Timeless: The Complete First Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Timeless: The Complete First Season

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
“Protect the past, save the future”. That sounds pretty familiar right? It seems that more and more shows have gotten into the role of time traveling as a way of protecting the the timeline and Timeless: The Complete First Season is another in those ranks. Playing out like a mixture of Star Trek: The Next Generation” time traveling episodes and the CW’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Timeless boldly goes where nowhere has gone before. Or more accurately, where other shows have gone before, in an effort to save us from our selves. The reality of the situation is, Timeless doesn’t delve into any new territory thanks to the plethora of other shows that deal with time traveling in order to save our future (it almost plays out a bit like The Librarians), but it’s a smartly written show that has a lot of fun putting our heroes into a multitude of historical situations and has them adjusting their tactics the best they can to not mess up the future.

Lucy Preston (the lovely Abigail Spencer) is called in by Homeland Security when a billionaire’s time travel device is stolen by the “terrorist” Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) in a violent encounter. It seems that the good doctor who built the device luckily didn’t plant for the theft, but he DID have a little bit of a backup in the form of the “lifebouat”, a little three man version of the time travel device which allows for a three man crew to go back in time and try to block and counter each and every hiccup that Flynn tries to put into the timeline. Along with Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), the secondary pilot for the mission, and soldier Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), the three of them travel back in time and act as the counterbalance for each and every one of Flynn’s interventions.

However, things don’t go as easily as planned. Each episode has them traveling back in time to hopefully undo or negate the effects of Flynn’s terrorism, but comes with its own set of consequences. They initially ALMOST stop Flynn from destroying the Hindenburg, only to find out that small deviations they made to the timeline has created ripples that go back to their own life in the future. Each and every step they make changes something ever so slightly, creating a new and different problem for Abigail and her crew to try and disassemble. However, there is more to the problems than just Flynn’s intervention. Rufus has a secret assignment of his own that requires he keep information from the team, while Lucy’s presence on the mission has a deadly link to Flynn that can only be unlocked by finding out just what exactly he means to her in the future. A prospect that may change her position on the team, as well as her loyalties and purpose in this time travel experiment.

Time travel shows usually have a few frustrating problems. The main one being the fact that we know NOTHING about real time travel, so the rules get made up as they go along and tend to wrap in on themselves until the viewer is left frustrated as the show double backs and rescinds its own principals and rules so many times that you just throw things in the air and walk away (look at the latest season of The Flash to see some of those problems). Luckily Timeless only has one of those small problems and its not a horrible thing if you don’t try to over analyze it. The show sticks very firmly to the idea that you CAN’T return to a time you’ve been at already, making it easy for them not to double up on themselves and create paradoxes that create something more catastrophic and mind numbing. This makes it so no one can go back just far enough in time to capitalize on the 90s stock market, and also makes it simply by having Lucy and her crew following Flynn (meaning if he goes somewhere and can’t go back, the same thing applies to them and vice versa) and keeps the time traveling somewhat linear in nature.

The show is actually a lot of fun despite the simplistic nature of time traveling. We get to see a little bit of history each week, and allow the crew to delve into a new and different era with each time jump. This creates a little bit of predictable monotony at times, but it keeps the show from wrapping around itself with paradox after paradox until it falls in on itself like so many other time travel shows. Lucy and Wyatt have that sort of semi romantic charm that every viewer is rooting for them to share a lip lock, while Rufus is the humor and heart of the show. The big mystery is naturally Flynn, and then weave him in as a sort of anti-hero that has his own set of morals and guidelines that don’t always deviate that widely from Lucy and her quest to fix the initial timeline lapse that he created with the Hindenburg.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The first season of Timeless is quite pleasant looking, with a naturally looking encode that doesn’t seem to be graded too heavily. There’s a light blue tinge to the show, but overall the series looks very clean cut and well detailed. The actors and actresses show off plenty of facial detail, and the different eras that the crew jumps in and out of shows slight color deviations, but the detail levels maintain a strong sense of clarity. There is some softness to the show due to it being a 480p DVD, but well within reason for your average TV show in this day and age. Sony has made great pains to not skimp on the encode and cram all 16 episodes into 3 discs or something (an annoying trend that some studios seem to be following as the giant DVD bubble fades), and the overall look and sharpness of the episodes are very pleasing to the eye with good black and very impressive color saturation.






Audio:

The 4 disc DVD set comes with a very stable 5.1 Dolby Digital track that is indicative of most modern TV shows. It’s full of life and vibrant, with a nice hefty LFE boost to boot. The first few minutes of the show sets the stage well with a scene involving the explosion of the Hindenburg, which employs some great front sound stage usage and some leg flapping bass lines. The show naturally can have a forward heavy tilt to it during the more dramatic scenes, but the action heats up the surrounds and LFE, creating a much more encompassing and energetic experience before slipping back into a dramatic dialog driven format.








Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel

Final Score: ​

Timeless is NOT an inventive show, but it is smartly written and has a charming cast for your average time travel show, which makes up for the lack of nuance and inventiveness. I went in thinking “yeah this is going to go well”, and actually came out with a bit grin on my face. The show is one of those shows goes off the “I think I can, I think I can” mentality as NBC canceled the series at the end of season 1, but then double backed on their decision (maybe Lucy made a change in NBC’s past) and the studio decided to cancel their cancellation and actually renewed the show for a second season. The show is fun and entertaining, and comes with a great looking and sounding Video/Audio mix for home viewers. My only complaint with the whole package is the fact that the extras are more than a bit anemic. Still worth it as a fun watch as the show is more than entertaining.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett
Created by: Eric Kripke, Shawn Ryan
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG 2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: Sony
Rated: NR
Runtime: 685 Minutes
DVD Release Date: September 19th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never caught this series when it was on.. Will keep an eye out for it.

 

[Michael Scott]

me neither. I heard about it being cancelled and uncancelled, but ended up liking it more than I thought I would. fun show IMO

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I haven't been able to get into the time travel shows ... although I am sure some of them have probably been okay.

 

[tripplej]

Speaking of time travel shows, one of the best shows, I ever saw was one called "Voyagers".. Not sure if you guys remember.. Unfortunately, the show only lasted one year and the main actor Jon-Erik Hexum passed away a few years later due to an accidental gun shooting on set for another show.

 

[Michael Scott]

Lol. I remember that show. Only vaguely though

 

[tripplej]

Looks like the show "Voyagers" is only available on dvd.. No blu ray version available. I loved that show as a kid since it mixed history and time travel.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

My wife and I really enjoyed this show. Looking forward to Season 2!

Regards,
Wayne