No More Good Days
Encyclopedia
"No More Good Days" is the series premiere of the American television series FlashForward
. The episode's teleplay was written by David S. Goyer
and Brannon Braga
, who also conceived of the television story, based upon the novel of the same name
by Robert J. Sawyer
. Goyer also directed the episode, which originally aired in the United States on ABC
on September 24, 2009.
The series opens on a seemingly ordinary day on October 6, 2009, that soon becomes extraordinary as everyone in Los Angeles
blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. It soon becomes apparent the blackouts occurred worldwide, and were accompanied by a flash-forward where each person saw what might be his or her life on April 29, 2010, about six months in the future. FBI Agent Mark Benford and a team of agents in Los Angeles begin gathering clues as to what might have happened as they struggle to come to terms with their own visions, or lack thereof. Meanwhile, Mark's wife and daughter each have disturbing visions of the future with which they must cope. As the episode closes, FBI Agent Janis Hawk makes a startling discovery: an image from CCTV in Detroit of a man in black, walking through the stadium while everyone around him is unconscious.
) climbs out of his wrecked car and looks around him: there is devastation everywhere, people lie injured and/or dead in the road, cars and trucks are piled up and things are on fire. Mark calls out for his partner, Demetri Noh (John Cho
).
In a flashback sequence, each of the leads goes about their daily lives. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger
) scrubs up at the hospital before surgery; Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton
) prepares to commit suicide by shooting himself at the beach; Aaron Stark
(Brían F. O'Byrne
) and Mark attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; Nicole Kirby (Peyton List) sneaks a boy into the Benford's house as she babysits their daughter Charlie (Lennon Wynn). Later, Mark and his FBI partner Demetri give chase on a freeway after getting a lead on a case. Then, the blackout occurs. Upon awakening, Bryce finds himself alive and helps to save the lives of surfers lost at sea; Olivia's patient flatlines in theatre; Aaron wakes up injured on an electricity pole; Nicole and her boyfriend are in a naked and confused state. Each of them panics and tries to get help.
Everyone slowly admits they experienced a 'vision' during the blackout: Mark was furiously working an FBI case and has resumed drinking alcohol; Olivia was with another man; Janis was 17 weeks pregnant. The Benford's daughter Charlie tells Nicole, "I had a bad dream. I dreamt there were no more good days." World news shows that the blackout was global. Demetri starts to panic when he realises he may be the only person not to experience a flash forward - believing that he will be dead in six months.
Olivia treats an 8-year-old boy, a victim of the blackout. She tells him he will be okay, and he refers to her by name, even though she does not know him. Later, Olivia sobs and tells Mark about her blackout. Her flash forward is shown, in which she is with a man she doesn't recognise. At the hospital (in the present time), that same man from Olivia's vision walks into the ward where the 8-year-old boy resides and asks to speak to Dr Benford.
At the end of the episode, Charlie gives Mark a bracelet she made for him. Mark is alarmed: the bracelet is the same one he saw in his flash forward, indicating that the visions may be coming true. Elsewhere, Janis Hawk (Christine Woods
) is checking CCTV from during the blackout. She focuses on a baseball game in Detroit and notices that as everyone blacks out, one dark figure is moving across the back of the stadium.
in the hand of Charlie Benford when she gives it to her father, Mark.
The series was conceived by David S. Goyer
and Brannon Braga
, based upon the novel of the same name
. The two had previously worked together on the short-lived CBS
series Threshold
The idea was originally pitched to HBO, a pay-cable network, however the HBO leadership felt that the series was better suited to a broadcast network. With the consent of HBO, Goyer and Braga pitched the idea to both ABC and Fox
, with ABC winning the bidding war. In the early stages of development, ABC considered coupling the new show with Lost
. This created a problem, as Braga was an executive producer
of the Fox series 24
. ABC Studios
and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
discussed co-producing FlashForward, but Braga eventually pulled out of his "day-to-day" involvement with the project.
When writing the script, one of the most "obvious" changes from the novel was altering how far into the future the characters see when they black out. from "21 years to six months", according to Marc Guggenheim
. Guggenheim felt that the "real appeal" of the series is "getting to see the payoff of when the future becomes the present", and Goyer and Braga made the decision to create a first season "payoff" early in the writing process. Another difference is the characters of FBI Special Agents Mark Benford and Demetri Noh, neither of whom appears in the book. The main character in the book is Lloyd Simcoe, the scientist who created the flash-forward.
