FlashForward is taking a step back.

Sources confirm to me exclusively that ABC has temporarily shut down production on the rookie drama. The move comes a month after the departure of co-showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, and less than a week after FlashForward hit a new ratings low.

An Alphabet spokesperson confirms the shutdown, but is quick to note that the show’s schedule was designed to accommodate such breaks. “They started production early so that they could have the luxury to do this,” says the rep. “They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so.”

FlashForward’s lull won’t be nearly as long as the month-long creative hiatus ABC imposed over at V. The Alphabet rep says FF — which airs its mid-season finale on Dec. 3 — will resume production on Monday after just a six-day break.

Going through “Lost” withdrawal during this eight-month hiatus? Devastated that your favorite desert-island mystery won’t be returning to the airwaves after its series finale this May? Fear not, because ABC is confident that it has a solution for you. Since first airing five promo spots of its newest sci-fi mindbender “FlashForward” during an April 2009 episode of “Lost,” ABC has been aggressively targeting the show’s fans with endless reminders that “FlashForward” might be the heir to the throne of indulgently confusing network thrillers.

This seems logical enough — on paper, the premise of “FlashForward” (airing Thursdays at 8 p.m.) really does sound like “Lost 2.0.” According to the show’s premise, on Oct. 6, 2009, the entire planet lost consciousness for 137 seconds, during which time most people experienced a vision of what they would be doing on April 29, 2010. The mass loss of consciousness caused tens of millions of deaths and widespread panic.

In the devastating aftermath of the event, Los Angeles-based FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) hatches a plan that, he hopes, will help solve the mystery of what caused the blackout. With the help of his partners at the bureau, he launches a web site called “Mosaic” that asks citizens of the world to post answers to the popular post-blackout question: “What did you see?”

Answers to the question range from the mundane — sitting on a toilet reading the sports section — to the inexplicable, as one character experiences a vision of his reunion with the daughter whose remains he thought he buried years ago. Using the database, Mark and company gain access to clues that should help in their investigation.

The catch? Mark was motivated to set up this web site and begin the ensuing investigation only because he saw himself working on it in his vision. Each clue that he finds to explain the blackout — every cryptic Post-it and creepy photograph — is a clue that he already saw on the investigation board in his flash-forward. The audience can only wonder whether Mark saw his flash-forward because he was destined to spearhead the investigation, or whether Mark chose to spearhead the investigation only after seeing his flash-forward.

Mark’s motivation for understanding the blackout is more personalthan most of his co-workers know. A recovered alcoholic, Mark saw himself taking shots from a flask as he worked on the puzzle. And his wife Olivia, played by Sonya Walger, saw herself with another man.

Thus, just like in “Lost,” questions of free will versus determinism abound against a pseudo-scientific backdrop of time travel, with plenty of inter-character drama thrown in for spice. And, like its supposed predecessor, “FlashForward” seems to delight in the opportunity to confuse its audience.

Not to worry, though, just like J.J. Abrams, “FlashForward” showrunners David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga promise audiences that they know exactly where the show is going, down to the last shot of the last episode.

And the similarities don’t stop there. In its first five episodes, “FlashForward” has, both intentionally and unintentionally, paid homage to countless “Lost” mainstays. There’s the unexplained and out-of-place kangaroo that hops past Mark in the pilot (polar bears, anyone?). Not to mention that two “Lost” alums, Walger and Dominic Monaghan, have lead roles on the new series.

But some of these winking nods, like the Oceanic Airlines billboard in the background of one pre-blackout shot, are overkill. In the end, ABC’s attempts at forcing the notion of a “Lost” companion down the throats of viewers are really quite off-putting. After all, how can you compare a show in its infancy to the mini-empire that “Lost” has become in its five overwhelmingly successful seasons?

The answer that ABC has failed to see is that you can’t. To tote any show as the new “Lost” is to set viewers up for disappointment. Indeed, after premiering at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings in the competitive 8 p.m. Thursday time slot (beating out even “Survivor: Samoa”), “FlashForward” slowly lost a significant portion of its viewers over the following three weeks (though the fourth week brought a very slight increase).

And, while most critics have given “FlashForward” a positive reception, few have refrained from mentioning that other sci-fi show. The question of whether this will be an adequate replacement threatens to overshadow the otherwise complimentary reviews. The endless “Lost” echoes have already detracted from much of the new show’s individual brilliance.

So please, ABC, get rid of the Oceanic billboards, nix the kangaroos, stop name-dropping “Lost” in the promotional materials. And for God’s sake, don’t shove “FlashForward” into the former “Lost” time slot once it goes off the air in May.

While the “Lost” hype may have been a strategic way to draw attention to this newcomer, it is time to let one of this season’s most promising new shows develop an identity of its own.

