Lost in time
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Last week, Timeless made its first
real big step since the pilot, adding in internal conflict between the
characters, background to the villain, and continuing what the show already
excelled in in terms of the overall visual design. This week’s episode,
Stranded, continued to build on what happened last week, but also suffers some
clear mishaps that continue to keep the show from reaching its full potential.
I think I can say without hyperbole
that the first half of Stranded may very well be the best we’ve seen of
Timeless so far. There’s action, character interaction, humour, tension, and
Timeless’s trademark excellent set design and costumes. It’s everything I
wanted the show to be when I first heard the synopsis.
When the time machine is sabotaged by
Flynn’s goons, Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus are all trapped in the 18th
century. They attempt to return home by means of Rufus leaving a time capsule
for the home base crew to dig up, as well as rebuilding the time machine. On
the way, they continue to squabble about the revealed secrets from last week,
as well as run into a tribe of natives and some very angry Frenchmen.
The best part about this episode is,
again, the continued threads and character conflicts that started last week.
After four episodes of nothing but filler, it’s so nice to finally have something that makes Timeless feel more
than episodic. Plus, with the added tension of the destroyed time machine,
things actually felt really intense this week.
It also helped that the set designers,
makeup artists, costumers, prop designers, and everyone else working in the
visuals department really gave it their all this week. They created a
pitch-perfect 18th century environment, and everything in it really
reflected that, creating an immersive world that placed you right into the time
period and made you want to learn more.
The other thing done right this week
was that we got more time with the crew back at home base. I’ve felt that we
really haven’t seen much of them yet, but this week we saw their side of the
story quite a lot, as they worked hard to bring the main trio home. I really
like this! The writers took what could’ve felt like a distraction used to fill
time and utilized it so that it actually became just as interesting as the
stranded team themselves.
Unfortunately, the episode’s biggest
problem comes in the form of the entire ending. Yes, all of it. I can forgive
Rufus being able to find everything he needs to fix the time machine in the 18th
century (you can make the claim they built it so it could be easily fixed in a
situation like this). The thing is, in order to get back to the base, the
people back in home base need to coordinate the landing themselves, otherwise
they could end up literally anywhere else. How do the home base team learn
this? Why, through the most asinine deus-ex machina I’ve seen in a very long
time. I tend to watch these shows in a group, and we were all rolling our eyes
at how exactly they were able to make it home safely.
The other thing that frustrates me
about the ending is that, aside from the Writtenhouse and Flynn stuff (of which
there was little to none of this week, but it ultimately didn’t really have a
place in this episode), all the conflicts that started last week seem to have
been wrapped up nicely. Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus are all friends again, and all
seems to be forgiven. I know they weren’t going to be fighting for the rest of
the season, but I would’ve liked the discord between the three to last a little
longer. Just because they’re a team and have been on several missions together
doesn’t mean they’re immediately best friends who would forgive anything. The
implications that Lucy is working for Flynn or Rufus is working for
Writtenhouse seem like they’d have more impact than just one episode’s worth.
And as we see here, it works really well! Adding an overarching conflict makes
Timeless much more interesting than when it’s an episodic tour through American
history.
This episode came so, so close to being fantastic. The story,
set design, characters, everything was done so well this week, and it added
more to the already good episode from last week, but the awful ending and cheap
cop-outs continue to make the show suffer plotwise. With 10
episodes remaining in the season, I really hope Timeless can fix the problems
it’s been having and give us a second half worth getting excited about.
FINAL SCORE
7/10
Good
No comments:
Post a Comment