Project Canceled: Journeyman

Life's not fair. That's an axiom we learn very early in life, and despite the truthfulness of the statement, it never brings any comfort, solace, or calm to any situation...just cold, harsh reality. This is one of those instances. For years, I have extoled the virtues of NBC's long-canceled show "Journeyman" on this blog, but it has been YEARS since I've actually watched "Journeyman". I remember quite a bit and have forgotten quite a bit, but from what I remember, I remember it being 10/10. There are very few shows that I have absolute adoration for; most are the usual suspects: "The Sopranos", "Breaking Bad", "L O S T", "True Detective: Season One" (because that's the only season that matters) but "Journeyman" was presented as a lead-in to "Heroes" and a mid-season replacement nonetheless, there wasn't much hype surrounding the series as it didn't carry any big names, the only recognizable names being an up and coming Kevin McKidd and TV cancer herself Moon Bloodgood (who we previously referenced in our discussion of "Day Break").

I won't rehash what I said about "Day Break," but all of it applies to "Journeyman". Sometimes TV shows come out at the wrong time, and because of that, they don't make as much of a splash as they could have. I firmly believe "Journeyman" is one of those TV shows. I pitched it as my generation's "Quantum Leap", except instead of jumping into different bodies, our main character, Dan Vasser, is jumping through time and helping alter events in the future and changing lives. I might as well discuss the plot since I gave you a little taste, but I'll be more robust. 

"Journeyman" tells the story of Daniel Vasser, a newspaper journalist who suddenly has the ability to travel through time. These trips are uncontrollable, unpredictable, random, and offer NO instructions as to why other than "Follow your instincts". Dan's trips often focus on an individual he either needs to help, save, stop, or change somehow. Dan's life is effectively turned upside down by these trips as he tries to regain stability in his life and his new mission.

That's "Journeyman" at its most basic, and while it didn't get to generate any real lasting arcs in its 13-episode run, it was able to create some solid mysteries and some real tensions with genuinely likeable characters. Since we're talking about characters, there is a lot to unpack, so let's dive in. First, there is Dan Vasser, our main character and a likeable guy, a former gambling addict and newspaper journalist (here's where it gets nuts). Dan has a 7-year-old son, named Zack, and is married to Katie, his brother Jack's ex-girlfriend. Dan had a previous wife named Olivia (who died in a plane crash, we'll get to that). Despite the tension in Dan and Jack's relationship, you can tell that Jack (being the older brother) genuinely does care about Dan, despite everything. The crazy part isn't just the time traveling, but upon his first trip, he sees his ex-wife Olivia, who turns out to be a time traveler just like Dan, and that she never died. Olivia stated that prior to meeting Dan, she traveled, and it stopped for a while, long enough for her to meet Dan and marry him.

The series itself has a "Problem of the week" format with some lore building as the series progresses. Every episode, Dan is dragged away to some different time to help someone solve a problem, save a life, or prevent something worse from happening. Deviating from the mission can cause awful side effects for the future, as we find out in Episode 12. During a trip, Dan accidentally leaves his digital camera behind in the 1980s, causing technology to advance at a much faster pace, and causing Dan's son Zack to be erased and replaced by a daughter named Caroline. The episodes themselves are tense and heartfelt and genuinely well done, and the tension of Dan not having any necessary tools he needs (old-fashioned money, ID, etc., etc.) makes things even harder. The best thing about the series is that it doesn't beat around the bush with what's at stake and what's going on, and it doesn't beat around the bush with Dan proving to his wife that he is, in fact, traveling through time, and he proves this brilliantly. 

This was legit well thought out.

With Kate on board, the series moves a lot more smoothly, and that's its strength. There are some eyerolling moments where Kate is being somewhat unreasonable, but it never escalates beyond mild frustration. What is frustrating is how much Jack is kept in the dark about all this. Now granted, Dan told Jack the truth about his ability to time-travel, and it wasn't until Episode 10 (there are 13 episodes in full) that Jack is fully on board. But with Dan being an investigator and Jack being a police detective, both of them could have used their combined efforts to solve quite a few problems. I wish Dan had realized that earlier. That being said, when the chips are down, Jack does show himself to be a reliable character, and he genuinely does care about Dan.

