The World's Common Tater

Quantum Leap aired last night on NBC. I had to watch it in two installments today, but I finished it. Here are my thoughts.

Premise

After years of trying to bring Dr. Sam Beckett home, the Quantum Leap project was abandoned. Until now. A team headed by Herbert “Magic” Williams, who Sam leaped into in The Leap Home Part 2, had restarted the program to try to figure out how to do the leaps and return home. Physicist Ben Song leaves his engagement party, downloads new code in the project computer, and leaps. The rest of the episode deals with Ben in 1985 participating in a heist as his fiance acts as his hologram guide. We also see the team in 2022 trying to bring him home.

Tater’s Thoughts

The original show was one of my favorites. I still watch old episodes when they are on TV. I wish this was a return of Sam, but without Al, I’m not sure it would be the same. I did like that they opened with a reference to Sam leaping and never returning. I like that Magic is part of the show as a tie to the original. I don’t want to spoil a reveal, but there is one more big tie to the original near the end of the episode.

The show seems OK so far. I think the first leap could have been better, I wasn’t too invested in why he had to change the guy’s life. I was more invested in his fiance dealing with the fact that he didn’t remember anything. The next episode seems to also have very high stakes. I hope we get some lighter leaps mixed in with the life-or-death ones.

I’m not sure how I feel about seeing so much of the people in 2022. I do think the new character coming next week will make that more interesting.

From the previews, it seems Ben now can travel outside of his own lifetime, so that could lead to some interesting historical leaps.

I hope at some point they get Scott Bakula to appear as Sam, either at the end of the show to be brought home or in a sweeps episode where Ben leaps into the same place Sam has leaped.

I will watch more episodes. I think it has the potential to be good, I’m just not sure I will love it as much as the original