Olivia Benford is a complex woman who’s deeply in love, but struggling with the recent events of the future flash her, and everyone else on the face of this planet, saw in the new ABC series FlashForward. Olivia is played by actress Sonya Walger, who has guest starred on LOST since 2006 as Penelope Widmore, another woman deeply in love and struggling to keep that love intact. TVOvermind had the privilege to speak to Sonya Walger yesterday about her role on the show, and what we can hope to see as the mysterious series progresses at a rapid pace.

Read the full interview here at TVOvermind.com

If you thought Lost was a tricky show filled with twists and turns, FlashForward has a few mind games of its own to play. TVGuide.com sat down with a star from both ABC shows.

One of the many issues FlashForward raises is whether or not you can change the future. Sonya Walger’s character, Olivia, finds herself struggling to make sure the glimpse she saw in her flash doesn’t come true, because it would mean the end of her marriage to Mark (Joseph Fiennes).

What does the rest of Olivia’s flash forward reveal? Can her marriage survive these circumstances? Walger discusses that and more. First, let’s get the major Lost question out of the way …

TVGuide.com: All right, when are you returning to Lost?
Sonya Walger: No idea. Not a clue. I don’t even know if I’m in the last season.

TVGuide.com: Do you think Penny should die in the end?
Walger: Are you saying in a sacrificial way, Penny needs to die? I hope not because Penny’s so great. There would be mass outcry, but you know what, they killed off Charlie, so anything can happen. I feel like her dad should be the one to bite it. I am not kidding.

TVGuide.com: Were you nervous about joining another mythology-heavy show?
Walger: No, not at all. It’s funny, I didn’t even think of Lost when I read that script. It sounds bizarre or naïve, but I really didn’t. I read the script and I was so excited by the writing and by this character, by this woman who is complicated and says ‘I hate you’ to her husband when she means ‘I love you.’ She’s a professional and a surgeon and a mother. I didn’t see any similarities to Lost. I honestly still don’t. I see them as big shows that have one big exciting event, the catalyst that gets it all going with an ensemble cast. I see that, but after that they just part ways. There isn’t a mythology to FlashForward in the same way. There’s not codes to decipher … There’s not islands moving and polar bears and smoke monsters, that’s not in our show … yet anyway.

TVGuide.com: Did you ever work with Dominic Monaghan on Lost?
Walger: This is the joke of me being a part of Lost, I haven’t met three-quarters of that cast. I’m not kidding. I would be as star-struck as you would be if I met Matthew Fox. I actually only met Dominic on a photo shoot for FlashForward — that was the first time we met. He comes into play in quite a significant way in this show. I can’t really tell you anymore than that. He’s a good part of it.

TVGuide.com: We haven’t seen all of Olivia’s flash-forward. What can you tease about what we haven’t seen?
Walger: In the flash-forward, the bit that you have seen is that Lloyd [Jack Davenport] gets up from the bed and gets a text message from someone. The person he gets a text message from is very, very unexpected.

TVGuide.com: Can Mark and Olivia’s marriage survive this flash-forward?
Walger: Who knows? I think it’s completely fascinating that just the ghost of this might be what undoes their marriage, or it might be what strengthens them and keeps them together. It might be the tension of it alone [that] drives Mark to drink. It’s such an interesting idea that just the threat of something might be what leads you towards it. It may well be that they get to a breaking point and then say, ‘No, this isn’t happening to us. We’re going to make this work.’

TVGuide.com: Do you have any personal belief in fate?
Walger: I don’t really. The word fate doesn’t really mean much to me in some ways. I think we make our own. Minute by minute you decide who you are and who you’re likely to be. You make the choices hour by hour, just in the present. I don’t believe there’s some roadmap laid out that we’re headed towards.

TVGuide.com: Give us a nice tease for what’s coming up for Olivia.
Walger: She’s going to be forced quite soon to deal with whether or not you can change the future. She keeps being reminded — evidence keeps being presented all around her — that you can’t change it. Every time she thinks she’s seen the last of Lloyd and that she’s managed to avoid it, he keeps coming back.

Do you think FlashForward has more twists than Lost?

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 (UPI) — ABC says it has ordered a full season of its new Los Angeles-set drama series “FlashForward,” starring Joseph Fiennes and Sonya Walger.

Screen captures for the third episode of FlashForward 1×03: Sekunden 137 have been added to the photo gallery:

Screen captures for the second episode of FlashForward 1×02: White to Play have been added to the photo gallery:

Head over to TVOvermind.com to watch five new video clips of tonight’s episode of FlashForward.

Set Visit Interview: Sonya Walger and Zachary Knighton On the Set of ABC’s FLASH FORWARD

On the ABC television series Flash Forward, Sonya Walger plays trauma surgeon Olivia Benford, wife to FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and mother to their daughter, Charlie. Olivia is also the the direct superior to surgical intern Bryce Varley (played by Zachary Knighton) who, before the black-out, was standing on the pier, ready to kill himself.

