TV Show Review: Quantum Leap - Season 2

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun leaps into the past to fix history

Cons: Al’s womanizing, a couple of lectures

The Bottom Line:

Leaps back in the past

Trying to fix history

Different and fun

“You Know How It Is.  You Leap Around a lot.”

I’m planning to watch at least the first few episodes of the Quantum Leap reboot this fall, and I decided I should see how much of the original series I could get watched before the new season premiered.  I’ve had the entire show in DVD for years, and I even watched and reviewed season one years back.  So, I started with the short season one again, and now I’ve made it through season two.  Overall, I’m enjoying it.

If you’ve missed the show, it follows Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) as he leaps through time.  You see, he was leading an experiment in time travel, and when he stepped into his invention, he vanished into the past.  He is only leaping in his own lifetime, so he is leaping in the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, and once into the 1980’s.  Each time, he leaps into a person, and he has to figure out what went wrong in that person’s life or the life of someone that person knows and then fix it.  Fortunately, he has some help.  His friend and member of the team, Al (Dean Stockwell) appears to him as a hologram that only he can see and hear to guide him with the research they have uncovered with the computers from Sam’s time.

So, what exactly does Sam find himself involved in as he tries to fix what once went wrong in history?  This season, he tries to keep a man from being killed on his honeymoon.  He leaps into a blind concert pianist and must save his girlfriend from a killer.  As a radio DJ, he has to bring rock and roll to Peoria.  While a frat brother at a university, he has to prevent a building on campus from being bombed.  And when he leaps into an expert pool player, he has to win a game so his host’s granddaughter can keep her bar.

This season first aired in the fall of 1989 and the spring of 1990, and the “future” where Sam and Al live in the mid-1990’s.  We get a very rare glimpse or two into the future in the season, and those are always fun.

However, most of the time is spent in the past as Sam tries to change history.  They do a good job of giving Sam a variety of different tasks to accomplish and keep it from being too easy for him to do it.  I always enjoy seeing how he will get out of the predicaments he has landed in.

Some episodes are fairly light and fun.  Most of the time, they play up the drama rather than the comedy of his situation.  And, occasionally, they pick a story that leads to some more serious issues, like prejudice and sexism.  Most of the time, they are able to address this through characters and story without lecturing us.  However, there are a couple of exceptions that I didn’t care for, but they are definitely the exception.

The other recurring issue I have with the season is Al.  He’s a womanizer, and it was supposed to be played for laughs.  While I know I watched some of these episodes in the past, I don’t remember him being quite this bad.  Keep that in mind when you watch.

But for the most part, these episodes really are fun.  Yes, some references or effects are a bit dated, as any show from 1990 would be now, but that is part of the show’s charm.

Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell are the only two characters in every episode.  They both do a great job, and I love their interactions.  You buy that these characters are friends.  I’ll admit, I don’t recognize many of the guest stars, but they were all great as well.  A few of the guest stars that I did recognize included Patricia Richardson, Raphael Sbarge, Marcia Cross, and Robert Duncan McNeill.  There’s also a fun cameo from Chubby Checker as himself in one episode.  Okay, so he was supposed to be much younger than he was in real life when the episode aired, but just go with it.

That is another fun thing.  Every so often, there’s a blink and you miss it moment where Sam introduces something we all know into history.  It only happens a handful of times, but it’s always fun when it does.

Overall, Quantum Leap season two is a fun trip back in time with a science fiction edge.  I’m looking forward to leaping into season three now.