at HBO, which passed, but kept a piece of the project in case it became a hit. As the Los Angeles Times reported last summer, this is euphemistically known as "chump insurance."

In hindsight, we might not know what was behind the whole "FlashForward" plot, but I guess we know who the real chumps were.