(S01E04) After last week's lackluster episode, I was afraid Journeyman was headed down a path of predictability on which I never wanted it tread. If this series is going to work there needs to be a consistent sense of mystery as it relates to what Dan is trying to accomplish each episode. Last week, there was no mystery and it caused things to be a tad on the boring side.
This episode was similar from a predictability standpoint but it still managed to work for me in several ways. For one, my curiosity was immediately piqued thanks to the way Dan was introduced. If you ask me, every show should start out with Dan at some undisclosed location in an awkward situation. Things just seemed to get rolling a lot quicker this way.
I was also excited about the direction the show took with the introduction of tachyons and the mysterious character that called Dan in the past and the present. This storyline will certainly set us up for some interesting possibilities going forward.
Finally, I continue to be drawn deeper into the vicious love rectangle taking place between Dan, Katie, Livia and Jack. Sadly, I find the above two items are much better at keeping me interested in the show compared to the people he travels back through time to assist.
Tonight's journey can be explained in a few sentences. Dan traveled back to the 90's to untarnish a policeman's name, to stop the murder of a young entrepreneur named Melissa, and to prevent Melissa from being indicted for killing the guy that Dan prevented from killing her. While the story was slightly less predictable than the one we saw last week, it was hardly the stuff of legend. I didn't really find myself caring much about Melissa or either of the two men in her life and therefore didn't really get too consumed with their story. Perhaps it was just me.
Anyhow, let's focus on some of the things that this episode did right.
Dan's journey took him back to November 8th, 1994. I never get tired of seeing the little visual and audio cues the writers provide that help the audience identify the period of time Dan happens to be in.
During this first sequence in 1994, I immediately knew we were in the early '90's thanks to the monstrous, old-school Gameboy a kid was pounding on during the practice wedding ceremony. Later in 1997, when Dan saw Livia in a bar, Marcy Playground's Sex and Candy was on the jukebox and Ally McBeal and the demented dancing baby were frolicking around on the bar television. It's little touches like these that give this show charm and a real sense of identity. I truly appreciate these touches.
Katie and Dan's relationship continues to be one of the more interesting points of the show and it's definitely on shaky ground. This shakiness is exacerbated by the fact that Dan disappears at the most inopportune of times. This has to be mind numbingly frustrating for Katie.
Tonight, she was in the middle of preparing a massive charity even and really needed her husband's support and love. However, she's slowly realizing that with Dan's newfound ability (or curse), she really can't count on him to be there when she needs him. Add to that the fact that Dan sees Livia regularly and it's clear that saying the relationship is shaky is vast understatement. It's a veritable 9.6 on the Richter Scale.
I asked my wife how she would feel if I suddenly found myself able to travel through time, and oh yeah, also happened to see an old girlfriend that I never really got over on every trip. She told me that she already has some divorce papers drawn up in the even this happens citing "irreconcilable craziness" as the reason for divorce. It's good to know that she'll support me through the tough times.
As expected, Dan vanished multiple times during the episode and his most untimely disappearance occurred right before Katie and Dan were headed to the charity event. Dan had the presence of mind to write "Sorry" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror before he left, but somehow, i don't think the message helped all that much. Katie ended up having her old fling cum brother-in-law escort her to the event instead.
There's some weird sexual tension going on between Katie and Jack and it makes me a little bit uncomfortable. If it makes me uncomfortable, imagine how Dan must feel. Could you imagine knowing that your brother has been intimate with your wife? The thought of it makes me nauseas and I don't even have a brother.
On the flip side of that coin, can you imagine how uncomfortable Katie must feel about things knowing that her husband regularly sees someone that he was intimate with outside the realm of watchful eyes? How horrible must that be?
I'll go ahead and say it now - this relationship is doomed and this sentiment was echoed by Katie during the final sequence when she told Dan, "This doesn't fix anything," while the two of them are making out in the coat closet. That's got to be a mood killer.
By far, the most interesting piece of information to come out of the show had to do with a mysterious character by the name of Elliot Lang.
Dan had a colleague contact Elliot in the hopes of getting some information about tachyons - particles that accelerate faster that the speed of light. The Elliot character seemed suspicious from the get go. His voice was low and barely audible, he asked Dan if he was building a time machine, and he claims to have known Dan's father who also wrote for the same newspaper before passing away.
Most importantly, Elliot somehow managed to call Dan across the expanse of time as indicated when Dan fielded a call from him using his massive flip phone.
