The more shows imitate “Lost,” the more I appreciate “Lost.” “FlashForward” (7 p.m., ABC) is no “Lost.”

First a quick summary. Everyone on Earth has a blackout lasting a little more than two minutes. During that time they have a dream or vision of something occurring six months in the future. Figuring out just what the heck happened and what the dreams foretell seems to fall to intrepid FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and his fellow officers.

And that, to quote Marx (Groucho, not Karl), is “the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.” Asking the FBI to unravel a cosmic mystery is like assigning Jack Bauer to prevent the Rapture.

It also requires us to sit through a lot of procedural, bureaucratic nonsense as well as that bane of all high-tech thrillers — endless scenes of diligent agents clicking away at computer keyboards and experiencing “Eureka!” moments.

Both “Lost” and “24” reinvented the computer-clicking cliche. “24” assigned the task to Chloe O’Brien, the most socially inept and neurotic federal employee ever devised. And “Lost” took the keyboard scenes to absurd new heights — or depths — by consigning the computer to the bottom of the hatch and making most of the characters and audience members question the sanity in using the computer in the first place.

“FlashForward” features no such improvisation. Benford is all business. He’s even working in his dream. His soon-to-be-married partner Demetri (John Cho) is hardly so lucky. He has no dream at all, a psychic void that leaves him fearful Benford’s wife, Olivia (Sonya Walger, “Lost”), sees things she can’t discuss.

“FlashForward” kicks off with a bang and with an expensive-looking production featuring widespread panic and destruction in most of the world’s cities. But for all of the calamity, “FlashForward” lapses back to the normality of police procedural just a tad too quickly.

In contrast, “Lost” asked us to join survivors on a lush, mysterious island and piled one weird thing on top of another. “FlashForward” begins with a cosmic head-scratcher and then quickly demands that we go back to the office and into a domestic soap opera when many of us just want to remain in the weird, weird moment.

Tonight’s season premieres

• A traffic accident may be more on “CSI” (8 p.m., CSI).

• The aftershocks from George’s death reverberate on “Grey’s Anatomy” (8 p.m., ABC).

• Jane’s team loses the Red John case on “The Mentalist” (9 p.m., CBS).

Tonight’s other highlights

• Toby and Dwight play detective on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• A highway tunnel yields strange evidence on “Fringe” (8 p.m., Fox).

• “Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin” (8 p.m., Food) visits Morocco.

• Heidi Klum hosts “Project Runway” (9 p.m., Lifetime).

• A road trip to the Grand Canyon on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (9 p.m., FX).

• A visit from the circus on “Brick City” (9 p.m., Sundance, part 4 of 5).

Cult choice

Sam Peckinpah directs James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan in the 1973 Western “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” (1 a.m., TCM).