TV time travel

Flash to the future

By Michael O’Connell
Special to Metromix

Much like Hootie and the Blowfish, today’s TV shows don’t believe in time. So here’s a look at the top shows currently employing the increasingly popular flash-forward ("Mad Men"), flashback ("Lost") and our personal fave: the flash-into-an-omniscient-Bob Saget ("How I Met Your Mother").

First up: The survivors of Oceanic flight 815 kicked the flash-forward fad into high gear at the end of the third season of “Lost,” when the finale’s trademark flashback storytelling turned out to be foreboding clips of our heroes’ miserable, drugged-up futures. Last season the present seemed to finally catch up to the future, but with the show’s recent introduction of actual time travel and magical island-moving wheels, there’s no telling what the last two seasons hold.