Code Quantum

Season one was okay with some decent story lines ... but the writers have obviously run out of story ideas and by episode 2, season 2 they have already set it up to be "just another soap opera". If your main characters have to have a dysfunctional love life in order to be interesting, they don't have much 'character'. The first series avoided being just about moronic love lives by creating story lines with intelligible plots. It appears this new series is going to be more about what's happening in the present at home and less about what's happening in the 'leap' and its' impact on the world. Instead of being a cool sci-fi series with a creative "what-if" perspective ... it's becoming just another show about people who suck at relationships ... but these idiots are supposed to be intelligent so they get to do science stuff while acting like middle school morons.

Yes I'm a fan of the original, no you can't compare them and yes there is so much wrong with the show that it unfortunately outweighs the nostalgia. Firstly, the script is so dumbed down to the point where they have to spell everything out for you. Secondly, I just can't stand the hologram/partner, I don't know why, but she bothers me, she is dull, whiny and makes everything about herself. I don't know why they made her character the romantic interest, it does not make it more interesting.

We also spend a chunk of each episode going over what is happening in real time, outside of the leap. I'm not going to lie, during the original episodes I did wonder what happens in the world that he is missing but the reality is that it doesn't matter, we care about the leap and the main character.

Besides the main character I can't say that I like anyone else in this show, they are annoying and detract from the point of the show, the part that you want to watch. Honestly I can live with the dumbed down dialogue and obvious plots if it had characters and storylines that entertained me, this unfortunately has nothing going for it.

They had a golden opportunity with this show and the stories are basically limitless but they are so underwhelming and they could not have cast the show worse if they actually tried, this is a truly disappointing miss and such a smudge on the name of quantum leap.

I watched the first two episodes (the second one only because Beth Calavicci was in it) and to say I'm underwhelmed by it is an understatement and I think I understand why Scott Bakula doesn't want anything to do with it.

They removed everything about the original series from it to make it into a series without substance. They barely give you any reason to care about Ben & no reason to care about the people he's helping. The original series did that. You grew to care about the people that Sam was helping in the episode & not just Sam himself. Instead they decided that they needed to make it into a flat action adventure series. There's also way too much split focus, going between Ben trying to help people back to the project isn't needed. This is a case where telling the viewers that the team was working on trying to fix the problems with Ziggy & figuring out a way to get Sam back was better than showing us what they're doing in the present to get Ben back. What is the point of making the team suspicious of Ben & his motivations? Why did they think they needed a mystery about Al's daughter?

If you want a good time traveling TV series with good storytelling, watch the original. If you want a forgettable action adventure series with an element of time travel watch this I guess.

It's a fun thing to watch if you don't want anything that requires thinking. Acting is pretty decent but there are some things that I simply find annoying. Particularly the very obvious messaging in the show. I'm a fairly liberal person and I appreciate wide range of diversity in casting but the fact that there always needs to be a small lesson on gender identity is super old and tiring and NOT an effective means of changing hearts and minds. There are other ways to send that those same messages without having the dialogue come across like it's for a kids show. Having such messaging so on the nose will instantly cause half the audience to check out and feel like an ideology is being "crammed down their throats," while a more subtle approach could allow those same viewers to be more receptive.

Sam Beckett, Al Calavicci, and technically Ziggy, an artificial intelligence accessed by a glitchy gizmo that seemed to cough whenever Al slapped it. Those were the only characters present for every episode of "Quantum Leap" from 1989 - 1993. The rapport between the two leads and a variety of sympathetic stories broached many serious subjects with a light touch, making this one of my favorite shows of all time.

The new series continues this story nearly 30 years later. Dr. Ben Song steps into an updated Quantum Leap chamber and leaps into another person's life "to put right what once went wrong." This time, the holographic guide is his fiancee, Addison, which provides an interesting wrinkle when Ben's leaps induce amnesia (known to Sam as the "Swiss cheese effect"). However, this rendition of the series introduces a flurry of supporting characters, which so far appears both a blessing and a curse. Their diversity of gender, race, and sexuality is a refreshing change, but their quantity and extensive storylines complicated the first episode and kept the actors from building depth and chemistry. Instead, the writers too often imbued scenes with a heavy-handed and overly serious intensity without humanizing the characters with lighter quirks to make them more relatable. That said, one character, a programmer named Ian, already had a bit more flair, and more nuanced development may evolve in future episodes.

I'd only rate this a 5 or less if not for its skillfully brief allusions to characters from the original Quantum Leap project (unlike other more overbearing reboots), including a cathartic nod to the messy cliffhanger ending to the earlier series. Hopefully, NBC will provide this show and its characters time for growth. A few slaps seemed to fix Al's gizmo, and maybe this program's glitches will similarly improve over the next few episodes.