Quantum Leap (2022 reboot): Season 1
Based on: Sequel to/Revival of Quantum Leap (1989) created by Donald P. Bellisario
Developed by: Steven Lilien & Bryan Wynbrandt
Executive producers: Donald Bellisario, Martin Gero, Steven Lilien, Bryan Wynbrandt, Deborah Pratt, Helen Shaver, Dean Georgaris
Another reboot/spinoff series I've gone into blind and really enjoyed!!
(The others being House of the Dragon, technically The Winchesters, and 1923.) I had very little idea what Quantum Leap was about upon tuning into my very first episode. I understood from the Google synonpsis that there was time travel involved, but that's basically it. But honestly, that's all I needed. I think it's a testament to the excellent writing of the season that I didn't feel alienated as a newcomer. In fact, most of the characters in the pilot itself were on nearly the same page as me. Thanks to the useful (though admittedly, extensively overused) plot device of amnesia, the supporting characters had to re-explain to Ben Song exactly what was going on, which caught me up to date as well.
The pilot begins with leads Ben and Addison in the midst of some sort of celebration with the rest of their team (all the characters in my "starring" section plus some extras), and through context, we learn that they're engaged. They're celebrating some major breakthrough on their "Quantum Leap accelerator," which I correctly assume is some sci-fi technology that involves the time travel I read about. In the middle of the party, Ben vanishes, and we never see him again in present day this season. Addison and the others track him back to the lab where they discover he's entered the accelerator unplanned (at least to their knowledge). Addison enteres after him as a hologram, which just means she basically peers into the machine to observe what he's doing, though he can see her, too. The accelerator has erased his memory of why he jumped in, but she finds him at some random point in history and his forced to help him navigate the new historical situation.
The season felt a lot more like normal, broadcast television than any series I've seen in a while. It wasn't jam-packed with dense story that felt like if I missed a scene (or, God forbid, an entire episode), I'd miss crucial elements. Instead, a lot of it felt more episodic--but not in a filler way. In a good way that felshed out the characters and world. And--I think what I'm trying to say--is that each episode really had heart. Not every episode was directly relevant to the season's plot, but the characters were genuinly chaellenged in every episode and what they did mattered. Pretty much every episode involved Ben helping a guest character in a specific and meaningful way. In one of the episodes that actually made me cry, the guest star was a war veteran (Jon Chaffin) struggling with depression and bad PTSD. Ben became invested in Chaffin's character and, through the events of the episode, prevents the character's suicide. It was very meaningful and the episode didn't shy away from the depth and weight of the subjectmatter.
That's not to say these episodes didn't hold any relevance to the season, though. As I established above, Ben's first quantum leap erased his memory of exactly why he leapt. It also erased his memory of who Addison is and their relationship, which added some charged emotion to early scenes. But every episode went some way to changing this. Within the first several episodes, intense situational difficulties led Ben to subconsciously recognizing strong feelings for Addison, which quickly led to his memory of their relationship. After that, his overall memory began to improve, with clues embedded usually at the end of each episode as to the larger plot and his own intentions. It was really well written, with any given episode's plot usually contributing in some way to the discovery of new, important information.
I've neglected in this entry so far to discuss the vital importance of the rest of the crew! Ian, Jenn, and Magic (an odd nickname for a very manly man and the team's superior) all shared nearly equal screentime with Ben in the present day as they worked on repairing and understanding the accelerator from the outside. Most often, their pursuits invovled trying to calculate exactly what was going on with whatever time period Ben was in during a given episode. Ian was usually at the forefront of this, having the most software-inclined mind. They were also dedicatedly trying to figure out why Ben leapt in the first place and, additionally, determining the intentions of someone else who they discovered had leapt ahead of him.
Overall, each of these plots--Ben in the past, the team in the present, and Addision communicating bewteen them--provided for an excellent and very engaging season that was written excellently. It reminded me in the best way why broadcast television was so successful for a century (or so?) and some of the pitfalls of the impatience brought by Netflix-era bingeing and condensed stories. I'm very happy to say that NBC renewed this wonderful reboot for a second season, so I hope to find out yet why Ben leapt in the first place!!
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