So let's talk about narrative structure and Quantum Leap. In the old show, things were much more focused on Sam's solo perspective as the leaper. We were thrust into the worlds and the leaps from his eyes, feeling his confusion, only knowing as much as he knows because again yadda yadda Swiss cheese. You can count on one hand the amount of glimpses we get into the present day of classic Quantum Leap, and I'm not counting the waiting room focus that Season 5 liked to do. Point is, the foremost concern of the original series is the leap. We are back in the past, something bad is about to happen, let's watch Scott Bakula make things right for 45 minutes. It's a lovely little formula for early 90's television. Would it have worked unaltered for the 2020s? I've no idea, but the folks behind New Quantum Leap did not try. They instead used the evolutions in narrative storytelling over the 30 years since this show went off the air to... well, evolve the show.
Here's a bit of a marvel. though. To use some parlance from Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who, none of these people get the Yaz treatment. Yes, some get more in-depth backstory and focus than others, but over 18 episodes of television all of these characters get their chance to shine. Magic is mostly relegated to a mentor figure giving wise words of inspirations to his friends and co-workers, and since it's Ernie Hudson playing him he does a very good job at that. Everyone else gets at least two episodes where they are the central focus: either the situation of Ben's current leap or the newest revelation in the mystery of why Ben leaped causes them to think about their own lives and feelings, and get introspective about themselves as they share how they feel with one of their friends. The B plot for Atlantis, for instance, focuses on Addison finding a flash drive of Ben's. She's conspiratorial about it with Ian, and they eventually convince her to trust not just Jenn with its contents but also to trust in Ben's intentions in leaping, whatever they mat be. This simple mirroring of leap parameter to characters back home impressed me, and it gives these characters a particular life of their own. I like 'em. Now, what sort of stuff do they have to deal with beyond the introspection of the leaps making them reflect on their lives and choices?
The answer's just a bit controversial. Looking at 30 years worth of narrative advances, the folks behind New Quantum Leap chose the mystery box format to convey their first season's story. Why did Ben leap? Who helped him leap? What macrocosmic wrong are they trying to set right? The answers to these questions are teased out in piecemeal over 18 episodes of television, and that's a dangerous tightrope to walk. If you tease the answer to a mysterious mystery and it does not deliver for the fans, their immeasurable disappointment will retroactively ripple back and make them disappointed with the buildup to it. If you need a fresh example of that, look no further than the reaction to the latest season of Doctor Who. When the mysterious mystery being teased was not up to the expectations of the audience, they turned upon it hard. Some even turned upon the entire season, the entire hopes of this era being any good because of it. This mystery box was a dud, how can we ever trust any mystery on this show again? That may sound like hyperbole, but it only has a bit of that to it. Does the New Quantum Leap pull it off?
Sort of? A lot of it feels hasty, like it was patched together with narrative contrivance and a prayer. You wonder in hindsight why characters are being so standoffish with each other when just talking would fix things, and the Doylist answer is because it's not episode X so we can't open that part of the mystery box yet. Some people can't roll with that. I just about manage to. Let me try and peel open some of the wrapping under this thing and see if we can't give it some analysis. The answer of who helped Ben leap is answered at the end of episode 1, and it's a bombshell. His mysterious co-conspirator and antagonist for the first half of the series is none other than Janis Calavicci, one of Al's daughters who resents not being allowed to become a part of her father's legacy in Quantum Leap and has seemingly gone rogue, sabotaging things and being a general nuisance while acting oddly sinister to Magic and Jenn as they try to track her down to understand just what in the fuck is going on and why their friend flung himself into a quantum singularity. There's your legacy character, kids. A woman who would not exist were it not for Sam's choice at the end of the original series, now causing a whole bunch of trouble and being a thorn in the side of Ben's friends.
