![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Since I first heard about it, NBC's adventure show Timeless I've been kind of torn about the premise, time travelers trying to keep an evil time traveler from destroying history as we know it. For someone like me who is a stickler for logic and causation in anything serious, time changing stories can be very intriguing or extremely annoying. I had not heard a lot of especially positive things leading up to seeing the pilot of Timeless. But I was curious enough to see it for myself.
I would guess the creators of the show are aware of the the sci-fi books of Connie Willis, since the main character is an historian. There have been plenty of TV shows with related premises, Seven Days, Sliders, Quantum Leap and so forth. Some of them have been about going to other dimensions instead of time travel, but the idea in all those shows was always that something has to be corrected before the hero or heroes can move on. In Timeless it's a bit different. History in the pilot proves to be pretty resilient as it is in Connie Willis' universe, but that doesn't mean that everything goes back the way it was after the villain and heroes pass through. As in Willis' universe, you can't have multiple copies of a person living through the same time, so neither the villain nor the heroes get a second chance to do what they want to. The exact motive of the villain isn't clear yet, but the motive of the historian going forward is spelled out in the pilot.
I took a glance at the reviews for the show this morning and the one that stood out immediately was one from the LA Times, which had the title "NBC's time-travel series 'Timeless' is corny B-movie fun." The show maybe is a bit silly, but if you just flow with it, it certainly seems like it is going to be fun. Does anyone else remember the first episode of "Alias" where Jennifer Garner's character is supposed to have the cover of being a graduate student? And then it turns out she's a "c" average graduate student? That pretty much threw me off since a c grade in grad school is as good as failing, so she wouldn't have had her cover for very long. But that was a problem for me because the show was trying to be serious. Timeless starts off with the main character, Lucy Preston, shown to be a history professor who is in the process of struggling to get tenure. The problem is that you immediately get the impression that the writers didn't have the slightest idea what getting tenure at a university is all about. But it's okay, because the atmosphere of the show just is not super serious. It's far from a comedy, but there are some moments when the heroes are set up it be amusing despite their extremely serious tasks, and serious consequences shown in the pilot. So far the heroes really don't know what they are getting into and clearly are going to have to make it up as they go along. It feels like a B-movie and in that context I'm perfectly willing to accept the warts.
The show definitely has charm. I instantly liked Lucy Preston, and the African-American scientist of the group, Rufus Carlin. The muscle guy, Wyatt Logan, is a bit like Col. Jack O'Neil from the Stargate movie, tortured past, formal and correct but still disrespectful of his colleges, quick to shoot, too invested in his own problems. But Logan is also a bit awkward and unsure of himself. So he grew on me.
Timeless isn't a blockbuster of a show. But if you'd just like some escapist entertainment, I think it's going to be pretty good. I intend to keep watching it. My biggest question about the show is why put it at 10:00/9:00 p.m.? I think it's a show kids would love.
Score B
I would guess the creators of the show are aware of the the sci-fi books of Connie Willis, since the main character is an historian. There have been plenty of TV shows with related premises, Seven Days, Sliders, Quantum Leap and so forth. Some of them have been about going to other dimensions instead of time travel, but the idea in all those shows was always that something has to be corrected before the hero or heroes can move on. In Timeless it's a bit different. History in the pilot proves to be pretty resilient as it is in Connie Willis' universe, but that doesn't mean that everything goes back the way it was after the villain and heroes pass through. As in Willis' universe, you can't have multiple copies of a person living through the same time, so neither the villain nor the heroes get a second chance to do what they want to. The exact motive of the villain isn't clear yet, but the motive of the historian going forward is spelled out in the pilot.
I took a glance at the reviews for the show this morning and the one that stood out immediately was one from the LA Times, which had the title "NBC's time-travel series 'Timeless' is corny B-movie fun." The show maybe is a bit silly, but if you just flow with it, it certainly seems like it is going to be fun. Does anyone else remember the first episode of "Alias" where Jennifer Garner's character is supposed to have the cover of being a graduate student? And then it turns out she's a "c" average graduate student? That pretty much threw me off since a c grade in grad school is as good as failing, so she wouldn't have had her cover for very long. But that was a problem for me because the show was trying to be serious. Timeless starts off with the main character, Lucy Preston, shown to be a history professor who is in the process of struggling to get tenure. The problem is that you immediately get the impression that the writers didn't have the slightest idea what getting tenure at a university is all about. But it's okay, because the atmosphere of the show just is not super serious. It's far from a comedy, but there are some moments when the heroes are set up it be amusing despite their extremely serious tasks, and serious consequences shown in the pilot. So far the heroes really don't know what they are getting into and clearly are going to have to make it up as they go along. It feels like a B-movie and in that context I'm perfectly willing to accept the warts.
The show definitely has charm. I instantly liked Lucy Preston, and the African-American scientist of the group, Rufus Carlin. The muscle guy, Wyatt Logan, is a bit like Col. Jack O'Neil from the Stargate movie, tortured past, formal and correct but still disrespectful of his colleges, quick to shoot, too invested in his own problems. But Logan is also a bit awkward and unsure of himself. So he grew on me.
Timeless isn't a blockbuster of a show. But if you'd just like some escapist entertainment, I think it's going to be pretty good. I intend to keep watching it. My biggest question about the show is why put it at 10:00/9:00 p.m.? I think it's a show kids would love.
Score B