The Good Place Is Shaken Up By Some Honesty In The Eternal Shriek

As we reach the halfway point of The Good Place's first season, the thing about the show that impresses me the most is its refusal to play it safe. It could've been content being a show about Eleanor being the only thing wrong in paradise, telling simple stories about Eleanor trying to keep her secret and slowly become a better person along the way with the help of Chidi. They could've conceivably done this for a couple seasons and still be a pretty good show. Instead, the show has proven to be much more ambitious, introducing Jason as another flaw in the system and showing that paradise isn't exactly all it's cracked up to be. If that wasn't enough, the end of last night's episode takes a key part of the show's premise and completely smashes it, creating a wonderful sense of uncertainty about how the back half of the season will play out. The ending alone is enough to make The Eternal Shriek one of the best episodes of The Good Place so far, but the rest of the episode is equally wonderful, with lots of laughs and a strong story to help get us to that ending in a way that feels compelling and organic.

The Eternal Shriek spins out of last episode's cliffhanger of Michael deciding he was the problem in the neighborhood and deciding to leave forever to go into "retirement". Naturally Eleanor sees this as a good thing, with her secret now safe and Michael presumably getting the chance to relax. Chidi is not so happy, with the effects of the lies he's been helping Eleanor tell since the beginning really starting to weigh on him. Honesty is very important to Chidi and even the smallest lie is enough to keep him in agony about it. This is illustrated in the flashbacks this week as we see Chidi lie about liking a colleagues red cowboy boots (boots so awful that not even Ted Moseby would wear them) and feel terrible about it for three years, not saying anything because his lie wound up affirming his colleagues decision to buy them (He even bought Chidi a pair, despite how expensive they were). It's a simple but funny flashback story with a very effective message. If even a harmless social nicety of a white lie makes Chidi swell up with guilt, then keeping up this charade that's beginning to have real harmful consequences is going to destroy him eventually, and his breaking point finally arrives tonight, when Michael reveals the truth of his retirement: that he's actually submitting himself to what is known as "the eternal shriek", a hilariously grotesque and over-the-top method of eternal torture.

Ted Danson is in fine form tonight, managing to even top his performance in the last episode with Michael at his most resigned and morose. He allows Tahani to throw him both a upbeat retirement party and then a downbeat memorial, but snarks, sulks and nitpicks his way through each one with constant reminders of his coming torture. The highlight of this story is when he gives a wistful speech of all the mundane human things he wanted to do like pull a hamstring or get a rewards card or end a conversation with "Keep it sleazy" or eat a saltine (When Tahani produces a saltine, he declares it to be "pretty dry and too salty. Going out on a real low note here".). It's a solid story full of laughs that both reaffirms Michael's love of humanity and really drives home the selfishness of Eleanor continuing to keep her secret. Of course, Eleanor isn't present to witness any of that because she's off to try and both keep her secret and keep Michael from retirement by killing Janet.

D'arcy Carden has been one of the best parts of The Good Place since the beginning and she really shines tonight with what will probably be the closest thing she'll ever get for a Janet character showcase. Janet is a bit of a tricky character for The Good Place. As a virtual helper who is not actually alive, she has no real underlying character motivations or purpose of her own. That means she can be put in most situations in whatever role the show needs her to be in, but it also makes it hard to tell stories about her as she has no wants of her own. Despite this, Carden is great in the part, throwing herself into whatever she's given and making Janet's lack of a personality a personality in it's own right, fuelled by her peppy delivery and willingness to go along with whatever's required of her, even her own destruction. See the only way out of the neighborhood is by a train only Janet can summon or drive so Eleanor, at the heights of her selfishness, decides the perfect solution is to simply shut off Janet. It's a solution that makes sense. Janet isn't actually alive and can't feel pain so shutting her off isn't really going to kill her because she isn't a living thing. Still, that doesn't make any of it right and Carden's perpetual cheerfulness as she leads Eleanor and Chidi to the part of town where her override switch is only highlights what a low point this is for Eleanor's attempts to be a better person.

The versatility of Janet's inhumanity comes to a head in the episode's best scene. It turns out Janet is programmed to plead for her life when someone approaches the shut-off switch as a fail-safe in case of accidental shutdown. This leads to hilarity as Janet switches from reminding Eleanor and Chidi that she is not human to desperately pleading for her life and back at the switch of a dime, making this whole plan seem worse and worse as neither of them can get past her begging for her life or showing a photo of her fake kids ("Tyler has asthma but he's battling through it like a champ", she says of one before explaining it's a stock photo from the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards a minute later). Eventually Jason shows up, not aware of anything that's going on and immediately goes to push the button because of course he does. Chidi attempts to stop him but accidentally pushes the button himself and Janet crumples to the ground in a stunning scene. As Chidi becomes overwhelmed with what he's done, Eleanor's reminder that he didn't actually kill Janet is undercut by a blaring video recording of Janet announcing she's been murdered. Of course Janet isn't really murdered and reboots during a wake being held for her. She's in severely limited capacity while she re-downloads the knowledge of the universe and conveniently can't remember who killed her but she's alive and the murder convinces Michael to stick around, knowing something else is responsible for the neighbourhood's problems.

This could all be seen as a win for Eleanor, but the episode wisely doesn't treat it like one. Chidi is consumed by guilt and while he ultimately decides not to confess to killing Janet, he informs Eleanor that this act will eat him up inside forever. This is what causes Eleanor to see the harm she's caused with her desperate attempt to fix things without actually fixing them. So she does what she should have done from the beginning. At a neighborhood meeting, she confesses to not actually belonging in the neighborhood in front of everybody. It's a decision that shows how much Eleanor has come to care for Chidi and feels earned by how their relationship has developed over the course of the show. She knows he can't keep doing this so she frees him from the burden of having to carry her secret by finally being honest. It's a very huge, very welcome game-changer from the show which completely upends the structure and opens a huge number of possibilities for where things go from here. And there's still six episodes left in the season! So yeah, The Good Place writers aren't playing it safe with the show and the result is exhilarating. Here's hoping things only get even wilder than here.

Memorable Moments

-Since the beginning of the show, there's been a theory that The Bad Place will ultimately turn out to not be that bad. The description of the eternal shriek seems to kill that idea. What is it? Well according to Michael, the soul is disintegrated, and each molecule is placed on the surface of a different burning sun. And then the essence is be scooped out of the body with a flaming ladle and poured over hot diamonds (not lovely ones either). Then what's left of the body is beaten endlessly by  titanium rod, like a piñata (making the one of Michael Tahani has made suddenly ghastly and inappropriate) where the string is tied around the genitals.

