Not a TIMELESS Classic

Article first published as TIMELESS Review on Seat42F.

NBC, which does sometimes do some light sci-fi drama, has a new genre series this fall called TIMELESS. A gang of armed men break into a laboratory and steal a fully functioning time machine, intent to travel into our past and screw things up. Luckily, the facility still has their more basic prototype and assembles a small team to go after them and save history. Will they succeed, or is everything we know about to be changed?

Abigail Spencer (Rectify) stars as Lucy Preston, a history professor caring for an ailing mother who has just been denied tenure. She, along with an elite soldier, Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter, 90210), are recruited by Agent Denise Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey, House of Cards) to chase the villain, Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic, ER), across the ages. Scientist Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett, Better Off Ted) is sent along with them because he knows how to use the equipment, even though there are some justifiable concerns that his darker skin color may be a hindrance before civil rights kicked in.

I really want to like TIMELESS. It’s not like any other show currently airing, especially not on a broadcast network. (It is admittedly sort of like DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, but since that is about superheroes, I think they’re different enough.) It has a cool concept and a decent cast. It definitely has mythology, backstory, and a serial arc, meaning it won’t just be a case-of-the-week series. For these reasons, it deserves a little consideration.

The make-up of the group makes sense, the scientist, the historian, and the soldier. The motivation of the bad guy is still hazy, but what has been said about it is interesting and begs further exploration. The rules for time travel as followed in TIMELESS also seem to be well thought out. I didn’t find any huge, obvious plot holes.

But there’s a general sense of shallowness to the whole program. The characters do have families and personal lives that play into their actions, but in a very superficial way. We’re told something about that character, and that immediately influences the plot in a very straight-forward way. There isn’t a lot of wondering who we can trust, or if there’s something someone isn’t talking about that might get in the way down the road. It’s kind of what you see is what you get.

There is also definitely the impression that while there be an ongoing story, a large portion of each hour will be devoted to action adventure and fist fights. Not bloody stuff, mind you; this series seems to take a family-friendly, tame approach. For example, when one character briefly wields a knife, I didn’t feel for a second she’d be able to swipe and draw blood with it, and indeed, she does not. So there’s a sanitized type of violence that feels more at home on television in the previous century than today.

Even the twists later in the hour, while interesting, seem easy to screw up. There is one very obvious one and one less so, but given the lack of depth present at the start, and the direct way the story unfolds, I don’t have confidence that these things are going to pan out in a cool way. I know I’m being vague, and part of that is to protect readers from plot spoilers, but part of it is because this complaint is more about an overall feeling I get while watching, rather than details I can point to to back up my judgement.

Overall, I like TIMELESS, but I don’t love it. My sense is that it will be like Revolution, with a cool premise that doesn’t live up to what viewers want from it.

TIMELESS premieres Monday, October 3^rd at 10/9c on NBC.

Excited About EXTANT

Article first published as EXTANT Review on Seat42F.

CBS’s summer slate is turning out to be nothing like their regular season fare. While tired procedurals that basically tell the same story week after week dominate CBS programming from September through May, June, July, and August have suddenly become a spot for mind-bendy, dramatic, highly serialized science fiction shows, of the likes which FOX might air and quickly cancel in the fall. Last year’s Under the Dome is a decent series, but EXTANT, premiering this week, promises to be quite a bit better.

EXTANT tells the story of an astronaut, Molly Woods (Halle Berry, the X-Men films), whom, after thirteen months alone in space, returns to Earth pregnant and in the middle of a conspiracy. She experiences something very strange during her mission, which we see in flashbacks throughout the pilot, “Re-entry,” and is determined not to reveal to anyone what she saw and felt. Those who would control her on the ground may or may not know what she knows, but they have had issues with other astronauts in recent years and are definitely are keeping a close eye on Molly.

In the second major element of the series, Molly’s husband, John (Goran Visnjic, ER), has created an artificial intelligence to satisfy the couple’s un-fulfilled urge to have a child. The boy, named Ethan (Pierce Gagnon, One Tree Hill), is every bit as self-aware as the kid at the center of A.I., but with an added creepiness where viewers are left to wonder if he is performing as designed to do or is the first stage in a robotic uprising. Of course, this question is barely posed in the first episode, nowhere near an answer yet, but worth exploring.

Thus we get a suspenseful mystery, a tale of corrupt leadership, a Big Brother-like level of secret monitoring, questions about the existence of a soul and the ethics of creating life, and many other smart elements all wrapped into one. The writers have spun a very interconnected web of characters and motivations, obviously intelligently put together in “Re-entry” alone, and an incredibly enjoyable watch.

That is not to say that the show is without problems. At first, I wondered about a huge plot hole in Molly trying to keep her secrets her own, but then realized that the character is acting exactly as many would given the circumstances, logical or not. More troubling is that she has the means to try to cover things up, which I find unrealistic given the level of scrutiny she is under.

Overall, though, EXTANT is very good, definitely the best thing on the broadcast networks this summer. It’s exciting, fast-paced, gorgeous in its special effects demonstrating futuristic technology (it is not set in the present day), a world that captures the imagination, and a story that engages viewers. The questions it raises are deep, and the universe these characters live in is one I can see us getting very close to within my lifetime, even if we’re still many decades away from it. It feels right.

