Journeyman seemed a complete loss at first. Not only was the concept of a time traveling do-gooder overdone, many times, but the series co-starred
Moon Bloodgood who starred in an extremely ill fated sci fi drama last season named
Day Break, which was, you guessed, a time travel story. So the timing, by some estimations, couldn't be worse for a show like this.
Journeyman, however, is finding a cult following already, if not through the pre release of the pilot NBC made available through Amazon and DVRs everywhere, then through the massive amounts of illegally distributed copies that circulated the web through bit torrent sites.
The feedback from those corners so far is impressive. A lot of people are jumping on the best new show of the season bandwagon with me. Yes, we can talk all day long about how the show is a study in superior characterization, how Journeyman creates a ‘world' where other shows struggle to create a decent scene that will stick together without copious exposition and very interesting camera work. Handheld. With snap zooms. Maybe on 8mm.
Journeyman succeeds because it is not a time travel show, it does not have the trappings of holograms from the future and body snatching motifs like
Quantum Leap, even though the comparison is not a bad one. The fact is, why not do something like
Quantum Leap? It was a survivor that managed to leave a faithful fan following behind it that guaranteed some descent post prime time treatment for the show.
In a time in which the collective unconscious seems to be crying out for tales of heroes imbued with supernatural gifts,
Journeyman has the intelligence to connect at the human level in a way that is already resonating with audiences everywhere. While the buzz may be centered on
Bionic Woman, the critical hope seems to be focused on
Journeyman.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)