and Jack Davenport
became the first officially announced cast members of FlashForward. On June 10, 2009, it was announced that Lost star Dominic Monaghan
had been cast in the series although his role was then unknown. Rumors of Monaghan's casting began after an advert of him being asked by Friends
actress Courteney Cox
"What did you see?" was aired as part of the ABC House advertising campaign. It was not immediately revealed which TV series Monaghan would be starring in, but it was eventually announced that he was joining the cast of FlashForward. On December 5, 2008, it was reported
that Fiennes and Cho had been added to the cast, followed by the announcement that Sonya Walger
and Christine Woods
had also been cast. Sonya, who is British, uses an American accent in the show for her part as Olivia. In an interview with Digital Spy
, Walger described Olivia as the "main woman in the show". Gabrielle Union
was announced to be playing the part of Zoey on July 30, 2009, and Seth MacFarlane
on June 18, 2009 as FBI agent Jake Curdy.
. This episode was watched by 4.1 million British viewers on its premiere on Five.
The repeat the following Friday reached 1.28 million. The satellite repeat on Fiver attracted 601 thousand viewers. CTV
bought the rights for the series in May, 2009, though it was not known at that time what channel it would air at on the CTV television network.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the premiere has received a "generally favorable" score of 72, based on 26 reviews. Gina Bellafante of The New York Times
found the premiere to work "just as powerfully as a domestic drama as it does as a mechanism of apocalyptic intrigue". David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun
, likewise, said, "It's smart, richly textured, complex and filled with
suspense and intellectual challenge--in short, it has all the things network television is supposed to have abandoned in favor of cheap reality shows." San Francisco Chronicle
reviewer Tim Goodman said, "If you like big-screen-level thrills and complicated plot structures, you'll opt-in to FlashForward. And you'll be rewarded. Here's hoping it stays strong and compelling as it heads to April 29." Paige Wiser from the Chicago Sun-Times
was overall positive towards the premiere episode, comparing it to another ABC series, Lost
. Reviewer Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
said the premiere combined "sci-fi-ish conspiracy suspense with excellent prime-time-soap drama" giving it a B+.
Some critics, however, had more mixed feeling towards the pilot episode. Tom Shales from The Washington Post
gave a mixed-to-positive review of the episode, saying, "The new series seems to share a perhaps fatal flaw of that now-canceled show [Pushing Daisies
], which is that the premise becomes so byzantine and the complications so arcane that eventually people just give up on trying to make sense of the darn thing." Los Angeles Times
writer Robert Lloyd, said it was "a decent but not brilliant beginning". In her review, Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News
, was not pleased with the outcome, comparing it to the pilot episode of Lost and commenting that "No More Good Days" felt "more like deja vu, with characters who could've been rounded up from a disaster miniseries".
The episode was nominated for three 2010 Emmy awards
: Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series, Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score), and Outstanding Stunt Coordination.
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
. The episode's teleplay was written by David S. Goyer
David S. Goyer
David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...
and Brannon Braga
Brannon Braga
Brannon Braga is an American television producer and screenwriter, currently working as showrunner and executive producer on Terra Nova...
, who also conceived of the television story, based upon the novel of the same name
Flashforward (novel)
Flashforward is a science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer first published in 1999. The novel is set in 2009. At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is performing a run to search for the Higgs boson. The experiment has a unique side effect: the entire human race loses...
by Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
. Goyer also directed the episode, which originally aired in the United States on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on September 24, 2009.
The series opens on a seemingly ordinary day on October 6, 2009, that soon becomes extraordinary as everyone in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. It soon becomes apparent the blackouts occurred worldwide, and were accompanied by a flash-forward where each person saw what might be his or her life on April 29, 2010, about six months in the future. FBI Agent Mark Benford and a team of agents in Los Angeles begin gathering clues as to what might have happened as they struggle to come to terms with their own visions, or lack thereof. Meanwhile, Mark's wife and daughter each have disturbing visions of the future with which they must cope. As the episode closes, FBI Agent Janis Hawk makes a startling discovery: an image from CCTV in Detroit of a man in black, walking through the stadium while everyone around him is unconscious.
Plot overview
The episode opens with a car crash. Mark Benford (Joseph FiennesJoseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, Merlin in Camelot, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the...
) climbs out of his wrecked car and looks around him: there is devastation everywhere, people lie injured and/or dead in the road, cars and trucks are piled up and things are on fire. Mark calls out for his partner, Demetri Noh (John Cho
John Cho
John Yohan Cho is an American actor and musician, best known for his roles in the American Pie films and the Harold & Kumar films . He also starred in the critically acclaimed hit film Better Luck Tomorrow...
).
In a flashback sequence, each of the leads goes about their daily lives. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger is an English actress known for her roles in the ABC series Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, and as Olivia Benford on ABC's FlashForward.-Education:...
