These days, I wonder how anyone manages to sell a long arc TV series to network executives. We seem to be past the age when networks are willing to invest in shows that are designed from the beginning to last several seasons. ABC's failed science fiction experiment FlashForward got its walking papers approximately two weeks before it closed out its first and only season, which means that tonight's requisite cliffhanger finale did little more than tease what few remaining viewers it had with several seasons' worth of story that will never air. Given the show's abysmal ratings, the only consolation is that not that many people care.

This past fall, FlashForward looked like one of the most promising new shows on network television. It had a strong pilot episode and it was based on a pretty entertaining novel, though as the series progressed it became apparent that nobody really had a handle on what the show was supposed to be. Ultimately, what killed FlashForward was its inability to concentrate on one story. The cast was unmanageably large, the tone inconsistent and the master plot far too tangled to advance organically. What was supposed to be ABC's sci-fi intrigue replacement for Lost turned into a high budget fiasco of weak writing and wasted potential.

The real shame is that the basic premise of FlashForward is inherently interesting. There's so much dramatic ammunition in the idea of people seeing a glimpse of their futures without any real context. FlashForward attempted to pluck those strings but there were just too many stories happening at once for any of the individuals to grow into compelling characters as a result. Really, it was just an issue of scale. The show gave the time-displacing blackout to almost every person on Earth, creating a literal world full of stories the show would never have the chance to tell.

FlashForward would have been an incredible show if only a room full of people had blacked out, or even one small town. Instead of defaulting to a rote "save the world" story, it could have concentrated on the altered lives of the few individuals effected by the central plot device. This is especially apparent in the story of Bryce and Keiko, two characters who never really intersected with the main arc of the series but had one of the most interesting stories. I think a lot more people would have watched a weekly drama about two people fighting against a world of problems to achieve their fated meeting on the off chance it would lead to love. Television didn't need another police procedural, even if it had a sci-fi twist.

But it's pointless to identify all of the shows FlashForward could have been. What we actually have is a prime example of why network TV committee thinking is a failed model. FlashForward was designed to be just another pulpy thriller in the same vein as ABC's greatest recent success. Despite the past few years of TV being littered with horrendous attempts at that model (Heroes, Happy Town) or good but unprofitable attempts (Dollhouse, Kings), ABC still wanted to capitalize on a long arc series that was neither as smart nor as well-planned as it needed to be.