I'll start off by saying I really liked the series, and also I like that overall it's a little complete story, I started watching knowing it was only one season and I would have hated an open ending knowing it would never be continued, so I'm glad it has an established ending.
That said, I enjoyed the love story, but the time travelling seemed to be underutilized in the end, and also the whole Kennedy plot felt a bit short of expectation.
First of all, we don't really know who killed Kennedy, so I hoped it would be a bit more blurry but they go for one guy since the very beginning and it's always him. Yeah I get it, they wanted to have him really characterized and fleshed out, to make it more than just a dude that pulls a trigger, but still I would have appreciated a bit more doubt.
The time travel really is only "useful" for the first 5 minutes of the first episode really, after that Jake is just a dude that knows a lot of stuff. Time travelling isn't really a factor in the story, it's just a way to have a motive to save Kennedy but nothing more. This would have been hard, if not impossible, to do with only 8 episodes, but time travel could have been used much much more as a plot point. As we know, each time he goes back to the present and again into the past, everything resets and he starts from the same point, so the struggles Jake has in the first few episodes really do not make sense, ok you got jumped by a couple of dudes just go back and go make your bet somewhere else, stuff like that.
Yes the time travel would still get less and less relevant the further you go down the line, of course he wouldn't want to just reset everything after being there for almost 3 years and a love interest, but still as a plot point it still forgotten a bit too soon.
The finale is another point where I have mixed feelings : after all the trouble, he actually manages to save Kennedy...only to find a world in ruines. Which in itself is fine, but still dude let me know more like what the hell happened. We only get to learn that there was bombardments and that Kennedy camps where created, whatever that is supposed to mean. Who bombarded america? When? What is happening in the world now? Is the world at war or in ruins, or just america? Jake still would have went back it's not that big of a deal, but still you can make up anything you want about how history changed from a single point, just have fun and make anything up.
It's also not really clear how the time travel portal works. When he goes back one last time, Jake is almost stopped by three dudes, but he manages to cross. Can they also cross? Would they get in the past, but a different past than where Jake went to? Can multiple people cross together? Because at a certain point Jake talks with Bill and Sadie about going to the future together, but would that be possible actually?
If that is actually possible, why didn't Jake try to bring Sadie then? Yes he would have to fall in love with her all over again, but judging by the strange feeling and behaviour she had when they met for the first time again that probably wouldn't have been too hard. Also, he can take all the time in the world, like he could just repeat the 3 years and then slowly explain everything to her like he already did (knowing that she would eventually believe him) and then try to bring her. Which brings up another question, Jake decides to give up on Sadie because the other traveller tells him she would die regardless, buy would that happen if she went into the future with him? Also she isn't supposed to die in the actual timeline, so why would she die regardless if Jake would just live with her without attempting to save Kennedy?
Last but not least, It kinda bothers me how much Jake works for to literally get nothing done. At the start of the series he has no friends, unrewarding job and he is in deep pain coming out of a divorce, after the whole series he has still no friends, goes back to the same unrewarding and sad job, and has to experience even more pain letting go of the love of his life knowing he will never be with her. The very last dance he has with old Sadie is just bittersweet, like yeah it feels cute but it's actually so sad, idk.
I'm complaining about stuff that honestly couldn't really be fixed in 8 episodes. What in trying to say is, this plot had a lot more potential than this, yeah it's fine in this mini series, but there is just so much more that could be done, more that could be explored but that would need at the very least 20-30 episodes to the very least.
Maybe someday in the future we will get another iteration of this story that will delve deeper into the assassination of Kennedy, that will use the time travel mechanic differently and will try something new, but for now I guess this mini series is fine as it is.
Review by WingoBlockedParent2023-02-01T10:10:43Z
I'll start off by saying I really liked the series, and also I like that overall it's a little complete story, I started watching knowing it was only one season and I would have hated an open ending knowing it would never be continued, so I'm glad it has an established ending.
That said, I enjoyed the love story, but the time travelling seemed to be underutilized in the end, and also the whole Kennedy plot felt a bit short of expectation.
First of all, we don't really know who killed Kennedy, so I hoped it would be a bit more blurry but they go for one guy since the very beginning and it's always him. Yeah I get it, they wanted to have him really characterized and fleshed out, to make it more than just a dude that pulls a trigger, but still I would have appreciated a bit more doubt.
The time travel really is only "useful" for the first 5 minutes of the first episode really, after that Jake is just a dude that knows a lot of stuff. Time travelling isn't really a factor in the story, it's just a way to have a motive to save Kennedy but nothing more. This would have been hard, if not impossible, to do with only 8 episodes, but time travel could have been used much much more as a plot point.
As we know, each time he goes back to the present and again into the past, everything resets and he starts from the same point, so the struggles Jake has in the first few episodes really do not make sense, ok you got jumped by a couple of dudes just go back and go make your bet somewhere else, stuff like that.
Yes the time travel would still get less and less relevant the further you go down the line, of course he wouldn't want to just reset everything after being there for almost 3 years and a love interest, but still as a plot point it still forgotten a bit too soon.
The finale is another point where I have mixed feelings : after all the trouble, he actually manages to save Kennedy...only to find a world in ruines. Which in itself is fine, but still dude let me know more like what the hell happened. We only get to learn that there was bombardments and that Kennedy camps where created, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Who bombarded america? When? What is happening in the world now? Is the world at war or in ruins, or just america? Jake still would have went back it's not that big of a deal, but still you can make up anything you want about how history changed from a single point, just have fun and make anything up.
It's also not really clear how the time travel portal works. When he goes back one last time, Jake is almost stopped by three dudes, but he manages to cross. Can they also cross? Would they get in the past, but a different past than where Jake went to? Can multiple people cross together? Because at a certain point Jake talks with Bill and Sadie about going to the future together, but would that be possible actually?
If that is actually possible, why didn't Jake try to bring Sadie then? Yes he would have to fall in love with her all over again, but judging by the strange feeling and behaviour she had when they met for the first time again that probably wouldn't have been too hard. Also, he can take all the time in the world, like he could just repeat the 3 years and then slowly explain everything to her like he already did (knowing that she would eventually believe him) and then try to bring her.
Which brings up another question, Jake decides to give up on Sadie because the other traveller tells him she would die regardless, buy would that happen if she went into the future with him? Also she isn't supposed to die in the actual timeline, so why would she die regardless if Jake would just live with her without attempting to save Kennedy?
Last but not least, It kinda bothers me how much Jake works for to literally get nothing done. At the start of the series he has no friends, unrewarding job and he is in deep pain coming out of a divorce, after the whole series he has still no friends, goes back to the same unrewarding and sad job, and has to experience even more pain letting go of the love of his life knowing he will never be with her.
The very last dance he has with old Sadie is just bittersweet, like yeah it feels cute but it's actually so sad, idk.
I'm complaining about stuff that honestly couldn't really be fixed in 8 episodes. What in trying to say is, this plot had a lot more potential than this, yeah it's fine in this mini series, but there is just so much more that could be done, more that could be explored but that would need at the very least 20-30 episodes to the very least.
Maybe someday in the future we will get another iteration of this story that will delve deeper into the assassination of Kennedy, that will use the time travel mechanic differently and will try something new, but for now I guess this mini series is fine as it is.