Time Travel was a big theme for TV shows this past season - none were particularly successful, but I watched them all. Here are my rankings, from worst to first:
#3. Time After Time - In the pilot episode (which is a remake of the 70's movie of the same name that this show is based on) we meet H.G. Wells, who has invented a working time machine and is besties with a doctor named John - that is, until he finds out John is actually Jack The Ripper! John steals H.G. Wells' time machine to escape the police and hides out in present day New York City, and H.G. follows to bring John back to face justice in the 1800s. Of course, in present day, things don't go according to plan, and also he meets a hottie museum curator named Jane (you know, cause she's such a plain Jane, except they cast a super good looking actress to play her) to help him track his old friend down. This show lasted the shortest amount of time of the three shows on this list - I think five episodes aired before ABC canceled it.
You guys, this show is... really weird. I don't know if I'm right about this, but it seemed like the show was positioning a love triangle between the three main characters - one of which, you'll remember, was JACK THE RIPPER. Jack the Ripper, much like every character in this show, is played by a total dreamboat. But you know what? Being good looking does not automatically mean you could potentially turn it all around and STOP BEING A SERIAL KILLER and start being a good guy! Was the show really going to redeem him? It sure seemed that way, with scenes where he helped H.G. out simply because Jane asked, or when he made it a point to say he doesn't hate women and actually murdered a lot of men too, but he just hid them better (...good job being an equal opportunity murderer, I guess?). Oh, and there was that time he didn't kill someone because Jane said he could be better - this was, of course, after he choke slammed her for pointing out he was never caught so he didn't ever get to be famous like he wanted. While we're on the subject, this show was one of those ones where there's a character (in this case, H.G.) who tries to make sure history happens exactly as it's supposed to! (Side note: I never understand time travel shows that take this position. Who's to say things aren't better in this alternate future you're creating?) That's all well and good, H.G., except there's one HUGE flaw in your plan - Jack The Ripper is never caught, so if you bring him back, you're actually doing the thing you hate the most by changing history!
So many questions left unanswered! Will H.G. catch his friend? Is John capable of being redeemed? Who will Jane choose?!? Honestly? It's probably for the best. After having to sit through about thirty redemption storylines for Damon in The Vampire Diaries, I don't know if I could have sat through another He's A Serial Killer, But He's Actually A Good Guy Deep Down arc.
Oh, I can't believe I almost forgot this - even weirder than EVERYTHING ELSE about this show - all the episodes titles are taken from the lyrics to Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper! I didn't notice this until I was looking at Wikipedia after it was canceled. What were they going to do if they got to a season 2?! One of the many unanswered questions Time After Time leaves behind!
#2. Frequency - Another time travel show based on a movie! (Sort of.) The show changes from the 90's film a little bit. The show is about a cop from the present somehow being able to speak with her dad, a cop from the 90's (in the movie, the dad was a firefighter), over a ham radio. Don't focus too much on the logistics of that - the show doesn't, and I'm glad it doesn't bother because there's no way to make that make sense! Technically this isn't time travel, but I think the whole past/future system they have going still makes this count as time travel, so I'm keeping it on my list!
Anyway, Father and Daughter cop duo Frank and Raimy (played by Riley Smith [who you'd probably recognize from stuff] and Peyton List [who you probably won't] respectively) work together to catch a serial murderer that was supposed to stop in the 90's but they accidentally screw up the timeline somehow and he becomes one of the most prolific serial murderers ever (maybe??) I don't know, he's killed a lot of people by the present time story line - Frank's wife/Raimy's mom included! Side characters include Mekhi Phifer (who is Frank's partner and Raimy's cop mentor), some British guy (Raimy's dreamy fiance in the original timeline before she and Pops effed everything up), the fat funny friend who lives next door (he... doesn't really do much. Maybe he'd have had more to in season 2...), oh, and Frank's wife/Raimy's mom is played by Devin Kelley - she also doesn't do much here, since, you know, she's dead during a lot of the present day timeline, but... ***MINI MOVIE REVIEW ALERT*** she was in a pretty good Lifetime movie a while back called Swept Under (or Maid For Murder, depending on where you live, I guess). She played a crime scene cleaner who helps detective [guy who played Ice Man in the X-Men movies] solve murders - it's good, I think it might be on Netflix right now, so check it out if you're into that sort of thing. Sorry I kind of gave up on looking up actor names, but I think all two of my readers aren't going to care!