Several questions arise from this turn of events. Elliot obviously knows a thing or two about time travel but how? Was Dan's father also a traveler and pass this ability down to his son? Is Elliot a traveler himself, or possibly the leader of the time travelers who sends Livia and Dan on various missions? Also, how in the world did Elliot manage to call Dan in the past or was he actually in the past as well, and more importantly - what would the roaming charges on a call to the past look like on a cell phone bill? I'm guessing 1 or 2 billion if his carrier is AT&T.
These are all interesting questions that will surely be addressed in future episodes, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them answered.
All in all, it was a decent rebound show as compared to last week's stinker, and it set up some interesting plot lines to be explored in the future. I only wish the side quests and characters our protagonist attempted to help were a bit more compelling.
It's strange, but the actual stories that occur during the show almost seem to be a distraction to the portions I find more interesting. Namely Dan's abilities, the way these abilities affect the people in his life, and the reason that he journeys in the first place.
I'm guessing I just haven't found his last two missions all that interesting. Maybe I'm missing the fact that there's no arch nemesis stalking him through time - no inherent danger that he's attempting to thwart and no real reason for his journeys except to help random individuals through difficult times.
Perhaps I'm thinking about it too much and just need to enjoy the show. Whatever the case may be, Journeyman has done enough to warrant season pass status on my TiVo and I'm prepared to watch it for the long haul. Here's to hoping viewers feel the same.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-16-2007 @ 10:49AM
JayGee said...
If Ally McBeal was on the TV in the background and "Sex and Candy" was playing on the radio, then it wasn't 1994. Ally McBeal first aired in fall 1997, and "Sex and Candy" was first released in early spring 1997.
Did the producers just totally mess that one up or was that a typo on your part?
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10-16-2007 @ 10:30AM
JJ Hawkins said...
I was actually referring to a scene a little bit later but added 1997 to clarify.
Thanks.
JJ
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10-16-2007 @ 10:52AM
JayGee said...
Okay, I didn't get that it was two different scenes! Thanks for the clarification then!
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10-16-2007 @ 10:51AM
Ryan said...
Yeah the case-of-the-week stuff is not as strong as it could be, but I tune into the show week after week because of the twisted love quadrangle. Yes, it is all uncomfortable and awkward and that is why I LOVE it.
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10-16-2007 @ 10:59AM
lauch said...
What really got me about last night's episode, is that the reason that he was in the past was never the focal point. i understand that they are working on the dynamic of relationships in relation to how they deal with his "jumps", but why even show his "goal" in the past, if they don't focus on it? We didn't even get a resolution to his task....just put the gun in his hand and that's it....umm..what happened because of that?
I like the fact that they've shown the result of his work in previous episodes, but this one left that out. The writers need to quickly figure out what they want us to care about and focus on it long enough to make sense.
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10-16-2007 @ 11:55AM
vasu said...
Did anyone else notice that the Science editor for the newspaper was Alvin from the Cosby Show?
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10-16-2007 @ 12:09PM
No1Dad said...
Love the show, but one the thing I really miss from the first two episodes is when present-Dan interacts with past-Livia, Katie and Jack. The highlight of the series for me was watching him hide in his own apartment from himself. LOL. It just really kept me on the edge of seat. I'd like to see more of that. Also, there seems to be a lot more chemistry between Dan and Livia than Dan and Katie.
Anyway, great show. I hope it sticks around for a long time.
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10-16-2007 @ 12:17PM
No1Dad said...
"We didn't even get a resolution to his task....just put the gun in his hand and that's it....umm..what happened because of that?"
This is purely speculation but the Journeyman IMDB page shows the actors who played Melissa and her ex-boyfriend cop as appearing in two episodes. (It says one of the episodes is "Game Three" but that part is obviously incorrect.) It would only make sense if these two attempted to pursue Dan in the present day. Let's face it, Dan just happened popped out of nowhere at the two most critical points of Melissa's life and told the cop about a murder before it even happend. They must both be extremly curious looking to find him in the 'future'.
So I think the conclusion of this case is still coming. Just my theory.
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10-16-2007 @ 1:27PM
Cody said...
Also when he went to 1994 we heard "Two Princes" by the Spindoctors. I could watch that show. The one where he just goes to a random year and listens to a song or watches a TV show and we have to guess which year. Everything else is just icing anyway.
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10-16-2007 @ 1:30PM
Vito The TiVo said...