) scrubs up at the hospital before surgery; Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton
Zachary Knighton
Zachary Andrew Knighton is an American actor who currently stars as Dave Rose on the ABC comedy series Happy Endings. Prior to that, he co-starred as Dr. Bryce Varley on ABC's science fiction series FlashForward from 2009–2010....
) prepares to commit suicide by shooting himself at the beach; Aaron Stark
Aaron Stark
Aaron Mitchell Stark is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He trains with Team Quest and was a member of the Portland Wolfpack, an International Fight League team coached by Matt Lindland....
(Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían F. O'Byrne
Brían Francis O'Byrne is an Irish actor who works mostly in the United States. He was born in Mullagh, County Cavan.O'Byrne first attracted notice for his performances in the Martin McDonagh plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane as Pato Dooley and The Lonesome West...
) and Mark attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; Nicole Kirby (Peyton List) sneaks a boy into the Benford's house as she babysits their daughter Charlie (Lennon Wynn). Later, Mark and his FBI partner Demetri give chase on a freeway after getting a lead on a case. Then, the blackout occurs. Upon awakening, Bryce finds himself alive and helps to save the lives of surfers lost at sea; Olivia's patient flatlines in theatre; Aaron wakes up injured on an electricity pole; Nicole and her boyfriend are in a naked and confused state. Each of them panics and tries to get help.
Everyone slowly admits they experienced a 'vision' during the blackout: Mark was furiously working an FBI case and has resumed drinking alcohol; Olivia was with another man; Janis was 17 weeks pregnant. The Benford's daughter Charlie tells Nicole, "I had a bad dream. I dreamt there were no more good days." World news shows that the blackout was global. Demetri starts to panic when he realises he may be the only person not to experience a flash forward - believing that he will be dead in six months.
Olivia treats an 8-year-old boy, a victim of the blackout. She tells him he will be okay, and he refers to her by name, even though she does not know him. Later, Olivia sobs and tells Mark about her blackout. Her flash forward is shown, in which she is with a man she doesn't recognise. At the hospital (in the present time), that same man from Olivia's vision walks into the ward where the 8-year-old boy resides and asks to speak to Dr Benford.
At the end of the episode, Charlie gives Mark a bracelet she made for him. Mark is alarmed: the bracelet is the same one he saw in his flash forward, indicating that the visions may be coming true. Elsewhere, Janis Hawk (Christine Woods
Christine Woods
Christine Woods is an American actress who has appeared in numerous television shows. More recently, she could be seen as part of the main cast in ABC's FlashForward, in which she portrayed FBI Special Agent Janis Hawk.-Biography:...
) is checking CCTV from during the blackout. She focuses on a baseball game in Detroit and notices that as everyone blacks out, one dark figure is moving across the back of the stadium.
Title sequence image
Within the show's logo in this episode is a friendship braceletFriendship Bracelet
A friendship bracelet is a bracelet given by one person to another as a symbol of friendship. Friendship bracelets are often handmade, usually of embroidery floss or thread. There are various styles and patterns, but most are based on the same simple half-hitch knot...
in the hand of Charlie Benford when she gives it to her father, Mark.
Development
David S. Goyer
David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...
and Brannon Braga
Brannon Braga
Brannon Braga is an American television producer and screenwriter, currently working as showrunner and executive producer on Terra Nova...
, based upon the novel of the same name
Flashforward (novel)
Flashforward is a science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer first published in 1999. The novel is set in 2009. At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is performing a run to search for the Higgs boson. The experiment has a unique side effect: the entire human race loses...
. The two had previously worked together on the short-lived CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series Threshold
Threshold (TV series)
Threshold was a science fiction drama television series that first aired on CBS in September 2005. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the series focuses on a secret government project investigating the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.The series was first...
The idea was originally pitched to HBO, a pay-cable network, however the HBO leadership felt that the series was better suited to a broadcast network. With the consent of HBO, Goyer and Braga pitched the idea to both ABC and Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, with ABC winning the bidding war. In the early stages of development, ABC considered coupling the new show with Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
. This created a problem, as Braga was an executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of the Fox series 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
. ABC Studios
and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
discussed co-producing FlashForward, but Braga eventually pulled out of his "day-to-day" involvement with the project.
When writing the script, one of the most "obvious" changes from the novel was altering how far into the future the characters see when they black out. from "21 years to six months", according to Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim is an American television writer-producer and a writer for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. His brother is screenwriter Eric Guggenheim.-Television:...