-Janet does her best approximation of human crying for the news of Michael's departure with a hilariously awful wail.

-Chidi explains his hatred of lying with an old Chinese proverb. "Lies are like tigers. They... are bad". "That's it?" "It's more poetic in Mandarin".

 

-Michael's favourite colour is called pleurigloss. It's imperceptible to human eyes, but it's "the colour of when a soldier comes home from war and sees his dog for the first time".

-Eleanor takes the news of the eternal shriek well. "Dang it. I was almost handed a perfect solution to all my problems without having to work for it at all, and now it's gone. Why do bad things always happen to mediocre people who are lying about their identities?"

-Eleanor hopes "the ends justify the means" was said by Oprah. Unfortunately for her it was Machiavelli.

-Appreciation for Michael doesn't go well. "Michael, you always kept us warm and safe like a bright, glowing sun." "Like the one I kicked the dog into or the one I'm going to be burned on the surface of for eternity?"

-Michael's Architect pin is his birth year, 0-0-0-0. Should probably change that.

-Janet has a lot of learning to do. At least she knows the alphabet: "A-B... Janet".

Jane The Virgin Is The Funny, Charming, and Magical Show You Need In Your Life

When Jane the Virgin first debuted two years ago, I was sceptical to say the least. A show about a virgin who gets accidentally inseminated and becomes pregnant? How could that possibly be good? So despite fairly positive buzz I opted to ignore it. I was watching enough shows that year and just didn't have time to watch something that sounded that dumb. Then about six weeks later, I found myself with nothing to do one afternoon and tried the first episode on a lark. I was immediately hooked, caught up with the other episodes aired in one sitting and never missed an episode again. That's because despite the goofy title and terrible-sounding initial premise, Jane the Virgin (which is about to start it's 3rd season tonight and which I'll be trying to write about week to week) is one of TV's best shows, expertly blending over-the-top Telenovella-style soap opera plotting and crazy drama with strong characters, and a charmingly self-aware sense of humour into a very addictive mixture that's a must-watch.

As mentioned earlier, the initial premise of Jane The Virgin (Created by Jennie Snyder Urman and loosely adapted from the Venezuelan Telenovella Juana la virgen) is a little ridiculous. Jane Villanueva (played by Gina Rodriguez, who won a Golden Globe for her performance) is a young waitress with aspirations of writerdom who lives with her devoted but irresponsible mother Xiomara, or "Xo", (Andrea Navedo) and her devoted and very religious grandmother Alba (Ivonne Coll), who instilled in her a protectiveness of her virginity at a young age. Jane has a loving police detective boyfriend Michael (Brett Dier) who plans to marry her. One day all her plans are thrown off course when she goes in for a routine pap smear and gets accidentally artificially inseminated, becoming pregnant. Complicating things is the fact that the "father" Rafael Solano (Justin Baldoni) owns The Marbella, the hotel Jane works at and is both a former crush of Jane's and the half-brother of Luisa (Yara Martinez), the doctor who inseminated Jane instead of Petra (Yael Grobglas), Rafael's gold-digging wife with a secretive past. Also Jane's father Rogelio (Jaime Camil), a famous Telenovella star who never knew about Jane has finally learned about her from Xo and wants to be part of her life. Also The Marbella and possibly Rafael's family are connected to an elusive crime lord named Sin Rostro who Michael is investigating. And that's just the first episode. The show only gets bigger and crazier from there with more twists and turns than you could ever count.

If that sounds insanely complicated and impenetrable, it surprisingly isn't, thanks to a couple key factors. The first is the presence of the Latin Love Narrator (Anthony Mendez), a Third-person mostly Omniscient narrator who keeps the story moving, explaining or recapping things we might be confused about, while offering his own commentary on the story as it unfolds. It's maybe the best, most entertaining use of narration ever deployed on television, and never detracts or obtrudes on the action too much. Mendez gives The Narrator a vibrant, welcoming personality that makes it feel like he's right beside you watching the action unfold with you. The other key to keeping this all accessible is that while the situations are ridiculous and wild, the characters emotions are grounded and real and the show never loses track of that for the most part (The one exception being the crime element, which is grounded in character on occasion but can get pretty tedious and disconnected from everything else at times, especially in the second season.). So even when things are at their most heightened (Typically, when Rogelio or Petra is involved), you have a clear understanding of the emotions of the characters and that's usually enough to get you through it.

There's a lot to love about Jane The Virgin and the most important thing is Jane herself. Gina Rodriguez brings to life a fully-formed, multi-faceted human being who is the kind of complex female lead we need more of on television. Rodriguez brings a warmth and a relatability to Jane that invites instant empathy for the character. Jane is our entry-point into this crazy world and Rodriguez's grounded performance helps keep things from spiralling too far out of reality. Being the grounded one doesn't mean she has to be devoid of personality and there's plenty of spark to Jane's. Jane has a passion for everything she loves from her family to her writing to grilled cheese sandwiches and this passion is allowed to manifest itself in many ways, including anger, frustration, and despair that help add to our impression of Jane as a person. After two seasons, you can pretty much guess how Jane is going to react to most situations, but Rodriguez keeps it from getting repetitive by constantly finding new nuances to Jane. And when she really gets a chance to cut loose in the shows many fantasy sequences, she becomes even more of a delight, whether being the "romance novel" version of Jane or showing off her various skills such as dancing or rapping.

Also bolstering the show is how it approaches it's main love triangle between Jane, Michael, and Rafael. Like any good love triangle, both men are different in a lot of ways. Michael's a detective with a goofy side and his interactions with Jane suggest a deep connection and a lived-in history between them. Rafael's a former playboy with a lot of pain in his past who's a bit more guarded, but he's very encouraging of Jane's dreams and brings out a different kind of passion in her while being a great father (in season 2) to boot.  And although the show begins with Rafael being shown in a more positive light than Michael, it soon equalizes things so that both men are good and viable choices for Jane, despite their flaws. Viewers will probably switch "teams" as it were a few times throughout the show (I certainly have). The most important thing the show does with the love triangle though is make it so that whether you're on Team Michael or Team Rafael, you're first and foremost on Team Jane so that when she does make her final decision (and she makes it partway through the second season), you're happy for her and willing to give it a shot even if it wasn't the choice you would've made.

