Spotlight on: Flash Forward

Before every television premiere week, critics start to speculate about what will be the next Arrested Development (this season, money's on Modern Family), Sex and the City (Courteney Cox's Cougar Town) or Melrose Place (um, Melrose Place). This fall's biggest buzz is around Flash Forward, which is being touted by fans and reviewers alike as the new Lost. "I can see why they do that, certainly," says John Cho, who stars as FBI agent Demetri Noh in the drama. "I see it as a compliment, although a little inaccurate in that our mythology is pretty simple as compared to Lost. There's really one question that we're going to answer in the series and it's, ''What happened during the blackout?'" Cho's referring to the pilot episode's 30-second blackout—and we're not talking the fuse-is-blown kind of outage. It was a worldwide, half-minute in which every person on the planet lost consciousness, and most of them got a flash of where they would be on April 29, 2010.

Whereas Lost is a seasons-long mystery, the producers of Flash Forward say they intend to solve this puzzle in real time. "We're airing the episode that takes place on April 29 on April 29," Cho says. Conveniently enough, that date falls right in the middle of network sweeps. What will happen when the big question is answered? Cho's got nothing for us. "I don't know what the subsequent episodes will be about. I'm not being coy with you; I really don't know," he says. "What I do know is that the producers have a very specific map for the first three seasons at least, so they've thought about it."

Working alongside Cho are Shakespeare in Love leading man Joseph Fiennes, Law and Order: Criminal Intent's Courtney B. Vance and recurring Lost guest star Sonya Walger. Even the most critically acclaimed new shows aren't a sure thing, so if John Cho himself were to flash forward six months, what does he think he'd see? "The show's a hit and I'm still gainfully employed."