. Guggenheim felt that the "real appeal" of the series is "getting to see the payoff of when the future becomes the present", and Goyer and Braga made the decision to create a first season "payoff" early in the writing process. Another difference is the characters of FBI Special Agents Mark Benford and Demetri Noh, neither of whom appears in the book. The main character in the book is Lloyd Simcoe, the scientist who created the flash-forward.
Casting
On May 8, 2009 it was announced that FlashForward was to comprise part of ABC's fall 2009 season. Prior to this, the network had aired several five second advertisements featuring plot elements and characters. Courtney B. VanceCourtney B. Vance
Courtney Bernard Vance is an American actor. He was formerly a regular on the NBC/USA television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver. He was also a series regular on the ABC series FlashForward. As of 2011, he appears on the TNT series The Closer as Chief...
and Jack Davenport
Jack Davenport
Jack Davenport is an English actor, best known for his roles in the television series This Life, Coupling and as James Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He has also appeared in many other Hollywood films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley...
became the first officially announced cast members of FlashForward. On June 10, 2009, it was announced that Lost star Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and for his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost....
had been cast in the series although his role was then unknown. Rumors of Monaghan's casting began after an advert of him being asked by Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
actress Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
"What did you see?" was aired as part of the ABC House advertising campaign. It was not immediately revealed which TV series Monaghan would be starring in, but it was eventually announced that he was joining the cast of FlashForward. On December 5, 2008, it was reported
that Fiennes and Cho had been added to the cast, followed by the announcement that Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger
Sonya Walger is an English actress known for her roles in the ABC series Lost as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, and as Olivia Benford on ABC's FlashForward.-Education:...
and Christine Woods
Christine Woods
Christine Woods is an American actress who has appeared in numerous television shows. More recently, she could be seen as part of the main cast in ABC's FlashForward, in which she portrayed FBI Special Agent Janis Hawk.-Biography:...
had also been cast. Sonya, who is British, uses an American accent in the show for her part as Olivia. In an interview with Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
, Walger described Olivia as the "main woman in the show". Gabrielle Union
Gabrielle Union
Gabrielle Monique Union is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama...
was announced to be playing the part of Zoey on July 30, 2009, and Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
on June 18, 2009 as FBI agent Jake Curdy.
Ratings and viewership
This episode was watched by 12.47 million American viewers, with a 7.7/13 overall household ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. This episode was watched by 4.1 million British viewers on its premiere on Five.
The repeat the following Friday reached 1.28 million. The satellite repeat on Fiver attracted 601 thousand viewers. CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
bought the rights for the series in May, 2009, though it was not known at that time what channel it would air at on the CTV television network.
Quarter hour ratings
| Time | Rating | Share | Rating/Share Nielsen Ratings Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States... (18-49) |
Viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00pm | 7.7 | 13 | 3.8/12 | 12.34 |
| 8:15pm | 7.4 | 12 | 3.8/11 | 11.88 |
| 8:30pm | 7.7 | 13 | 4.1/12 | 12.49 |
| 8:45pm | 8.1 | 13 | 4.5/12 | 13.16 |
Critical reception
Reviews of the premiere were generally positive. According to MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the premiere has received a "generally favorable" score of 72, based on 26 reviews. Gina Bellafante of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
found the premiere to work "just as powerfully as a domestic drama as it does as a mechanism of apocalyptic intrigue". David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
, likewise, said, "It's smart, richly textured, complex and filled with
suspense and intellectual challenge--in short, it has all the things network television is supposed to have abandoned in favor of cheap reality shows." San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reviewer Tim Goodman said, "If you like big-screen-level thrills and complicated plot structures, you'll opt-in to FlashForward. And you'll be rewarded. Here's hoping it stays strong and compelling as it heads to April 29." Paige Wiser from the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
was overall positive towards the premiere episode, comparing it to another ABC series, Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
. Reviewer Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said the premiere combined "sci-fi-ish conspiracy suspense with excellent prime-time-soap drama" giving it a B+.
Some critics, however, had more mixed feeling towards the pilot episode. Tom Shales from The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
gave a mixed-to-positive review of the episode, saying, "The new series seems to share a perhaps fatal flaw of that now-canceled show [Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007 to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with his touch, an ability that comes with stipulations...
], which is that the premise becomes so byzantine and the complications so arcane that eventually people just give up on trying to make sense of the darn thing." Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Robert Lloyd, said it was "a decent but not brilliant beginning". In her review, Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
, was not pleased with the outcome, comparing it to the pilot episode of Lost and commenting that "No More Good Days" felt "more like deja vu, with characters who could've been rounded up from a disaster miniseries".
Awards and nominations
In April 2010, it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.The episode was nominated for three 2010 Emmy awards
62nd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, took place on August 29, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT...
: Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series, Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score), and Outstanding Stunt Coordination.