Of course the other important thing about how Jane The Virgin handles it's love triangle is that the love triangle isn't at the core of the show. The most important relationships in Jane's life are the ones with her family. Jane, Xo, and Alba have a bond and a love that feels real and which is given weight by many of the flashback scenes that start off every episode. Xo and Alba could've felt like caricatures of the "flighty, irresponsible parent" and the "tough, religiously devout grandparent" respectively (Ivonne Coll even played that caricature on Glee a few years back). Instead they feel like real people as human and flawed as Jane is, with Alba's faith being treated as seriously as Xo's dreams of being a singer. The show is as interested in Xo trying to be a better mother or Alba's fight to get legal status after years of being an undocumented immigrant as it is in Jane navigating pregnancy and parenthood. So when Xo and Alba or Xo and Jane or Jane and Alba fight, it hurts a lot more to watch than when Jane is fighting with Michael or Rafael. The Villanueva women's relationship with Rogelio as he enters or re-enters their lives is also compelling. Jaime Camill is playing the broadest, most comedic character on the show: an actor with a big ego and little self-awareness, but he gives Rogelio enough depth and nuance to avoid feeling out of place on the show. Rogelio's desire to have a family and be part of Jane's life is the most important thing about him and comes through even with his wackier subplots.

Another great thing about Jane the Virgin is how pretty much every character, no matter how one-note eventually gets depth and empathy, from trainwreck Luisa to even Sin Rostro. This is especially true of Petra (Yael Grobglas), who could easily come off as a one-dimensional villain, but doesn't thanks to a surprisingly genuine love of Rafael and a lot of pain in her past, that makes it easy to feel bad for her even when she's at her most villainous in season 1. Petra often gets straddled with the soapier elements on the show (A manipulative, seemingly wheel-chair bound mother who might be the exception to the "everyone gets depth" rule and a psychotic ex-boyfriend or two for starters), but Grobglas keeps things from getting too wild by giving Petra a fierce dignity that makes her real, even as she's caught up in stories about blackmail and evil twins. She also gets to show real pathos in season two as Petra struggles with a complex real-life issue I dare not spoil here.

Jane The Virgin is also a very creative show and that creativity comes through in every ounce of the production. The show splashes it's Miami setting with a burst of colour that makes every episode a visual delight. On-screen text constantly pops up on screen for extra joke or to add emphasis to certain points or hashtags to use so you constantly need to pay attention to the screen. The show is comfortable with having a good portion of it's dialogue in Spanish, which Alba speaks almost exclusively, adding extra realism to the characters. Glimpses of Rogelio's Telenovella projects will tie into the plot and themes of the episode in surprising ways. Episodes will makes use of various narrative gimmicks and conceits, ranging from small things like a growing light over Jane's heart in an early episode as her feelings for Rafael grow or Wrestling title cards popping up in an episode where many of the characters are in conflict to big things like a season 2 episode that spans six months or past versions of Jane and Rafael that advise her when the two are facing serious conflict late in season 1 or the show depicting short stories Jane is writing for a grad school exercise. You never know what to expect when watching Jane and that unpredictability becomes half the fun.

Look, blending grounded human stories about family and growing up with high-concept soap opera craziness shouldn't work but Jane the Virgin does. It also shouldn't be as nearly a consistent show as it is, but I have yet to dislike or be disappointed by the show 44 episodes in. Not every element of it works, but the overall performances and writing are so strong, that the little grievances pale in comparison to the whole. So don't make the mistake of letting the title throw you off the way it threw me off. Give Jane The Virgin a shot. You just might fall in love.

The Good Place Considers What We Owe To Each Other

One of the biggest surprises about The Good Place so far has been the lack of screen time shared by Eleanor and Michael. It makes sense from a storytelling standpoint. Eleanor’s relationships with the people immediately around her (Chidi, Tahani, and Jason) need to be established properly first before we focus on her relationship with the neighborhood architect. Additionally Kristen Bell and Ted Danson are pretty much the only “names” in the cast so pairing them off with the less known ensemble members helps us get invested in everyone. It makes sense from a storytelling standpoint too, as Eleanor is not going to be eager to spend time with the man she least wants to learn her secret. Still given their prominent place in the advertising and Eleanor’s job as his assistant, you would think we’d have seen a bit more of them interacting. Thankfully, What We Owe To Each Other makes up for this lack of Eleanor/Michael stories by pairing them off to wonderful results as they try and figure out the source of the troubles in the neighborhood.

The main thrust of What We Owe To Each Other is Eleanor trying to figure out how to help Michael without really helping him. Chidi’s ethic lessons are starting to have an effect on her, even if her instincts still lean toward tyranny when Chidi explains the veto part of contractualism, and she wants to help Michael but she doesn’t want to expose her secret. Seeing Michael obsessed with figuring out what the flaw in his design is to an irrational degree, (He’s found the 78 most suspicious rocks in the whole neighborhood) she suggests he takes a day off. This gives them a chance to bond and become friends like Ross and Phoebe (“An odd combination, but OK”.) as Eleanor and Michael play arcade games, bowl, and sing karaoke together. It also gives us a chance to learn much more about Michael. It turns out he is obsessed with humans and has always wanted to be among them. He has a collection of forbidden human objects in his office, a la The Little Mermaid and he watched all 10 seasons of Friends to prepare for making human friends (His constant references to the show become a terrific running gag throughout the episode). He loves humans so much that he’s become the first architect to ever live in his designed neighborhood with the residents. It turns out his bosses aren’t happy about this and he’ll be in big trouble if the neighborhood fails, which explains why he’s so desperate to fix the flaw in the neighborhood. Ted Danson has been The Good Place’s MVP since the beginning and he’s great here, capturing Michael’s clear passion and glee about humanity, but also the fundamental disconnect between Michael and his charges. Michael loves humanity but he doesn’t understand it. That may not be the biggest problem with the neighborhood, but it’s still a significant problem.

