Travelers: Pilot
December 23, 2016 6:18 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe

When several random citizens are possessed by people from the future, FBI agent Grant MacLaren discovers their critically important mission.
posted by oh yeah! (19 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Not sure if this series warrants episode-by-episode recap threads or if it should get just a complete-season thread. Seems like it's going to have a mostly procedural format, which doesn't really lend itself to as much discussion/analysis on an episodic level (and since Canada and the UK got the season before Netflix US, seems like that could also make it hard to have episode threads not go spoilery). But I figure it's best to start with a pilot thread.

I must say, I wasn't expecting MacLaren to get 'traveled' too. I was assuming that he was going to be the ongoing antagonist or ally, and that Carly's abusive cop significant-other was going to be the recipient of the final traveler, and was bracing for the paradox (since he wouldn't have been at the building to be killed if Carly hadn't gotten body-jumped). And I'd been assuming that the person had to actually die in order to be taken, not just supposed-to-have-been-dead. Bummer, though, I liked MacLaren's deadpan.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:41 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was surprised by that, too! And a little disappointed though not quite sure it's changed him much (I'm all of three episodes in).
posted by purenitrous at 8:34 PM on December 23, 2016


I just watched the first four episodes because of this thread. I'm liking this show a lot.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:43 PM on December 24, 2016


So, do those of you further ahead think I should do posts for each episode, or just plow ahead and add a 'full season 1' post when I reach the end?
posted by oh yeah! at 7:14 PM on December 24, 2016


I've been enjoying it, except for the suspense score, which is effective - it makes me anxious, which makes me want to watch something else.
posted by theora55 at 7:59 AM on December 25, 2016


"So, do those of you further ahead think I should do posts for each episode, or just plow ahead and add a 'full season 1' post when I reach the end?"

I'm the wrong person to ask, because I'm just always confounded by this whole problem. This is a quite good genre show, it deserves to have a lot of mefites watching it, but experience has taught me that what gets a lot of activity here is idiosyncratic. And I always think that low-activity episode threads are kind of a bummer. Full-season threads are a good idea, but then people have to worry about spoiling things for people who've not watched the whole (available) season. I dunno.

The activity in this thread itself is probably an indicator. But it's also Christmas. Not quite as much TV watching for many people right now. Me, though, I watched all ten available episodes of this last night. :)
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:06 AM on December 25, 2016


*Addng to Netflix queue*

Oh yeah, I am starting to think I should just give you all my streaming app logins to add shows you like to my watch lists. I have stopped being surprised that a post about a show that seems like exactly something I would love was posted by you!
posted by CoffeeHikeNapWine at 10:18 AM on December 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Ok, after watching episode 2, I think it looks like there will be enough myth-arc/world-building to warrant individual posts. New one is up now (and my office is closed until Tuesday the 3rd, so, I'll likely get the rest up over the next couple of days).
posted by oh yeah! at 4:30 PM on December 25, 2016


Agree it's totally worth dissecting each episode, each core character had unique problems and arc's. Using the past tense as I'm posting from the future. But don't think the spoilers will help or hurt as the time paradox(s) will be changing the plot(s) all around anyway.

really really really hoping that this was picked up for a second season, at least in this frame
posted by sammyo at 5:52 PM on December 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Just started the series tonight based on the fact that it was about time travel and has Eric McCormick. Loving it so far. I was also not expecting him to be another traveler, but it makes sense since they would be able to foresee him interfering.
posted by numaner at 9:21 PM on December 26, 2016


Thanks for posting this! The pilot served as a great teaser, and the acting's pretty good.

Felt really weird knowing exactly where they did most of the non-stage filming.
posted by porpoise at 3:25 PM on December 27, 2016


I had almost no idea what this what but heard it mentioned on a podcast and started watching on Christmas Eve and got sucked in pretty quickly. Haven't been able to do my usual binge because of holiday plans, but that's probably for the best. I'm just finishing up the 11th episode tonight.

I'm not big on time travel shows (or apocalypse shows which sadly leaves little else in genre these days) but I like the premise and the characters. I like the ways some of the characters do some unexpected things.

I probably would've voted for an all-episode thread because I have problems remembering which specific things happen in specific episodes of shows I binge. :)
posted by Squeak Attack at 8:41 PM on December 27, 2016


Oh yeah - Canada, just be you for once. I know Vancouver when I see it!
posted by Squeak Attack at 8:50 PM on December 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


Using the past tense as I'm posting from the future.

Greetings, traveler, me too now.

I probably would've voted for an all-episode thread because I have problems remembering which specific things happen in specific episodes of shows I binge. :)

That's why I tend to go bullet-point-crazy the longer my bingewatch-posting goes on, so I can click in to see which episode is which as the threads start popping up in my Recent Activity in random order.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:10 PM on December 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yes, thank you for that! It helped me make a few comments in the appropriate threads and not be spoilery.
posted by Squeak Attack at 9:18 PM on December 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just watched this first episode and kind of liked it? Also kind of thought it was dumb. Could someone travel from the future and tell me if the show gets smarter / more subtle and is worth sticking with? Memail me if you're worried about spoilers.

I was cranky because I am fucking done with shows using violence against women so lazily for entertainment purposes. There are two women characters. Both are defined at first by men attacking them, both with frightening sexual assault possibilities. It's lazy and desensitizing. It's nice that the Traveller-possessed women got their revenge and the show moves past it, but it bugged me.
posted by Nelson at 8:45 AM on January 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


Nelson - I was glad I stuck with it to the end. I think the writers did a good job at world-building; no giant swaths of exposition, just little reveals episode-by-episode, so that by the finale you have a full picture. And for a time-travel show, they pretty much obeyed their own rules ('pretty much' because I think there are some paradox issues, but I'm not sure if it wasn't intentional). I think you should watch the second episode and see if the stuff you found dumb was the pilot-itis effect.

As far as the violence against Carly & Marcie in the pilot, I guess I am too desensitized, it didn't really register as problematic until your comment. I think that's the most sexualized the violence is in the series, though, if memory serves?
posted by oh yeah! at 6:30 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


I don't want to make excuses but thinking on the subjects - they have to be selected under very limiting circumstances, young, not dying from disease, and in a situation the traveller can extract themselves from quickly, or be extracted from by their team if they're already there. So I suppose situations the traveler can quickly fight their way out of, or step away from (like Trevor) make sense.

I do think it was a bad writers' choice for Carly and Marcy both to be victims of male violence. It would've made more sense to stick with that death for Marcy and figure out something else for Carly, especially since that was a really strange scene - random toughs outside the library? I was pretty confused by that scenario.

Marcy's ex-boyfriend continues to be a problem for her, but I don't think it's written in a desensitizing or lazy way.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:46 AM on January 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


Sooo...We just started this last night with the pilot episode. We liked it. I thought I was going to bail on the show in the first five or ten minutes, when three women get brutalized and one man has his head beat-in in an underground cage fight. It was wayyyyyyyy too much violence for us, especially crammed into such a compressed space. Hopefully, the rest of the show isn't so brutal.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:29 AM on March 3, 2019


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