Given that I’m free for a few weeks, I thought it was about time that I started to ask people for recommendations for comics, movies and tv shows that they felt I needed to start reviewing. Despite the fact that I have a fairly extensive list of TV shows yet to start, I thought why not, let’s take a recommendation. The person who gave me this recommendation doesn’t usually watch shows like this and thought that it was more in my particular vein of enjoyment. Luckily, I didn’t have to search far, since Netflix had this show on there, so it was time to get down and watch!
The show in question was a series called ‘Travelers’ which debuted back in 2016. The premise of the first season essentially sees the consciousness of ‘Travelers’ who are people from the future, inserted into the bodies of people in the modern-day who are just about to die. The five main characters for us, Grant, Carly, Phillip, Trevor and Marcie are a team who were sent back in order to complete missions that will alter the apocalyptic future that they originally came from. However, to complicate things, they must continue the lives of the people whose bodies they have hijacked. For some of them, this proves to be fairly easy, for others, the host’s bodies and lives are vastly different from what these Travelers’ expectations were. As they begin to interact with other Travelers they learn that their orders sent by a mysterious ‘Director’ may differ in nature and soon enough difficult decisions need to be made in order to save the future. Can this group band together and complete the mission for which they were sent?
Okay, so what did I think of this show. I have to admit that when I first heard the premise of the show, a part of me was certainly intrigued. I don’t really like these post-apocalyptic world shows generally, but the idea that these characters could use time travel in order to prevent their future from occurring was certainly interesting. I also think that the dynamic between the characters was really fun to watch, especially characters like Trevor, who is clearly insinuated to be an older gentleman but finds himself in the body of a 17-year-old boy. I’d say that in the first few episodes there is a slight slow narrative, however, it speeds up and intensifies as you begin to approach the end of the season. The final episode concludes with a cliffhanger that is clearly intended to draw viewers back into the series, and I would be lying if I didn’t admit that a part of me is excited to watch the next season.
In terms of the actors, bar one, all of them were unknown to me. Ironically enough, when watching this show, I was weirdly reminded of ‘See’, the Apple TV+ series and for the first few episodes Nesta Cooper, who plays Carly looked extremely familiar to me. It turns out that she was one of the main characters in ’See’. That being said, the lack of familiarity with the other actors did not detract away from my enjoyment of the series. Eric McCormack who plays Special Agent Grant McLaren is my favourite character. I think he did a phenomenal job of playing a man struggling to do the right thing by his team, by his past but also by the life that he has inherited. Jared Abrahamson who plays Trevor also did a fantastic job. And rounding off the main cast were MacKenzie Porter and Reilly Dolman who play Marcie and Phillip respectively.
Given that the show was made back in 2016, and didn’t air on a major TV channel I had fairly low expectations for the filmography for a Sci-Fi show. That being said, given that it was all set in the modern-day, there was no need for excessive graphics or special effects. The few that were used were pretty decent. I thought that the sets that were created for some of the larger scenes were really good and given its obscurity, the show did well in terms of how it was shot. The music was probably one of the aspects of the show that I almost paid no heed to whatsoever, although that intro is a little catchy! Ahaha!
To sum up, this was a really interesting show and concept. I’ve seen and read many books that deal with ideas like this, however, none were executed in the way that this was. This was one of those examples that you don’t have to be a mainstream show to be enjoyable and exciting. I seriously look forward to seeing where this show goes from here, but I most certainly will be back!
Rating:
Story: ★★★½
Acting: ★★★
Filmography: ★★★
Integral vs Filler Episodes: ★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★★