Forever is an American fantasy crime drama television series that aired on ABC as part of the 2014–15 fall television season. Created by Matthew Miller, it centers on the character of Dr. Henry Morgan, an immortal New York City medical examiner who uses his extensive knowledge to assist the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in solving crimes and to discover a way to end his immortality. Flashbacks within each episode reveal various details of Henry's life.
The series' network aired a sneak preview on September 22, 2014, and resumed the series at 10 p.m. ET on September 23, 2014. Reception of the series was mixed. In the United States, television critics were divided over the series' similarity to other crime dramas and its premise. In contrast, voters in several online polls ranked the series as one of the best of the television season. Forevers broadcast was well received in France and Spain.
Although ABC gave the series a full-season episode order on November 7, 2014, it cancelled Forever after one season citing the show's low ratings. Television critics believed that other factors explained the network's decision, as the show gained viewers who watched up to seven days later on their DVRs. Fans of the series reacted strongly, creating a social media campaign to save the series; despite these efforts, the series remains canceled.
Premise Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) is a New York City medical examiner who studies the dead for criminal cases, and to solve the mystery of his own immortality.
His first death was 200 years ago while trying to treat a slave as a doctor aboard a ship in the African slave trade; one of the ship's owners becomes frustrated with the time and effort Henry is putting into this and orders him to stop, shooting Henry and throwing him overboard when he fails to comply. Each time he dies, Henry disappears almost immediately and returns to life naked in a nearby body of water, the only sign of injury being a scar at the site of his original gunshot wound from long ago. He has also stopped aging. Henry's long life has given him broad knowledge and remarkable observation skills which impress most people he encounters, including New York Police Department Detective Jo Martinez (Alana de la Garza). Only antiquarian Abe (Judd Hirsch), whom Henry and his now-deceased wife Abigail found as a newborn in a German concentration camp during World War II and adopted as their son, knows that he is immortal.
Henry is stalked by "Adam", who is also an immortal, and claims to have been alive for around 2,000 years.
Cast and characters
Main Ioan Gruffudd as Doctor Henry Morgan: Born in 1779, Henry is a New York City medical examiner who studies the dead for criminal cases and to solve the mystery of his immortality. His first death was in 1814 while trying to free slaves as a doctor aboard a ship in the African slave trade in the Caribbean. Since that time, Henry disappears each time he dies and returns to life naked in a nearby body of water. He has been married twice; his first wife Nora, whom he married before he became immortal, had him committed to an asylum, and his second wife, Abigail, whom he met during the Second World War and remained with until 1984, when she left to find somewhere they could be together without being judged for Abigail's apparently greater age. He abandoned his original career as a doctor in 1956 after he and a butcher were shot; Henry chose to crawl away and die instead of trying to save the other man because he feared others finding out his secret. Although knowledgeable about many topics, Henry demonstrates a general lack of knowledge about modern popular culture. He also dislikes cell phones but will use one if necessary. Alana de la Garza as Detective Jo Martinez: Jo is a sharp, no-nonsense, determined detective with the NYPD who is both intrigued and disgusted by Henry's detailed medical knowledge when examining a corpse. She finds his behavior to be "out there", but still relies on his insight for solving homicides. Originating from a rough background with a law-breaking father, she is also a recent widow; her husband was a lawyer who died of an unexpected heart attack while running on a treadmill on a visit to Washington a year before she met Henry. She is stationed at the 11th Precinct. Joel David Moore as Lucas Wahl: Henry's assistant in the Medical Examiner's office, who expresses uncertainty about how little he knows about his boss, and an uncanny memory for his daily activities. He studied film in college before working in the medical examiner's office. He makes horror films in his spare time; in the episode, "The Last Death of Henry Morgan", Lucas confesses to using the morgue as a set for several of his movies. Lucas tends to use popular culture references in his speech, many of which Henry does not understand. Donnie Keshawarz as Detective Mike Hanson: Jo's partner, who is stationed at the 11th Precinct. He was in a band when he was younger, a characteristic added at the request of AfterBuzz TV hosts Kate Aquillano, Marielou Mandl, and Pegah Rad and of fans of the series who watched the after show. He is married and has two sons. He also has a brother. During an earlier interview with AfterBuzz TV, Keshawarz discussed Hanson's role as Henry's foil, namely Hanson's orthodox methodology in solving cases and knowledge accumulated over a limited lifetime contrasting with Henry's unorthodox ways and extensive knowledge gathered over a long life. This was particularly demonstrated in "The King of Columbus Circle", when both deduced that their victim had been suffering from cancer, Henry observing various tell-tale signs of chemotherapy such as stained hands and slight hair-loss while Hanson just noticed the medical alert bracelet the dead man was wearing. Lorraine Toussaint as Lieutenant Joanna Reece: Jo and Hanson's supervisor at the 11th Precinct. Judd Hirsch as Abraham "Abe" Morgan: Henry's adopted son and main confidant. No one knows Dr. Henry Morgan better than his son, Abe. The keeper of Henry's immortality secret, although he has claimed that he worked with Henry's father to explain their association to strangers. At the end of World War II, he was rescued from Belsen, after surviving a death march from Auschwitz. He currently owns an antique store where Henry uses the basement for his immortality research on himself. Abe fought in the Vietnam War and has a two-time ex-wife named Maureen Delacroix (Jane Seymour). Abe's research into his family tree revealed that he is a distant relative of Henry's, as one of his ancestors was the illegitimate son of Henry's womanizing uncle.
Recurring
MacKenzie Mauzy as Abigail Morgan: Henry's second wife and Abe's adoptive mother. Henry met her toward the end of World War II when they were working as medical personnel near one of the Nazi concentration camps. Over the years, she worked as a nurse in addition to being a housewife. The latest time period in which Abigail has been shown is 1982, when she was still married to Henry but looked a generation older than he (Janet Zarish); in 1984, she vanished without a trace despite Henry's best efforts to find her. Henry has acknowledged that the end of his relationship with Abigail caused him a lot of pain that prevents him from dating anyone for whom he has real feelings. In the episode "The Night in Question", Henry learns from Adam that Abigail killed herself after a car crash to prevent Adam from finding Henry. Abigail appears in ten episodes. Burn Gorman as Lewis Farber/"Adam": A 2,000-year-old immortal who claims that he "has been here since the beginning" and that he has not found a death for himself. Henry's arch enemy in the series. Analysis of his blood revealed that he had contracted and recovered from several extinct diseases, including the bubonic plague. Adam was tortured as part of the Nazis' research into his immortality, leaving him with a hatred of the Nazis and a sympathy for other Holocaust survivors, including Abe. Adam first appeared as Henry's appointed psychiatrist and convinced a patient that he could pass on his immortality. Adam continued to try to find a lost dagger, one that not only caused Adam's first death but also was used to kill Julius Caesar. Adam appears in five episodes.
Episodes
Production
Origin The concept for Forever came from a conversation between series creator Matthew Miller and his five-year-old son about death. After the conversation, Miller began to imagine what life would be like if a person was immortal but everyone else, including that person's own children, were mortals. He created a character who viewed immortality as a curse because of the pain of seeing family and friends die and who would attempt to find a way to end his immortality. That concept informed Miller's decision to make his character a doctor-turned-medical examiner who used his occupation for research into his immortality and Miller's decision to structure the series as a procedural. The details about the character's immortality and his ability and his desire to end it would serve as the series' main story arc.
Another series-long story arc explored how other people learn of Henry's immortality. The first storyline in the arc was the season's second story arc, Henry's determination to learn the identity of a second immortal who knows about it. The second immortal character's morals would contrast his protagonist's morals, serving as an antagonist for the main character. As for the family element, Miller created a family with a 35-year-old immortal having a mortal son in his 70s. Miller stated in an interview with BuddyTV writer Catherine Cabanela that he had never seen that type of family on television before, and he believed that it provide the show with an emotional element.
To demonstrate Henry's immortality, Miller decided that Henry would die and would feel the pain every time he died. Anything on Henry's body would disappear with his body during each death. Miller felt that Henry's naked rebirth in water would be an interesting way to keep the show's protagonist alive during the series by completing the death and rebirth process; the nakedness would create several comedic moments within the series. Miller intended to use Henry's death and rebirth process sporadically after the first two episodes so that the series would focus on Henry's long life.
Casting The first person cast was Judd Hirsch as Abe. When Miller and casting director Barbara Fiorentino developed a list of actors for the role, they felt that Hirsch would be the best actor to portray Abe. Hirsch was the first person asked about the role. When they sent the script to him, Hirsch liked the series' premise, its historical aspect, its intelligence, and the idea that the audience would see life from Henry's perspective.
Two days after casting Hirsch, Ioan Gruffudd was cast as Dr. Henry Morgan. Miller wanted the actors to read the script so that he could see whether the audience would believe that the man had been alive for over 200 years. The search for an actor to portray Henry was more difficult than Miller expected. Miller and Fiorentino unsuccessfully auditioned actors from New York City, Los Angeles, Canada, London, Australia, and South Africa for the role, but the role was uncast. One day, Miller noticed Gruffudd in the carpool lane while they picked up their children from preschool. For Miller, Gruffudd's period work, such as in the series Horatio Hornblower, made him an obvious selection for the role. Gruffudd liked the script and felt that he could portray Henry. The story, the science fiction element, and the believability also attracted Gruffudd to the role.