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.

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.

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.

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.