Journeyman - season 1 thread

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I'm hooked. I was going to watch till the end anyway, but this ep was well and truly the best so far. I too thought Livia was going to be the one to call Katie -- although that would have a Terminator-esque self-fulfilling prophecy air to it -- and the director/writer/producer (whoever was responsible) cleverly played that angle up, until Dan showed up at the game and Katie's friend (Blair Underwood, can't remember the character's name) was at the table. The cross editing between Livia, and later Katie and Dan as they 'fell in love' with Livia waiting outside was one of the most powerful bits of TV I've seen this year.

And the penny (or should that be a Benjamin?) drops as a pissed-off brother spills the beans to the Feds.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I wonder how much they can investigate Dan for the missing money? First, they won't find it. And also Dan was 5 when the crime was committed.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Receiving stolen property is a felony and it doesn't matter when the property was stolen. (The statute of limitations clock starts when you receive the property, not when the original thief took it.) Same with accessory after the fact to a crime and aiding and abetting a fugitive, both of which Dan will be suspected of since the theory will be he got the cash from the original hijacker. Jack saw the dufflebag full of bills, and they have one bill that they can prove came from the hijacking.

The feds are going to know where that money - in pristine condition - came from. And Dan can't just claim he found it in a ditch somewhere, because he's already told his editor that he had a real live lead on the identity of the hijacker. Then he just says, "Oh, nevermind. Lead didn't pan out." And a few weeks later he has all this money from the hijacking, which looks like it has been perfectly preserved in some secure environment since the day of the crime.

They have a 100% case for the one bill that Jack turned over on possession of stolen property, and they have a very good circumstantial case to show that Dan had the rest of the money or at least a substantial part of it - and that Katie was involved because she has been stonewalling, too. At the very least they can open a criminal investigation, tear both their lives apart, put both their jobs at risk and probably threaten to take their kid and turn him over to children and family services. Make no mistake, Dan and Katie are in deep kimchi here, whether or not any more cash turns up. In fact, they'd be in better shape if they could turn in a big bag of cash and try to cut a deal. But that is no longer an option.

The writers have done a very good job of painting them into a corner here.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I never thought I'd hear the term "deep kimchi" from anyone other than my dad. Maybe a Florida thing?

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I had forgotten about Dan telling his boss about the hijacker lead that didn't pan out. It's interesting how that one episode had all kinds of ramifications for every lead character.

I keep expecting David Morse as Detective Tritter ('House' reference for those of you who may not know) to show up and start dogging Dan about the money.

Tonight's episode promises another conversation between Dan and the cryptic tacheon doctor.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Of course, this is a TV Series, they can come up with a hundred ways the investigation doesn't pan out or is dropped altogether.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I think I first heard it on a M*A*S*H episode.


But only a few that play fair with the audience, make sense, and are internally consistent with what has gone before. Sure, there are lots of ways of cheating their way out of this, but I trust the writers not to do that. They've set up a situation that demands a very clever and very logical solution.

Joe

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Is it me, or does this show have the drabbiest cinematography on TV these days? Everything is shades of gray, nothing really pops.

At least they cleared up Livia's situation a bit, but Dan keeps going back a little less in time for the current mission, he never goes back further than the initial jump destination at the start of the episode, and subsequent jumps drop him a little further down the timestream. Plus now he just knows to head towards his front door to launch back in time.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I saw it in the previews but somehow missed it in the episode. Was he there or was it cut??

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Rewound the DVR... Um, nevermind! Guess I shouldn't be on the computer while watching the show!

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isnt this the trend on tv now?

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Everybody seems to say, "I like this show, but it's not one of my favorites." It's quickly becoming one of mine. Tonight's was a mindblower. Livia's from the past! I was thinking maybe Dan was her project, but it sounds like she was in the '80s for a while before she met him. It would still make sense. Maybe that's why the trips get longer--because the traveler becomes connected on a deeper level.

It's turning out that the creative staff has constructed this thing meticulously. I would never again have thought about the scene with the "counterfeit" bill, and here it's back to cause a problem for Jack. He's really been put into a bad situation, and it won't get better for him even if he starts to believe Dan.

This is just really an "adult" show. As much as I love Quantum Leap, it comes across as a more fanciful, maybe juvenile take on the material. Dealing with the ramifications of time traveling on the individual is something else entirely. I hope the strike--or just plain bad ratings--doesn't end this ride. I really want to know what's going on with Langley--I suspect from tonight's episode that he knows exactly what's going on with Dan.

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I'll echo what Greg said, adding that I happen to think this show is borderline brilliant, as everything seems to be falling into place much more concretely than other shows.

Also, I happen to like the "drab" look of the show. Personally it seems to me that too many shows are actually the other way, with colours that "pop" (Las Vegas, Chuck, LOST, et cetera...).

cheers!

Josh

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I really liked how Livia's storyline was explained. Kinda cool actually.

This show is definitely part of my must see Mondays.

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What was the deal with getting Bo Kent for such a brief scene? Maybe he's pals with somebody in the production office. Maybe it was to make us think the episode was going to be about him. Or, maybe he'll be back at some point in the future . . . or past. I was thinking maybe he and some of the other current day people Dan has contacted would come to ask him a few questions, but I realize that Dan never actually had the conversation about Abby being in prison in the altered timeline.

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I vowed I wouldn't try to over-think the show or try to apply logic, but here I go. We have seen Dan "leaping" with the same clothes and whatever he had on his body at the time of the leap. If Livia comes fro the past, why is it that she leaps in contemporary clothing?

One other thing, if Dan has left almost all the hijacking money in the past, will that change the investigation in the present? Although, the problem with the $20 won't go away very easily.

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I thought it was inspired casting to have John Schneider last night. He was such an icon in the late 70's. Well, I guess 1979 was when the Dukes show premiered.

Maybe if the show goes on, and they keep going to the 70's or 80's, they could get other actors that made it big in those eras.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Tonight's explanation, as Jack explains to the FBI, is that he obtained the evidence (the single bill from the hijack stash) in such a way as to make it inadmissible. However, this FBI guy is a pit bull and won't let go, because there is another lead involving a counterfeit bill, something we may remember from earlier this season.

Some of the issues:

* Future Dan leaves a modern bill with a cab driver, is chased by past Jack for handing over counterfeit money. This case has stayed open since, getting the attention of the Feds.

Can someone explain what happened with this bill? I was confused with how they portrayed this. After 10 pm I get a little groggy. When Jack bought the drink with the $20, was he getting rid of evidence? Was that the same bill he crumpled in his hand years earlier? What are the chances that Dan's brother is beginning to believe him, given the evidence that this bill was from the future? I'm just not sure how this money, if it was shown to Jack by the FBI guy, ended up with Jack again so he could spend it away.

* Dan refuses the money from the hijacker, but ends up with it anyway. It ends up in the present (in his pockets, and he hides it). Livia goes to the future and take the money away to save Dan, but not before Jack gets a single bill and runs it through the system, raising all kinds of alerts.

* Tacheon Man issued a warning to Dan tonight. He essentially warned him not to tell anyone about his time travel, for fear of having Homeland Security step in and co-opt Dan's ability to combat terrorism. I don't know whether to trust or completely distrust this guy. He is way too cryptic.

My speculation on this one is that Dan may end up being discovered and subsequently influenced (under duress) to pursue leads related to terrorism and national security.

* Layoffs are coming to Dan's paper. Plus, his 'journeys' promise to get longer and longer. So now, there is the risk of him being propelled into the past for a very long period of time. This is not good.

* Livia is from the 40s. Awesome. I didn't see that coming. Finally, some background on her. The first few episodes, I was 'take it or leave it' about her, but I am slowly gaining sympathy.

This show has taken some patience to get through, but its adherence and respect for its own time line and its willingness not to press the reset button every week has earned my respect. So many other shows run one, maybe 2 giant threads that last the season, and all other details get thrown out. Not so with Journeyman. It's like a miniseries.

I too have noticed the drab color scheme. It reminds me of those 60s and 70s films where exterior daytime scenes were darkened to approximate nighttime.

Also, I agree that this show is not as whimsical or bright-eyed as QL was, which is a relief actually.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

One of the best new shows of this season, and this episode was fantastic.

Glad to see past events having serious consequences.

I am really hoping that Jack is starting to believe Dan. The scene at home where Dan orders Jack out for not believing him was great.

Doug

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I think that Livia may have more warning about these trips than Dan does. She seems much more "together" and less disoriented whenever they meet. That could explain how she manages be in approrpriate clothes and have the right currency/technology with her when she "leaps".

Speaking of which...


If I understand where they're going with this (a big if)...

I believe Jack kept the crumpled bill. When he examined it, it probably looked like too good a "casual" fake - more professional work as in organized crime. Dan was gambling and involved with who-knows-what shady characters. And then there was that weird date. Because the cabbie wanted to file a police report, Jack had to turn in something as evidence - so he probably made and altered a copy of the bill (so if other fakes showed up they would not trace back to him or possibly Dan via consecutive serial numbers.)

Jack is the older brother. Langley new their father. It is possible that Jack knows or suspects something about a time travel project from back then, and that - despite his "just the facts ma'am" police persona, he kept the bill with the future date just in case. When Dan started disappearing and blamed it on time travel Jack's initial thought is that he's nuts or drinking, but there may also be a little voice in his head saying "Maybe..."

What's the backstory on their old man? Did he also just up and disappear one day, or was he definitely killed (as in somebody saw the body.) It would be interesting if he was also a "traveller" or had been.

I also think that, one way or the other, the future $20 is going to get Jack to believe that Dan is really travelling through time. Whether that will save them or get them both thrown in the nut-house is another matter.

Love Livia being from the 40s. 1948, if memory serves. Interesting. That would be not long after legend says the "Philadelphia Experiment" took place, and about a year after the so-called "Roswell Incident". It would be amusing if they worked one or both of those ideas into the show. Assuming that Livia was in the Bay area at the time, she could well have been working in one of the still-thriving defense industries or military facilities. Lawrence-Livermore (Langley's old home) wasn't established until 1952, but Edward Lawrence (Nobel Prize, Physics, 1939) had been running the radiation lab there since 1936. Lawrence invented the cyclotron, which made it possible to study subatomic particles like quarks. (But not, to date, tachyons, which remain purely theoretical. The interesting thing about tachyons is that, if they exist, they cannot travel slower than light.)

