New shows: Is 'Journeyman' TV's take on 'Time Traveler's Wife'?
Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 5:36 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
Audrey Niffenegger's "The Time Traveler's Wife" (read an excerpt here) is a much-beloved novel -- I know my book club read it. It's also set to become a big-screen movie, with filming set to begin in August. But a new NBC show, "Journeyman," while not at all based on the book, is drawing comparisons to the novel.
In "Journeyman," a San Francisco reporter, Dan Vasser, discovers he can travel back in time. It becomes clear that there's a reason for this ability: He's meant to change the past in certain ways involving a stranger. But he has trouble resisting the opportunity to change things in more personal ways, especially since, in the past, he's able to see once again the fiance he believes died in a plane crash.
BY THE BOOK?
When the "Time Traveler's Wife" comparisons first surfaced (first question!), creator Kevin Falls joked "I didn't read 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. Let's just remember right now, I don't want to start litigation, I did not read 'The Time Traveler's Wife'." Falls later said he read "50 pages" of the book when comparisons began to arise, and that he felt the two concepts were very different.
Star Gretchen Egolf, however, said her friends who've read "TTTW" found it made them more, not less, interested in watching "Journeyman."
OTHER TIDBITS:
The awesomely named Moon Bloodgood plays Dan's dearly departed love. In last year's abruptly canceled "Day Break," she played a similar character -- she was Taye Diggs' girlfriend, and he had to keep replaying the same day to try and save her life.
Scottish actor Kevin McKidd plays Dan. McKidd is much beloved for his role as Lucius Vorenus on HBO's "Rome." He's hiding his own rich Scottish brogue for the role
Creator Falls said the idea came, in part, from a party he attended where the conversation turned to how many of the guests had Googled a former boyfriend or girlfriend. "It just started getting me on the road of people sometimes wondering if their life had taken a different course," Falls said.
GAEL'S GRADE: Better than "Life," not as good as "Chuck." B minus.