During a set visit to the multiple stages where they are filming the complex show, co-stars Sonya Walger and Zachary Knighton talked about being a part of the most talked about show this season.

Q: This show is not Lost, and anybody who’s seen the pilot knows it. Is it irritating that people keep bringing it up, or is it flattering?

Sonya: To be put in the same breath as Lost is a really flattering, fantastic thing, and I think we’d be blown away and elated if we had half the following that Lost has. It’s a great show, as is this, but they are very different. They really are. They share having an ensemble cast and having a great mystery at the core of it, but after that, they part ways, very radically.

Q: Will this show be as complicated as Lost?

Sonya: It’s certainly complicated, in that it’s sophisticated, but it doesn’t have the dense mythology of Lost. If you join in Episode 8, it will be very clear what’s gone on. Sure, there’ll be tiny details of people’s storylines that you’ve missed, but essentially, it’s clear. The world blacked out, everyone got a glimpse of their future, and everyone’s trying to deal with it. That will keep the story very simple to follow.

Q: When you read this script, were you more attracted to the concept of it, or that it’s such a character-driven show?

Zachary: For me, personally, it was the best pilot that I’d gotten a chance to audition for and read. I’ve been a huge fan of David Goyer’s for a long time. I’ve met with him on other stuff, like a couple of the Blade movies, and I’ve been dying to work with him. When I read the script, I just went, “This is one that I’m not going to get. There’s going to be somebody more famous than me that wants to do this part.”

I love Lost. I love the mythology of that show and I love the idea of big, character-driven dramas, and this show is so character-based. It gets to the depths of people’s characters because of what they’ve seen. Most people in the show have been shaken to the core with what they’ve seen, whether it be positive or negative. So, that was definitely a big attraction for me.

Q: Zachary, how quickly will viewers get to see why your character was going to kill himself?

Zachary: I think it’s a mystery. But, you’re definitely going to find out why he was on the pier, about to blow his brains out.

Q: Will viewers find out what his flash-forward was?

Zachary: Yeah. He’s changed. In the pilot, he’s on the pier, about to make a life-altering decision, and he comes out of it an entirely different man. You’ve got to have some hope. A lot of people are trying to avoid what they saw, but some people want to have what they saw occur.

Q: What’s it like to do the medical scenes? Is it like being in a different show?

Sonya: It’s fun. It’s not a medical show because it’s rare that we’re so intent on curing this particular patient. It’s always the DNA of everyone that had a flash-forward. It’s not going to be Grey’s Anatomy in this corner, CSI in that corner and Days of Our Lives in another corner. It’s always spawning off what the flash-forward was.

If we’re treating a victim, it’s often because they’re a casualty of the flash-forward and they got injured in the chaos that ensued, or perhaps they had a vision that then affects the diagnosis that we might or might not end up making. I’m fascinated by the technical jargon we have to master for that. We spent some time at Cedars-Sinai with a surgeon. It’s always fun to learn new skills and new vocabularies, but it’s always embedded in what these flash-forwards are.

Zachary: There are these different worlds, but all these worlds are going to intersect, at one point or another. So, the idea is that these people are all connected, much like we all are in real life, in some strange way. But, the interesting thing is that the paths cross.

Q: Were you surprised that Joseph Fiennes would do a TV series?

Sonya: No, honestly, I wasn’t, having read the pilot, and having seen just how good the quality of the writing is. As someone who is a veteran of now eight pilot seasons, I can vouch for how rare it is to come across a script that’s this good, or roles that are this developed and interesting. It often takes seasons to get characters that have this many quirks and flaws to them, so I wasn’t that surprised. I thought it was a plum role, for any actor. All of these roles are plum roles for any actor to get.

Zachary: Not to mention, it really feels like a movie, every week. It’s shot like a movie. It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this on television. And, it doesn’t stop with the pilot. You can’t just do that to an audience. You can’t just drop these massive scenes, and this epic nature. If you took that away in Episode 2, the viewers would be upset. They’d feel cheated.

Sonya: Yeah, that’s true. It’s interesting because, every time a storyline seems to resolve itself, there’s another one sprouting. There’s just no containing it.

Q: Sonya, are you returning to Lost for the last season?

Sonya: I have no idea. I’m never told anything. Lost and I have an extremely flexible, loving relationship. When they call, if I’m around, I go.

Q: Would you like to go back?

Sonya: Sure, I’d love to go back. Honestly, my hands are full. This is a full-time, great job. But, I loved doing Lost and I’ve always loved being a part of it. I’d be sad to not sign Penny out, in some proper way.

Q: How strange was it when you found out Dominic was also on this show?

Sonya: Not that strange, honestly. Dominic and I never worked together on Lost. I only met him here. So, I think it’s much stranger for everybody else than it is for me.

Source: http://iesb.net/

Scans of Sonya and Joseph from Entertainment Weekly’s Fall Preview issue: