Timeless Season 1 Discussion

Well, I’ve been struggling with finding a book to read, and that’s ok. I have tried many different books but am not finding one that I really enjoy or care to stick within hopes it gets better. I currently have three books sitting waiting to be read, hoping for me to pick them up. However, in this funk, I came across a Tweet from  Smithsonian Magazine talking about a TV show I had never heard of. I decided to see if I could find it and was able to find the first season available to watch on Hulu. Well needless to say I binged the entire first season of NBC’s Timeless. If you like history, time travel, and action, or simply wondered what if an event happened differently this show is for you.

The Show

Timeless is an action-packed historians dream (or nightmare). I found the story exciting and fun with a twist of the historical. The main plot follows three travelers, a historian, scientist, and soldier, on an adventure to save history as they know it. This story raises the question of what is fate and should we change the past if we had a time machine. Each episode sees the crew following after Flynn, the presumed antagonist, as he tries to take down the “evils” of Rittenhouse. The entire season sees the team grow together and face many moral dilemmas as they come to terms with what is truly happening.

The Team

The Historian: Lucy Preston

Lucy knows what she wants, or at least she feels that she does. In the first episode, viewers are introduced to her as a professor that is following in her ailing mother’s footsteps, but her life is suddenly turned upside down when she is requested for a top secret mission. Nothing in her life makes sense anymore after one trip in an impossible time machine. While she starts out as scared, perhaps timid, by the season finale she knows what she must do. Lucy reminds me that when you know what you want to follow your passions.

The Scientist: Rufus Carlin

The only pilot left for the time machine, Rufus, becomes an unwilling accomplice on the team’s travels through time. He often sees the worst part of it, after all, he is an African American man often thrust into situations where he was seen as lesser. Finding ways to fit into the missions takes him some time, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and hates when asked to do so. He, however, is able to save the others from many scrapes and pilots the time machine even when it almost costs him his life.

The Soldier: Wyatt Logan

The only one on the team who doesn’t ask questions when given orders Wyatt has a simple mission, take out Flynn and will do all that is necessary to accomplish his mission. At least that is his plan until Lucy or Rufus inevitably step in and question everything he was told. He sees the world in stark black and white, in the beginning, only understanding what must be done caring little for who or what gets hurt in the process. Wyatt learns that not all orders are worth following, which can hurt on the battlefield but in their work, might just save them.

Learning to work as a team is all that will save them, and possibly history, from whoever or whatever is after them. I thoroughly enjoyed the team dynamic which developed over the season and can’t wait to watch more excitement from them.

My Thoughts

This is a series and I have no way of reviewing the whole thing here but will offer my ideas. I relate the Lucy as someone who loves history and would do anything to protect it, yet understand how changing the bad might appeal. The story is written in such a way that you learn to love the characters and become attached. The dilemmas they face with traveling back in time often revolve around knowing what must happen, and often being stuck with the consequences of change or leaving it (i.e. Lincoln’s assassination or the Alamo). How their decisions play out are especially noted in the first few episodes as they continue they are less scared of how they change history and more worried if they accomplish their goal.

This show makes history fun, I especially enjoy the series because I love history. What historian or history buff hasn’t dreamed of having a time machine to travel back and see their favorite moment unfold. This show using action as a means allows fans and critics alike to in a small way fulfill this fantasy through Lucy, Rufus, and Wyatt.

Reference

Hulu.com. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from https://www.hulu.com/timeless

IMDB. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5511582/

NBC.com. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from https://www.nbc.com/timeless?nbc=1

Timeless Wiki. (n.d.a). Lucy Preston [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Lucy_Preston

Timeless Wiki. (n.d. b). Rufus Carlin [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Rufus_Carlin

Timeless Wiki. (n.d. c). Wyatt Logan [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Wyatt_Logan

TV Promos [Username]. Timeless (NBC) trailer hd [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYZJGAGvww