Hindsight - General Discussion

[dubbel zout]

I'd be curious how low ratings would have to be for VH1 to cancel this show. The network can't be expecting too much in the first place.

 

I'm glad the show is renewed, too, though I hope they put more emphasis on Becca's work life. I enjoyed that a lot. 

[nextian]

Oh good, I'm so glad it's renewed! I agree with you peachmangosteen regarding the age difference, I do think the show should show more of "40 year old Becca" struggling with living in "20 year-old Becca" life. And she should definitely show some more maturity, where I would hold Lolly accountable is that I think they show that she clearly grasps the severity of Jamie's problem, and that combined with her future knowledge of his struggles should have had her telling Becca immediately.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Yes thank you to the posters who mentioned Being Erica.  The title does not give away that it's a time travel show, unlike this one, so I had no idea.  I'm starting that one now.

The leads are great and I love Jamie! He's a thousand times a better actor than any of the love interests.

 

I agree about the actor who plays Jamie.  He played Aaron Rose on Gossip Girl and I hated that character.  So the fact that he totally makes me forget him here makes me think this is a great acting job.

 

Lolly's voice though......... it does grate on me.  I keep getting distracted, wondering if it's affectation done on purpose.  She does remind me of Tori Amos whom I love and adore, and this show made me get into the song "Precious Things" (I was always a fan of the other singles).

 

I like Becca a lot.  It took me some time to realize it, but she looks so much like Traylor Howard!

Edited March 16, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

While I see that Hindsight is almost like a direct rip off of Being Erica, Hindsight seems like the show I always, always wanted, while B.E. seems only cute so far (I've only seen the pilot).  I'll keep up with both obviously.  I just hope Hindsight gets a second season, I'd be in heaven.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Thank goodness, and thanks for letting us know.  I'm very happy.

[karenc3]

I just found this, another article about Hindsight being renewed:     

 

http://tvline.com/2015/03/16/hindsight-renewed-season-2-vh1/

 

 

I'm glad it's coming back, can't wait to see what's next. 

[methodwriter85]

Oh good, I'm so glad it's renewed! I agree with you peachmangosteen regarding the age difference, I do think the show should show more of "40 year old Becca" struggling with living in "20 year-old Becca" life. And she should definitely show some more maturity, where I would hold Lolly accountable is that I think they show that she clearly grasps the severity of Jamie's problem, and that combined with her future knowledge of his struggles should have had her telling Becca immediately.

 

I loved the moments when they did do it- like when Becca wrote down having 17 years of publishing experience but then had to cover it up and say 1.7 years, or when she got hit on by the media mogul who  thought she was just a dumb young piece of ass, or even the little joke where she mentioned not having been to a rave in 15 years and her co-workers thought it was weird to be a 10-year old going to raves.

 

I hope there isn't a reset where Becca going back to her wedding with Sean. I really want to see 1996. That was another really great year for music.

[methodwriter85]

My guess is that Becca is supposed to be from 2011, because she said in the interview that she had 17 years of publishing experience, and it seemed like she started her job right out of college at age 22 in 1994. That kind of works- far enough ahead that she can talk about things like IPhone, viral marketing, Grey's Anatomy, etc. And she would be 39, so pushing her forties but not quite there yet.

 

I don't think we've heard Becca reference to anything that happened after the late 2000's (Grey's Anatomy is 2005, Iphones are 2007), which makes me think she's from early in the 2010's.

[Bort]

My guess is that Becca is supposed to be from 2011, because she said in the interview that she had 17 years of publishing experience, and it seemed like she started her job right out of college at age 22 in 1994. That kind of works- far enough ahead that she can talk about things like IPhone, viral marketing, Grey's Anatomy, etc. And she would be 39, so pushing her forties but not quite there yet.

 

I don't think we've heard Becca reference to anything that happened after the late 2000's (Grey's Anatomy is 2005, Iphones are 2007), which makes me think she's from early in the 2010's.

Becca had an iPhone 5. So 2014 at the earliest.

[methodwriter85]

So if season 2 takes us into 1996, I really want to hear these great 1996 tunes:

 

"Tonight,Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins

 

That would be great for a "one big adventure" scene.

