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Journeyman has emerged as NBC's most steadfast new show, managing to retain all of its audience and actually build in key demographic areas. The Sci Fi drama has been a critical success with fans as well, beginning to generate a low roar of buzz centered on its gradually accreting mythology and intelligent character treatment. It's Achilles heel, however, continues to be the misconception that
Journeyman's core concept has been over done. I spoke briefly with Journeyman creators Kevin Falls and Alex Graves directly about that criticism.
In particular, many critics, particularly in the print world, were quick to dismiss Journeyman as a pastiche of previous time-travel shows like
Quantum Leap, and
Sliders, but nearly out of hand. “I don't see the comparison to those shows,” Graves said. “[
Journeyman] functions on several different layers… the time travel sort of sets apart as a procedural part of that.”
Journeyman is as much
Quantum Leap or
Sliders as
Lost is
Fantasy Island, or
Robinson Crusoe. Ultimately, the science fiction aspect is more of a canvas to the human story. As with
Lost's strong commitment to telling a human tale,
Journeyman is tapping into the fantastic circumstances of its character's lives to tell a fantastic human story.
“…We have the greatest respect for those shows, and we hope we reach that level of success. But the time travel here is unique because of the way it fits into these characters lives.” Falls said.
Getting beyond the notion that
Journeyman is an iteration of the
Quantum Leap or
Sliders stylistic device is as simple as watching an episode. Once you see the intricate weave work that exists between the character's lives, and how precariously it is strung between the time traveling antics of leads Dan Vassar (
Kevin McKidd) and Livia (
Moon Bloodgood), you immediately understand that regardless of what the ‘mission' is, there are larger human issues at stake. It's dramatic tension on an epic scale. “Any notion that we are
Quantum Leap is pretty much checked at the door.” Falls said.
Journeyman continues to perform well, better than any new show could expect. “We've retained 100% of our premiere audience.” Graves told me. In addition, the show grew in all the key demos while it's earlier lead-in duo of
Chuck and
Heroes each lost around 14%.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)