Submitted by Bruinsrock11 t3_125m5ee in television
I think it's become one of the most interesting shows to watch this past year and glad it's renewed for a 2nd Season. I think the things that are different from the original is that you see more interaction of what's going on in the lab. And next week Ben leaps into the future I don't think there was ever a episode where Sam lept into the future.
Fine is also the word I'd use for it. Not every episode will please everyone, but overall its watchable & grows on you. My dad was a huge fan of the original & he actually looks forward to watch it every week. But we agree & I think most people will agree original was better.
When I saw the title of the thread, I also thought, it's fine. The leap stuff is leapy. The non leap stuff is kind of lame.
I actually love it. You can't compare the two series because they are definitely not the same. They use the same premise but have totally different points of view. The first was definitely Sam centric. The new series tells you what's going on with Ben and everyone behind the scenes. I think if they did it exactly like the first series, then it would probably get stale and just be a nostalgic toss back. This way, it's nostalgic and reinvented. And I agree with someone else on this thread that I like seeing the stuff in the background. We only saw Gushie maybe three times in the other series and Sam's wife twice, I think. We knew of them but didn't know them. Ian is one of my favorite characters.
Here's my thoughts on the series:
Continue with the background stuff. I don't know if we need to get into everyone's complete histories, but I like what we see now. It's like you work there and you learn what you'd learn if you really worked there and were good friend with them. It's a nice balance.
The stuff revealed last night (the airplane stewardess episode) makes perfect sense, and to why Ziggy is the mole
I think that we'll find out that Martinez, the evil leaper, isn't really evil either next week or next season. I get that based on the end of last night's episode. If I'm right, ( I don't want to say exactly everything or else it will create spoilers) it makes Martinez's actions logical. I say he currently hates Ben because of possibly one leap's consequences end up killing someone close to Martinez. I have a feeling this will be all explained in the season finale. Also, I think it's possible Ian is the one who sent Martinez, and Martinez goes rogue or he is upset and went against Ian's orders. Or maybe some convoluted mix of that and something else. Maybe there will be episodes where they have to work together again in future seasons.
Majic is a nice touch to this series. I like that he gives us a perspective of a host. I like the character. And I like that his character is not all about him just being a former host.
I like the fact that they aren't trying to suppress why Ben is and keep him in the dark about what's going on.
I like that they are putting multiple people in the imaging chamber so its not all about the connection between Ben and Addison.
I think some.of the stories are a little quick but they are getting a better flow to everything. Like the trans basketball one felt a little rushed.
I'd like to see Ben and Sam cross paths. They said Sam never goes home, but never said why. Since it seems Sam can now control his leaps, maybe he just went back to being a boy and spending time with his dad again. Or maybe he got stuck in a loop and that's why he never went home. Maybe Ben frees him and in the old timeline, Sam never went home, but that was the timeline at 20 years before the Quantum Leap program was reinstated. Anything can happen now. They can explain it that they have to say he never made it back because it's classified and that's why Magic got involved. Sam picked him specifically to run the new project ot guided him to Magic's old files to get him to revive the program.
I like the fact that the characters aren't cookie Cutter needs of military officers. They are believable.
That's my thoughts and wild theories. You can agree or disagree or just ignore me. What do you think?
> I say he currently hates Ben because of possibly one leap's consequences end up killing someone close to Martinez.
Or he did something that caused the nuclear winter.
I think we have settled into the right amount of leap & present day plots - it was way too present day in the first few episodes.
I am totally thinking that if it gets a second season, we'll have Scott Bakula appear.
I totally see that. He did something to cause the nuclear winter. I'd we accept that as fact, and we add it to what we already know, I think this could be the line of events.
So now here where things may go off the rails and is unsupported speculation.
This next episode should be really good and possibly headache inducing. And I believe they have already been renewed for 2 more seasons. I think I read that today.
> Where's Martinez's helper?
What if Martinez jumped in right when the meltdown/nuclear winter was about to happen and the helper didn't get in in time/helper died?
Or maybe they just developed a way to hide the hologram
Possible. Just because everything is destroyed in the future point, it doesn't mean it happened then. So definitely, it could be that he jumped in the past at the last second before meltdown. Like he was sent to save the day or even maybe Addison was being sent to save the day and an explosion as part of the meltdown kills her so Martinez jumps in to take her place at the last second.
So then it's 50-50 if he really does hate Ben. Again, it would be that he has a mission to save everything, and he's instructed to be mean, or he did lose someone or saw the death and destruction coming and he is pissed. Maybe even more so if he has to not kill Ben because Ben has to get to a certain point for whatever reason before he can be killed. Maybe the mental hospital had to play out first and that's why he tried to kill Ben at the end. Thing about that is Addison saw him, so they would know in the future he did that. So why let him get anywhere near the project?
The more I dissect it, the more contradictions I find I create. I feel like I'm missing something to tie it all together. If Ben causes it all, then why come from the future to tell Ben to leap? Is it because if he doesn't leap the Addison dies in a leap? And she's the one that causes the meltdown because she died? Martinez knows if Ben didn't do the work to revive the project then Addison would never of leaped and caused the meltdown? So far it fits. Well almost.
If all that is true then how did Ian know Ben was going to end up there at that time in the future? Without Ben being there. Then Ian had no way to go to the past to tell Ben to leap. Unless Ian is a hologram. Maybe it took years to find Ben in the future. In the meantime Addison is sent like it was planned in the first place and whatever she did, caused a war. That caused the meltdown. Since Ben is lost to time because relatively, they still hadn't found where he landed in the future, Martinez is sent to to try to fix whatever Addison couldn't. He lost a lot in the war so he hates Ben for even getting the project up again. That would mean that him and Ben have the same final destination and that Martinez just wants to get there first so he can save the world. But there lies another problem. It almost all fits, but not quite.
The first time Martinez saw Ben, he might be surprised. In his timeline, Ben is lost, so if he's lost, Martinez sees him not once, but multiple times. Why not mention to Ben, who Martinez knows for sure worked with Addison, to tell Addison what's going to happen in her future to prevent it? Or tell Addison himself? Martinez is still the odd piece that doesn't fit.
If they're trying to get to the same place to stop the meltdown, then why not work together for the greater good? Save Addison and save the world? I'm now guessing that something is going to be revealed next episode to make him fit. Either that or I really missed a clue somewhere.
Ben might be the only reason the new Quantum Leap was able to function - which is why he couldn't be stopped before he leaped.
Maybe something even worse happens if Addison leaps instead of Ben? We have seen that she can be a bit more calculating than Ben, where he is a bit more emotional - maybe she would've made a decision that was good for her mission, but not good for everyone? Or maybe Addison killed Martinez (or almost killed him) in a leap, which really fucked things up, so Ian made it up that Addison died in a leap, because two leapers are needed at some point?
Either way, it seems like a military trained leaper was needed (Addison before Ben leaped, Martinez after he leaped).
If their goal is to stop the meltdown, maybe one of them will have to die to succeed - so Martinez is distancing himself from Ben
This one is seriously long. I appologize in advance. I started this last night and finished it today after writing and re-writing. This the best I came up with:
I just rewatched the Martinez parts of the season and this is what I put together. I apologize in advance because e it is really long. (Note: I started this last night and It was so big, I emailed it to myself to edit and post.)
Martinez initially thought Ben was following him in their first meeting. So, he wasn't looking to stop Ben at all at that point.
He was willing to work for Magic and do any mission asked, no questions asked. When Magic visited him in 2022, which is before he leapt.
On the battleship, he told Ben that he would win. Win what? Be the first to get to Ben’s target destination?
When Janis came back in to the picture during the mental hospital episode, she said Ben had 3 chances to stop Martinez before Martinez kills Addison. The hospital was the last chance. If he couldn't stop Martinez, then Ben was to sacrifice himself to stop Martinez. In this case it was to prevent the girl from getting saved which would prevent both from leaping and they both would be stuck in the past.
When Ben is stabbed, Martinez said his orders were to stop Ben before they crossed again. That implies that someone is working with Martinez. The funny thing about that is we don't see the helper, which is strange because Martinez can see Addison. So is it because we're not meant to see who is helping or is it because there is no one and Martinez leapt just before the meltdown and was told to stop Ben by the third meeting or else Martinez will fail his mission? Then again 1st episode Ben who leapt was told about Martinez because he told Janis that he had 3 chances to stop Martinez. But Martinez wasn't surprised to see Ben and knew about Ben so how can that be?
I got the pacifist part wrong before. He was calling Ben a pacifist. Which ties into when Martinez was talking to Addison, he said he was there to do what Ben couldn't. I'm assuming his mission is this. But he could also of meant he was there to save the girl because Ben couldn't. Probably purposely written to be vague by the show’s writers to cause more mystery and confusion.
One thing to note is that in the hospital, he told Ben that Ben sabotaged his initial plan to save the girl. Does that affect anything? Is that the only sabotage that Ben needed to do? While the girl is saved, he technically did sabotage Martinez. Playing devil’s advocate, Ziggy predicted that Martinez had a 10% chance of saving the girl on his own. Maybe Ben had to get there to sabotage Martinez’s plan because it failed initially and the girl was lost.
Ian said around episode 5 that Ben was using Quantum gravity to jump further and further. And that maybe Ben wasn't trying to get to the past. He's trying to get to the future. Why would he do that or how would he know he needed to get there?
Ok so let’s go wild and start trying to work everything out.
Ben is now supposedly in the future. We don't know if it is the very distant future or the near future. We assume it's distant because Ian appears to be much older. He’s waited for Ben for a long time. We also assume this is Ian in the future. But we really don’t know yet. It could be Ian leaping into someone in the future. If he figured out Ben was leaping to the future then he could also figured out how to meet him there too. Ben would see him as Ian if he was Ian himself or if Ian was a leaper. Also, if Ian was a hologram.
We assume the meltdown is because of Ben because the writing so far is making it seem that way. It can be the result of anything really because we don't know the date he’s at. He might not even be the future. If it is a nuclear winter, the radiation fall out could be messing with ben’s quantum signature and that’s why they couldn’t find him. Remember, Martinez never said that he had to stop Ben from ending the world. He just said he had to stop Ben before they crossed paths again.
So how did we get to this point? If the meltdown is the future and it’s the result of the project then what I the order of events.
My guess, original timeline is Addison was the original leaper and she dies. Her death causes some disaster to happen because she died, or her death doesn’t stop it from happening. Now the military steps in and takes over and sends Martinez. His mission could be finishing Addison’s mission or helping Addison. He could have failed or succeeded, either way the world is worse off so Ian has to go back and warn Ben. Doesn’t explain why He wasn’t surprised about Ben leaping. The only way I can see for this to fit is that Martinez leaps after Ian did. I’m thinking that Maybe Ian knows Martinez was going to leap (for finish Addison’s/help Addison reason? Completely new reason?) and figured out that if Martinez succeeds then disaster will strike.
Ian leaps and warns Ben before Martinez can. Of course, that wouldn’t go unnoticed so now Martinez knows he needs to get there first. Which the idea of getting there first is stupid because time travel can be to seemingly specific point so one just needs a spot just before the other. But this is TV. As he progresses, his handler thinks that Ben is no threat at first then realizes that Ben needs removed/stopped during the Mental hospital episode. That could be why Martinez waits till then to try and kill Ben. Something happens and we end up at meltdown. Maybe Martinez succeeds and destruction ensues. Maybe he fails and the world is worse off. Maybe the meltdown is deliberate destruction of Ziggy which is nuclear powered and causes a nuclear winter. Could even be Ziggy fighting back to not be shutdown permanently? If Ziggy’s the mole does that mean he’s alive and wants to stay alive? Does ben “arrive too late” and has to leap again to fix that? The bigger question is when leaps into the meltdown aftermath, is he walking out of the imaging chamber? If he leapt into someone who was in the chamber, who was it? Also how did Ian see it was Ben if he wasn’t also a leaper. He had no reason to think it was Ben at all. Not yet at least. And did anyone notice that both Ben and Ian are wearing Imaging chamber outfits under their “coats”? If I’m right about the outfits then Ben didn’t leap into the future, he leapt home.
Humor me and let’s assume I’m right. Ben leapt home. Maybe this was his destination all along and he was too late. Or maybe whatever Martinez did, caused the meltdown. Now what? Do Ben and Ian work together using the old 1st generation Ziggy/accelerator/chamber to send Ian back in time to tell Ben to leap using different info? If so, then maybe Ian didn’t leap before Martinez and Martinez leaps in the relative future to the start of the series. While doing his mission, Martinez and probable handler come across Ben and they use Ziggy to figure out that Ben is out to stop him for an unknown reason. Maybe in that timeline where Ben had not leaped, it was Ben who opposed Martinez’s mission and Martinez assumes Ben’s there to stop him and leapt somehow which is why he wasn’t surprised. They can’t stop him because they needed Ben for Quantum leap to function like u/bros402 said. It weirdly fits now.
Of course, there is one more possibility. What if the final destination was set to be the plane in the last episode? And they needed that leap to get ben to return home after the meltdown? It was the only way to ensure Ben lived to survive the disaster because in the original timeline ben dies in the meltdown. He knew all along that if he didn’t stop Martinez at the third point in time then he would have to go to the future to hopefully be able to build another system so he could go back and try to stop Martinez again. If he had stopped Martinez in the 3rd meeting, then he would have been able to leap back home. But he didn’t’ so he has to sacrifice himself as the last ditch effort by going into the future and hoping there was a way for him to go back and fix things. That was the only way to ensure Ben survives but there was no guarantee he would survive the future, or be able to go back in time again or anything really. That means maybe Ian was the one to leap at the last second before meltdown to go back and do the warning. When he comes back it is also post disaster as well.
It's all highly complicated and probably all full of shit, but the last theory works better than everything else. All the stuff up to the 3rd meeting fits. Ian is the last minute leaper in this case. Ben and Addison die in the original line. Martinez caused the meltdown. Ian goes back to warn Ben to get him to stop Martinez or else they meet in the distant future to try again.
well, damn
We'll see what happens next week - I won't watch until Tuesday, though, so no spoilers please.
Its slowly getting better. At first it was pretty dumb, Dr Song has a Phd in physics and speaks Korean and English, where Dr Beckett had 6 Phd's and spoke a dozen languages. So watching Song breeze through the episodes with minimal effort bored me to tears. But so far, im starting to look passed that since the episodes are slowly getting better.
New elements that wernt in the original show.
Other leapers, not evil leapers, but others, potentially from the future.
Other staff helping Dr Song by entering the imaging chamber.
Al Calavicci's daughter playing a major character, but as a black sheep.
People who Dr Soon leaps into, are not transported to the future. Theres no debriefing room for them, they simply dont remember anything.
>Al Calavicci's daughter playing a major character, but as a black sheep.
I also like that Beth Calavicci appears multiple times on the show, played by the same actress as in the original series. And that they also tied into the original series by putting Magic at the head of the team.
>New elements that wernt in the original show.
Than people complain it's just a lazy copy the original that doesn't do anything new.
Too serious. Lacks the playfulness and humor of the original.
It's nice as long as you don't take it too seriously.
My only real issue with it is the chemistry between Ben and Addison. These 2 have zero chemistry and they do not talk or look like an actual couple.
Really dislike Addison as a actress/character. Not a good enough actor, or just not a good character (it's hard to tell). Her motivations for emotions are all over the place, and there are very few realistic emotions out of her.
I like the lead, Magic and the security person who does way more than security and I am not sure she even does any securing of anything.
It also feels like they stuffed a Q into the show, but then just made them straight for an episode to move the plot along, and the whole dynamic between them so very unbelievable.
I agree about Addison, there was one specific scene in the asylum episode (don't want to spoil it, if you saw the episode you will know) that was very hard to watch.
>It also feels like they stuffed a Q into the show, but then just made them straight for an episode to move the plot along, and the whole dynamic between them so very unbelievable.
I'm a bit confused, what do you mean by 'a Q'?
I think it's the actor - since the dialogue this week and last should've been much less wooden
>Really dislike Addison as a actress/character. Not a good enough actor, or just not a good character (it's hard to tell). Her motivations for emotions are all over the place, and there are very few realistic emotions out of her.
I wasn't really surprised when I found out that this is quite literally her first ever tv/movie acting job.