Bell is also great, and her chemistry with Danson is helpful in capturing the full nuances of Eleanor’s dilemma as she grows to like and genuinely want to help Michael, even as he gets closer and closer to figuring out her secret when he realizes a human must be acting unpredictably and causing the problems as a result. Flashbacks this week return to Eleanor as we see her agree to dog sit, ditch early to go see Rihanna in Vegas, and leave the dog to grow permanently obese from the excessive supply of emergency food she left. They’re a little blunt and unnecessary, but they do capture the contrast between the Eleanor who’s more than willing to abandon her obligations when they threaten to get in the way of her happiness and the new, slightly better Eleanor who can’t stand by as Michael rolls around on the floor of the newly rebuilt Good Plates in a grey hoodie, trying to get the sinkhole to open back up and swallow him (an excellent bit of physical comedy by Danson). So Eleanor goes in to encouraging Michael, telling him she’s willing to help him, even though she’s just a normal person and he’s “a super magical Orville Redenbacher-type guy who invented the entire universe”. It’s one of the most selfless gestures we’ve seen from Eleanor yet, as she’s willing to risk her safety to help her friend but it’s also the one that helps her initial plan to “help him and not help him” succeed when Michael realizes what the flaw in his design must be: himself. He announces to the whole neighborhood that he is going to leave forever in order to fix the problem. It’s a plot swerve that feels earned because of Danson’s excellent performance and the quick exposition from earlier about architects not typically staying in their neighborhood. It also gives Eleanor a new dilemma to deal with: does she let Michael leave forever despite knowing how much his time in the neighborhood means to him or does she put herself further at risk to help him stay? Since it seems unlikely that Danson will be leaving the show anytime soon, it’s almost going to definitely be the latter but we’ll have to wait until next week to see how this unfolds.

Meanwhile, Chidi, Tahani and Jason get their own storyline this week without Michael or Eleanor around to bolster it and it succeeds just fine without them, while setting up an intriguing new development. William Jackson-Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto have all been turning in great work since the beginning and it’s nice to see them play off each other here. The story is a familiar one: Tahani wants to go to a couple’s spa with a slowly-speaking “Jianyu” and Jason convinces Chidi to come along and help him impress Tahani (who he describes as “pretty like Nala from The Lion King and she talks so smart like… Nala from The Lion King”) without giving away his secret (He’s been relying on Magic 8 Ball answers like “All Signs Point To Yes” and “Made In Taiwan” but those can’t help forever). It's a story that unfolds as expected with Jason being unbelievably dim, Chidi nervously scrambling to cover for him and Tahani being frustrated at her inability to connect with "Jianyu", but it's played terrifically by all the actors. It also leads to Chidi and Tahani discovering they actually have a lot in common (besides the being stuck with the wrong soulmate thing that only Chidi knows about). They correct the person who mistakes them as soulmates, but watching Jackson-Harper and Jamil, it's easy to see how one could jump to that conclusion. Would Chidi and Tahani be happier together? It certainly seems that way based on the impressionist painting Jason gives Tahani that's a lot different than the one he originally wanted to give her (A painting of "the best impressionist of all time" Frank Caliendo). "Only my true soulmate could ever give me such a perfect gift", Tahani declares, her faith in "Jianyu" restored. It certainly seems like we'll be heading into a love triangle situation, which should definitely shake things up as we move into the second half of the season.

Ultimately this was another winning installment of The Good Place, which shone a much needed spotlight on Michael, and gave all the characters a moment to shine. At this point the only character who still could use some defining is Janet, but D'Arcy Carden still succeeds with everything she's given so it's alright if that takes them a little while longer. But between Michael on the verge of leaving forever and Chidi and Tahani on the verge of a love connection (even if Tahani doesn't realize it), it looks like The Good Place writers are in no fear of their show turning into the 8th season of Friends ("Out of ideas and forcing Joey and Rachel together, even though it made no sense!"). And thank God for that.

Memorable Moments

-Theory Corner: OK, so personally I think that Eleanor and Chidi actually are soulmates as are Jason and Tahani and the mistake has something to do with a glitch in whatever determines "soulmates" causing Chidi and Tahani to get paired with their actual soulmate instead of their "good place" soulmate. Because it doesn't seem plausible that everyone in the good place's soulmate also happened to belong in the good place. So while I'm fine with Chidi having feelings for Tahani as a storyline, I'm still holding out that Eleanor and Chidi actually belong together.

-Eleanor has named all the clown paintings in her house. "Psycho, Creepo, Crazy Head, Stupid Juggling Weirdo, Freaky Feet, and Nightmare George Washington." Creepo gets replaced by a sexy mailman painting though.

-Eleanor's thoughts on the veto part of contractualism in full: "Well, my first rule would be that no one can veto my rules." "Well, that's called tyranny. And it's generally frowned upon."

-Chidi doubts Eleanor's helping and not helping plan is possible. "Oh, really? I once posed as a hot prom date for my cousin, both helping him and later, according to his therapist, not helping him."

-Michael really likes Friends. "Boy, those friends really were "friends," weren't they? Although- and I realize this is the kind of observation that would only occur to the mind of an eternal being- how did they afford that apartment?"

-Michael has come to love Frozen Yogurt. "There's something so human about taking something great and ruining it a little so you can have more of it."

-Hopefully this isn't the last of Micheal and Eleanor singing Karaoke together. Their rendition of "Blaze of Glory" was terrific.

-Michael on Karaoke: "This is so interesting! I mean, there's no point to it. The images on the screen relate to nothing. Some time passed, and then it was over."

-Michael asks Janet to call a meeting. "Should it be festive and casual or moribund and devastating?" "Moribund and devastating, please." "Great!"

Superstore Has A Lot Of Fun With A Terrible Spokesman Scandal

I have to admit Spokesman Scandal caught me off guard. I was aware that it would involve a spokesman scandal of some kind but if you were to ask me what that scandal would be before watching the episode, I never would've guessed "the spokesman is a serial killer cannibal". It's an incredibly dark set-up for an episode of a network comedy. Incredibly dark. Yet Spokesman Scandal manages to be the funniest episode of Superstore yet, by using the insanity of its premise as a springboard for character stories that are a lot of fun.

Having the scandal be the set-up for the two main stories tonight instead of being a major story itself is a smart call. The crimes of Kyle the Cloud (portrayed by Nate Torrence who is unnerving enough to be believable as both a superstore spokesman and an unhinged serial killer cannibal in his brief screentime) are awful and are depicted as such. It doesn't stop the characters from making morbid jokes about the situation as people are prone to do in real life, but it's something that could make Superstore seem callous and cruel if the whole episode was about the characters making light of these crimes. It also could've given the episode an overly wacky detached feel by focusing on a character we've never seen or heard of before tonight instead of our regulars. Instead Kyle and the scandal fade into the background after the first act, letting the show get in a bunch of dark jokes before letting the character stories take over.