 

"Sixth Avenue Heartache" by the Wallflowers

 

"The Distance" by Cake

 

"Who Will Save Your Soul?" by Jewel

 

I'm pretty sure 1996 was the year Jewel broke out big- her album was old but it just broke out big that year.

 

"Number 1 Crush" by Garbage

 

My god, that song is still just as sexy as it was in 1996.

 

"Telephone Booth" by Primitive Radio Gods

 

It's a great angst song, but I think the rights be really hard to get- I've never heard this used in any "set back in the 90's" scenes on T.V.

 

"A Long December" by The Counting Crows

 

If the show ends at New Year's Eve, 1996, this would be perfect.

 

Back to the actual soundtrack though...I caught them playing the dance song from the Buffy movie and it made me smile:

 

"Little Heaven" by Toad the Wet Sprockett

Edited March 16, 2015 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

Damn. There goes that theory.

 

So I guess Becca is supposed to be 42. (I've estimated her birthdate as being September 1972.)

Edited March 16, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Ms Blue Jay]

Number 1 Crush -- one of my favourite songs of all time!  ;)  From that great Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, which also had The Cardigans' "Lovefool" and Radiohead's "Talk Show Host".

Edited March 16, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

The show really does pay attention to detail. I think there might have been a few modern cars here or there but there hasn't been a major 'WTF?'  moment here like there was on the Carrie Dairies. (Like one character calling Carrie and her love interest Kiddshaw in the 80's.)

 

I do think they could have done a little bit better with dressing the guys. It's not anachronistic but I'd like to see a little more fun with the time period....like a guy with this hairstyle that was like everywhere in the 1990's until the spiky look took over late in the decade.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Becca had 100 opportunities to fix the Lolly-Kevin situation this episode but kept refusing to.  THE ONLY REASON she would refuse to do so is because she loves Kevin and wants him for herself.  That's fine if that's the case (I don't agree with her actions, I just mean THEY MAKE SENSE...) Otherwise the show is not making sense to me.

 

Guys, did I hear "Da Funk" by Daft Punk during the rave?

 

I also heard Norah Jones's "Come Away with Me" during the 2003 scenes.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[DangerousMinds]

Radiohead , Smashing Pumpkins, Blur, Hansen (lol), Urge Overkll, Wilco, The Cardigans.

[Electruck]

Woo!! Thanks so much for sharing the renewal news! I love this show, even if I sometimes want to strangle Becca. Laura Ramsey is just great.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Live was so crazy popular where I was.  Lightning Crashes, I Alone, Lakini's Juice, and All Over you.  It was like the constant Live parade.  And I liked it!  (I'm reading that the first two songs have been featured on this show.)

Edited March 17, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

I mentioned this in another thread but the actor she reminds me the most of is Traylor Howard from 2 Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm overall disappointed in this show.  It had a great premise and seemed like it would be a show for my demo (30 - 40 female), but I'm now thinking that this show was written by Millennials for Millennials.  

 

I'm 32 and I'm considered a Millennial, and always have been (since back when we were called Generation Y at first; this is all according to the Wikipedia definition; also there is no way I'm Generation X considering I was a baby to small child when that was all going on... ).  Anyway, I love the show.

 

There were 3 songs that played at the engagement party that I'm not seeing the titles listed for anywhere.

 

- Becca first comes in, and it's a song with only a flute!  No words.

- Becca speaks to some people, another song.

- Becca speaks to her father, song with guitar and a beat.

 

Not good descriptions, but if anyone knows please help.  Thanks.

 

My final thoughts.

 

• Sean is majorly hot , but I have no idea why we had to follow his life after Becca and him broke up the first - let alone the second time - it made no sense to the viewer.  Only if he was an incredible actor maybe, but he's not.
• The kid who plays Noelle was good on her show (Lying something something? LOL) but here she is annoying as hell.  I hate that slimy, slithery, sassy, saucy type of character.  Come on she is awffffuuuuul!
• The actor who played Lolly was amazing in the last scene.  I find her usually quite grating - her voice is the worst - but she really freaked me out in the last scene, I was impressed.