My personal opinion: The first show was legendary, the new one is good but plays in a different league. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic, I grew up watching the first show and there was a lot (good plots, singing, humanitarian values, stories I could relate to) to love. The new show is a great show but it feels less personal, I don't identify with the characters or their stories. It's also a bit too American for my taste (but considering it's an American show it makes sense). Positive things: The acting is good. Each episode has an interesting plot (especially the creepy episode where Ben is a priest), I like all the references to the original show. As you mentioned, it's interesting to see what happens in the lab. I'll definitely watch the second season
I gave up on it.
When I was a kid, I remember loving the episodes involving the future and wanted to see more of the project. This new series was a monkey's paw situation for me.
At least early on, the balance between Ben and PQL was awful and the leap felt pretty irrelevant. I realized quickly I didn't care about the team and had loved the original show for Sam figuring things out with his wacky sidekick.
The new show seems like it has bigger stakes in the abstract and yet smaller stakes in the specifics.
It's a fine enough show for what it is, I suppose, but it didn't scratch the itch for me as an original series enjoyer and felt way too 2020s Network Television to me to continue.
honestly, you might just want to skip to episode 6 or 7 - those were the first two really decent episodes of the series. 7 was a good Halloween episode
I made it to episode 8.
After that, I kinda fell off over the winter hiatus. I let the episodes pile up for a while until I realized I just had no drive and got rid of them.
The original was one of my favorite series. For the continuation, I do like, it, but it has not crossed over into being great. It does have one of my favorite actors ever in it (Hudson), but the show has more moving parts versus the original. Couple this with Addison seemingly having little character (definitively less than Al), and it stays good while missing getting really good. Hopefully it can turn that corner once it is revealed why there is another leaper.
Sam Park from Kevin Can Fuck Himself makes a great new Sam in this series. He's very charismatic and knows how to emote. With current writers pulling inspiration from the internet and social media, we no longer have to abstract away what had been going on back at Al's homebase like we did in the 80s. Wonder if we'll get a Stairway to Heaven reboot where modern-day Michael Landon pretends to be an angel and communicates via earpieces and AR contacts lenses with "God" to help dumb Christians overcome their religious ignorance to make smart, logical decisions with their finances, health, and relationships.
> Kevin Can Fuck Himself
There's a show that failed to keep up as its plot unwound. I quit watching halfway into the last season .. just .. wasn't motivated to watch it
> Wonder if we'll get a Stairway to Heaven reboot where modern-day Michael Landon pretends to be an angel
I think you mean Highway, not Stairway?...
Thanks! I've been outside too much lately.
There's a lady who knows...
Honestly, it's good. It's not bad, but it isn't great. It's a fun procedural that should have a tough less of a season long arc. It is getting better as it goes along - and I like how it hasn't treated any of the leaps as a joke.
I also like that he is something Super Duper Genius with, what, 8 PhDs like Beckett - it feels a tiny bit more... realistic?
I've enjoyed it, it's not like perfect or anything but it delivers everything I want out of a procedural network show, likable characters and Raymond Lee is a great lead, enjoyable case of the week type stories, and an interesting overarching season long narrative to go along with it
My gf and I have been enjoying it. I personally like time travel stuff and didn't watch the original, so I have nothing to compare it to.
I watched a couple episodes I thought it was pretty boring.
I'm enjoying it, and the fun the writers are having expanding the mythology. It's not as good as the OG show, but it's solid and getting better. But. I watched the OG show as an adult, not as a kid, so my feelings about the OG show were that I was a fan, I greatly enjoyed it, and Scott Bakula was a sweetie but it wasn't some kind of tv masterpiece for the ages. If you watched it as a kid, you could have a very different feel for the property. It's probably also why I like the Magnum PI reboot more than the average on this sub. :D
I think the new show is doing a good job of being respectful (instead of just taking the title and then graffiting all over it with whatever the hell they want), paying homage and maintaining original story, and not straying too far from the tone of the original, while still carving their own path with an interesting set of characters.
But I still think Fantasy Island's doing a better job on their reboot :D. [I'm a sucker for any former Mutant Enemy writer, and they've got two as showrunners (Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain), and another three (Jane Espenson, Ben Edlund, and Drew Z. Greenberg) in the writers' room.]
Fuck remakes.
SuspendedInKarmaMama t1_je4rsw9 wrote
It's fine. Good, not great. Focusing so much on the crew takes away from actually getting engaged with the storyline of the episode.