(S01E02) I tend to agree with most of the points Isabelle made in last week's review of Journeyman. It's a shame too because we'll be sharing reviewing duties this season, and I was really hoping there'd be this great "she likes it, he hates it" thing happening in this space.
No such luck as I've quickly become a fan of the show thanks to some great acting (I've been a fan of Kevin McKidd ever since Rome) and an intriguing premise that didn't take all that long to get rolling.
Tonight was a good example of the show's accelerated pacing. After an impossibly brief trip through an MRI machine (the results came back negative - of course), only a few minutes passed before Dan Vassar found himself on his next journey through the fabric of space and time.
He and and his wife were heading on a vacation to get a little rest, a little relaxation, and a little pregnant but during the flight to their vacation destination, Dan had another one of his episodes while visiting the latrine.
He entered the toilet and it was the present. He popped out of the toilet and found himself in an airplane from the 1970s that seemed more like a party than a plane ride. K.C. and the Sunshine Band was blaring, flirtatious stewardesses in loud outfits walked the aisles provocatively, and the air was filled with clouds of cigarette smoke. I'm sad I wasn't old enough to fly in the 70's.
I found it very cool that the writers made this trip through time occur mid-flight. For some reason, it caught me off guard as I imagined most of his journeys would take place on terra firma. Don't ask me why I thought this, I just did. I also really like how the soundtrack switches to songs from whatever era Dan happens to be traveling in. I find that detail to be a particularly charming point.
Anyhow, back in the present when the stewards realized that Dan had been on the pot for an extended period of time, Katie Vassar was stuck trying to pretend that she boarded the plane by herself. I can't imagine this would be a very fun situation to be in with today's hyper-sensitive airport culture but she handled it quite well and even joked that she and Dan "planned to have lots of sex" when they made it to their vacation spot. She covered up for her husband pretty well considering she must have been mighty confused during this sequence.
Last week, I got the impression Katie didn't fully believe Dan's time travel story - especially since all he had for proof was the cheesy "rip up the porch - find a ring and newspaper clipping" display that seemed more like a Criss Angel illusion than proof someone can travel through time. Disappearing from an airplane mid-flight? Now that's what I call proof! If there was any part of her that still doubted him, it had to be completely eradicated tonight.
Back to the past, Dan delivered a baby on a plane in the '70s and made it back to the airport in time to get his wife out of trouble with the law. At this point, I was pretty sure Dan's main purpose would be to follow Diana Bloom for the remainder of and help her through various trials and tribulations. I was completely incorrect as we'll see in a second.
Before that, how strange is the love quadrangle between Dan, Katie, Jack, and Livia? I'm sorry, but if my girlfriend died, I wouldn't marry my brother's ex-girlfriend. Hell, I wouldn't date my brother's ex if my girlfriend hadn't died. Isn't this against some sort of brother/man code? It had to be extremely difficult for Dan to watch his current wife with his brother. It must have been doubly hard for Dan watch Livia as he's obviously never gotten over her.
I appreciate how the writers had me inaccurately guessing Dan's real purpose for making his way through time this week. I initially thought that Dan's sole purpose was to help the mother give birth. Then, I though his mission was to help mend a non-existent relationship between the girl he helped deliver and a father that wanted nothing to do with her. Then I thought his mission became helping Tana's father through an illness Tana's father find a matching bone marrow transplant candidate. Wrong and wrong and wrong although these were all inherently a part of his mission.
As it turns out, the mission all along was to help Tana meet up with Billy Marble, a person who just happened to be in the hospital waiting room where Tana, her father, and Dan had a conversation about Tana potentially helping her father with his illness. I'm really going to like this show it if I'm kept guessing as to the purpose of Dan's journey through time. It will make things a lot more interesting.
On the other side of that, I'm not too interested in having to guess what the heck Livia has to do with everything. I realize it's early, but I find her character to be more of a distraction at this point. The scenes she's been in, specifically when she's addressing Dan while he's in the past, never really seem to answer any questions. In fact, I've been left shaking my head after every conversation she has with Dan.
Also, why doesn't Livia know anything that's going on in Dan's life? She doesn't know that he's married, and she doesn't know who he's married to, yet she can magically find him every time he's sucked through the wormhole? I'm not buying it.
I'm sure it will all be sorted out in due time. Anyhow, this episode was a good fast paced complement to an attention grabbing season opener. The ratings weren't stellar by any stretch of the imagination, particularly with a strong lead-in show, but they weren't horrible either. I hope the viewing audience is finding the show as interesting as I am so I can find out what's really happening in the life of Dan Vassar. It's just going to get better from here.
All the new shows - VIDEOS
The Upfronts: FOX
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-02-2007 @ 12:55AM
Walt said...
Okay, here goes: Love the Kevin McKidd as an actor. I hope he's not the Taye Diggs for NBC shows, because this one will quickly lose its audience if they're not careful, and then NBC will have to find another role for him. Reason? The story for each episode is very complex for a toss away line payoff at the end. We're being told about a "chalice" (as it's sometimes referred to in story building) at the end of the show, but that's just it. So, yeah... so far, it was done better when it was called Quantum Leap. I mean, the advantage of our hero is that he gets to go home to have sex with his wife, and he doesn't morph in to women's bodies, but right now, that's a win for Quantum Leap over Journeyman.