Glenn gets a chance to take the lead tonight as the person most shaken by the revelations about Kyle the Cloud (who is actually named Daniel, but gets referred to as Kyle by all the characters so that's what we're going with here). Glenn is convinced the allegations against him can't be true because he met Kyle once and he seemed like a good guy. Glenn, like most of us, wants to trust in his instincts and believe he'd be able to tell if someone was a terrible person. Unfortunately his confidence in Kyle's innocence is shattered when a dungeon where Kyle videotaped his crimes is found. The discovery of bags of marijuana at the scene gives Glenn new faith though and he convinces himself that Kyle wasn't really a cannibal and that he only did those things because he was on marijuana. It's a very misguided and uneducated perception of how marijuana works that feels like it was ripped from Reefer Madness but it feels very in-character that Glenn would latch onto this idea rather than admit he was wrong about Kyle. When Amy and Jonah inform him that's not how it works though and that they'd be surrounded by killers otherwise, Glenn becomes horrified at the idea that he can't even trust his feelings about his own employees and authorises Dina to conduct drug testing, despite having always been against it. It's an extreme decision and one Glenn is uneasy about making, but if he was that wrong about Kyle, what does he really know about his employees? It's a much more nuanced, effective story for Glenn than his morning after pill dilemma last week and Mark Mckinney portrays every step of Glenn's crisis of confidence expertly and humorously. Ultimately, Amy is able to convince him through a very analogy-filled speech that he knows the things that matter about his employees and it restores confidence in him to the point where he halts the testing and pours all the urine down the sink where Sandra's coffee mug is. It's a funny conclusion that ties in Glenn's story with the much goofier Amy/Jonah story in a great way.

Amy gets to cut loose and have some fun this week in a way she hasn't been able to do since sometime in season 1 and it's delightful, especially after all she's had to deal with in the first three episodes. America Ferrara is great at playing the sadness and anger at the core of Amy, but she's also great at playing the mischievous, playful side who lets herself get sucked into a dare war with Jonah instead of doing the tedious work of removing Kyle's visage from the store. Feldman and Ferrara have a natural easy-flowing chemistry and it helps make the escalating series of dares charming and delightful. The dares are also quite funny with Amy singing the theme song to Charles in Charge over the store intercom being the highlight (Although the two of them passing off their kayaking on wheels through the store to Jeff as product testing comes close to topping it). They even tie into Glenn's story in hilarious fashion when Amy's inspiring speech is dependant on metaphors and similes chosen by Jonah who's in the background lifting up objects for her to incorporate into her speech. There's an unspoken flirtiness at the heart of these dares though that lies dormant until the end when Jonah strolls through the store wearing only an apron and comes face to face with Adam, who is picking Amy up to go home for the day. Adam isn't angry about a basically naked Jonah talking to his wife (Though he thinks Jonah is gay, which probably explains his response being more confusion than anything else.), but his appearance is a reminder that the Will They/Won't They between Amy and Jonah is still heavily on the Won't They side. The show handles this well too. There's no melodramatic look of longing from Amy or Jonah as they go their separate ways and no real indication that they have actual feelings for each other, just the presence of Adam (who is actually able to show a bit of a softer side this time rather than the inconsiderateness that's marked his last two appearances) to remind us that as much fun as Amy and Jonah have at work, at the end of the day Amy is still married.

Amy and Jonah might still have a long way to go before possibly finding love with each other, but Mateo's love life is on much better ground after this week. The scandal allows for the return of Jeff, as delightfully normal as ever and follows up on his possible pass at Mateo a couple weeks back. It follows a familiar pattern as Mateo attempts to prove to Garrett and the rest that he isn't imagining things and that Jeff is interested in him but his efforts prove for naught (save for a commendation for cleaning up lots of vomit that's going in the wrong file when Mateo mistakes a request for his employee number as a request for his phone number). At least until the end when Jeff asks him out on a date and Mateo turns out to have been right all along. He can't say anything about it to Garrett (Jeff swears him to secrecy since a manager shouldn't be dating an employee), but he has a date for the night. It's a small story, but an amusing one and the beat at the end where Mateo actually has to think before saying yes because he hasn't thought about if he likes Jeff is a welcome one.

Ultimately Spokesman Scandal is such a success because it focuses not on the lurid details of Kyle the Cloud's murder spree (although the details we do get are appropriately horrifying), but on the characters and how they try to get through a normal day that happens to feature news of a serial killer very connected to the company they work for. It allows the darkness to be funny and gives the characters a chance to just have fun after the turmoil and issues of the first few episodes, while advancing their arcs ever so slightly. In the end, it's another promising sign that early in this second season, Superstore has found it's stride.

Memorable Moments

-Garrett, Sandra, and Cheyenne also had a really slight story that I didn't find the space for in the main review. Basically Cheyenne is talking about her baby too much, Garrett and Sandra get sick of it and Cheyenne understands when they tell her. Garrett is less understanding when he hears he talks about his new sneakers too much though. It's funny enough and notable for letting Sandra be part of a story for once, which makes sense because she's probably the first supporting player to get bumped up to regular if Superstore lasts long enough to do that.

-Best Interstitial: I didn't really notice any interstitial scenes this episode, so I'm giving this to the beat of the customer who takes a urine sample and keeps walking when Dina informs them they've taken urine.

-"We pretty much still have the market cornered on serial killing. It's one of the last non-integrated industries."- Jonah explains white person craziness to Garrett.

-The opening sequence of everyone trying to turn off the TV telling the news of Kyle the Cloud's crimes only to spread it to every TV in the store and have the audio play over the speakers is a great example of comic escalation and Glenn leading a sing-along of "Cry, Ezekiel Cry" was equally great.

-Jeff addresses the situation to the staff. "As most of you may have heard, our company spokesman has been accused of some improprieties." "By improprieties, you mean killing and eating people, right? Or is there a tax evasion thing going on as well?" "The killing and eating. I can't speak to his tax situation."

-Jeff's terrible experience in the hotel Corporate has put him in continues to be a great running gag. "Hi, yes, while I have you on the phone, I wanted to ask you why the curtains were gone when I got back last night. I'd prefer to have them."

-Garrett doesn't like baby or dog photos but he can't resist pictures of Sandra's dogs dressed like Ewoks.

-Dina notices Glenn smelling employees. "If you're smelling the workers, you gotta smell Elias. On Thursdays he smells like ham. It's hilarious."

-Also Dina humming the Charles in Charge theme is a good callback to Amy's performance (which she also does in Spanish).

The Good Place Faces A Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis

There's something inherently selfish about Eleanor's quest to be less selfish. By pretending she's someone she's not, she's allowing potentially all kinds of chaos to come to her neighbourhood, including the giant sinkhole that threatened to destroy everything tonight. And if she succeeds in her quest, she'll still have stolen a spot in paradise from someone significantly more deserving of it. Her quest to learn ethics is also tough on her "Soulmate" Chidi. His reward from a life of teaching ethics has turned out to be teaching more ethics for potentially eternity. Eleanor has learned to appreciate what Chidi is doing but she hasn't learned to appreciate Chidi and that tension makes Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis a fruitful and rewarding episode of the increasingly good Good Place.