 

I wish it was more clear whether Becca knew what she was doing/ knew what she wanted.  She's just so passive aggressive and falls into any situation she is in.  I love the actor but this character is so hard to root for.  It's so boring to only take interest in a man because he shows interest in you.  That's why I found her and Sean interesting, maybe there was passion and chemistry there, but the show never delved deep enough into it.

 

I get that Becca and Kevin were kind of soulmatey; I've been there, but the show didn't establish it.  Too much tell and no show.

 

Lolly is an asshole to Jamie.  And why couldn't her name have been Molly?

Edited March 17, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

This is the second show set in the 80s or 90s where someone said "24/7" and I found it really off. I think it was the magazine editor on this show when they were trying to explain their concept to Becca.  In another forum someone insisted people were saying it back then.   I only remember hearing this in the 2000s earliest.  Just a personal pet peeve of mine.

[DangerousMinds]

We said 24/7 way back when too.

[NeenerNeener]

 

Applecrisp: know off topic but how did you like Being Erica?

 

I loved it, which is why I think Hindsight could have been better. Erica learned from reviewing all of her regrets, even if what she learned was that some of them were so trivial that they really had no impact on her future, some of them really couldn't be fixed, and for some of them she actually made the right choice the first time. Maybe if Becca gets to do a Groundhog Day-type reset and start over again at her wedding to Sean she will try something different in Season 2 and show that she actually learned something from Season 1.

[dubbel zout]

I get the BE comparisons to Hindsight, but time travel is really the only similarity. Erica is in therapy, and going back in time is a way for her to work out a particular issue. And some things in the past she couldn't change no matter how badly she wanted to. Plus, she returns to the present at the end of every episode. 

[NeenerNeener]

The only real difference is that Erica knows she's in therapy, whereas Becca doesn't know how this blast into the past happened and hasn't bothered to ask Xavier. The 2 or 3 times she has run into him since she woke up in the past she's been distracted by something shiny and just wandered away instead of finishing their conversations.

 

Erica's trips were short, but what Becca is doing mirrors Kai's refusal to deal with his regrets and go back to his present.

Kai spent weeks (or possibly months) hiding out 15 years in his past, refusing to play the gig that gets his band noticed, because he blames their success for his friend committing suicide.

Becca refuses to get into any elevators until she's so absolutely miserable from her attempts to fix her past that going back to her present looks good to her.

 

Erica ran into a few situations that she couldn't change no matter how hard she tried: Leo's death, Ethan's marriage to Claire, and her own state of financial embarassment that forces her to work for Juliette at River Rock are just 3 that come to mind.

Edited March 22, 2015 by yeswedo
added spoiler tags

[methodwriter85]

I'm pretty sure I heard 24/7 in a Salt n Peppa song. I mean, 7/11 was around in the 90's and the concept of stores being open 7 days a week 24 hours a day was definitely around so I think it would have had to have been around.

[methodwriter85]

It kind of looked like there were a couple of things that were fate: the Kevin/Lolly/Becca love triangle, Phoebe's marriage to Courtney, Becca's parents getting divorced (which they hinted will probably happen sooner), and Jamie's downward spiral. Everything else has felt up in the air.

Edited March 17, 2015 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

We can also technically get the Spice Girls, too.

 

But that's assuming next season isn't just going to reset to Becca and Sean's wedding.

[Bort]

It was. I was in the military in the mid 90s, you have no idea how much 24/7 got thrown around. I was good and sick of it.

[rho]

Erica's trips were short, but what Becca is doing mirrors Kai's refusal to deal with his regrets

and go back to his present. Kai spent weeks (or possibly months) hiding out 15 years in his past, refusing to play the gig that gets his band noticed, because he blames their success for his friend committing suicide. Becca refuses to get into any elevators until she's so absolutely miserable from her attempts to fix her past that going back to her present looks good to her.

Dude, spoiler alert! Some people are just discovering this series because of Hindsight.

