Yesterday, I checked out the Journeyman and Life pilots.
Journeyman stars Kevin McKidd as Dan Vassar, a newspaperman who finds himself traveling through time. In the pilot, he traveled between eight and ten years back in time. While he's away in the past, time keeps moving, so he, essentially, disappears from the present. It seems he had a bit of a drug problem in his past, so his friends and family think he's using again when he drops of the earth for days at a time.
I had a few "problems" with the plot; namely, how is he going to convince his family he's not insane or using during the run of this series when they thought both within fifteen minutes of the pilot? Also, when he travelled in his past, he bumped into the "love of his life", so there was also that little bit of drama/complication that could get annoying.
But I'm happy to say there are a few twists in the second half that ease those problems. And the ending, while sappy, had a beautiful moment with his wife that hooked me.
It's a show that I hope has some sort of pay-off for people. (I don't see this becoming a big hit because it can be complicated).
Journeyman premieres Monday, 9/24 at 9 pm CST.
Life finds Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, a former detective who might have been framed for murder and spent 12 years in jail before being released when new evidence came to light. He scored a big settlement and decided to go back to the force and solve crimes. His time in prison has given him a Zen-like approach to life and the crimes.
The premise sounds pretty simple, but there are a whole crew of people who roam within and without Charlie's life. His partner got him as a punishment for "screwing up" and now has to report to their superior officer about any misdeeds by Charlie. His financial advisor (played by Adam Arkin) lives in a room about Charlie's garage. And Charlie's old partner seems to not believe he really was innocent.
Oh, yeah, Charlie is also trying to secretly find out who framed him.
Life's pilot was funny. I, actually, hadn't intended on watching the series at first, but I liked what I saw in the promos and also liked this pilot. I hope the show can maintain the balance between the fish out of water Charlie (imagine the technology that has arisen in the past dozen years-- a camera in a phone for one) as well as his outlook on life and the crimes that he and his partner will solve (I'm kinda "done" with procedurals).
This will probably be another tough one to break big for NBC. But I give the network props for trying something different.
Life premieres Wednesday at 9 pm CST.
Both these shows are above average and deserve a look.
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