Finally got around to watching this. It wasn't as good as the movie, but I liked it better than I'd expected from the reviews. Freddie Stroma is a bit bland as H.G. Wells, and I'm surprised to learn he's actually a London native, because his Wells barely seems to have an English accent. Maybe a deliberate choice to make him more accessible to American audiences? If so, I don't care for it. Stroma does have a certain feckless charm, though, once you get used to the blandness. Josh Bowman is okay as Stevenson/the Ripper, but he's no David Warner, just as Stroma is no Malcolm McDowell. On the other hand, I find Genesis Rodriguez every bit as charming in her way as Mary Steenburgen was in the film -- possibly even more so. She's definitely the best thing about the show.
There were some good moments here and there. I quite liked H.G.'s discovery of New York City 2017. If you want to astound a time traveler with the progress and potential and diversity of the modern world, there's probably nowhere better. I also loved the bit where Jane tempted Stevenson with tales of his fame, then dropped the other shoe that he was famous for being completely unknown, his name forgotten while Wells had enduring fame. Ouch. Good thing he's a doctor, 'cause he's gonna need treatment for that burn.
The modern, ultra-serialized approach to TV storytelling does the series no favors. Naturally they couldn't give the story a decisive ending like the novel and movie, but they didn't even bring the opening 2-parter to any kind of climax. H.G. did rescue Jane and stop John from stealing the time machine, but that was maybe 2/3 of the way through part 2 and then we had a good 15 minutes of denouement and setup that just kind of fizzled out without really building to any meaningful stopping point. Is it supposed to be a big dramatic thing that some creepy guy in a cap is stalking H.G. and John? So what? Without any context, there's nothing to make that feel particularly suspenseful or interesting. And for a series that promises adventures through time, it's a profoundly mundane sort of cliffhanger. A guy in a ball cap, John picking up a girl in a bar, and H.G. flirting with Jane and having a vaguely tense conversation with his descendant's Senate-candidate husband? This is all we get after 2 hours of buildup? We could've had an ending where H.G. and Jane chase John through time and end up facing Morlocks or something.
Anyway, the show differs from the movie in that it does allow for history to be changed. The movie contrived a way to resolve the situation without any actual change to the timeline (thanks to an inaccurate newspaper report), but here, they definitely changed the future by saving John's second victim. So we've got one more time travel show with a mutable timeline. Not surprising, of course, since most are like that, but a fixed-timeline model might've been a nice change from all the other current time-travel shows. Also, an immutable causal loop would work better with the premise that Wells's experiences in time will lead to him writing the books we know he wrote.
As they explained it, the time machine does move through time, but without the key, it automatically returns to its point of origin. Although that conflicts with the machine sending them into its future incarnation. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The credits to the pilot said "Teleplay by Nicholas Meyer, Story by Karl Alexander & Steve Hayes." Those are the same credits as the movie, so it's hard to say. It was somewhat rewritten, of course, but maybe it was a close enough remake that the new writer wasn't deemed to be entitled to a credit, or maybe the showrunner decided to waive credit as a way of giving acknowledgment to the original writers.
But Meyer doesn't seem to be credited as any sort of producer or consultant, which I think he probably would be if he were involved with the show.
There were some good moments here and there. I quite liked H.G.'s discovery of New York City 2017. If you want to astound a time traveler with the progress and potential and diversity of the modern world, there's probably nowhere better. I also loved the bit where Jane tempted Stevenson with tales of his fame, then dropped the other shoe that he was famous for being completely unknown, his name forgotten while Wells had enduring fame. Ouch. Good thing he's a doctor, 'cause he's gonna need treatment for that burn.
The modern, ultra-serialized approach to TV storytelling does the series no favors. Naturally they couldn't give the story a decisive ending like the novel and movie, but they didn't even bring the opening 2-parter to any kind of climax. H.G. did rescue Jane and stop John from stealing the time machine, but that was maybe 2/3 of the way through part 2 and then we had a good 15 minutes of denouement and setup that just kind of fizzled out without really building to any meaningful stopping point. Is it supposed to be a big dramatic thing that some creepy guy in a cap is stalking H.G. and John? So what? Without any context, there's nothing to make that feel particularly suspenseful or interesting. And for a series that promises adventures through time, it's a profoundly mundane sort of cliffhanger. A guy in a ball cap, John picking up a girl in a bar, and H.G. flirting with Jane and having a vaguely tense conversation with his descendant's Senate-candidate husband? This is all we get after 2 hours of buildup? We could've had an ending where H.G. and Jane chase John through time and end up facing Morlocks or something.
Anyway, the show differs from the movie in that it does allow for history to be changed. The movie contrived a way to resolve the situation without any actual change to the timeline (thanks to an inaccurate newspaper report), but here, they definitely changed the future by saving John's second victim. So we've got one more time travel show with a mutable timeline. Not surprising, of course, since most are like that, but a fixed-timeline model might've been a nice change from all the other current time-travel shows. Also, an immutable causal loop would work better with the premise that Wells's experiences in time will lead to him writing the books we know he wrote.
As they explained it, the time machine does move through time, but without the key, it automatically returns to its point of origin. Although that conflicts with the machine sending them into its future incarnation. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The credits to the pilot said "Teleplay by Nicholas Meyer, Story by Karl Alexander & Steve Hayes." Those are the same credits as the movie, so it's hard to say. It was somewhat rewritten, of course, but maybe it was a close enough remake that the new writer wasn't deemed to be entitled to a credit, or maybe the showrunner decided to waive credit as a way of giving acknowledgment to the original writers.
But Meyer doesn't seem to be credited as any sort of producer or consultant, which I think he probably would be if he were involved with the show.