Just about. If I wanted to be real mean, I could nitpick the fact that Janis keeps her lips sealed for most of the first half out of distrust, only giving up the clue that leads to further discovery once it's mechanically the time for her to give that information up. I won't do that, though, as it's not how I roll. I dig Janis as an antagonist, and the way she runs circles around Project Quantum Leap to cover her tracks makes broad sense: the less they know, the less the foe from the future knows. Eventually she trusts them, and with her guidance the scope of things comes together to paint the bigger picture of what is really happening. I'm not ready to reveal that to you just yet. I'm not building a mystery box of my own with these words, I'm just ramping up to it... much like Ben is. Another component of the mystery is Ben's path through time. He calculated this out, a specific set of leaps that work like using gravity to propel a satellite out of the solar system. These 17 specific places and times, if leaped successfully, will allow Ben to leap into the future and do what has to be done. Ben has also, quote, "removed the safety protocols" to do this, which is a perfect explanation for the new show to break one of the rules of the old show: Ben is now no longer limited to leaps within his own lifetime. The rule was put there in the old show just because the folks making it wanted to focus on American history from the 50's to the 80's, but we are beyond such constraints now.
This great episode marks a string of absolute bangers in a row. Following this, What A Disaster is a crisis set during the 1989 California earthquake in which Ben's feelings and traumas pop up as he tries to find and save his leapee's son in the aftermath of the quake while dealing with the sudden memory of how his own mother died. O Ye Of Little Faith is the Halloween episode wherein New Quantum Leap basically does The Exorcist, and Ben is stuck without Addison to help him while all sorts of spooky shit begins to happen around a possessed girl. Ben has to learn to accept his faith in this one, which might have hit better if New Quantum Leap was willing to go as gonzo as the old show did. There are no real ghosts and the literal devil does not appear to hassle Ben: everything is rationally explained with a combination of drugged gin and Janis's attempts to holographically contact Ben glitching out and making her look like a black smoke monster.
On the subject of that mystery box, though, two very important teases are given in these four. The latter, at the end of Stand By Ben, has Ben remember the reason he leapt in the first place. As he teases it for the midseason finale, the reason was to save Addison. From what we don't know yet, but from who? Well, that's another mystery box tease put into the end of an episode. At the end of Salvation Or Bust, discussing the victory with Addison, a man grabs Ben by the shoulder to whirl him around before calling him by name. Not his leapee's name, but actually addressing him as Dr. Ben Song from the year 2022 before warning him to stay away as Ben leaps. This mystery man is tracked down next episode, a man named Richard Martinez. The Martinez of 2022 is a patriotic soldier who would do anything in the name of America, but he seems to know nothing about leaping or any mission of the sort. Make no mistake, though. Martinez is our true series antagonist, and the how and why of his plan in the future will be revealed.
Instead of opening more mystery box, though, let's just talk about some more of the great episodes of this show, including what I believe to be New Quantum Leap's finest hour.
To me, one of the big weaknesses of at least the first part of the season was the extent to which Ben's leaps felt incidental to the "real" plot. I agree that it was the right move to make the team back home a larger part of the story, but there seemed to be very little connecting the leaps to the "real story" back home.
ReplyDeleteIf I were designing a show like this, there would've been more connective tissue - and I gather they get this better in season 2 (Haven't got that far yet). Not even necessarily a plot connection; it would have worked if the challenged Ben faced in the past shared a thematic link to the present. Would've felt like a more cohesive show if, say, Addison watching Magic navigate a challenge in the present helped her figure out a strategy for Ben in the past, or if Ben resolving some domestic tragedy in the 80s provided the insight Ian needed in the future to out-hack Janis.
I also find myself reflecting on the way that the increased focus on the present team serves to preclude the original series's supernatural angle: in the original show, technically, sure, they were trying to get Sam home, but we hardly ever see Project Quantum Leap actually trying to do that - all the work they actually SHOW is about helping Sam complete his leaps. But with a show where the main part of the plot is the gang's attempts to bring Ben home, you could hardly make a mainstream show whose plot is "A team of dedicated experts work hard to thwart the plans of God."