Timeless - A nice way to spend TV time (but no new Who)

I've discovered that I'm not as good at TV bingewatching as I'd imagined. When there's a villain crush in the mix, then I bingewatch, and Doctor Who triggers the same impulse (yes, still, just about). But there are a number of series where I watch an episode now and then, think "this is nice, I'm enjoying this", but still only manage one episode per evening and very possibly watch something else the following day. Variety is good, I suppose, but it does leave me with a lot of half-watched series and a funny sense of under-achievement.

Which is one reason why I made a conscious effort to prioritise Timeless above other light-entertainment Netflix fare. One season containing fifteen episodes is available on Swedish Netflix: it was surely doable to complete it without stringing it out over months and months. I've watched the whole season now, and am glad I did, but making it to the season finale didn't really bring a reward. Instead of tying up the threads, the series opted for a classic season cliffhanger (which I'll get back to).

I hope Netflix sends the next season and the TV movie that (according to reviews on Amazon) completes the story, because I'm not sure I'm sufficiently invested in the series to buy the rest on DVD. All the same, I liked it. The story setup yields a satisfying amount of historical derring-do. A brilliant inventor has managed to build two time machines: a fancy new one (the mother ship) and the prototype, to be used in emergencies (the lifeboat). The mother ship is stolen by tortured dish Garcia Flynn, labeled a terrorist by US intelligence, and his gang of followers. His mission seems to be to sabotage key moments in American history, and a team consisting of nervy historian Lucy, tough military man Wyatt (who looks more like a pop star than a hardened veteran, but never mind) and the long-suffering programmer Rufus, who's the only one who can pilot the machine, are sent out in the lifeboat to stop him.

My impression of the first episode was "this is fun, if a little slipshod", and that impression more or less stuck during the rest of the series. The protagonists are likeable, the script is zingy and the acting's good. All the same, there's plenty to criticise. The series doesn't give you any in-depth view into or fresh angle on American history, as the famous people the heroes run into behave pretty much as described in historical textbooks. I don't really mind the hasty way in which it's established that time travel exists, and appreciate the fact that we're not bogged down with pseudo-scientific explanations as to how it's possible. The time machines themselves are clearly not of much interest to the writers: they're just an excuse to get the characters into historical adventures. Fair enough, but another far-fetched premise could have done with a little more elucidation. Flynn claims that there is a vast conspiracy, containing a large part of the American élite, who is clandestinely shaping the country in a harmful way. His history-changing plans, which include not only assassinating Lincoln but also half his government and sabotaging the moon landing, are necessary to take out "Rittenhouse", as this association of highly-placed baddies is called. Flynn turns out to be right, at least as far as the existence of Rittenhouse is concerned. However, it's not made clear what these people actually want. The conspiracy is as much of a simple plot device as the time machines, only there to furnish ethical dilemmas to the lifeboat team. Are they doing the right thing trying to stop Flynn, or should they be helping him?

What's more, little is done with the "ripple effect", which usually plays such an important part in time-travelling dramas. In the very first episode, where as a consequence of Flynn's and the team's meddling there are only two casualties in the Hindenburg disaster, the alteration has a vast impact on Lucy's life in the present. In the second episode, she has to convince her sceptical team mates that they can't stop Lincoln from being murdered as history has to play out the way it always did. Afterwards, though, this line of reasoning is dropped and the team both kill and save people in the past without it having any discernible effect on the present as long as the big events are preserved. This left the geek in me rather dissatisfied, as I had looked forward to seeing the present becoming weirder and weirder as a consequence of some random actions in the past - maybe not every episode, but every now and then. That it's never explained (at least not in the first season) how Lucy suddenly finds herself engaged to a handsome doctor she's never met was another disappointment.

My final gripe has less to do with this series specifically than with the habit (more common in the US than the UK, I think) of ending a season with a cliffhanger. I understand that it makes solid commercial sense to hook the viewers into the new season. Nevertheless, I prefer more or less completed season story arcs. Viewers who aren't too much into the series get a natural walking-off point (which, I realise, it's in no way in the series creators' interest to provide), and those who are into the series can look forward to new adventures with the satisfying feeling that at least some of the characters' old issues have been resolved. A cliffhanger which makes you feel as if you might as well have been left hanging mid-season - and I'd say the Timeless one fits into that category - can't help feeling frustrating. On the other hand, cliffhangers hinting at new dangers just as everything looks fine and dandy - such as Elsa stepping into Storybrooke (though that didn't go well) and the Doctor colliding with a space version of the Titanic - are OK. Just don't keep the original plot threads dangling forever.

Timeless isn't Doctor Who (at least not at its best), but it's still good entertainment. Speaking of Who, the series contains an actor who's often mentioned as a possible future Doctor - Paterson Joseph, who plays the morally compromised inventor Connor Mason. I'd definitely be on board with him as a future Doc; he does authority with a hint of arrogance very well. Perhaps it helps that the two parts I've seen him play so far (he was Rose's venal co-contestant in the Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf") have been somewhat shady?