The Ripper runs wild in New York City.
Warning: Full spoilers for the second hour of Time After Time's two-hour premiere follow..
We reviewed the pilot episode of Time After Time last year after it was screened at San Diego Comic-Con. ABC aired both the pilot and the sophomore episode, "I Will Find You," last night. I'm going to attempt to cover the latter here, though as the two episodes were aired as a more or less seamless whole last night, it's a little difficult to draw a distinction between the two.
To recap, Time After Time is an update of the book and 1979 TV movie of the same name. It follows the misadventures of writer H.G. Wells (UnReal's Freddie Stroma) as he pursues a time-displaced Dr. John Stevenson (a.k.a. Jack the Ripper, played by Revenge's Josh Bowman) across present-day Manhattan. The second episode continues the first's approach of sticking pretty close to the original film, with Wells' new friend Jane (Run All Night's Genesis Rodriguez) being kidnapped by Stevenson and Wells racing against time (no pun intended) to rescue her and prevent his former friend from escaping into the timestream.
With these first to episodes sticking so close to the source material, the most obvious question is how showrunner Kevin Williamson intends to adapt a standalone movie into a serialized drama. While still not entirely clear by the end of "I Will Find You," the answer seems to rest with Vanessa Anders (Boogie Nights' Nicole Ari Parker). We quickly learn in this episode that Anders is Wells' great-great-granddaughter and was enlisted by his future self to help him in his ongoing hunt for Stevenson. Gotta love time travel...
By the end of this episode, what started as a straightforward manhunt has ballooned into a multifaceted conflict involving multiple ambiguous factions and conspiracies and who knows what else. But while it's nice to know that Williamson does have a few wrinkles in mind, none of these new additions do anything to make this reboot more compelling than the original. It generally comes across as pointlessly complicated and convoluted. It doesn't help that Anders comes across as such a flat, lifeless character. Perhaps Parker's stiff acting is an intentional choice, one designed to mask the character's true motives, but either way, her character and those connected to her come across as unnecessary additions to the mix.
It's ironic that Time After Time's biggest problem is the fact that it doesn't leave itself enough time. Many of the show's core flaws boil down to the fact that these two episodes don't spend enough time fleshing out the core characters and their relationships. The pilot barely spent any time establishing the relationship between Wells and Stevenson in 1893 before dragging both characters in the present. Now the show seems determined to fast-track a romance between Wells and Jane despite the two having known each other for a matter of hours.
The emphasis on secret conspiracies is all the more frustrating because it prevents the show from focusing on its central conceit - the idea that two Victorian gentlemen are forced to adjust to life in the fast-paced modern world. There's something compelling about the idea of H.G. Wells experiencing the technological wonderland of which he always dreamed, only to be crushed by the realization that mankind is just as violent and depraved as ever. Similarly, there's the fact that Jack the Ripper would find 21st Century New York such an inviting and liberating place. But the "men out of time" angle generally feels like an afterthought. It's one thing to suspend disbelief and accept that Wells would have built himself a time machine solely as "research" for his yet-to-be-written novel. It's another entirely to accept that both men could so quickly and easily adapt to modern life. The show is very much like Fox's Sleepy Hollow in that regard.
Normally I'm all for a new series that hits the ground running rather than taking its sweet time to do a little world-building. But in this case, Time After Time is too preoccupied with building its conspiracies and setting the stage for an ongoing conflict between Wells and Stevenson and not enough with establishing the characters. Stroma, Bowman and Rodriguez all deliver solid, enthusiastic performances, but there's only so much they can do to make these characters feel believable. Stroma and Bowman simply don't have the chemistry one would expect from bitter enemies. Bowman does make a good Ripper, however. He's calm, collected and coldly terrifying, but also prone to losing his composure when pushed far enough. This episode also toys with the idea that even someone as vile and bloodthirsty as the Ripper can change and find redemption. That's a far more compelling thrust for the show than any of the conspiracies at play.
The Verdict
Two episodes in, Time After Time can't even measure up to its 1979 predecessor, much less stand out amid the surprising amount of time travel-themed shows on the air these days. The second episode establishes how a standalone premise will be expanded into a serialized drama, but none of the conspiracy elements introduced here are particularly engaging. The series needs to worry a lot less about what happens next and more about building stronger relationships among the core cast of characters.
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