Journeyman

This (brief) last season of television was a milestone for science fiction. Thanks to the success of “Heros”, “Lost”, and “Battlestar Galactica” network television executives were nearly tripping over themselves to get any sort of sci-fi content on TV.

A lot of these shows were clearly not going to make it after just a few episodes. There were a couple, however, that really stood out for me. These shows deserved to stay on the air, but faced with the writer’s strike, they ended up canceled and relegated to the $25.00 bin of your local Best Buy.

Journeyman by far the best of these “died too young” shows. The show was intelligent, well thought out, and well acted. It’s rare that a show grips me as much as this one did (the last was Joss Wheadon’s: “Firefly”).

The show centers around reporter Dan Vasser (played smartly by Kevin McKidd). Vasser suddenly finds his perfect life torn apart when he starts mysteriously traveling through time for brief periods of time. During his travels through time, he finds that he is drawn to play a role in the lives of certain people that he encounters. By doing this he changes their lives as well as the future.

His travels are rooted in the present by his wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf). In a first for a series of this type, Katie knows about Dan’s travels and actively helps him. It would have been outrageously simple to have Dan do all this “traveling” while sneaking around and not telling his wife. By having Katie be a complete person, the show adds more layers of complexity.

The funny thing about “Journeyman” is that there really is no “bad guy” in the show. Everyone is viewed as a complete person with both good and bad sides.

I will be the first to admit that the premise of the show is very much like “Quantum Leap”. However, unlike “Quantum Leap” this show doesn’t pretend to explain what is going on with Dan’s “travels” right away. The trips back and forth through time almost seem to fade into the background as the strong writing and acting prominently stand out. The story is what draws you in, but the great cast is what seals the deal.

I’m not going to give away a lot of the numerous surprises that are in store for you if you haven’t seen “Journeyman” yet, but I will warn you that this show falls into the “TV 2.0” model of complex storytelling. Like its brothers “Heros” and “Lost” the show almost serves as a mini movie. It’s easier to watch an entire season in a month of viewing vs. watching it as it airs. If you watch it weekly (with commercials) a lot of the foreshadowing is missed.

The show is still available on NBC.com to view online or you can support the show by purchasing all 13 episodes on iTunes.

Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.