I’ve read reports lately that NBC is taking a hard look at the ratings for last week’s and tonight’s installments ofJourneyman (10 p.m. ET, Monday) to decide whether to give the show a full season order or cancel it. Tonight, as you sit shell-shocked on your couch, wiped out from the first full day of work after several off and still in the throes of turkey overload, give this show a look. It’s one of the best new series this season and it deserves a good, long run.
Dan Vasser, played by Kevin McKidd, is a San Francisco newspaper reporter with a wife and young son. He has a brother, Jack (Reed Diamond), who is an SF cop and has a romantic history with and seems still carries a torch for Dan’s wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf). Dan loves his wife, his job and his life. But recently, Dan has been getting these terrible headaches and waking up in odd places at odd times.
Dan is a time traveler, and much like Sam Beckett of Quantum Leap fame, he can’t determine when he’s going to leave the present, or where and when he’s going to land. Also like Sam, it usually becomes obvious quickly that there is something in that time and place that he is meant to do.
“Putting right what once went wrong” doesn’t always go well for Dan, and his unscheduled absences from the present are wreaking havoc on his marriage, his young son and his job. Family life and marriage aren’t easy when hubby pops away for days at a time, and you never know where he is, how long he’ll be gone, or when and in what condition he’ll be coming back. To further complicate things, Jack often runs into his former fiancée, Livia (Moon Bloodgood), while traipsing around in the past. He thought she had been killed years ago, but it turns out she’s a time traveler, too.
Cop brother Jack’s concerns are heightened, not only because Dan seems to be getting himself in some bad situations with some bad people…he’s also making Jack’s former love (Katie) downright miserable. Jack’s on a mission to put right some wrongs in the present day, Dan be damned.
Journeyman airs at 10 p.m. ET Mondays. Star McKidd, formerly of HBO’s Rome, is close enough looks-wise to new James Bond Daniel Craig to keep ME watching. Playing Livia, the lovely Bloodgood has been in dozens of TV shows and films, but is best remembered for her appearance in the movie Eight Below.
If you liked Quantum Leap, if you like Doctor Who now, or if you ever read The Time Traveler’s Wife (and if you haven’t, you should!) you’ll like this show. It’s different from the norm, the cast and writing are great, and it airs at a time when there ain’t much else on. Give this show a go before it’s too late.
You can also catch up by watching full episodes online at www.nbc.com.
(Originally published 11-26-07).