Journeyman

'Journeyman' is one of those shows which was slow to start but did eventually find its feet and deliver an interesting idea that posed many possible stories to explore. As it was, morons at NBC (the American television company which produced it) decided to cut short the endless possibilities that the show never had the chance to portrayed by cancelling it after the first season. Yet another potentially good show cancelled to, no doubt, make way for more rubbish reality shows which seem to be endlessly churned out these days.

The show revolved around Dan Vasser, a journalist who lives with his loving wife Katie and their young son Zack. He lives a busy but normal life until the day when he steps into a taxi and ends up suddenly finding himself back in time, circa the 1960s. As the show progresses we learn that Dan has the ability to jump back and forward in time, with the goal of altering events for the better. He is guided slightly by Livia, his thought-to-be dead former girlfriend who he finds out faked her death because she too has time travelling abilities.

Initially, it was hard to like anyone but Dan and Livia. While these two came across as fairly likable characters who carry the show well, Katie Vasser came across as a nagging irritation who seemed to think preserving her precious normality was more important than saving people's lives while Dan's cop brother Jack was depicted to be bitter and childish to allow his jealousies to cloud his realisation that there was something else going on with Dan rather than believing him to be unhinged. However, towards the end of the season, Katie and Jack were fleshed out and became easier to relate to as they accepted Dan's abilities.

'Journeyman' walked a fine line between being a time travelling sci-fi show, the 2007 version of 'Quantum Leap', and being a drama that portrayed the difficulties in maintaining a normal family life in the face of a troublesome, hectic 'job'. It would have been interesting to see how Dan and Katie preserved their life as the years passed or even how their son coped if he found out the full truth when he was older. The show also dealt with interesting story lines such as Dan accidentally changing his own future so that he had a daughter instead of a son, leaving him with painful dilemma of having to erase her to get his son back.

As I said, this show had much potential and could have explored many issues if it had the chance. It certainly deserved more than one season to prove itself and to build a fanbase. Here's hoping someone with sense at NBC will reconsider and give 'Journeyman' that chance.

Let me start with this statement: I LOVE THE SHOW!! It is one of the best of this year, and this year featured quite excellent shows, Pushing Daisies, Aliens in America, Chuck, Reaper, and Gossip Girl, to name a few. Alas the rating system failed the show and the plug is almost pulled off that show. However the show is amazing and it can be considered as a mini series, an excellent one.

I want to mention the acting, it was good across the board even though the stars of the show aren't exactly household names. Kevin Mckidd as Dan did an excellent job, it seems that American networks can always rely on Brits to deliver. As for the two leading females Gretchen Egolf who plays the wife Katie, and the extremely beautiful Moon Bloodgood who plays Livia the past lover and fellow time travelers, they both fit right in. The other supporting characters and guest stars did a fairly good job. The show started formulaic, not that there is anything wrong with that, but as the episodes progressed, the show evolved and became much more interesting as the stakes became bigger, that started with episode 5 "The Legend of Dylan McCleen". The consequences and the fall out from that episode effected the outcome of the following episodes. Finally someone wrote that this is show is "Truly a Gem" and I can't agree more, it is a gem that will be missed come 2008.

I'm an older guy who's into sci-fi stuff like this. Oddly enough, I had never heard of this one before this week. It's a good watch. And, it would be a good series to reboot. It obviously never got much publicity the first time around. Anyways, Highly Recommended! Give it a watch if you can find it online or in the DVD section.

Why was this canceled ?? Great series , hope they do a good remake one day , have watched it 3 times over the years , gets better with every watch .

I don't understand why the ratings were so low , and there are some series out there that are terrible but go on for years , what is wrong with the public are they just dumb !!? There not enough time travel series or movies out there!! , I mean how come CSI is still going on? Same old boring police stufff!!

I agree that it's a good show. Kind of a Quantum Leap for the Naughties. I find Livia's character intriguing. How long as she been travelling through time, has she ever used her 'gift' for personal gains? How is Dan and Livia aging differently to the rest of mankind? Will His wife grow old whilst he is still in his 40's etc? Is Elliot Langley a proper good guy? Why do they have this gift? Is the commet thing a red herring? etc, etc...

This show needs at least another series to see how it does. I'm sure with the right marketing it would get more viewers.

All in all, a quality show, that although not the best on TV, certainly very good.