The episode definitely benefits by spotlighting Eleanor and Chidi's uneasy relationship, which has been backgrounded for the past two episodes but still serves as the heart of the show. Chidi's lessons are starting to pay off for Eleanor who is delighted to see herself doing things like letting someone go in front of her when she's not sure what she wants at the Frozen Yogurt place instead of holding up the line or sampling 12 flavours she doesn't want out of spite ("You do that?!" "No, Chidi. I used to do that".). So naturally she wants more "good person" lessons all the time. This is starting to be a real burden on Chidi, who wants to be doing paradise things like "rowing out on a lake with a good bottle of wine, reading french poetry" but feels an ethical obligation to keep helping Eleanor. Of course Eleanor is not too happy to find out that Chidi feels this way and decides he can leave, but before he can, they find themselves stuck at Eleanor's because of a sinkhole induced quarantine. William Jackson-Harper has been stealing the show since episode 1 and he continues to be great here, bringing all of Chidi's frustrations and resentments to the surface, while retaining his nervous energy. Bell is also great, seeming genuinely hurt that she's being forced to watch TV instead of going to school and then angry when she realizes she's upset about that.

Things really become complicated when they have to play host to Nina and Bart, a former Marriage Counsellor and Identity Theft Specialist respectively.  Of course they can't even keep up the charade of being happy soulmates for a couple minutes and find their relationship being put under the microscope. This is when we find out the real reason Chidi has been so frustrated. It turns out he never had a soulmate or a serious meaningful relationship on earth and now he's supposed to have his perfect soulmate and it's not what he had hoped it would be. This is when the inherent selfishness in Eleanor's quest finally becomes apparent to Eleanor. At the top of the episode Chidi has been teaching utilitarianism, the idea that the action that leads to the most good and the least pain is the correct one. When Eleanor came to the good place, she took the place of Chidi's real soulmate and the more Chidi helps here, the more likely it is that he'll never get to meet her. By helping Eleanor, Chidi is sacrificing his own happiness because that's the least amount of pain for the greater good. This realization inspires Eleanor to give Chidi the day of rowing out on a lake with wine and french poetry he wants and a "Fork Off Eleanor" sign to use whenever he needs a break from her, because even if they aren't soulmates, they are friends and she's finally ready to start treating Chidi like one. Finally Eleanor is able to acknowledge the sacrifice Chidi is making and by taking steps to rectify her selfishness, the sinkhole her selfishness created in the last episode finally heals itself and goes away. It turns out a bit of selflessness can heal a bit of selfishness. It's a positive step for Eleanor and Chidi and hopefully one that will carry forward into future episodes.

Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis also gives us our best look yet into Tahani Al-Jamil, as she gets a peek at the neighbourhood goodness rankings while Michael and Janet are dealing with the sinkhole crisis and discovers she ranks 321 out of 322 people (Jianyu ranked 2nd and Eleanor ranked 6th, which is interesting considering what we know about those two). This sends Tahani into a tailspin as flashbacks reveal she spent her life in the shadow of her much more talented sister Kamilah. It turns out a lot of what Tahani did was to try and earn validation from her parents who never thought she was good enough. It's an affecting and tragic backstory that immediately teaches us a lot about why Tahani is the way she is. When her parents die and misname her in their will as Tahini (Like the sauce), she decides to step out of her sisters shadow and achieve great success all on her own but that fear of not being good enough hasn't left her. So she immediately tries to step up her game with elaborate brunch parties for all the people stuck at her mansion in an effort to move up the rankings. When that doesn't work she decides to try and help Michael and Janet fix the sinkhole. Of course that backfires when side effects from the hole cause her face to resemble an abstract painting, and Michael finds out she's seen the rankings. Ultimately he assures her that while the point counting stopped when she died and the rankings are final, the mere fact that she beat out billions for a spot in the good place means she is good enough and has nothing left to prove. It's a small capper to her arc, but an effective one for now. I wonder if this is something that will be revisited in future episodes though because the feeling of not being good enough doesn't go away that easily.

Also not going away that easily are the problems that have come up with the neighbourhood. Michael's story in this episode is slight, but one that sets him up for a major role in the weeks to come. Ted Danson gets a lot of notes to play, from goofily reciting the Western Hemisphere brunch banter he's been working on ("You haven't seen Hamilton? Hey, did you hear about Stephanie") to trying to conceal his panic about the whole sinkhole crisis. Michael thought the sinkhole would fix itself but it only grew and grew. When it finally went away, he has no idea why it did. It's become apparent that he does not have control of the neighbourhood he's designed and this terrifies him. So by episodes end, he recruits Eleanor to help him find the reason for all this trouble. This should prove an interesting dilemma for Eleanor in the weeks to come, as she happens to be the reason for all this trouble. So once again The Good Place tells an amusing and satisfying story, while continuing to set up for more stories down the road. It's been a good ride so far and we're not even halfway through the season yet. It's hard to say where all of this is ultimately going (though I have a few guesses), but episodes like this one have me very excited to find out.

Memorable Moments

-Jason doesn't get a lot to do in this episode but his monologue on utilitarianism is a beauty. "It's like, I knew this girl Sheila? She was a black market alligator dealer with a pierced jawbone. Sheila was gonna get married to my boy, Donkey Doug and make him move to Sarasota. It would've broken up my whole break dancing crew and Donkey Doug was our best pop-and-locker. So I hid a bunch of stolen boogie boards in Sheila's garage and called the cops. I framed one innocent gator dealer to save a 60-person dance crew".

-Michael keeps calm in the face of crisis. "Tahani, dear, could you show us to a private room where no one can see or hear us, even if I yell very loudly out of fear?"

-Eleanor knows when Chidi says no big deal, it's a pretty big deal. "When I told a boyfriend something was "no big deal," it meant anything from 'I just bought weed from your nephew,' to 'I secretly befriended your ex-girlfriend last year, things got out of hand, and now I'm her bridesmaid.'"

-Tahani introduces her sister. "Kamilah, of course, is the youngest person ever to graduate from Oxford University, she's a world-class painter, social activist, iconoclast, Olympic gold medalist for archery, a BAFTA Award-winner for her documentary on her Grammy Award-winning album, and the person voted 'Most Likely to be Banksy.'"

-Tahani made "Doughnut Holes" for the sinkhole repair but Janet informs her it's too soon by "exactly 9 days".

