Quantum Leap

Loved Sam and Al! The original is always hard to beat. Not sure the new guy can pull it off. I like the nostalgic feel but it's gonna be a rocky road. I think a lot of people are going to be critical and rightfully so. I'll give it a few more episodes to make a full judgement. The Quantum Leap idea is so cool so I want them to succeed. I think if they can bring Sam back in some way to properly pass the torch it may have a shot. Reminds me of MacGyver; so hard to live up to original. There has to be some good ideas ahead with the new characters so why not give them a chance to prove themselves? I wish them good luck but it's gonna need to make some huge leaps to successful.

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.

I didn't watch much of the original Quantum Leap growing up, but I knew it was a fairly well-liked series and lasted as long as it had because of its accessible storytelling with universal themes, charming storytelling, and charismatic performances by Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. It wasn't quite like other science fiction shows of the time and stayed atypical from the rest on the marketplace for a good number of years after it finished. The same cannot be said about its 2022 revival of the same name, which sets to repackage the concept while acknowledging the original series.

2022's Quantum Leap feels like any other science fiction show for primetime television, with the same fast-paced, techno-jargon heavy, and flashy editing of any other program occupying similar space between 7 to 10pm at night. To make matters worse, the premiere establishes the premise and its cast of characters far too fast to really hook someone who is totally new to the intellectual property. The fast pacing of the storytelling ends up glossing over aspects which would be pretty engaging to the viewer, what you are left with is a string of things happening left to right without enough space to feel attached to. The visual effects, for the most part, are pretty poor - at one point in the premiere, when two characters interact in a moving car, you can clearly tell the actors are in front of a screen and can see their outlines very sharply. I acknowledge that the effects work in the original series wasn't of strong quality, either, but for its time it was living up to the bar with other shows, this new Quantum Leap doesn't have any excuses in 2022.

The cast are actually fine and charismatic, but there isn't enough substance for them to go off of and not enough room for them to make enough of an impact. I would say the two actors who made the most with what they were given were Ernie Hudson and Mason Alexander Park.

I think Scott Bakula made the right call to reject the offer for his character to appear, in contemporary Hollywood where so many iconic male characters are frequently being deconstructed he probably saw the writing on the wall and kindly refused, so far his character is only mentioned in conversation and nothing else - I would be nervous to find out what this new batch of creatives might have had in mind if Bakula accepted their offer.

A commodity tv show, with a science fiction component really always needs two things to make up for the lack of drama, production, writing, and special effects.

Those two things are heart, and levity. And those were two things the original quantum leap had in spades. As does pretty much any other commodity tv science fiction show you might think of. This show however does not have any funny characters or writing. The main character's actor in particular seems just fine as an actor, but not well suited to comedy. And whilst the show aims for story lines with heart, it feels very by the numbers.

People are already crucifixion the show based on one episode. First of people keep using the term remake. This is not a remake. It's a continuation from the original show based 30 years later. One reviewer said that we got to learn a little about Scott's character in each episode with the original but in this one we learned everything in the first episode. I don't know what they watched but I don't know crap about Ben except he rewrote the code and has a fiance and is a physicist. People being to cynical based off of 44 minute first episode. I thought the story was good considering it's only been 1 episode so far.