Quantum Leap

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.

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.

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.

What happend with the intro music! What happend with Ziggy (i want to hear that computer). What happend with the original humor.

I will continue to look a glimpse of nostalgia and will give it a chance! If they ruin it, i will lower my score. I hope producers and writers could read this humble feedback.

We all want more, like Cobra kai did with Karate Kid, they caught the essence of the show. Sorry for my rusty english.

An appereance of Scott Bakula would be awesome!!!! I see potential, but you have to give a little of quantum leap old school for the followers of the original show!

Thanks!!!!!

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.