Sentimental journey
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- September
- 24
“Journeyman,” the new NBC drama starring “Rome’s” Kevin McKidd, has an elusive elegiac feel that, along with its star, may be its strongest selling point.
The series, which bows at 10 p.m. tonight on Channel 4 locally, revolves around hot-shot reporter Dan Vasser (McKidd, of course), who lives in one of those fabulous San Franciscan Victorians known affectionately as painted ladies.
That house is one of the things that keeps us oriented as our hero begins to experience blackouts in which he travels to the past  his past apparently, righting wrongs he can barely perceive at the outset. (“Quantum Leap,” NBC’s cult ‘80s classic, offered a much more imaginative take on a similar premise. If you’ve never seen it, check it out on DVD.)
Present-day Dan shares the aforementioned Victorian with a loved and loving wife (Gretchen Egolf) and son (Charles Henry Wyson).
Past Dan shared a different life with a lawyer-fiancée (the marvelously monikered Moon Bloodgood), presumed dead in a plane crash. But wait, she may never have gotten on that plane. She exists in the past, to be sure, but also as a spirit guide (sort of like Virgil in “The Divine Comedy”), caught between two worlds, the past and present, the living and the dead.
All of this is enough to make your head spin, though it’s clearer in tonight’s episode than it was in the original rough cut. What keeps you anchored is McKidd  he has a presence not unlike Daniel Craig’s  and the notion of how the past keeps tugging at your heartstrings.
“Journeyman” asks the question: If you could go back and rekindle a lost love  even though you’re happy with your present beloved  would you do it?
Whether or not this turns out to be the right vehicle for McKidd may depend on how he and “Journeyman’s” creators spin the answer.
This entry was posted
on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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This is one of the most confusing, illogical shows to come to TV in a long time. The end left me with a million questions—and feeling guilty that I even HAD questions about a show this dopey. Questions such as: Why did he acquire this ability? How did he acquire this ability? And why now? Why does his American accent waiver (the English actor who plays him probably took elocution lessons from Kevin Costner in “Robin Hood”). How can he see himself in the regressions? Are the people he saves going to be—no offense—“nobodies” every week? Also, when he went back back 20 years and his girlfriend told him he looks different—what she calls “tired”—I wanted to scream at her, “Honey, he’s not tired, he’s 20 YEARS OLDER than when you saw him this morning!!” I don’t think I’ll be tuning into the show again.