 

But yeah, great comparison! I didn't even think of that but it's pretty spot on :)

[karenc3]

Since the last episode of this season, I am thinking that maybe they are going to do a groundhog day type story with Becca getting off the elevator and going back to before her wedding with Sean. Then she might do things different to try to improve things, maybe still not marrying Sean, but the one thing that maybe will change things is if she doesn't tell Lolly what is going on, maybe doesn't go to the REM concert where Lolly saw Kevin, and that Kevin comes to NY when he did in the original storyline. That way she would avoid the original affair, because she won't be miserable about her marriage, and Lolly won't know that Becca had the affair in the future, because she won't know what happened in the original timeline. Or Kevin will still come earlier but Lolly will be ok with it like the second timeline, not knowing about the affair in the future which broke up her friendship with Becca in the second timeline.  Maybe the reason she is going back in time is to make her past so that she doesn't lose her friendship with Lolly but still has Kevin, and he's the one she is supposed to be with.  I think maybe she broke up with Kevin to try to get her friendship with Lolly back, and maybe was thinking about him when she was going to marry Andy, and that's why this is happening. 

[NeenerNeener]

 

Dude, spoiler alert! Some people are just discovering this series because of Hindsight.

 

 

Whoops! Sorry!

 

At one time ABC was in talks to do an American remake of BE, but that was 3 ago. I wonder if that's still in the works, or if Hindsight is what that project gradually morphed into after ABC cut it loose.

Edited March 18, 2015 by NeenerNeener

[methodwriter85]

Paige said ,"Not gonna lie." I don't think that slang term was being thrown around until the early/mid-2000's.

 

Also, I spied a Blue Moon tap. The beer was invented in 1995, but that was in Colorado...I think it would have taken time to get over to New York City.

 

Finally...Kevin just kinda feels "off" for the time period. I feel like he belongs more in 2005, especially when he's wearing leather jackets over hoodies.

Edited March 19, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Jordan27]

I liked the show.  Becca and Lolly's personalities and relationship remained the highlight for me. 

 

I enjoyed the first half of the season more than the second half which seemed uneven.

 

I think the thing that the show didn't do that no one here has said, is that the show just didn't move forward.  It got bogged down in Becca's continual relationships and didn't really delve into much else.  

 

What I would have liked to have seen...

 

Sean disappear after a couple of episodes.  He served no purpose after that. 

Becca tell Lolly about Kevin and the friendship breakup before Kevin appeared.

Become more proactive with her brother.  She knew he would go downhill.

Stay away from Andy.  It was too soon.

Find a new guy.  Why go down the same path with the same guys?  It's a second chance.  Do something different.

Have Becca use her knowledge of future events to make her life richer.  They did a little with the magazine, but not much else.

 

I will watch again next year.  Becca and Lolly are just too cute in looks and in personality.   I doubt we have seen the last of them together.

[dubbel zout]

I'd like to see your ideas in the second season, Jordan27. Now that Becca has tried to do over her life once, she should take a different tack.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I can't look at him without thinking there is a bobby pin pushing his hair back.  Is there?

 

"Not gonna" reminds me of Dana Carvey's Bush impersonation, but I guess 'not gonna lie' is different.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

"Not gonna lie" was basically a prefix to a statement that was often blunt and kind of unpleasantly honest. Like, "Not gonna lie, but that play sucked." Or "Not gonna lie, I thought that guy was ugly as hell." It really took during the mid-2000's, at least on the East Coast.

 

Kevin's hair is distracting. I honestly can't think of any guys wearing their hair like that in 1995, which is saying something, because 1995 hair was pretty wide-open and anything goes. They could have just fixed it like Jamie's.

Edited March 20, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Electruck]

Hollywood Reporter interview about the first season with Emily Fox, the creator. It doesn't seem very spoilery about season 2 to me, but if you're the least bit concerned about spoilers, don't read it.

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/933807

(Now with working link -- thanks for the correct one!)

Edited March 26, 2015 by Electruck

[Bort]

Hollywood Reporter interview about the first season with Emily Fox, the creator. It doesn't seem very spoilery about season 2 to me, but if you're the least bit concerned about spoilers, don't read it.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/933807

The link seems to be broken. Try this one.

