After seeing “What a Disaster!” I can see why the producers shuffled the order of things, moving this from the pilot to the sixth episode of the season. That’s not to say “What a Disaster” is bad, so much as to say asking the audience to invest as much in Ben’s background in episode one would have been a larger ask.
Ben leaps into a John, a man facing imminent divorce from his wife, just moments before the San Francisco Earthquake in 1989. The series is doing well at having Ben cover his initial confusion upon entering a person’s life mid-drama, and this week is no exception. Ben having to cover for gaps in his knowledge of John’s wife as his wife asks for divorce works well enough, though I keep wondering why no one notices that Ben is focusing on Addison and her advice from the future.
Speaking of Addison, can I just say that I liked the handlink used here a lot more than the one we’ve seen until now? If there’s one aspect of the original pilot they can and should use again, it’s the link.
Back to our story. Turns out John is there to save the couple’s son from dying and reunite an estranged mom and son. This mission has a personal note for Ben, who once got B’s on his report card because he was tired of his mom telling him he was special and then after they got in a huge fight about it, she died. So, Ben’s carrying around a bit of guilt over that (as one would) and it all comes bubbling back.
Some of the better emotional beats of the original series came when Sam connected with the leapie due to some emotional connection. So, Ben’s connection here worked, as did his call to his mom seconds before he leaped.
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posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/27/2022 08:13:00 AM |
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No matter how good or bad “Salvation or Bust” is, most of the conversation about it will probably cover the last thirty seconds of the show when another Leaper shows up who knows Ben and feels that Ben is following him through time.
The implications of this to the overall arc of why Ben leaped and what his destination is are fascinating. And given the pace at which revelations are coming in the show, I don’t think it’s something that will exactly be swept aside for an episode or two.
Part of me says that this new leaper is somehow connected to Janice and that the imaging chamber she’s building isn’t to try and contact Ben but to contact whoever this other leaper is. A big question it brings up is just how many accelerators there are and just where are they located? Given that leaping seemingly takes a huge investment of power, how exactly are the other leaping group keeping their tracks hidden?
Or is this all part of the time travel thing where the new leaper is from our future but ending up in the past.
Give the show credit – it’s got me intrigued to see where this all goes.
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posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/19/2022 09:32:00 AM |
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For years, I’ve wondered what it would be like to be a person that Sam leaped into – would you recall much, if anything about it? What would you recall? How would you know that Sam had come in and changed things?
After thirty years, we get an answer to that question, with Magic sharing that Sam leaped into him at a younger age and changed his and others’ personal history.
While I like the explanation and the scene itself, I do find myself wondering about a few other things. One is that Magic says that Sam saved his life (and that of Tom) during the time he was away. I can’t help but wonder how Magic knows if and how Sam altered history. Would history instantly shift around Magic and those around him? Another was, did Magic know what Al gave up to that Sam could save his brother and Magic? Or was what Sam did for Al something that was kept under deeper wraps?
When you reference one of my favorite episodes of television, “The Leap Home,” it brings up a lot of questions and implications.
In its fourth installment, Quantum Leap has found its footing, though. The current-day threads have enough time to keep things interesting and thanks to Magic’s connection, I was a lot more invested than I have been. I do like the growing sense of frustration that Addison has with Ben and his keeping things from her.
But where this episode really shone was in the past, with Ben leaping into a woman (took Sam until season two to get there) and possibly derailing the woman’s life because he’s unaware of how to respond to a marriage proposal. The leap itself had the feel of one from the original series where the data and our understanding of things keep changing as Sam struggles to find out what he needs to put right. In this case, it’s the circumstances surrounding the woman our bounty-hunting duo is supposed to bring in and why.
I will admit a frustration has started to raise its head a bit, though. Yes, Ben went into the accelerator for some reason and there is a goal in mind. And yes, that provides some momentum and a through-line to the show. That said, it never quite feels like Ben inhabits the person he’s leapt into as much as Sam did. Thinking about to the original “What Price Gloria?” where Sam is a woman, there was a great deal of humor and insight gleaned from Sam having to inhabit and convince the world he’s a woman. I feel like the new series gets in a rush to have Ben complete the mission so he can leap that it’s overlooking this step.
I am also intrigued to see just how Ben’s getting his memory back about who Addison is will impact things. I seem to recall that Sam could recall certain things on certain leaps and not on others, so I wonder if Ben will recall the truth about Addison going forward or if it will be a hit-or-miss kind of thing?
posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/13/2022 10:08:00 AM |
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Can I just start this off by saying I want an episode of this show written by Donald P. Bellisario and/or Deborah Platt ASAP?
With that out of the way, we can move onto the third installment, which shows further steps toward the show finding its own voice.
Ben leaps into the body of a young boxer, who is about to go lose the title fight of his career due to being distracted. Is it because he’s seeing the girlfriend of his rival boxer or that his brother is suffering PTSD from his tours in Nam?
“Someone Up There Likes Ben” leans heavily into the relationship between the brothers, giving us an emotional hook to root for. This includes up to and including the fight, when Ben has memorized the original fight and found a moment he can score a knock-out, thanks to Addison’s help (more on this later). Of course, this being Quantum Leap, what should have knocked out the opponent doesn’t work and Ben has to improvise.
Luckily, he does and wins the fight, thus putting history onto a new and better course.
As with the first two installments, the storyline in the past works on just about every level. While Ben isn’t Sam (again, who could be?!?), it feels like they’re working to make him a likable hero that we can root for and one who is driven to do the right thing, as Sam was at times. I would like to see a story where we get an unexpected twist or cameo like the original did, but it’s only the third episode and I don’t think we got the Buddy Holly twist until five or six episodes into the original.
Meanwhile, back in the present, I do like the series looking at the toll physically and emotionally Ben’s leaping is taking on Addison. Her driving herself to exhaustion to link with Ben and keep him from getting lost in time is nicely done. Again, the original often felt like there was a lag time between Sam leaping and Al finding him where Al could rest/date Tina/do whatever. The ending made it feel a bit like they are trying to help Addison find that here with the new crew.
The plotline that really didn’t engage as much (and it should) was Janice. I keep asking myself if Janice weren’t somehow connected to Al, would I be as annoyed about her storyline and I can’t quite decide. Janice is obsessed with the project, though we haven’t yet really discovered any good motivation for this. Was it that she missed her dad, who was obsessed with finding Sam? Did Al’s death send her down this path? Why is she building what appears to be an imaging chamber? And what is the connection she and Ben share?
I have a feeling we are going to find out Janice wrote the new code Ben put into Ziggy and she knows more than she’s telling about his endpoint.
And while last week, I felt the endpoint had to be Sam, perhaps the endpoint is the bar where Sam leapt to in the finale. Or is it something else entirely that is connected to the original’s emphasis of Sam and Al’s friendship?
Part of me also wonders if this somehow ties into the whole evil leaper thread from season five.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/06/2022 09:49:00 AM |
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