S01.E01: Pilot / S01.E02: I Will Catch You

[Free]

13 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

That's what Frequency tried to do, and it got really boring, really fast. Yet another show where the heroes were failing to catch the bad guy every week, when the movie characters did it in two hours.

I think a time travel show needs to have more procedural structure, kind of like Quantum Leap, where he succeeded each week before leaping to a new time/situation to solve a new problem.

Exactly, it gets repetitive fast especially when you know nothing is going to happen to either of the characters so there's no tension whatsoever and you're just waiting until something actually happens.

[arjumand]

I almost gave up two minutes into the pilot, when a Victorian gentleman asked another Victorian gentleman, when he was going to start "dating" again. What? WHAT? WHAT???

I had to keep repeating, over and over again, things like "time travel, you love time travel, come on." Seriously. There was no 'dating' in the Victorian age, for fuck's sake. That, and some truly bad clunkers in the pilot added to my chorus of "who wrote this shit?"

Also, how long would it take a guy to grow a beard like Stevenson's? I ask because surely they could have set some time aside to shoot the Victorian scenes, so that their main antagonist wouldn't be festooned with a horribly fake, obviously glued on beard the first time we see him.

On 06/03/2017 at 5:14 AM, MisterGlass said:

I'm not sure how the multiple overlapping conspiracies will play out. 

Yes - even though I vented above, I still had a good time - but if anything turns me off for good, it'll be all the conspiracies. I hate that everything has to be a conspiracy nowadays.

[LoneHaranguer]

22 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Also that the pawn shop owner would offer fifteen grand for a pocket watch or that John would have the wherewithal at that point to grasp modern currency values. (The ten grand the guy initially offered would have seemed like a million bucks to a guy from 1893.)

It would have been easy for John to get an idea of what a dollar was worth by observation. He would have been clueless about what a fair offer would be for his watch, but as long as the pawnbroker didn't know that, John could trust that the fellow would give him a reasonable first offer and go from there. The writers were just establishing that John has all the money he needs, so if a watch like that would actually fetch something closer to 15 hundred than 15 grand we can blame the prop department.

[psychoticstate]

On 3/7/2017 at 1:15 AM, jhlipton said:

Wells is a flat-out idiot.  Why go to one hour later than Stevenson?  Why not go a week earlier, and set a trap for him?  Or take the assistant curator three days into the past so she can set security on high alert for when Stevenson arrives.

And as far as that goes, Wells could have gotten all the deets on the prostitute Stevenson killed in 1893 and then gone back a few hours in 1893 to notify the cops and stop him before he killed her.  Or at least nab him immediately after.  That would have changed history to the point where Stevenson never showed up at his house that night and never got into the time machine.  But again, we wouldn't have a show. 

I suppose Wells did allude to repeatedly going back to the same point and causing a tear in the fabric of time so as to explain why he couldn't do something like that.

I still enjoyed the show and I'm curious to see where they are going to take this. From the previews it appeared that we would be returning to 1893 and pre-1893, maybe to get a look at Stevenson's back story (which was explained moreso in the book the movie was based on) as well as his friendship with Wells.

[StaceyNotStacie]

I enjoyed this, which means that it probably won't last more than one season (ABC always cancels the shows I like). Outside of the violence, it sort of reminded me of Forever. 

[partofme]

Best time travel show in my recent memory was Journeyman.  Loved that show.  I want to like this, liked the 1893 parts not sure about the rest though.  Didn't trust the "great-granddaughter".

[jhlipton]

“It is my theory every time you travel to the past or future, you prick the fabric of time. If you go too close to any one time repeatedly, it can cause a hole in time.”

Let's say that's true.  We have ZERO proof, but roll with it.   So....  how many times is "repeatedly"?  It seems like they're saying "twice" (isn't that convenient?!).  How close do you have to be to harm the fabric of time -- if you go to March 5th 2015 at 11:00 PM, can you go to 11:01 PM?  10:59 PM?   11:00 AM?  January 5th 2015?  All time-travel stories have to deal with "why can't we just change the past?" -- the best one is "The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver" by Frederick Brown.