I love this show. It is put together like a fine Swiss watch and nothing at all seems to be wasted or worthless. (And I like a lot of the small moments like Dan snatching back the wine at the last second, its turining out to be undrinkable - why? - and the moment when his son sees him vanish and just drops the ball he is holding.

I really hope it isn't a victim of the writer's strike. That would be a damned shame.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

That raises a question for me. Livia took the money away, but wasn't it back last night? Dan handed it down and told Katie to burn it, right? I guess the simple answer is that they hid it in the past for a short time and then brought it back when they figured they were safe.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

I still hate these weekly throwback "missions" because I find them uninteresting.

I predict Dan will bounce back to 1948 and actually see Livia in her own timeframe.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

he's just as well known now for Smallville.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Both Livia's leap forward and subsequent taking of the money were entirely surreptitious. Neither Dan nor Katie had gone near the bag since they stashed it. Katie would not have tried to smuggle the bag out with Dan as they searched the house, had she known the money was already gone. They were both quite surprised and relieved when the bag turned up empty. That was my perception of events, at least.


Short of prognostication, I can confidently assert that their father - in fact, the whole famned damily, is going to play a huge role in this mystery, posthumous or otherwise.

Jack's being in the dark about his brother's time hopping has actually created a lot of great dramatic tension, but I can't help thinking: why doesn't Dan try to tell him again? I mean, when Dan told Jack he saw Livia (in S01E01), Jack ridiculed him ("Why doesn't he use his 'wayback machine?') but things have gotten considerably stranger since then. Instead of yelling at him about 'I tried to tell you, but you didn't believe me!' why not just lock yourself in a room with him and let him see for himself? I mean, he tried telling his brother ONCE. It seems to me like Jack is someone Dan needs in his corner and it's pride that's ultimately preventing either of them from reconciling this.

Television writers often endow their characters with so much baggage and pride and repression, not just because it's dramatically interesting, but it also happens to be dramatically convenient. Sometimes I prefer shows that go for the jugular... secrets get thrown out regularly and the real drama comes from peoples' reactions to discovering the truth - or refusing to accept the truth.

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I think Livia only took as much as Dan said he needed to buy a seat at the poker game, not the whole stash. That would have left plenty in the "present" for Dan to smuggle out of the house later. (And by the way, Katie is a genius for transferring it to his jacket and doing the big misdirection with the bag. I'm not sure Dan deserves her. )


I'm not so sure about that. Smallville was/is a big hit on a tiny network that isn't even available in all markets. The Dukes of Hazard was a big hit on a big national network, remembered well enough to spawn a couple of sequels and still in reruns. Probably more people remember the Dukes than could tell you what channel number The WB/The CW has on their TV, assuming they've even heard of either network. (I have no idea where The CW is on my cable system and can't think of a good reason to go looking.)


??? So you think Dan should just go back in time to different years and chat up Livia? The missions are part of the point of the show, and the thing that makes Dan's life interesting, not to mention that his actions in interacting with the past are precisely what is driving the drama in his own time. Without the "throwback mission" to the hijacking there is none of the jeopardy that Dan is facing now, to select just the most obvious example. The two things can't be separated. It is like saying you really like swimming but wish the water wasn't so wet.


As I noted earlier, I think Livia only took the ten or twenty grand that Dan needed to get into the poker game. My perception of the scene with the bag is that Katie transferred the cash that was left to Dan's jacket pockets. He was surprised that the bag was empty (and equally surprised that she had handed it to him with the FBI looking on.) She wasn't. When he stuck his hand in his pocket (probably looking for his keys) he felt a brick of cash and said something like "I love you" to Katie. It was still in his pocket when he was in the store, which is why he was able to toss it in the air to distract the robbers.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Speaking of 'throwback' missions, anyone have insight concerning the connection between Mr. Tachyon saying he's shifted to working with Quartz, and the hippy's infatuation with quartz crystals?

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I find the missions dramatically uninteresting because Dan seems to put his life in peril far too easily. It's always rung false for me and this show. Maybe if his background wasn't just as a journalist, but something more action-oriented (military or law enforcement), it might be a little more believable.

Obviously, whoever is pulling the strings has almost pinpoint accuracy with pairing up Dan and Livia in time and space, almost frightening so, because why would someone with that kind of power care about these "touch by an angel" scenarios. I supposed he/they are entrusted with making sure the timestream is preserved (a la Timecop), but the macro story had better be a humdinger because these smaller episodes' dramatic tension levels just feel too artificially ramped up for a time-traveling journalist.

Re: Journeyman - season 1 thread

Could the hippy be Langley?

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Are you sure he didn't say "quarks"?

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did.

Sure, go ahead, spoil our fun. We could have spun this "quartz" thing out for at least a week.