Friday, December 14, 2007

Chapter 70.8: Keep the Journey Going!


I have heard some bad news about a TV show that I've come to enjoy. Journeyman on NBC apparently is being cancelled. I'd miss this show, which is well written and entertaining. If you've not seen it, it may sound a little predictable: it's about a man who travels back in time. Yes, time travel has been done -- many times, some not as well as others.

I think I've seen each episode -- which this the third in a row of entertaining Monday night shows on NBC, Chuck, Heroes, and Journeyman -- and with each episode I like Kevin McKidd more and more. I honestly think he's become one of the best television actors going. Those of you who watched Rome on HBO know him as Lucius Vorenus. He made that potentially dour character into a truly captivating everyman (if we were living in Julian and Augustan Rome, that is). And in Journeyman, he does the same thing with Dan Vasser, a talented journalist with a gambling past, a "late" fiance who is a time traveler too, and a wife and child. His brother is a by-the-book cop who used to date Dan's wife, Katie. And Katie is a once and future TV news reporter. While struggling to write enough stories to keep his job, Vasser goes back and forth tracking people who need help. And his departures do not go unnoticed. Once when and his wife are on a plane, for example, he vanishes causing the plane to be returned to the airport since this is post-9/11 America. And that disappearance is often referenced in subsequent episodes.

Anyway, it's well written and it deserves not only to continue but to command a devoted audience. Clearly, such an audience has started to emerge, as people are writing blogs calling for NBC to save Journeyman and starting a petition to send Rice-a-Roni (the show takes place in San Francisco) to the decision makers.

I don't know that my sending a box of rice at the holidays will do anything to change someone's mind, but I don't mind writing a blog entry myself saying Yes, Save Journeyman! I'll keep watching, and I encourage others to do the same. And whatever Kevin McKidd does next, I'll be watching.

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