-I hope we see more of Bart and Nina, who may or may not want to swing with Eleanor and Chidi.

-Chidi not actually knowing how to row a boat is a very funny capper to his storyline this episode.

Guns, Pills, and Birds Causes Superstore To Take A Stand. Sort Of.

Of all the characters on Superstore, Amy is the only real grown-up. She's the one who has to make sure everyone is doing their jobs. She's the one who has to put up with complaints when she tries to make people do their jobs. She's the one who has to put the happiness of her husband over her own (at least the couple of times we've heard from her husband). She's the responsible one, and she hates that she has to be the responsible one but someone has to keep the store together, and Guns, Pills, and Birds is a prime example of why that person has to be her.

The main story in Guns, Pills, and Birds deals with Amy assigning Jonah to work the gun counter. Of course Jonah hates guns and would prefer not to be on the gun counter but letting him switch off would only lead to everyone else trying to switch off their assignments and possibly Mertle refusing to sell rice so he has to stay. Now gun ownership is of course a very hot-button issue, but Superstore handles it with grace and finesse, letting Jonah be anti-gun but not letting the episode become a lecture on guns and whether or not selling them in stores is a good thing. Instead, after Jonah exercises his right of refusal and doesn't let a clearly dangerous person buy a gun, Jonah begins increasingly stretching his definition of "dangerous" and denies guns to more and more people for increasingly absurd reasons (the best one being "I just don't trust redheads".). Jonah is taking a policy meant to keep people safe and exploiting it because he doesn't want to do his job. The show doesn't take a stand on whether Jonah's opinion on guns is right or wrong but it makes it clear that Jonah's actions are wrong, while also getting a fair amount of jokes out of Jonah's discomfort.

Amy meanwhile is preparing for a rare weekend to herself. Her husband Adam is taking their daughter on a camping trip and she's worked two doubles this week, so she's ready to just eat pizza, drink wine, and watch Freddie Prinze Jr. movies all weekend. Until her husband calls, begging her to take Emma camping because his friend just scored last minute tickets to an entrepreneur conference. This of course is a major blow and while Amy agrees to it, she is not happy. This is understandable and is something the episode expertly builds to by having Amy's excitement about this weekend to herself be present in almost every scene she's in until it's taken away by a man who thinks he can do whatever he wants and that Amy should "just be cool for once". So Jonah, who won't sell guns to anyone and is mad at Amy for putting him in this position and the Open Carry protesters who quickly storm the store to protest become a stand-in for her frustration at her husband and her frustration that she's the one who has to be the grown-up. Jonah's story has turned into Amy's story and it makes it a more effective story because now instead of being a story about guns, it's a more personal story about Amy's frustrations. When Amy takes Jonah and the protesters to task in the middle of the store, it's a funny scene (mainly for the protester who asks if Freddy Prinze Jr. is dead and how that throws Amy off), but also a big moment for Amy. It's a moment that clearly has an effect on Jonah, who decides to just work the gun counter. The show leaves it ambiguous if he's just doing this out of pity for Amy though, which is a smart call.

If the "Guns" part of the episode is light on laughs (though still has some good ones), the "Birds" portion is heavy on them. It's a simple story. A crow gets into the store and Garrett, Dina, and Mateo try to catch it, but one the store uses for great laughs, especially when the efforts to get the crow out bring in a whole murder of crows. It's also a story that lets us see new sides of all the characters involved. Garrett has been the aloof cool guy for the entirety of the show's run so far, so watching him panic and be freaked out by the crows is hilarious. A scene where he tried to hide in a tent that turns out to have a crow in it is the funniest part of the episode and it even leads to a nice scene at the end where the crow lands near him and he realizes it's not so bad. Meanwhile, after two episodes of Dina being at her most insufferable and Mateo in "eager to please" mode, it's refreshing to see them in a different context. Dina's love of birds has been one of her earliest character traits, so her desire to see the birds unharmed makes sense. Mateo meanwhile gets to be a little unhinged, which Nico Santos plays gloriously. The story ends on a dark note with Mateo misunderstanding Dina's request to "take care of the bird" leading to him beating the bag with the crow in it against the ground repeatedly as Dina and Garrett talk about being compassionate to animals, but it's a note that's hilarious and earned. Hopefully we can continue to see new sides to all of these characters in the future.

Glenn meanwhile is also given a story about a hot-button issue, but it's a story that winds up feeling like a missed opportunity. Spinning out of Jonah's discomfort with selling guns, Glenn mentions he'd have a problem if the store was selling morning after pills, only to find out the store does in fact sell those. So he tries to prevent Tate (Josh Lawson) from selling them and eventually goes to buy them all himself, only to discover after sale that he just spent over 1100 dollars on pills he can't afford or return, leading him to try and sell them himself. It's a funny story that ties into the themes of the main plot well. Mark McKinney is hilarious playing Glenn's panic and discomfort as he tries to sell something he doesn't believe in and Lawson is always a treat as the world's douchiest pharmacist. The problem is it's a story that's just kind of there and doesn't tell us anything new about Glenn. The "Guns" portion of the episode was funny but also told a strong character story for Amy (And Jonah to a lesser extent.). The "Birds" portion is mostly just an excuse for wacky comedy, but still managed to show off new sides of Glenn, Dina, and Mateo. The "Pills" portion just settles for being funny without the character work and it's a bit of a letdown. The show had a chance to look at Glenn's pro-life perspective and his objections to the morning after pill in the same nuanced and emphatic way it handles other issues and pushed that chance to the side for a story that's ultimately weightless.

My disappointments with the "Pills" portion aside though, Guns, Pills, and Birds was another very funny episode of what's becoming a very confident second season of Superstore. The show has gotten to the point where the writers know the characters well enough to just put them into all kinds of crazy situations and let them fly. And yes, it doesn't always work but the sum of the whole manages to easily be greater than the parts. Hopefully Amy is given some kind of a break soon though. It must be hard always having to be the grown-up.

Memorable Moments

-Best Interstitial: Mertle sits on a bench feeding crows.

-Garrett keeps a list of all the "crazy white-person things" Jonah does or says. It includes, wearing boat shoes, fencing, BBC America, makes his own trail mix ("You love my trail mix", Jonah protests), and the phrase "I want my objection noted".

-Amy's idea of an amazing movie differs from Jonah's substantially. "I'm thinking mid-'90s Rom-com, like Freddie Prinze Jr. takes the nerd to the prom because underneath those glasses, she's really beautiful, Jonah. She's beautiful".