The twist of the show my spouse had nailed before we actually got to see the future pilot who saved the starving Africans. But it was a strong enough twist, so that was nice.
Both spouse and I did enjoy the fact that the time traveling ex-fiancé didn't have a clue as to the home life of our hero. Apparently she's stuck in the past.
The show itself suffers from a fractured storytelling that doesn't lend itself to a hour long drama separated by commercials every eight minutes. The plot can be followed easy enough, but if you get up from your chair, you're liable to lose track of what happened. Good for the show's ambition, but I think ultimately bad for ratings.
As always, the potential for story telling with time traveling characters can be rewarding. Changing the "present" by changing the past can be for good OR for evil, and we'll have to let this show play out a bit.
I mean, if "present wife" ever gets wind of our hero going back in time to meet up with "time traveling ex-fiancé who's not actually dead", all hell is going to break loose.
I mean, now I know why Dr. Who is a perennial bachelor.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 1:30AM
AutomagV said...
This is like the mature non-corny alternative to Quantum Leap for the thinking man in the modern television era. Much more enjoyable.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 2:02AM
James Kew said...
Never mind Quantum Leap: the most obvious influence here, IMHO, is the novel "The Time Traveller's Wife". (Excellent, excellent book, BTW.)
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 2:33AM
BC said...
Dan has no control over when and where he journeys, so why do you presume that Livia should? She gives some worthwhile advice about the phone and currency (which he only partially follows, to my consternation--why go to great lengths to get your old cell phone, but not do something simple like separate out your old coins and bills, or borrow some from your past self?), but that could certainly be from experience, not because she knows what's going on. Clearly there is some cause for the people being unstuck in time (Tralfamadorians?), but nothing yet indicates Livia knows more about that Dan does. He may be encountering her just so she can pass on advice that makes him more effective at his assignments without revealing the agency in charge.
I am bothered by some of the little inconsistencies. Last week Dan gave money to a cab driver and there wasn't a problem--did the driver not look at it or did Dan serendipitously have an older bill? Most denominations have been redesigned twice in the past decade, and the useful lifespan of paper money varies between six months to several years, depending on the denomination and it's degree of popularity and use.
Also, Dan isn't just traveling in time, he's traveling in space to arrive at specific locations, even in three dimensions between two airplanes. I'm curious if how the travel works will ever be explained, because there's a big change in his potential energy that has to be discharged as or produced from real energy somewhere, in addition to whatever it takes to displace time.
I wasn't paying close enough attention to the 70's plane, but it looked as though the scene was shot on a modern plane set with closed overhead compartments rather than a contemporary plane with open overhead shelves. Closed bins were introduced in the late '70s but not retrofitted to all planes until well into the '80s; whereas many of the artifacts shown place the scene towards early '70s.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 4:35AM
Steve Ungrey said...
Journeyman is Quantum Leap.
Moonlight is Forever Knight.
While both shows may be enjoyable, I have a sense of been there, done that. If NBC isn't careful, a certain cop with sunglasses over at CBS is going to stomp on Journeyman in the Nielsens. The best thing may be to shift this show out of harm's way.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 9:15AM
Phil Rogers said...
I love this show, I am completely hooked and Kevin McKidd is an outstanding actor. I am wondering that since there are no original ideas and probably about 12 plot outlines why people are so worried about the similarities between this and Quantam leap which was an excellent show and I for one was disappointed when it was cancelled. This is a great replacement and If the alternative is yet another reality show where Joe public gets to act all goofy for money in primetime give me a well acted interesting Scifi drama everytime!
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 9:35AM
Isabelle Carreau said...
Like you do, I hope that the show keeps us guessing about the purpose of his trips. They need to give us a big piece of the puzzle soon to explain either why he was chosen to travel, or why Livia is traveling too, or why she ends up where he is. I would be satisfied with a "they send me on your path to give you direction..." I don't want all the answers, but I want some!
Somehow, I hope that if he travels back to the same month/year he was chased down by the police (including his brother) that the police recognize him and make his travel a bit more complicated. One would assume that the police tried to find him for at least a day or two after he escaped in the car, no? So maybe they had someone (maybe the boyfriend) work with a sketch artist? I wonder if his brother noticed it was Dan? That chase scene could have impact in other episodes.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 10:03AM
Marianne said...
I loved Quantum Leap and I love this show. I generally can figure out the endings of shows and movies within 15 mintutes of the start. Not so here. That's why I love it. I hope NBC gives it a chance. This show has great potenial.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 11:48AM
Manda said...
I used to play the journeyman game all the time. It was like the only computer game I had back then. I'm still trying to figure out if the TV show is related to the game in any way, or if they just have the same name and time travel.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 11:48AM
Nightfall said...
Season Finale twist I would like to see: Dan is involved with saving Livia from the plane crash she supposedly died in.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 12:10PM
horsenbuggy said...
