Review: Timeless [1×01]- “Pilot”

The Series Premiere of Timeless starts with a bang (well, maybe an explosion), but is it sustainable?

Time travel shows are certainly de rigueur this season on television, with no less than three time-bending series premiering. Timeless is the first of these offerings, and its visual effects budget is properly on display. Series creators Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke have created a fast-paced show that will make your head hurt if you think too hard about it, but is ultimately a fun hour of television.

The pilot deals with things you’d expect to find in a time travel-based series. Criminal wants to change history, goes back in time, heroes try to stop him by causing the least about of “butterfly effect” changes to the future as possible. So what makes Timeless different from other time travel dramas premiering this season or already on your television? The show doesn’t take itself too seriously but it isn’t a flat-out comedy either. It has conspiracy & mystery elements, but doesn’t slam you over the head with too much sci-fi. It’s history and alt-history all rolled into one package. (Timeless apparently bears a resemblance to El Misterio Del Tiempo, but we’ve not seen it and can’t really comment.)

Instead of a great deal of exposition, the Timeless pilot comes out of the gate swinging right into the action. Rogue ex-NSA and criminal Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) breaks into Mason Industries and stolen a time machine that Conor Mason (Paterson Joseph) created for reasons as yet unknown. The is only people who can stop him: Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), a delta force soldier who doesn’t have much to recommend him other than his ass-kicking skills; Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), a history professor who seems to know every historical fact but isn’t as good as her mom; and Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), a shy pilot with a secret. Nothing about any of these characters motivations are explained in the first episode, but we’re assuming they’ll be revealed as the show progresses.

Saving the Hindenburg (Or saving the bringing down of the Hindenburg?)

The show opens with some really fantastic visual effects. It’s almost shocking to sit back and realize you’re watching a television screen. There’s a whole slew of visual effects credits, so we’re just going to say bravo to the visual effects team on the show. The disappearing time machine and Hindenburg explosions alone were really beautifully done. The opening was paced like lightening and really grabbed you the moment you started watching. We have a few complaints about the “rules” of time travel on the show. They seem awfully coincidental, anachronistic and often times they’re brought up in just the place we start thinking, “Why don’t they just _______?” We also rolled our eyes when Lucy spent an entire episode warning everyone about butterfly effect possibilities and then was completely shocked when the effects knocked her for a loop in the final moments of the episode.

“This is Dr. Dre. I’m Nurse Jackie. We’re here from general hospital.” -Lucy

The writing might be a bit of a head scratcher, but we’re pretty positive that Timeless is going for *winkwinknudgenudge*. At least we hope that’s what they’re going for, because if not, they’re having a tone problem. The writing is fast-paced, and it’s best if you take it for what it is! You’re not sitting down for a four-course gourmet meal, but man, Taco Bell tastes good! It’s also packed full of tiny historical facts that history buffs will be able to geek out on after every episode. Ryan & Kripke clearly had a blast going into minute details regarding the Hindenburg and they did get us interested in doing our own Wikipedia research. The cast delivers the historical content with a real enthusiasm. Even if you weren’t particularly interested in knowing that the ropes for the Hindenburg were dragged through the mud which contributed to the spark that caused the crash, you might be once you watched. Or maybe we’re just total geeks that way. It’s silly factoid fun!

Convenient twist and loose ends as the Timeless episode seems to be a head scratcher

Malcolm Barrett provides a lot of laughs in the show, but sometimes when we were watching it we wondered if we should be laughing? Timeless uses Barrett to point out America’s… controversial past concerning racial issues, but we were left wondering if the show was trying to say not much has changed or not. Is it going there? Rufus gets loads of amusing one-liners: “There is literally no place in American history that would be awesome for me,” “So the back of the bus was amazing,” but we found he was almost relegated to social commentary one-liners. The show seems to purposely avoid really diving into the issue and instead prefers to keep it light. Barrett’s really a highlight of the show- we hope his character becomes more than slight social commentary sometime soon.

“There is literally no place in American history that would be awesome for me.” -Rufus

With a convenient twist to get them out of trouble: “They didn’t even have underwire bras,” Lucy insists, Timeless manages to tie up their loose ends with modern conveniences. The real head-scratcher came at the end when the butterfly effect of the show had disastrous consequences for the Lucy. Sure, messing around in the past can certainly be tricky, but this seemed like a crazy reach.

Conclusion/Final Verdict: Timeless is light, frothy escapist fun that could be more- if it wanted to, that is

We enjoyed the Timeless pilot for the decent actors, and the storyline was fun if you didn’t think too hard about it. The effects are dazzling and so what if the characters are not explained in any way whatsoever, they’re still fun. So far, the show feels like a bit of storyline to start, some at the end with some odd mystery thrown in, and playtime in the past in the middle of the sandwich. That can be fun at first, and we’re enjoying it so far, but we’re not so sure it won’t get old unless the show manages to aspire to more. Honestly, we’re not so sure what Timeless will have in common with other time travel shows on TV this season, we’re thinking more Quantum Leap than anything else.

Questions/Concerns

• Why exactly was it necessary that Rufus needed to be the one to go? What was that conversation with Connor about?
• Why these three people specifically? I mean, sure, Wyatt’s a badass, but surely there were others qualified? We totally need more backstory here.
• How on earth did the Hindenburg lead to that bombshell at the end?
• So far, Garcia Flynn is a totally cardboard villain. We need more backstory here, too. How does he have Lucy’s unwritten journal? And will the butterfly effect effect him?