Unlike Time After Time, this show's entire season aired, which was nice. And I think they changed the ending a bit, so while some things are still left open ended (in case it got renewed), a lot of stuff is wrapped up in the last episode, so there are no massive cliff hangers to worry about.
I think, overall, Frequency was a decent cop drama that didn't really need the time travel element, but it did make for some interesting stuff. Definitely worth checking out if you are into this kind of show (and it's on Netflix US)!
This was better than Time After Time (...still can't get over the fact they were trying to redeem Jack The Ripper...), but it wasn't my favorite time travel themed show of the season. No, that honor goes to...
#1. Timeless - Of the three Time Travel shows to premiere during the TV season, this was the only one not based on a movie. This is also the best of the bunch! The premise is a company invents a time machine, and a former employee helps Goran Visnjic (my beloved Luka from ER! Sidenote: can't remember his name in this show so I am just going to call him Luka throughout this review. Deal with it) steal it so he can screw up history, so the company has to get their slightly less good backup time machine (...I know) and send a crack team of a historian, an army guy, and a pilot to save history... (the time machine only has three seats).
It stars Abigail Spencer (from Rectify on Sundance Channel, which was good but boring) as Lucy, the historian, Matt Lanter (from several of those movie spoof parodies, like the one about Twilight - oh, and he was in a failed CW show called Star-Crossed about Aliens coming to earth... it wasn't great) as Wyatt, the military guy who is the muscle of the team, and Malcolm Barrett (who was in Better Off Ted, which people keep telling me I should like but I could never get into) as Rufus, the pilot. They do pretty well!
This show does have a few rules about time travel - when they change history (which they do often, awesomely - more on that in a bit), the only people who know they did it are the ones in the time machine - everyone else is just like "what do you mean there were only six James Bond movies - you're forgetting about the seventh one that was about that time James met three time travelers from the future!" (***kind of from an actual episode, but I can't recall the actual number of James Bond books and I don't care enough to Google it - sue me!) Also things that are from failed timelines in the lifeboat (what they call the time machine) still exist (like a picture of someone who existed in one timeline but doesn't exist anymore). Also, because their time machine sucks (...I know) they have to stop and charge it more often than the bad guys have to charge their time machine, so they are always a few steps behind the bad guys.
With rules, comes exceptions. Remember how things from failed timelines stick around if they were traveling in the time machine? Well Luka kind of torments Lucy with this journal he has - written by her - that speaks of a future where they are all buddy buddy and she is crazy too or whatever. She hides this from the rest of the team so they don't know she might go nuts and betray them one day, but no one ever addresses the fact that that journal could be from an aborted timeline! Man, I am so glad they are getting a season 2 so they can explain what the deal is with that journal (because NO, they don't get to it in the first season, and it's very annoying).
My biggest gripe with this show is the whole idea that they have to preserve history. I kind of get wanting to preserve it (they screw up on this count and an immediate family member of one of the Time Team un-exists) - but they kind of flip flop on this. Everyone takes a turn on team "we need to keep things exactly as they are!" and team "change everything, maybe some stuff'll be better!"
***Except Luka, who wants to watch the world burn, always.***
I ended up bitching about Timeless a lot in this review, but I will say it's fun, and brings up some interesting historical stuff (some is real, some is completely made up, so it's like bonus fun to Google things after the show to see how much really happened). The team mesh together well, and there is SO much going on, with the case of the week and the overarching plots, I think there's something for everybody here. In an exciting bit of real world time travel, this show was originally canceled like the other three, but then uncanceled a few days later. How cool is that?!
WRAP UP: All three shows had their good points and bad - Time After Time is likely lost forever (or like ten years from now I'll magically find the whole season in the dump bin at WalMart), which is kind of a bummer because I would have liked to see the ending. Maybe if I had seen the whole season, it would have ended up my favorite of the three... I mean, I doubt it, but I guess anything's possible? Frequency and Timeless are pretty easily available on streaming services or DVD, so give them a shot and see what you think. Or don't, I'm not your boss.
Seen these shows? What do you think of my rankings? Any OTHER time travel shows from the 2016/17 season that I missed?!
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