I couldn't watch Part 2.  A New Yorker who doesn't have mace?  Fugeddaboutit.

[Camera One]

I haven't watched the movie, so I didn't know the plot.  I was struck by the discussion about "dating" in 1893, as arjumond mentioned above.  I enjoyed the first sequence of H.G. Wells in New York City and the culture shock.  I wish there were more of that.  

The main characters are likeable, though Jane reminded me of Cordelia from "Buffy".  My main problem was how idiotic H.G. Wells was acting pretty much the entire episode, confronting John with no weapon, refusing a plan that would hurt John, etc.  Jane could have at least injured John in the leg, so he couldn't run after them or something.  

I want to like this but I too worry about the repetition of the serial killer never being caught.  Or a redemptive plot.  Since he shares the top billing slot with the protagonist, they'll need him to stick around.  He's a good actor, but I'm not fond of watching random women being murdered every week.  I also have a feeling Vanessa and the Would-be-Senator are not revealing their true intentions, which is another trope I hate... shady organizations.

[Evagirl]

As much as I like time-travel shows, I'm not feeling this one right now.  I love the new comedy "Making History" because it's very funny.  It's not supposed to make sense.

They show John seamlessly blending in the 21st century and H.G. struggling with everything.  John knew how to pawn stuff to get money (and he seemed to know the value of a dollar in today's market), he picked up on how to use a cell phone with no problem.  He rents a hotel room and he isn't surprised by indoor plumbing, electric lights, TV or anything.  They show H.G. struggling to master everything, even staying out of the way of automobiles.  I don't like this.  It makes John seem so much smarter and on top of his game, while H.G. is a bumbling, fumbling nutty professor.

It's all over the airwaves about women being killed, yet women carelessly allow John to pick them up in bars and not give it a second thought.  

I'm going to give it a a couple of more shows before deciding to delete it from my DVR schedule.

[nara]

3 hours ago, Evagirl said:

As much as I like time-travel shows, I'm not feeling this one right now.  I love the new comedy "Making History" because it's very funny.  It's not supposed to make sense.

They show John seamlessly blending in the 21st century and H.G. struggling with everything.  John knew how to pawn stuff to get money (and he seemed to know the value of a dollar in today's market), he picked up on how to use a cell phone with no problem.  He rents a hotel room and he isn't surprised by indoor plumbing, electric lights, TV or anything.  They show H.G. struggling to master everything, even staying out of the way of automobiles.  I don't like this.  It makes John seem so much smarter and on top of his game, while H.G. is a bumbling, fumbling nutty professor.

It's all over the airwaves about women being killed, yet women carelessly allow John to pick them up in bars and not give it a second thought.  

I'm going to give it a a couple of more shows before deciding to delete it from my DVR schedule.

I can rationalize the watch issue by saying that John reads people well and guessed that the guy was lowballing him. He then countered with a very large increase. If the jeweler flat out refused, he could still come down in price without any issues.

I think that people sometimes  find it hard to believe that good looking, charming men (and women) can be evil. They assume that beauty = goodness. 

[Camera One]

4 hours ago, Evagirl said:

It makes John seem so much smarter and on top of his game, while H.G. is a bumbling, fumbling nutty professor.

Unfortunately, I think that was the intention.  To show how adaptable and quick on his feet John was, compared to the naive, idealistic H.G. Wells.

[LoneHaranguer]

24 minutes ago, nara said:

I can rationalize the watch issue by saying that John reads people well and guessed that the guy was lowballing him.

He didn't need to. That's what a 19th century English moneylender would do, and he had no reason to think a 21st century American pawnbroker would be any different.

[txhorns79]

I was somewhat disappointed with the show.  I like the actors, but I feel like there really isn't enough material to sustain a weekly television series, and it will turn into a situation like the Simpsons Spin-Off Spectacular (with Chief Wiggum, P.I.) where John slowly gets away every week because the show ends if he doesn't. 

