No matter your emotions are about Quantum Leap (2022) — love, hate, or indifference — you possibly can’t deny this.
The present is conscious of the bags it is carrying as a sequel collection to a beloved unique.
Take this trade between Ben and Addison on Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 6:
Addison reveals the potential of one other leaper, and Ben wonders how he can focus on the leap of the week with all of the intrigue taking place again at Quantum Leap headquarters.
Good query, Ben.
Thus far, the leap of the week has been the least thrilling a part of the revived Quantum Leap.
It is partially due to the modifications to tv for the reason that unique aired again within the late 80s and early 90s.
One TV reveals are keen to supply solutions to collection arc questions rather a lot sooner now. Secondly, reveals are much more serialized now, which, in flip, has downplayed the significance of the case of the week portion.
Incorporating the unique collection into the present collection was a sensible choice for a number of causes.
It reeled in followers of the unique and reassured them the present collection would deal with the unique respectfully.
It offered a built-in delusion arc and justified increasing the scope to indicate what’s taking place at Quantum Leap headquarters regularly.
The draw back, although, is the leap of the week tends to really feel like a kind of storylines the place a member of the forged is separated from the remainder of the forged, and it goes on for too lengthy, and the entire ordeal ends so pointlessly, you marvel why the present bothered with it within the first place.
Why are the leaps so lackluster?
For one, the stakes do not feel excessive sufficient.
Since we all know Ben has to make a specific amount of leaps earlier than attending to his deliberate vacation spot, there isn’t any actual life-or-death stress to the bounce. As an alternative, it seems like we’re watching him full a online game degree.
In distinction, the issues on the homefront, such because the Janis manhunt and the investigation into the opposite leaper, appear much more consequential and will end in a physique rely.
You even have at hand it to the unique for masking a number of floor throughout its run.
Storylines about leaping past your timeline, leaping into somebody of a distinct gender, and encountering one other leaper had already been completed on Quantum Leap.
Plus, many time journey reveals have come and gone throughout the interim between Quantum Leaps, so the leap plotlines are usually not breaking any new floor.
Because the unique Quantum Leap occasionally confirmed the happenings at Quantum Leap headquarters, these storylines really feel extra novel.
And it is the non-leaping, delusion arc storylines that present solutions to what occurred to Al, the unique challenge, and hopefully Dr. Sam Beckett.
These are stronger attention-grabbing hooks than one thing alongside the traces of whether or not Ben will discover his host’s son in time to forestall one thing horrible from taking place.
After all, this would not be the case if Ben was allowed to forge deeper connections with the folks whose lives he was making an attempt to alter.
Examine the early episodes of the unique collection — Sam’s experiences felt extra immersive than Ben’s.
A few of it’s as a result of the present would not dedicate each minute to the leap the way in which the unique may. It is also as a result of Ben is not interacting as a lot with the folks within the leap as Sam did.
Then why is it not shocking that essentially the most profitable leap of the week, storywise, occurred on Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 7, when Ben spent many of the bounce out of contact with Addison?
His interactions with Daisy, the physician, and even himself have been deeper than common, making the viewers care extra about what was taking place on the leap.
Following it up with prolonged interactions between Ben and the kids he was making an attempt to assist on Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 8 and permitting Ben a second to behave like a teen, too, provides hope the present is beginning to determine the best way to make the leaps extra attention-grabbing.
Maybe the leaps in early installments feeling like slogs have been merely a symptom of a brand new present nonetheless determining what works and what doesn’t.
With Quantum Leap beginning to make the “set proper what as soon as went fallacious” half extra partaking and discovering methods to include the parable arc — Janis’ makes an attempt to contact Ben and the looks of one other leaper — into the leap of the week, the leaping is feeling worthwhile once more.
If Quantum Leap continues on this trajectory, it’d simply step out of the shadow of its predecessor.
Over to you, TV Fanatics!
How do you’re feeling about balancing the parable arc and the leap of the week?
Do you suppose the leap of the week portion is beginning to enhance? You’ll be able to watch Quantum Leap on-line to compile your theories when you want extra knowledge.
An article like that is solely nearly as good because the dialog it conjures up, so please hit the feedback beneath and share your ideas on leaping and time journey and getting it proper for the nice of the present.
Becca Newton is a employees author for TV Fanatic.