The acting is pretty convincing. I’m not a big fan of Berry, never have been, though she does a serviceable job. I like Visnjic a lot here, and Gagnon is amazing, given his age and relative lack of experience. The supporting cast also includes some capable players such as Camryn Manheim (The Practice) as Molly’s doctor and friend, Grace Gummer (The Newsroom) as a colleague of John’s, Michael O’Neill (Rectify, Bates Motel) as Molly’s boss, and Hiroyuki Sanada (Helix, Lost) as John’s investor. Plus, Annie Wersching (24), Brad Beyer (Jericho), and Tyler Hilton (One Tree Hill) serve recurring roles. Most of these are not A-listers, but they are no slouches, either.

If you’ve been on the fence about whether to give EXTANT a try, and believe me, I understand that position, please do. You’re likely to be pleasantly surprised at the superior effort put forward. More summer shows like this and CBS will be a competitor in the hotter months for the first time.

EXTANT premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

Red Widow surviving, not thriving

Article first published as Red Widow surviving, not thriving on TheTVKing.

ABC's newest "gripping" drama is Red Widow, which offered a two hour premiere this week of "Pilot" and "The Contact." In it,  Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell, Silent Hill), the grown daughter in a crime family, asks her husband, Evan (Hell on Wheels' Anson Mount), to get her and their three children out of the family business. Evan promises to do so, after warning Marta that they will have to leave everything behind. But before that can happen, Evan is murdered and Marta is forced into being a criminal herself to pay off his debt.

There are multiple sides to this story that Marta is trapped in, pulled in several directions. Her father, Andrei Petrov (Rade Sebedzija, 24, Batman Begins), whom she loves, is heavily involved in illegal activities. Her brother, Irwin (Wil Traval, All Saints) not only worked with Evan, but is now in jail. These characters are presented as loving and sympathetic, as is Marta's sister, Kat (Jaime Ray Newman, Eastwick, Grimm), so we are supposed to root for them, right?

But there are also the bad guys that we don't trust. This includes Evan and Irwin's partner, Mike (Lee Tergesen, Oz, The Big C), whom Marta doesn't trust, and who happens to be married to Marta's best friend, Dina (Suleka Mathew, Hawthorne, Men in Trees). I do wonder how Marta can wrap her head around the fact that Dina loves a man she despises, and if this has caused conflict between them in the past. Or maybe Marta is just now seeing Mike in a different light, after suspecting him of being involved in Evan's death? It's not clear how this dynamic supposedly works prior to the events of the "Pilot."

And then there's Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic, ER), the man that Irwin stole from, but Marta is being forced to work for in Evan's name. There is almost a bit of romantic tension between Marta and Nicholae, at least from his side, but he also radiates a level of danger. This is a Very Bad Man, we're quickly told and shown in an extraneous boxing scene.

I'm going to be honest, Red Widow, while having many good components and interesting performances, does not feel all that unique to me. With Revenge, Scandal, and other like dramas on the air, this one, while somewhat different, isn't stand out enough to earn its place. ABC is starting to reuse its concepts, and making more of the same is not what viewers want.

I find most startling the differences between Schiller and the Petrovs. Even though both operate on the wrong side of the law, they are painted in such different strokes. We know right away who we are supposed to root for and against. The complexity that the series would get on a cable network isn't present here, and that makes it a lot less enticing, and plot twists seem forced.

In "The Contact," Marta makes her first move in Schiller's service, turning Bob (Rodney Rowland, Veronica Mars), a broke, divorced man into her paid-off patsy. It's a challenging assignment, one meant to wake Marta up to the new world that she is living in, and testing her resolve and dedication, done in the name of protecting her family. Yet, it's also completely predictable, and the ending feels like a cop out.

Also, we see Marta being a mother to Boris (Jakob Salvati), who thinks its OK to bring a gun to school, Natalie (Erin Moriarty, The Watch), who somehow stayed in the dark about what her dad did, and Gabriel (Sterling Beaumon, Clue), who is trying to follow in his father's footsteps. It's like the developers of this show had to give Marta these stakes, whom we know will never have anything too bad happen to them, but will likely be used mostly as pawns. Toss in a charming nanny, er, guard named Luther (Luke Goss, Hellboy II), and there's almost an unnecessary family series here, fighting for space within the main story.

At the same time as Marta dips her toe into the dark side, she is also being pressured by a federal agent, James Ramos (Clifton Collins Jr., The Event), to cooperate with the government. It turns out, Evan intended to turn in Andrei, Irwin, and the rest in in exchange for his family entering witness protection. Marta is horrified at this "big twist," having trouble believing her husband would turn on their family. This only serves to illustrate just how naive Marta is.

The biggest problem with Red Widow is that Marta is not a compelling character. She's too much of a fictional creation, lacking authenticity. Everything happens around her in broad strokes, because she might not be able to understand or deal with the nuance. The story is lacking because she is lacking. And the show keeps throwing more stuff and more characters at us hoping to distract from how surface everything is, and how weak Marta is as a creation.

Red Widow might still be good; it's not unsalvageable. It just feels too safe for ABC, and lacks the drawing power a new show needs in the current, crowded environment of high-quality TV. The more we see that's better, the more obvious it is when an effort falters. Red Widow's first episodes are quite shaky.

Red Widow airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.