'FlashForward' and 'V' return to ABC in March

Looks like spring is going to be full of time-traveling, blackout aftermaths, alien encounters -- and, yes, answers.

ABC's two new serialized mysteries, "FlashForward" and "V" will take a long hiatus until early spring so that the network can air both series' remaining episodes uninterrupted.

"FlashForward," starring Joseph Fiennes, will return March 4 at 8 p.m. "V" will return on March 30 in a new time slot, 10 p.m. after "Lost" -- which means on some Tuesday nights we'll be getting a double Elizabeth Mitchell feature.

"Lost" returns for its final season Feb. 2 at 9 p.m.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez (follow me on Twitter @writerchica)

Photo: Elizabeth Mitchell. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[Ugh]

This is the digital age, and along with that has come microscopic attention spans. I'm 42, and I am constantly texting, watching TV, and surfing the web simultaneously. If I'm doing it, think about what the younger generation is doing...

The fact that ABC found an audience to actually sit down and watch a weekly miniseries like "V" is astounding enough. To stop it IN THE MIDDLE and put it on hiatus is why the industry is in so much trouble. Whose ever bright idea this was should be stripped and flogged publicly in the middle of The Grove!

By next spring I will have not only lost the excitement and momentum of the show (which I have been enjoying!), I will probably have moved on to watch the next new offering the competing networks will put against it...if they're smart.

[voldemort]

This new mode of operating doesn't work for me, and I doubt it's going to work for ABC, especially with "V." They'd barely started the season on that show, I hadn't quite decided whether I wanted to stick with it or not, and now definitely won't. Unsure whether I'll come back to "Flash Forward." But the premise of the show, a mystery unfolding in real time, gets lost when the mystery goes away for three whole months. They've been building up slow but sure suspense, and now we don't spend months wondering whether John Cho's character really dies, and at the hand of his best friend, as the tension builds among the characters. There were promising premises about whether one really can take the future into one's own hands but there will be no time to see more of that. We now don't get any of that buildup that created a series of a little more depth than most, and instead we'll come back to an almost immediate resolution. I'm more likely to read the recaps than bother watching the show again. Got other things to do.

[Kristal]

The hiatus throws off the timeline of "FlashForward" since the way it was running, it seemed like the season finale would happen soon after April 29, coinciding with the plot nicely. Now, that's all gone. And while it doesn't really detract from the show itself, it takes away from the experience. It's like having a Valentine's Day episode air in May.

http://toointerestingfortwitter.blogspot.com

[J L]

Love the sound of an Elizabeth Mitchell double feature, the more the better.

[steve]

FastForward is worthy of watching when it comes back.
V is a mess, no character development and big plot holes!

[Nova yos Galen]

Who went to bed and dreamt up this half-baked idea of having a THREE-MONTH hiatus after only 4 episodes of V? Are they trying to fail? And then bringing it back at 10 instead of 9. Count me out! I have to get up early, and no matter that I liked the show I won't be staying up to watch it. It's ironic the Alan Tudyk is in this show. The network suits for Firefly screwed up that show as well with dopey programming. Poor guy. Can't win for losing.

Well, as Anna would say, Peace, always.

[Big Jim Slade]

I was wondering where all the old NBC management went. Now I know they're moved to ABC!

(Their specialty was taking the first place network and turning it into the last place network with their innovative thinking)

[Paul]

Who is running that network into the ground? What are they thinking? Eastwick was canceled for being a great show while they keep the baloney of Cougar Town on? With thinking like this Seinfeld, Cheers and Friends would have never have made it. The best shows of all time....

ABC is losing me fast just as they got me back with Eastwick which was the highlight of the season and had it's best show air this week. How can you pull a show like that and shelf a crappy show like Fast-Forward and V for March. Disney Studios has had turnover with their brass and so should ABC.

[Dodger Tony]

Sci Fi gets punked again.

[John]

How does Disney expect to build a following when they have a start-stop approach to their programming? I thought Flash Forward was a really good idea for a show, with almost endless possibilities of where they could go. They will never get there if they have no audience, and they will have no audience if they cannot deliver with regularity. I read somewhere they are planning to sell a CD of the 1st part of Season I.. Good luck with that, you greedy fools. Your advertisers would be paying the costs if you would program your shows correctly.