Timeless mixes the past, present, and future
A time machine whirls to life as the heroes of the new TV series, “Timeless”, journey through time in an effort to preserve history.
Timeless is currently premiering on NBC, and airs every Monday at 10 p.m. The show is a fresh take on the concept of time travel, though it retains some of the tropes we’ve all grown used to.
Starring Abigail Spencer as Lucy, Matt Lanter as Wyatt, and Malcolm Barrett as Rufus, the first episode takes the heroes back to the year 1937, when the Hindenburg crashed and burned. They have to save history by stopping Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) from preventing the explosion on the Hindenburg.
The show examines the moral dilemmas of altering the past, such as whether the characters should stop disasters such as the Hindenburg from happening, or if they should preserve the history as we know it.
However, “Timeless” seems to often resort to the same philosophy that prevails in time travel stories since “Back to the Future”: changing anything in past will damage the future. This was annoying in that it made the show seem repetitive and stale.
The first episode had a very rushed start that tried to cram a lot of background information in at once. If it hadn’t relied on the rules for time travel established in other series, I would have been completely lost.
That being said, the plot itself was compelling. The twists and turns that come with changing time made the storyline hard to predict. The acting was also very solid. The protagonists took strongly to their roles, making their characters believable. Spencer very quickly established her character’s personality and background and convincingly uses that to her advantage. Lanter’s character, a soldier who lost his wife, is consistent and has easily understandable motivations.
The ending was unexpected and compelling enough that I will probably be tuning in for the next few episodes. Once the plot and characters are more established, this will be a strong series.
3.5/5 stars
