Remember the old Quantum Leap television program with Scott Bakula as a time travel researcher stuck bouncing through past, destined to fix things that went wrong? I liked that show. So you might think that I’d be glad to hear that it’s being rebooted.
First, I have a big problem with reboots of old shows and movies. It generally shows a lack of imagination. Mediocre wroters and producers who can’t think of a new idea themselves, so they lift one that once worked, file off the serial numbers, piddle in the plot, and call it new.
That seems to be what’s happening to QL v2.0.
The original series ended with Doctor Beckett finally learning why he never made it home, why he seemed to be an intertemporal troubleshooter, and he never would go home: it was all training for the tougher job… someone (God?)… had for him.
QL2 could have picked up there and showed us what the harder tasks were. And where. But, noooo…
It appears they’re substituting a new cast, and simply starting over. Distinct lack of imagination there. But they have something “better” than imagination…
The main cast is two asians, a black, and a “nonbinary” freak. If you can’t be original, be woke.
And go broke.
I’ll wait for the show to air and see what people say about it. But I’m pretty damned sure already that I won’t bother watching it.
Why Hollywood won’t do original work anymore baffles me. Just look at the independent publishers on Amazon (and some of the decent publishing houses like Baen), and you’ll see that there’s plenty of new talent with new ideas (or at least new takes on classic concepts). They could easily option those, and give us something new and entertaining.
Instead, those daring producers feel the need to rummage through the dustbin of cinematic history for stuff that worked once. “Hey, this was popular! Let’s throw a coat of paint on it and make a fortune off plagiarism.”
And these days, that paint is wokism-colored; as if they cannot fathom that real people outside their urban bubbles don’t want that shit. Viewers could identify with decent, if quirky, people doing their best with what they’ve got in an unprecedented situation.
ID’g with a nutjob who can’t tell if he/she/it/xe/whatsit is male or female or something else? Not so much.
I also can’t help but wonder if QL2 will stick with the premise of the Beckett/Seong time-jumping into other people’s lives — white, black, asian, male, female — and living as them. It worked in the ’80s. In today’s crazed world, the wokesters whom this new series apparently targets are going to scream “Cultural appropriation!” every week.
Let ’em prove me wrong. At least they have Ernie Hudson, who is talented.