Time Won't Give Me Time

(I'll get back to the countdown soon. I promise. Really.)

It looks like Journeyman has finally met its maker. For those who don't know, Journeyman is a show that debuted on NBC this fall starring Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Rome). It was quickly viewed by the critics as a less fun/more serious Quantum Leap. I think this early criticism and a weak premiere episode pretty much killed the show right out of the gate. The ratings were never good and they continued to dwindle. The ratings really tanked this week without a Heroes lead-in. Thankfully, all the episodes that were filmed will be aired, and this due to the writer's strike leaving a bit of a schedule vacuum. Luckily, the last episode was written so it could work as a sort-of series finale, so it won't feel too open-ended.

The sad thing is that this was the only new scripted show this season that I really liked and made a point to watch. Bionic Woman was a mess and even returning champion, Heroes, was fairly week compared to that show's previous season. I've enjoyed Pushing Daisies, but part of me feels that the steam of that show's concept and style may be running out for me. With Battlestar Galactica and Lost delayed until the beginning of 2008, there hasn't been any other high-concept, continuity-heavy dramas to really turn me on. But there was Journeyman.

I will freely admit that the first two or three episodes did not immediately win me over. However, by the fourth or fifth show, a bigger picture started to open up and a lot of events that occurred during the opening set of stories started to impact just about everything afterwards. Dan Vassar's decisions had consequences for him and his family in 2007, no matter when he was. The show was never about Dan's missions in the past. It was always about how his new role impacted his relationships: with his wife, his young son, his cop brother, his work as a reporter at a newspaper that was bleeding readers. A smart move was to let Dan's wife, Katie, in on his secret by the end of the first episode. This avoided episodes of Dan having to make excuses for where he disappeared to. Instead, Katie knew that Dan's movements were out of his control, but it didn't make life or their marriage any easier.

To throw even more of a spanner in the works, Dan's long thought-to-be dead fiancee, Livia, would join him in his missions as a fellow time traveler. The cool thing about Dan and Livia's new relationship is that the writers quickly established that Dan was totally committed to Katie, thereby killing any annoying "Who will he choose?" threads or any "Will they or won't they?" tension. What developed was an interesting team dynamic between two people that were once extremely close and now just friends. Sure, they still care about each other, but they both realize that Dan loves and is supposed to be with Katie. It doesn't hurt that Livia was once friends with Katie, too.

I can only hope that the show gets a second life on one of NBC's sister channels (USA or SciFi) not unlike Law & Order: Criminal Intent. There is small but dedicated fan base that has been trying to save the show for the last couple of months, so maybe the movement can change gears a bit. Journeyman is well-written and acted and it can't be all that expensive; it never leaves San Francisco or has many special effects. I would think that era costuming and set dressing may be the most expensive thing about the show or licensing rights for the great music they use for audio clues for what year Dan is in (anytime he was in the '90s, I could always tell the exact year upon hearing the song choice). I'm not holding my breath, but one can always hope. Only time will tell.

(Thanks to Rich for breaking the sad news in a recent post.)