If you’ve watched channel 5 at any point over the last couple of months, you have probably seen a trailer for their programme, Flashforward, which is on Mondays, at 9pm. For those of you who aren’t aware of it, the basic idea is simple. On October 6, at exactly the same time, the whole planet blacked out for 2 minutes, 17 seconds, during which time people saw their future and exactly what they were doing at 10pm April 29 2010. The things that people saw are called Flashforwards. The programme follows the investigations into this blackout by the FBI, and the effects that these visions have on the agents and their families. The main character is Mark Benford, and in his Flashforward, he sees himself running point on this investigation, and seems to have an idea of how it all happened.

Some of these Flashforwards are positive, but some are negative. Some people want them to come true but others don’t. One of the FBI agents, Demitri Noh doesn’t see anything. He just blacked out. As he’s talking to Mark, he says this, "Everybody saw something. But not me - I didn’t see a damn thing. What if I didn’t see anything because 6 months from now, I’m going to be dead?" He meets someone else who also didn’t have a Flashforward, but 5 minutes after meeting her, she is shot dead, underlining his assumption. The FBI have set up a website, called Mosaic, where people post what they saw so they can see if they match up with other peoples visions. Demitri posts, and soon after he receives a phone call, from someone who tells him, that on March 15 2010, he is going to be murdered.

As the events unfold, we see him trying to come to terms with this, and it changes the way he lives. He wants to do as much as he can to help the investigation while he’s alive, so his life will have been worthwhile. At the same time, he really wants to change the future somehow.

The programme picks up on a number of huge issues. For agent Noh, this issue is death. It’s not something that we like to talk about really is it? But, it is something that we can guarantee will happen to us at some point in the future. We are not immortal. Although we don’t know when we will die, we know we will, and it’s not something we can escape from. The striking thing with Agent Noh is the changes that he makes to his life.

Let’s face it, I don’t think any of us live as if we might die tomorrow, or even later today, do we? We like to think that we are immortal up to the point of old age. Perhaps we think that we’ll live life just as we are, and then on our death bed, we’ll make sure we’re OK with God. The thing with this idea is, well what if you get hit by a bus. I don’t want any of you to be hit by a bus just to be clear! No chance to make sure everything is OK with God then is there? Who knows what tomorrow will bring, so we need to change today. I’ll leave you with the words that the Channel 5 voiceover lady said before episode one: If you knew what your future held, what would you do?

Christianity & Culture