-"Big weekend. Gonna get all liquored up and promiscuous". Glenn's whole storyline is worth it for his delivery of promiscuous.

-Garrett has had it up to here with Amy and Jonah. "Oh, god, can you guys just act like adults and have an affair or something?"

-The sequence where the gun protestors, Amy's frustrations, Glenn's efforts to sell Morning After Pills and the crows collide is a thing of beauty.

-"Bag of blood! It's a bag of Blood! Oh, you monster." The perfect way to close the episode.

-Don't worry Amy. Freddie Prinze Jr. is definitely still alive.

Timeless Is Dumb Fun, And That's Great

Are you looking for the next great Television drama? One of those shows that sends your jaw to the floor every week and leaves you in chills? Well you should probably stop reading this then because Timeless is not going to be that show. Try Westworld or Pitch or something among those lines. Watch The Americans if you haven't yet. Now are you looking for something that's utterly ridiculous and quite flawed, but manages to sell it with a game cast and pure audacity? Well then, you just might want to check out Timeless, which debuted tonight on NBC.

Created by Eric Kripke (Supernatural) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Timeless establishes its premise and characters at breakneck pace. We open with the Hindenburg disaster. Then we cut to a present-day lab where primary villain Garcia Flynn (a fairly menacing Goran Visnjic) and some henchman steal a big machine and disappear into thin air. We then meet our hero, history Professor Lucy Preston (A wonderful Abigail Spencer) as she's turned down for tenure and frets over her very sickly Historian mother with her sister before getting picked up by Homeland Security and getting put in a van with Major Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Matt Santer). They're taken to the lab where special agent Denise Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey) and famed inventor guy/lab owner Connor Mason (Paterson Joseph) inform them that time travel is possible, Flynn has stolen the main machine (The Mothership) and they have to chase and capture him with the back-up prototype (The Lifeboat). Lucy has doubts that are assuaged, they figure out he's gone to the Hindenburg and then she, Logan, and Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), a coder on secret orders from Mason who's sent to be their pilot go to 1937 to chase Flynn. All that happens in the first 15 minutes. The episode slows down a little bit after that for banter and time travel rules (Mainly don't change anything and don't go anywhere you already exist) but keeps a brisk pace which helps paper over some clunky storytelling.

By the end of the pilot we have a basic template for the show going forward: Flynn goes somewhere in time to change history, the team follows him and tries to stop his plan, the plan is thwarted but Flynn escapes for another week and our heroes contend with any changes they've inadvertently caused, while the show's myth arc is slowly revealed. So yeah, Timeless is basically a procedural show except instead of the "case of the week", it's the "Significant Historical Event of the week". That's not a bad thing though. Even if most episodes follow the basic template laid out by the pilot, there's a lot of room in that template for some interesting storytelling. The various mysteries set up in the pilot (Mostly involving a possible future connection between Lucy and Flynn and the reason Rufus was sent along on the mission) are also promising and as long as the show isn't too cagey with its reveals should be enough to sustain interest when the novelty of going to different eras wears out and the budget for depicting those eras runs out (The Hindenburg effects in the pilot are cool but it'll probably be a while before we see something like that again). Additionally, the pilot suggests that the show is willing to alter actual historical events to a degree with legitimate ramifications for the character's personal histories, which has lots of cool possibilities if handled correctly. And while again, a lot of the show is utterly ridiculous, the tone of the show lands on the right side of utterly ridiculous, taking things seriously but with a light and fun tone.

Also helping keep Timeless on the right side of ridiculous are Abigail Spencer and Malcolm Barrett. Spencer is a tremendous actress and she brings a lot of depth to the character of Lucy to make her a compelling lead. She has a warmth and a humanity that makes it easy to feel the things she's feeling throughout the pilot, from the claustrophobic fear of her initial time travel journey to the sense of wonder when she lays eyes on 1937 New Jersey to the mix of relief, pain and confusing after surprising events happen late in the pilot. A show like this needs a strong lead to keep it grounded in some kind of emotional reality even as events get more and more ludicrous and Spencer is definitely the right person for the job. Meanwhile, Barrett is a delight as Rufus, taking the familiar "comic relief nerd" type and breathing new life into it, giving Rufus a nervous energy that feels both familiar and fresh. Rufus also works because he's reluctant about travelling through time for the obvious reason of it sucking to be a black man in basically all eras of American history. This, along with Lucy as the lead gives the show an organic way to look at the racial and gender issues of the time, and though the pilot lays it on a little thick in a scene where Rufus informs a racist Prison guard of all the things he wants the guard to live to see black people accomplish, it's still looking at issues worth exploring.

The one clear weak link of the Pilot is the character of Wyatt Logan. Matt Santer does a fine job with him, but he can't help the character from coming across as the "generic snarky handsome hero type" he's clearly written as. It's not that there's a problem with this kind of character, but nothing about Logan is that new or interesting. He's gonna do things like call Lucy "Ma'am" or "Professor" or try to save people even though they're not supposed to change anything. He has a troubled past and a dead wife to motivate his pain. He skates by on charm and a half-smile. All of this has been done before and done better than Timeless does it in the pilot. It's not awful but it is kind of boring and that's the thing Timeless can't afford to be. Who knows though? Maybe by the end of the season, Wyatt will turn out to be much more interesting than he initially seemed. That'd be cool. It'd also be nice to see more depth to the character of Flynn going forward. Goran Visnjic does well with what he's given but Flynn doesn't come off as much more than a moustache-twirling villain here and that won't be sustainable for long.

Look, Timeless is not going to be the next great Television drama. It's probably not going to inspire the kind of devotion and lavish critical attention a genre show like Battlestar Galactica or Lost got. And that's fine. It doesn't have to do those things. What Timeless is shaping up to be is a fun, dumb show that gets to play with big moments in history (press releases for the next few episodes are promising the Lincoln Assassination, Rat Pack-era Vegas, and Nazi Germany) while slowly spooling out it's mythology and mysteries to keep people hooked and giving Abigail Spencer a chance to do her thing and class up the joint. Which might not be everyone's thing but sounds pretty great to me. Is there a chance this show will either go wildly off the rails or take itself too seriously and become a boring slog? Yes, definitely. I'd be surprised if one of those things didn't happen. That being said, there's enough promise in this first episode to make it worth the risk that it'll become unwatchable down the line. So if you're looking for something fun and ridiculous to watch this fall, take a chance on Timeless. It's not going to rock your world or anything, but it should easily be worth your time (Yes, I'm ending this on a dumb pun).