my dvr is so stupid that you can have your "series recording" set weeks in advance, and check multiple times to confirm that your show is set to record, and then at the last minute, it will just decide to record a different showing instead. it screwed me this way with doctor who on friday (and that was the episode i'd been waiting all season for!), but that wasn't too bad because i was able to catch it at 1a.m. but tonight (monday night), it screwed me on the season premiere of heroes! rather than record it tonight at 9 like had been planned, it decided to reschedule my recording for saturday night, for no particular reason.

thankfully (and confusingly), in our decadence we now have two comcast dvrs—a new one in the office where the computers are and the old one in the living room—and the one in the living room did record heroes at 9, like i asked it to last season. but virago is asleep and i don't want to risk waking her by watching tv in the living room. she needs her sleep so she can go to work and support me financially.

my one glimmer of hope is that comcast will soon offer tivo service. the deal, announced way back in 2005, will allow customers to upgrade their existing motorola dvrs to use new tivo software, without requiring a visit by a technician. (if you opt in, your box will simply download the new software over the cable wire and install itself.) apparently comcast has finally begun rolling this out in boston, so hopefully it'll reach our area within a few months.

at any rate, while the dvr in the office screwed me on heroes, it did properly record the show that airs immediately afterward, journeyman. so, as i found myself here, ready to watch an hourlong pilot but with no heroes to tide me over, i watched journeyman.

journeyman

as i said earlier, the pitch for this show is basically quantum leap meets the butterfly effect. a san francisco reporter suddenly starts jumping back and forth in time, trying to "set right" things that went wrong in the original timeline. so yes, it's very much in the vein of quantum leap or voyagers, but decidedly darker, as the changes dan makes aren't always for the better. also, when dan returns from his little fugues into the past, he doesn't return to the same time or spot he left, so his family and friends think he's crazy. the apparatus by which dan travels through time is currently a mystery, but seems to have something to do with his ex-fiancee, who supposedly died but is now mysteriously alive.

i thought the pilot was pretty solid. i'm not entirely sold on the idea that his thought-dead ex-fiancee has something to do with his time travelling, but i'll wait and let them sell it to me, because they got the rest of the show pretty much right. it's a new twist on a classic concept; the one thing i didn't like about quantum leap (and also other shows like early edition) was that it was so unrelentingly light and uplifting; i don't think that's going to be a problem with journeyman (though no, the pilot is nowehere near as dark as the butterfly effect). then again, moon bloodgood might be hot, but she's no dean stockwell, and gretchen egolf didn't blow me away as dan's wife-slash-baby momma either.

if they can keep up the level of quality in the pilot, this could turn out to be a strong little show. it'll probably never be my favorite or a show i'm biting my nails in anticipation for, but it looks like it could be an hour of good watchin' every week, assuming it doesn't get cancelled.

overall grade: B

well, the earlier i get to bed, the earlier i can get up and watch the heroes premiere... ¶