So here's my two cents on why Livia doesn't know about Dan's marriage... maybe a person can not travel forward in time. They can only travel back from the time that they began "leaping" (for lack of a better term). Livia seems to be more involved than Dan, so perhaps she doesn't have a "normal" life to go back to like he does. So maybe Livia is only aware of what happened beginning with what is 8 years (?) ago to Dan and back.
I am not that anxious to find out why or how he's traveling. Maybe it's because I'm afraid that part of the story will be hokey, but I am quite happy to just watch him bounce back and forth between the people he's helping and his own life.
However, I do think it is pushing the limit of credibility to have him run into his own family and friends in the past so often. I can accept that *Dan* makes these encounters happen by using his old apartment as a "home base." But I really didn't like it that the officer chasing him coincidentally (wink, wink) turned out to be his brother. That brought me out of the story.
As for the final twist, I thought the Marbles guy would turn out to be important, but in a different way. They didn't waste an entire scene of dialog on a random encounter with a stranger who meant nothing. I thought that he may turn out to be another traveler, perhaps even one who knew what was going on and was evaluating the "job" Dan was doing. I didn't see that he was going to the be the whole point of the "leaping." Nicely done.
The only real thing that bothers me about this show is how the NBC voice-over guy pronounces it. He makes it sound like two separate words - Journey [space] Man. It's not, it's one word, which is usually pronounced "jur-nee-muhn." The Man is softened and slammed into journey to be more like "mun." I don't know how much bearing the title has on the premise of the show, but I think of Dan as the apprentice who is learning his new craft or trade of time travel. Am I over thinking it?
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 12:18PM
Pamela said...
Love this show and Kevin. Reminds me of The Time Traveler's Wife.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 12:19PM
Occasio said...
Has anyone noticed that the Rome actors are popping up everywhere?
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 12:25PM
RN said...
Heh heh.. I echo the same sentiments. I didn't watch the premiere, but saw last night's episode. It has the "Quantum Leap'esque" feel to it. Of course it has the modern day twist.. no time travel machine.. just those damn headaches; No best-friend holagram Al.. just a really odd dead -ex visiting everywhere he goes.. with no entrance or exit ques??
Just like Quantum Leap.. keeps you guessing at the 'purpose' or 'mission'.. and in the end, it's never about what ANYONE thinks it is.
Finallly it's already mirroring 'Leap' by having Dan have personal conflict while visiting the past. Save the person 'my mission', or save a friend that I know is going to die.
Look forward to more it this...
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 12:55PM
C C said...
Initially I was on the fence after watching the pilot last Monday. Loved Kevin McKidd, liked the cast, but I thought it was too jumpy and detached.Then I rewatched it on the Sci-fi Channel-and I thought it held up better the second time around.
After last night, I definitely think NBC needs to give this a chance. It's not a groundbreaking series in any way, but it's a nice break from all these crime procedurals. And any series that references James Joyce earns appreciation from me. The "Diana Bloom" character from last night's episode was a clear nod to the Blooms in "Ulysses".
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 1:58PM
Joe stalin said...
This really isn't like the "The Time Traveller's Wife". An inherent part of that book is the "hero's" efforts at avoiding any changes. And the fact that nothing he does, has much effect. This is the exact opposite. Much more like Quantum Leap.
PS. the book was bloody awful.
Reply
10-02-2007 @ 2:46PM
Aberdeen said...
I'm still loving it, and have now gotten both my mother and my husband hooked (although the husband being Scottish might have something to do with it ;) ). I do agree that we need a bit more concerning the reasons for why he's traveling in time, and if Livia doesn't know, who does, and will we the viewer get to 'meet' them?
I, too, find the whole 'married my brother's ex-girlfriend' thing a bit creepy, but then I also think the wife had ulterior motives to begin with.
I much prefer Journeyman to QL, and I still don't think it has much in common with Life on Mars apart from going back in time. And again, no cars going through boxes in alleys.
Reply
10-03-2007 @ 12:50AM
justelise said...
I don't know why I have Dead Zone deja vu when I watch Journeyman. I know the premises are very different, but maybe Kevin McKidd reminds me of Anthony Michael Hall. Aside from them both being relatively tall and being a blondie, I don't know what makes me keep drawing a real comparison. I hope this show sticks around a while because I am becoming a fan of McKidd's.
Reply
10-03-2007 @ 4:26PM
Christian Heßmann said...
One thing I especially liked about this episode was the writers criticism on modern air travel and security bullshit... well, at least I hope it was criticism - might just be a take on reality. Although, he did get quite easily out of the awkward leaving the airplane-scene...
Nonetheless, getting on the no-flight-list: priceless, thank you for that one! :-)
Reply
10-04-2007 @ 1:16PM
fred said...
Well, I was a bit disappointed with this episode actually.
I agree that the fact that it was his past-brother chasing him was crap, whaty I would have loved instead was to have them acknowldge that what he does in the past has consequences, not only to the person he's following.
The had the perfect situation to do this with the phone he stole from himself, I just don't see why they didn't go for it.
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/10/04/journeyman-friendly-skies/
Oh and, I agree there's something fishy with his ex-fiancée...
Reply