Edited March 10, 2017 by txhorns79

[Arnella]

13 hours ago, nara said:

I think that people sometimes  find it hard to believe that good looking, charming men (and women) can be evil. They assume that beauty = goodness. 

I think those women were thinking "goodness".  I think they were just horny and stupid.  Like anyone in a large city, they don't think this one guy, out the millions in the city, could be the one guy mentioned on the news.  Orrrrr they were just plot points without any reasonable motivation.

[backgroundnoise]

This show did exactly what has proven to be a mistake--rush into the story without fleshing out the characters first.  We barely got a glimpse of the Ripper and, BOOM, he's in 2017.  No set up, no getting to know anything about either of them, no reason to care one way or the other.

I guess they didn't learn anything from Frequency.

[iMonrey]

Quote

My main problem was how idiotic H.G. Wells was acting pretty much the entire episode, confronting John with no weapon, refusing a plan that would hurt John, etc. 

We know they were friends before H.G. discovered he was "Jack the Ripper." Maybe close friends, going back for years - even to childhood. Imagine finding out somebody you were that close to was a serial killer. Wouldn't you still be inclined to think of them as you always have, and assume you could reason with them like you always have? Yes, it was a very naive on H.G.'s part, but I can see why. He just figured "well, I'll talk to the guy, he'll come back home with me." He doesn't see John as the 2-dimensional monster that we do because he's known him for years and considered him a close friend. 

[txhorns79]

Quote

Wouldn't you still be inclined to think of them as you always have, and assume you could reason with them like you always have? Yes, it was a very naive on H.G.'s part, but I can see why. He just figured "well, I'll talk to the guy, he'll come back home with me." He doesn't see John as the 2-dimensional monster that we do because he's known him for years and considered him a close friend. 

Honestly, if I found out a close friend was secretly a serial killer, my thought would be that I didn't know that person at all, and that they are extremely dangerous.  I was very surprised at how unprepared Wells was to deal with him.  Though I think that probably goes back to the underlying weakness of the premise.  For example, when Jane hit John in the head and knocked him out temporarily, she didn't take any further steps to disable him even more (like repeatedly bashing him in the head).  Instead she leaves him with time to wake up and catch her again.  John essentially has to be a supervillain who can instantly adapt to 2017, and Wells has to be completely outmatched, or else the show comes to a quick end.     

Edited March 10, 2017 by txhorns79

[Camera One]

Not to mention H.G. already had a go at talking to John - at the hotel bar.  He also saw the news report that another woman was killed in a way that was to send him a message.  Yet he wanted to go talk to him unarmed and with no plan.

John essentially has to be a supervillain who can instantly adapt to 2017

When that security guy working with the supposed granddaughter said John would be no match against 2017 tech, I thought that was a clever way to ensure John gets reined in and the "good guys" have a fighting chance.  Yet John was on top quickly yet again.

[SyracuseMug]

Regarding the hostage who appeared to have been knifed to death in the apartment (but later was shown to still be alive), I had the feeling that she actually HAD been murdered, but that someone then altered the timeline and saved her. There was something ambiguous about Jane’s reaction at seeing this woman unharmed.

Did anyone else pick up on this? 

[Goldmoon]

Am I the only one here not enjoying "George"? He is too much of a wimp to root for.  Also call foul on both of them adapting too quickly to modern times. They should have had HG chase someone obscure who just wanted to have fun while travelling through time. The stakes are too high to NOT use deadly force. Also, H G Wells was a woman. 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Goldmoon

[legaleagle53]

37 minutes ago, Goldmoon said:

Also, H G Wells was a woman. 

Really?  That would be news to HIM.  Herbert George Wells

[Bort]

9 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Really?  That would be news to HIM.  Herbert George Wells

I think the poster was making a joke. It's a reference to Warehouse 13. The character of HG Wells was a woman on that show.

[Goldmoon]

Thank you kariyaki. 

[methodwriter85]

I agree that I can't see this show possibly lasting more than it's first season, but eh. Josh Bowman is fucking hot, and Freddie Stroma is pretty cute.