Knee Jerk Reaction: JOURNEYMAN - Series Premier

For everyone out there who compared Journeyman to Quantum Leap just stop right now. This show is nothing like Quantum Leap. Both deal with time travel, but that’s it kids. Stop it! Please! It would be like saying Blade Runner and THX 1138 are the same because they deal with distopian futures and androids. I hope you get my point.

Journeyman blew me away. I thought it was fantastic and original with twists and turns around every corner. This is a show that will be on top of my viewing list every week. Everything else will be dumped to the DVR for later. NBC hit a home run here.

Like my other quick posts tonight, don’t look for a full synopsis. Instead click here to go to NBC.com and read all the stuff their copywriters worked so hard on.

But first...  Let’s all say it together...  Wait for it...  SPOILER ALERT!!!

Before Journeyman started I told my wife that if the show sucks, it’s not because of Kevin McKidd. The man rocked in HBO’s Rome and to me can do no wrong. Well, he delivered the goods. From the first scene to the previews for upcoming shows I was glued to the screen.

Listen, time travel shows are tough. You can’t count Dr. Who because that show built its mythology up over forty years. But creating something new and making the time travel believable is hard. Well, Journeyman nailed it. From the reactions of Dan Vassar to the way he brought his wife in at the end with the ring under the patio, it all felt seamless to me. In fact the whole patio thing was unbelievable. No big splainer scene was needed here—just a ring in a box buried twenty years earlier and revealed to his wife at the end with the simple line, “I’ll always come home.” It couldn’t have been done better. Bravo!

But what sold me was when Dan ran into his supposedly dead ex-girlfriend in their old apartment only to run into her in the hall a few seconds later. Yes, kids she’s a time traveler, too! Brilliant.

This is an adult show with complex characters and relationships. There is so much opportunity for drama and character development. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed watching Journeyman tonight.

Comments

[Anon]

Are you on NBC's payroll? Or is this one of those pay-per-post ads? I am glad you and others like the show but the glowing comments ring false to me. If the writers are so gifted at creating complex characters and relationships why did they have to rely on time-travel? Though I only gave John from Cincinnati 15 minutes before personally canceling it, I did manage to give Journeyman 30 minutes on DVR before saying "enough!". Kevin McKidd is too talented an actor to bother with this unnecessary project.

[Michael L. Wentz]

No, I don't work for NBC, nor is this any sort bogus piece to pump up the show. Check my other posts, I'm very forthright when it comes to movies or shows I don't like.

I can honestly say I loved 'Journeyman!' My family felt the same way about the show, thinking it to be the strongest all the Monday premiers. We're all big genre fans, so maybe that has a lot to do with it.

Although I will point out that the premier was packed with a lot of information to fit into a mere 42 minutes. It would have worked much better as a two hour special. The plot and characters are extremely complex, but I think the writers did an excellent job grabbing me in such a short period of time.

As for 'John from Cincinnati'... That's a different ball of wax. I had to watch it a couple times, and then still didn't get it. But after I heard David Milch talk about the show, it was a little easier to follow. It definitely wasn't a program for the major networks.

[ciphun]

I'm sorry, even though I do seem to like this show, it is a lot like Quantum Leap. Period. I know this must burn your butt a little bit, but it's not just the "time traveling" that is similar. Even the fact that he has his "buddy", whether it is a friend, girlfriend, etc... it is just like Quantum Leap. Sam Beckit had Al. So this guy in Journeyman has his ex-girlfriend. Sure it opens up a slightly different dynamic, but that doesn't do enough to prevent the show from being compared to Quantum Leap. There isn't one story that Journeyman will ever tell that couldn't be applied to Quantum Leap. The only two differences: he doesn't go into other people's bodies and he is able to return back to his time period, albeit, at a later time in the day or so. These two differences do not push it far enough from Quantum Leap, despite what you may say.

Further, it seems as if Journeyman only goes back so far in time. I think the same basic rule was applied to Quantum Leap.

In other words, take out the two differences in Quantum leap, i.e. leaping into bodies and not being able to return back to his time period, and apply what is going on in Journeyman and the basics is there, going back in time to avert something. Period. Same shit; different story.

Now, I'll probably keep watching this show, but to claim it is nothing like Quantum Leap is simply false.

[Michael L. Wentz]

I’m still not convinced. QUANTUM LEAP and JOURNEYMAN are two completely different concepts. The only thread they have in common is that in both the main character goes back in time to help others and they don’t seem to be able to move on until they accomplish their task. Similarly, DR. WHO travels through time to help people and doesn’t move on until he finishes his task, and I don’t hear anyone comparing that series to the others.

JOURNEYMAN is about a married reporter who finds himself jumping through time. He has no control over it and has to balance his present life with all his time traveling. The drama is in how the travel impacts his personal relationships.

QUANTUM LEAP is about a scientist who builds a device to travel in time. He disappears and leaps into the bodies of people in the past. He cannot return to the present and does not exist except as a consciousness in the body of the person he leaped into. The plot focuses solely on each episode and the situation he is in. Sam’s only tie to the present is Al.

In JOURNEYMAN Dan Vassar jumps around different parts of the timeline. He doesn’t know whom he needs to help or how it all relates to the bigger picture. When he travels he carries back all that’s on him, including his clothes, his modern money, and his iPhone. The way he travels is different than Sam in QUANTUM LEAP. The rules are different and the consequences of him being recognized a very real possibility. His ex-fiancé Livia isn’t much help as a guide.

JOURNEYMAN is a much more character driven story, where Dan has to balance his life with the traveling and try to figure out a reason for it all. Sam in QUANTUM LEAP intended to time travel and his quest was to find out how to get home. But unfortunately he wound up on the bridge of the Enterprise, and we all know how that ended.

There may be similarities in the premise between QUANTUM LEAP and JOURNEYMAN, but the execution is entirely different -- so different in fact that one cannot be considered the child of the other.