I just finished watching the finale of Season 2 and am really hoping this will be renewed for Season 3 (4...). Canadian made and first broadcast episodically on Canada's Showcase channel, this series immediately caught my Interest. Although time travel is not a new concept, this approach to time travel was fresh, focusing on the present rather than on the future and the vehicle for transcending time was unique and interesting. Eric McCormack leads a talented cast, and the writers have given us great characters, relationships and great story archs. The first season was solid and I looked forward to each new episode but sometimes the complexities of the present implications of future science were complex and bogged down the momentum of character arch and development, so when the finale of season 1 played I only gave it an 8 (great) out of 10, The second season, however, upped the game, and I was fully captivated and am now feeling a keen sense of loss as I finish the finale because there is no news yet of whether it will be renewed. Although I watched it episodically, it is now available on Netflix and this series is ideal for binging - it is just complicated enough that to watch it in close succession will alleviate the need to rewatch parts to catch all the details and plot points of the more complex twists and turns. I am a total fan of this series and, because of this 2nd season, I have elevated my rating from 8 (great) to 9.5 (a favourite) out of 10. [Speculative Drama]
So in the future they have a plan to go back and save the world. In order to do so they send a team back in time to 'occupy' the bodies of folks who are about to die and, with the importance of the task at hand, the team ends up being: a heroin addict who can hardly get his shit together, a victim of domestic abuse with a drunk cop husband and a kid that never stops crying (jeez she spends more time looking after the damn kid than she does on mission AND we get to watch a boring as hell custody battle into the bargain too - I mean seriously??), a 17 year old (who doesn't look a day under 27) high school kid with daddy issues; a woman who has a terminal illness with not long to live and an FBI agent who's a crap planner. Way to go, we certainly got the A team.
As for the story, acting is OK and some episodes have a decent story but there's just too much padding and filler and the plot line with some of the episodes is just dumb. Got to episode 7 of season 1 but enough is enough, more interesting things to watch.
I can see why this show got cancelled, I'm not sure why it took 3 seasons though. It's really a drag to watch because it has potential to be better but episode to episode it feels like you're watching the same thing over and over. You can tell it wasn't written out in advance since the story and rules seem to change season to season. Furthermore the logic is very flawed. The "Candidates" for who the travelers takes over makes no sense, the basically just start occupying anyone and everyone who's about to die rather then putting any kind of thought into things whatsoever and that in itself makes absolutely no sense with the plot of the show. If they condensed the story into 10 episodes this would've stood a chance but there's soooooo much filler it's hard to get through.
Most of the characters are WAY too preachy. Some of them are completely unbearable (Grace), and in that I mean if this was a Reno 911 style spoof of a sci-fi show then their characters would fit right in but since this is supposed to be taken seriously it's just plain bad. Don't waste your time, and don't listen to most of the reviews here. EVERY show has fanboys, especially sci-fi ones. My first run I only made it a couple episodes in before I U-turned, then thanks to Covid I tried it again years later and I fully regret that decision. This was cancelled for a reason and that's because it's not a good show, at all.
Review by tropoliteVIP 5BlockedParent2021-08-13T12:53:50Z
Well if I knew the way I felt about this show after finishing the series I would have started watching Travelers when it first came out.
I did start watching it but from memory there was another time travel themed show that came out at the same time, I may have gotten these two shows confused. Why am I bringing this up? It's only because I recently discovered Brad Wright created Travelers and as I'm a big Stargate SG1 fan I figured I should give this another go, but this show wasn't like the one I watched in the past.
Admittedly it took a few episodes to warm up, but from there on it just kept getting Better. Time travel has been done to death but this one had a much better method to bring the show to life. 12 Monkeys series was good but Travelers did none of the hard to follow time jumps and frustrations that can lead to. I think that is why I can say that Travelers did the time thing very well, and worth the watch.
The actors did a top job and the writing was good. Of what SFX there were in the show they weren't the best but the story covered and made up for the budget limitations.
Travelers is most definitely worth putting the 'time' into it. It's only 3 seasons but every season jumped up in viewers and there's a reason... It got better and better as each episode played out. There is a long arc binding it all together.
For those who aren't sure if they want to invest their time into a series that only lasts 3 seasons and worried there isn't a reasonable conclusion, don't be. Give it 4-5 episodes and if you aren't hooked come back and give me a prod.
I really hope Brad Wright looks into rebooting this show, it definitely has the distinct makings for that to happen.