Yeah, I'm waiting for something ANYTHING that he does in the past to affect him in the present. It's like they don't even believe in continuity and causality.
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10-16-2007 @ 2:01PM
Vito The TiVo said...
Wasn't the two news reports supposed to be the same time? But one was 1994 and one was 1998?
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10-16-2007 @ 2:25PM
BC said...
I'm becoming disturbed by the fact that he loses time in the present when he travels into the past--why can't he be returned to the point he just left? Sure, the lost time is what creates a lot of the drama going on; but I hope we eventually get a plausible technobabble explanantion for it, rather than it just be for the writers' convenience. And I hated the preview for next week; it involves something that just shouldn't happen to any thinking person who started to experience a phenomenon like Dan. I didn't understand the hate for last week's episode, but I think I'll hate next week's if there's no good explanation for Dan and Katie being such morons. But it will be very dramatic, I'm sure.
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10-17-2007 @ 3:54AM
snife said...
Of course he should start in an awkward situation every week - thats Quantum Leap 101 gheesh.
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10-17-2007 @ 7:41AM
martin said...
Sorry just caught the show last night on my DVR. Wow, no reference to the priest saying "Oh Boy" at the begining of the episode. The whole begining was very Quantum Leap which this show steals alot from... Sad no one caught that.
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10-17-2007 @ 9:11AM
Gordy said...
"Could you imagine knowing that your brother has been intimate with your wife?" is not really the source of the tension. Rather, it's "Could you imagine your brother stealing/marrying your girlfriend?" His brother is pissed, and he wants his girl back. Hell, I would too.
I'm glad someone made the Quantum Leap connection. I think the writers are trying to distance Journeyman from the the superior QL by deliberately making the savees characters a bit on dimensional. This story, I think, is about the relationships of the main chacters.
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10-17-2007 @ 9:17AM
fred said...
Yeah, feels to me that this show is much more about all the family soap drama than it is about time traveling.
Which is a shame, as far as I'm concerned, because that's not what I was expecting not is it what I'm interested in.
And I don't even care about the phone call bit, because the show lacks so much on consequences or some kind of relations between past & future/present that I can't see why it would matter...
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/10/17/journeyman-the-year-of-the-rabbit/
I'm starting to reconsider my position, if it keeps that way I might not keep watching, cause all those love triangles are really too much for me to find any interest in there...
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10-17-2007 @ 11:17AM
Wizard said...
If you think about the whole Space-Time Continuem. Dan saves people, wouldn't those people try and track Dan down. The fact that he is a reporter would surely mean he is not difficult to recognise or track down. And when they find Dan (in Dan's the past), surely that would affect him somehow.
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10-17-2007 @ 11:45AM
clgbutterfly said...
This show does not have the same absurdity as Quantum Leap. The humor is very mild. Dan isn't walking around in a dress or speaking to the an invisible person. Many keep speaking about the disconnectedness and confusion. It's intentional. I personally have been yelling at the TV wondering why Dan doesn't just ask Livia all that we want to know. He hasn't hit that panic level yet. As for him jumping back at a lasped time and not at the exact moment I think this is intentional by whatever power is making it happen. Dan's life needs as much fixing as the people he helps. Also everyone must note that it is clear that he's helping little heroes.
The lovely quadrangle? Well many expect Katie and Dan to fall apart, but I do think his leaping is happening to help strengthen their relationship. Dan isn't being self-destructive and Katie has forgotten how to be a strong independent woman, while still in a marriage. She can do both. I mean did she really quit her TV job to become a mom, who does that these days? Jack...Jack is bitter and he will try to drive a wedge between the two and feel justified in his action. Because this is TV writing I'm sure Katie will falter and screw-up. I really hope not, but apparently this is what Hollywood expects of its women. The most stable people in this whole storyline are Dan and Livia. Dan is really taking his leaps pretty well and Livia seems adjusted and ready to take any blow that comes her way.
I will keep watching because I want to know what her role in all of this is.
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10-17-2007 @ 2:44PM
Akbar Fazil said...
For me, his missions aren't supposed to be interesting. Yes, they add some tension/drama to what he is doing but the greater story of why he is jumping, how is family in present time is dealing, and what is exactly up with Livia is what I tune in for.
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10-22-2007 @ 11:49PM
John said...
What I want to know....
How many episodes before he 'jumps' mid-coitus?
Can we start the pool? I'm shooting for 9th episode.
Err. no pun intended.
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