John Cho, left, and Joseph Fiennes star in the new sci-fi series FlashForward. (Craig Sjodin/ABC/CTV)

ABC's much-hyped sci-fi series FlashForward is the fall TV season's biggest gamble. And if the pilot is any indication of what's to come, the network is betting high. Ambitious and visually arresting, FlashForward boasts film-level production values, an accomplished ensemble cast and an absurdly complex narrative. Call it a made-for-TV blockbuster, it's the kind of in-home spectacle Orville Redenbacher must have had in mind when he created microwave popcorn.

Like The X-Files and Lost, FlashForward will live or die through its ability to create suspense from episode to episode.

Concept is king when wooing a new audience, and FlashForward has one heck of a hook. A cataclysmic event results in a worldwide blackout in which every individual on the planet experiences a personal vision of the future. Each vision — all seven billion and change — lasts exactly two minutes and 17 seconds. Odder still, each "flashforward" goes to the same date and time: April 29, 2010, at 10 p.m., exactly six months after the blackout. It's a premise only a sci-fi fan could take seriously. (And I am nothing if not a serious sci-fi fan.)

The series owes its fantastic conceit to its source material: Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer’s 1999 novel, FlashForward. Figuring out what caused the blackout and what happened on that fateful morning when everyone on the planet hit the dirt for an unscheduled two-and-a-half-minute nap is the central mystery of the series. Solving this puzzle is left to the show's lead, FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and his partner, agent Demetri Noh (Joseph Cho). For Benford, the investigation appears almost fated: while unconscious, he foresaw himself investigating the blackout. (Funny, I see myself working on April 29, 2010, too.)

Benford's vision isn't the only significant revelation served up for viewer consideration. In the first episode, most of the main characters reveal what they experience during their downtime. Some see good things, others bad. Some, like Benford's young daughter, emerge from their reverie in full-on spooky-kid mode. (Her description of her vision is right up there with "I see dead people.") Whether these visions are prophecies or simple delusions keeps many of the characters awake at night.

The cast of ABC's FlashForward. (Bob D'Amico/ABC/CTV)

What do these countless visions portend? That's a good question. I'll venture to say that the answer won't be forthcoming for a very long time — not until the show is either a) cancelled or b) runs its course.

As a genre, the science fiction drama doesn't have a stellar track record when it comes to answering its own kooky questions — or maybe I'm wrong, and you found the series finale of The X-Files satisfying, or you actually enjoyed the time travel jargon that brought Lost to a dramatic standstill last season. I say leave the answers to Jeopardy, folks; sci-fi finales are hardwired to disappoint. Like The X-Files and Lost, FlashForward will live or die through its ability to create suspense from episode to episode.

The comparison to Lost isn't especially creative, but then, neither is ABC's obvious attempt to duplicate the success of that series. The network, which airs both shows, doesn't seem bothered by concerns about originality and has already capitalized on the links between the two series. ABC offered a sneak peek of FlashForward during an episode of Lost last year, and FlashForward has been marketed as a suitable replacement when Lost winds down for good in early 2010.

Lost alumnus Dominic Monaghan co-stars in FlashForward. (Bob D'Amico/ABC/CTV)

Like Lost, FlashForward opens with an inexplicable big-bang event — fires, smoke, people in distress. The new show also plays with time, revealing pieces of a larger story in fragments, flashbacks and flashforwards. Moreover, those pieces of the narrative puzzle make use of a number of plots in the standard sci-fi box of tricks, such as unexplained phenomena, shadowy figures, the threat of global conspiracy, a series of eerie coincidences that bring people together, etc. All the standard clichés are intact and ready to deploy.

Lost wisely anchors the more out-there aspects of the narrative in character — the natives are always as interesting as the island, if not more so. It's a technique that dips into sentimentality every so often, but without those humanizing elements, the series would be no better than sci-fi schlock like Stargate: SG1.

FlashForward appears to be following suit. Set in L.A., the series is styled as an ensemble and boasts a strong cast. In addition to Fiennes and Cho, there's Tony Award-winning actor Brian F. O'Byrne as a bereaved workingman and Sonya Walger (Penny from Lost) as Benford's wife, Olivia. The biggest catch is Lost star and Lord of the Rings alum Dominic Monagahan, who doesn't appear until a few episodes into the series.

While FlashForward enjoys a dash of Lost, there's also a heavy helping of Fox's Fringe, now in its second season. Both series take on the investigation of inexplicable events and both centre on FBI agents with haunted pasts — Fringe has morose agent Olivia Dunham, played by the perpetually unsmiling Anna Torv. In both shows, a global conspiracy or evil-doing international terrorist faction is the implied antagonist. They even share a similar language when describing the events. On Fringe all those crazy paranormal happenings are part of "the pattern," on FlashForward, the investigation of the blackout is called "the mosaic."

Temperamentally, though, Fringe and FlashForward are quite different. Where Fringe is detached and tentative about its grand narrative scheme, FlashForward appears committed and has a discernible human heartbeat. I'm hoping that it gets stronger and clearer as the series progresses — I'll swallow another global conspiracy, but I can't hack another sci-fi/procedural drama hybrid. If I want to be bored and insulted, I'll watch CSI. (And if I want to be bored, insulted and amused, I'll watch CSI: Miami.)

What fresh drama, creepy special effect or key to the human unconscious FlashForward will contribute to the sci-fi pantheon is as great a mystery as the show's premise. I have a feeling, though, it's going to take longer than two minutes and 17 seconds to figure it out. But if it takes more than five episodes, I'm out.

FlashForward premieres Sept. 24 on A Channel.

Flannery Dean is a writer based in Hamilton, Ont.