The series lasted for 13 episodes, and within those 13 episodes, we do start to see some lore building. In episode 2, Dan takes a taxi cab and pays the cabbie with a $20 from 2007 in the past, leading the cabbie to believe the $20 is counterfeit. Dan fled from the police (his brother Jack), who tagged and bagged the $20, only for FBI Agent Richard Garritty to realize that the $20 wasn't counterfeit but from the future. Garrity also seemed to be aware of other travelers; he makes a comment saying, "They always need money, it trips them up." Leading us to believe that Richard Garrity was tracking people whom he believed to be time travelers. Dan wouldn't have been on Garrity's radar had it not been for him accidentally taking money from a famous heist (ala, D.B. Cooper), the bills were marked, and when Dan's son Zack (stupidly) showed his uncle the bills, Jack pocketed some and had the lab test it, only for it to come back as stolen money.

Dan, being a journalist, DOES have a solid alibi for this, as journalists do have special permissions to hold onto evidence without being charged for possession of said evidence, like child pornography or leaked information (mostly due to verifying the validity of what they have). Dan could have claimed that the money was evidence that he needed to verify from a source. But I digress, the next piece of the puzzle is Elliot Langley, a man interested in quantum physics and time travel. Early on, it's clear Elliot knows something about the traveling but is playing his cards close to his chest, and Langley emerges again in Garrity's files with a picture of himself and Dan at NASA, implying that they've not only met before but had enough of a relationship to be photographed together with his arm around him. Likewise, we discover that Dan and Olivia were born during the passing of a particular comet that only passes by ever so often. We learn that Dan travels from the future to the past while Olivia travels from the past to the future, and yet somehow they're constantly running into each other. 

Paul Schulze does an excellent job of playing absolute assholes.

The series lays down some questions but is coy in giving answers, and some of the more interesting ideas end without much ceremony. Agent Garrity is taken out pretty early on, and Dan doesn't have to live with the consequences of his actions for very long. Once again, the most compelling episode was Episode 11, where leaving a digital camera behind in the past caused him to lose his son and gain a daughter. This isn't a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either, and that's something that I liked, because he didn't return to some nightmare reality or some horrible life; he returned to a genuinely good life...that just wasn't his, and that makes it all the more tragic. Episode 10 also shows Dan using his knowledge of the past to influence his knowledge of the future. Aeden Bennett, a man Dan put away for kidnapping, returns to kill him, and Dan is pulled into the past to help a young Aeden Bennett. The episode was genuinely pretty heartfelt.  

This was legit a really good episode

The characters, as I said before, are pretty likeable (except for Kate's sister, whose name I didn't bother to learn). Dan is a really good guy and ultimately pretty selfless. He wants to do what's right, but it doesn't take him long to learn he can't save everyone. Olivia is cool; she is the calm veteran who's been traveling longer, and while you can tell there's still some love between them, they keep their relationship strictly professional. Jack starts off as kind of a jerk, but he gets better when you realize he does indeed genuinely love his brother. Kate is a fine character; she genuinely has Dan's back, and you can tell she loves him. Even the side characters like Dan's editor, Hugh, are awesome. There is a "Blink, and You'll Miss Him" John Noble sighting. The most interesting character is easily Elliot Langley, and by the end of the series, you realize his cageiness is protection, not only for himself but for Dan. The final episode reveals another traveler named Evan, who has been at it for 15 years, and deviated from the mission so much that it resulted in his wife being married to someone else. He unceremoniously dies after being briefly reunited with her on the day of Dan's first trip, heavily implying some kind of replacement mechanic in the world of travelers, but we'll never know.

To make a long story short, "Journeyman" is easily one of the best series from NBC in a LONG time. Different enough to have its own flavor, similar enough to jump in whenever. With its semi-episodic nature, viewers could tune in and get caught up pretty quickly. The show started off as a lead-in for "Heroes" 2nd season, and that's what I think ultimately killed it. "Heroes" was on the decline as the season continued, and fans had other things to watch. Moon Bloodgood is right: if Netflix or other streaming services had been around, "Journeyman" would have been a considerable sleeper hit, but unfortunately, Dan Vasser can't go back in time to prevent its cancellation. With the 13 episodes we did get, the series did come to some sort of conclusion. Did we discover why Dan is traveling? No. Dan fully embraced his mission and recognized it as a calling rather than a curse, and that's a good place to end things. Unlike Dr. Samuel Beckett, Dan Vasser will always find his way home.