[dubbel zout]

She does have some perspective, some maturity and certainly some knowledge, but at the same time she's a very moral and righteous person, and a lot of what she's trying to do is meant to protect others around her. What she keeps coming up against is this reminder that she can't protect anybody and, in fact, she might be making it worse by trying. Sometimes the sheer effort that she puts in steers them right into another problem,

 

I wish we saw onscreen more of that effort that Becca apparently puts into her decisions. I think that has been one of the weakest parts of the show. We know she doesn't want to make the same mistakes, and she wants to save other people from getting hurt, but we've seen her get swept up in the moment and make a similar, dumb mistake. 

 

I know that is also part of the show's DNA—some things can't be fixed no matter what—but it would be nice to see her more of her decisions backfire because of other people's actions, not just Becca's decision. Like how Andy decided to step back from Becca and propose to Melanie.

 

We felt strongly about having those great female characters interacting with each other in a way that felt honest, familiar, charming and complex.

I think they do get the Becca/Lolly mostly friendship right.

[methodwriter85]

The talk about different realities makes me think they're going to do the Groundhog Day route, which is fine, but man, I really wanted to see 1996. Oh, well.

[Electruck]

Filming for season two will be filmed in Los Angeles instead of Atlanta.

http://bit.ly/1C0a0j7(AJC)

Edited June 29, 2015 by Electruck

[hatchetgirl]

Just watched the end and agree with you all.

My best friend was named Lolly. So funny.

But anyway, if I went back, I'd be heck on wheels. Confident, man killer. ;)

[giovannif7]

Citing (in part) disappointing Season 1 ratings, VH1 has cancelled the previously-greenlit Hindsight Season 2, according to TVLine.

[notyrmomma]

Well now then that was 10 hours of my life wasted and will never get back.  I wish there was a mechanism for the writers to come out and explain what they were trying to accomplish with this series.

[Bort]

What the hell is THIS crap?:

“Scripted series have been a successful part of VH1’s primetime line-up since 2010 and will continue to be in the future,”

Unless I'm missing something, they have like NO other scripted programming so this statement makes no sense at all.

That said, I agree with the rest of it. Hindsight was a good show but there's a lot of competition on other channels and the ratings were abysmal. I'm not happy about it but I understand.

[wonderwoman]

IHere's Variety's take echoes others' observation re competition and over-saturation.

"VH1’s decision on “Hindsight” reinforces the growing sentiment in the biz that the explosion of original scripted series may have reached the over-saturation point. With so many shows chasing viewers’ attention on so many platforms, it’s a becoming a harder call for networks financially to move forward with shows that don’t have a clear upward ratings trajectory or appeal to specific advertisers."

I loved Hindsight, and was looking forward to a second season. The knock on the broadcast networks has always been that they pull promising shows without giving them a fair shot (Fox pulling Lone Star after 2 episodes, for example), which made viewers reluctant to engage with a show and the whole thing became something of a self-fulling prophecy. But, the same thing is now going on with cable. I'm still pissed at TNT for canceling Men of a Certain Age.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hindsight-vh1-cancel-drama-laura-ramsey-1201580815/

Edited August 31, 2015 by wonderwoman

[dubbel zout]

Why did it take Viacom until now to figure this out? It's not like scripted programming for cable networks has only now exploded.

 

(If Lone Star had been a hit, we might not have gotten Bob Benson in his tight swim trunks.)

Edited August 31, 2015 by dubbel zout

[bilgistic]

This pisses me off so much. I really liked Hindsight. I don't want another Mob Wives/Basketball Wives/Love & Hip-Hop/whatever other Z-list "celebrity" fighting-and-drinking "reality show" they are going to produce instead. Why do they keep pumping that tripe out but cancel interesting scripted shows? How can scripted shows be "over-saturated" when there are none on TV?!?

[Bort]

How can scripted shows be "over-saturated" when there are none on TV?!?

The VH1 channel doesn't seem to have any other scripted shows, but there are plenty of scripted shows on TV in general, though very few like this particular show, which is what I liked about it. It was unique.

[SourWolf]

The VH1 channel doesn't seem to have any other scripted shows, but there are plenty of scripted shows on TV in general, though very few like this particular show, which is what I liked about it. It was unique.

There's lots of scripted shows on other networks, but none on VH1 like you said. So their decision to cancel it is stupid when their statement said scripted shows are a part of their line up. What other scripted show do they have besides Hindsight? Their bajillion crappy reality shows don't count.