A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 3 (Quantum Leap Season 3) [3.2]

(Continued from 3.1)

Miss Deep South: There's a temptation to call this an archetypal Quantum Leap story, with a little derision thrown its way. While it is true that it plays off of a few beats that the show has hit before in the past, it would be wrong to call it an instance of the show going through the motions. This isn't quite Quantum Leap by numbers here, but there are familiar elements at play. Sam has to do a thing his leapee's good at but he's no good at, there's the worst of humanity on display with a shitlord who Sam has to give comeuppance to... and oh yeah, Sam's leapt into a woman again. For real this time, not like the fakeout in "M.I.A.". Kind of funny to think about that episode in comparison, though, for one reason. Sam does more complaining about high heels and skirts in that 30 second leap teaser than he does in this whole episode, and he's leapt into a beauty pageant contestant.

A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 3 (Quantum Leap Season 3) [3.1]

(Hello again from the present! I just had a lovely vacation, and I've come back to get right back at it with posting these words. In fact, the posting of the rest of the show is going to become very fast now that we have a month to October and spooky month marathon. I'm already in the weeds of Season 4 and doing two episodes a day, and I'm going to have another trip in September so boy howdy do I have to speed things up here. That's just how things go for me in the fall, but enough of that. Please enjoy like a thousand words apiece on each episode of Quantum Leap's third season, starting with the first five or six!)

(Continued from 2.4)

So glad you could join me for the third go-around! It's good to have company while one is adrift and far away from shore. Last time we finished the first of four of the "big" seasons of Quantum Leap, 22 whole episodes and kind of a loss of brevity. Look, sometimes I have like 1000 words to say per episode and some of it isn't even summarizing what happened in the show for you. Multiply that by 22 and you got a big brick of words that needs to be sculpted. Wait, I thought we were doing boat metaphors, not statue ones. Either way, we're going to talk about Quantum Leap Season 3, whether it's on a boat or with a statue or with some other metaphor I've not thought of. Season 2 had its highs and lows, for sure. Most of the lows come from words that are slurs, to be fair. One curious improvement I noticed, though: they stopped doing that shit that was annoying me where the episode would stop for a minute so Sam could inspire a historical figure or event. After Chubby Checker and Dr. Heimlich, which were within the first six episodes of S2, it stopped. Good, I say. I still think "Blind Faith" is the best use of this, where the big historical event is perfectly used as a plot device to aid like four or five other plot devices. More of those would be good! Really, more episodes as meticulously crafted as "Blind Faith" would be nice, but I digress.

At this point I think I do have the feel of what a good Quantum Leap story is. It isn't just the macrocosmic "help another person 'cause it's right and it will change the future for the better", business. There's also the feelings of Sam and Al to consider. The pair of them have their own histories, their own losses and failures and regrets which make them sympathize with certain people who they're here to help. Sometimes they even drive them to go too far, as Al was driven to do in the conclusion of last season with "M.I.A.", and the other has to pull them back. Why do I mention that? Oh, just because the season opener is going to really delve into that mindset with a whopper of an episode. Yeah, I already saw the first, and I'm going to tell you about it now... but I've not seen the remaining 21. Hard to port, constant reader. We've got one hell of a storm coming to open up the season.

A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 2 (Quantum Leap Season 2) [2.4]

(Continued from 2.3)

Good Night, Dear Heart: This one's a bit of a contradiction, simultaneously a traditional sort of story and one with an ethereal, gonzo look towards the future. Sam's a mortician in New England in 1957, and there's a dead blonde in his parlor whom everyone believes ended her own life. Sam, after finding a strange wound on her head, is convinced she was shot and it was a murder before proceeding to go into full murder mystery detective mode. When you put it down on paper like that, it sounds pretty straightforward with nothing seeming out of the ordinary. There's one strange choice that stuck with me, though, and it along with some other themes and mysteries revealed over the other gave me an odd, if maybe inaccurate comparison point.

A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 2 (Quantum Leap Season 2) [2.3]

(Continued from 2.2)

Animal Frat: That paragraph was running long so I made a little cliffhanger for the next part here. At first I assumed that this was some production order shuffling due to Season 1 only being 9 episodes, like how the Machiko episode dovetailed back into Jesse Tyler. It seemed weird that we were still doing that halfway into Season 2, but whatever, I can wait a day to see the next leap. It turns out, if the Quantum Leap wiki is to be believed, that they did this because the next week's broadcasted episode was a rerun of "Camikazi Kid". I wonder if anyone's tried to make it canon, like the canon nerds try to do for the repeat of one of Patrick Troughton's Dalek stories in 1960s Doctor Who. Right, then. Basically used a paragraph talking about weird production issues. I may or may not be dodging trying to talk about this episode. In a way, it's a lot like "Jimmy": It has its heart in the right place with a moral about a serious real-world issue, but it also is very messy and does a bunch of shit that does not fly today. It manages to do this without saying a single slur, too. That's either an accomplishment or horrifying. Or both. Let's dive in!

A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 2 (Quantum Leap Season 2) [2.2]

(Continued from 2.1)

Thou Shalt Not...: This one was another heavy hitter, but it does it in a way that's not a prickly brush against prejudice like a lot of the other episodes with heavy subject matter. The double whammies of the episode are grief and infidelity, and how both are intertwined. Sam's leapt into a Jewish rabbi named David in 1974, and at first has to navigate through a bat mitzvah for the rabbi's niece, Karen. It's okay, one of Al's ex-wives was Jewish and he remembers all the prayers and ceremony, so Sam can get through that. So, at the heart of it all we've got this nice Jewish family. David's brother Joe has a wife and daughter, Irene and Karen respectively, and it's Sam's job to save this family from being torn apart. In 36 hours Irene will have an affair and it will destroy her marriage. The episode takes a slow burn approach of showing us just how damaged and broken this family is, and why Irene will be driven to the arms of another man.

A Quantum Microcosm, Adrift On The Sea Of History: Part 2 (Quantum Leap Season 2) [2.1]

(Well, we're back again! I'll leave the intro bit to my past self, but I'll just give you the heads up that with 22 episodes and like 1000 words apiece to say about them, this ended up long. So long that I had to do my usual anime project thing of splitting it up into multiple posts. As such, for the next few days you're going to get some pieces of thoughts on Quantum Leap Season 2 episodes, five or six per post. The math works out, trust me. Sit back with your coffee on a boat, then, and enjoy...)

(Continued from Part 1)

Welcome back to this thing! We're well beyond a coffee shop now. You, friend, are on this ship with me, drifting along and letting the currents guide us where we need to go. Don't worry, I'll still brew you a cup though. That's just common courtesy. Last time we drifted along through 9 episodes of the first season of Quantum Leap, and we certainly discovered some wonderful things. In many ways, I got exactly what I was looking for. Smaller-scale tales about going back in time and making intimately personal stories better. Mending broken hearts, saving lives, challenging prejudices. It was beautiful and intimate. On the other, a new ideological threat reared its head. Quantum Leap does not have consistent lore it can retreat into for the sake of pandering. (Yet.) What it does have, however, is the broad canvas of American history between 1950 and 1975. We have seen episodes come to a screeching halt so Dr. Sam Beckett can meet or inspire famous American celebrities. This could get worse before it gets better. (I have heard hushed whispers that an episode on Lee Harvey Oswald is in the future.) Well, there's nothing to it but to just ride the current and call it as I see it. I have a feeling we're starting with a doozy, and not for any celebrity historical reason. Let's ride the wave, you and I. Let's get back to the leaping.