Mark Pack

Cue the slow mo. Cue the loud background music. Send directorial subtlety out the door. Bring in the naff humour (“Your name is Ned Ned?” “Yes yes”). It’s a new episode of Flash Forward. Complete with endearingly silly pre-titles sequence cliff hanger of white person who sees 6 months in the future … when he’s black.

The scene of father playing with an egg to impress cute kid, complete with cuddly toy, really sums up the show. It’s silly, it’s naff, but it’s also enjoyably low-key rather than getting all Bruce Willis action movie style self-important. Real parents drop eggs and make a mess of the floor. No idealised perfect parenting in this episode.

The show looks to be settling in to a pattern of Alias-like structure. As with Alias, most episodes feature a trip away from head office that turns into both a freestanding escapade and also, slightly, nudges the overall story arc along. It’s a compromise between encouraging people to watch episode after episode – because there’s a story arc to resolve – whilst not putting off people who didn’t start at episode one or who have missed an episode since.

It’s not got the range of Alias (nor it would appear is budget) but who can dislike a show that has lines such as, “Maybe it’s not as sexy as dead poultry in Africa”?

The cliff hanger this time? Moody man on own in mysterious location makes cryptic phone call. Doom! Gloom! Loud music! And cue the credits.

It ain’t original but it is fun.