It’s 2016 and my family and I are sitting on the soft brown couch of my childhood on a weekend morning. Stomach full of homemade pancakes and waffles, my siblings and I had just run around the living room to close all the curtains, ensuring that there would be no glare on the television screen. But now, I sink into the corner of the couch, my favorite and assigned spot. My mom picks up the chunky television remote and clicks on the “recorded” shows, and there it is, another episode of “Timeless.” Anticipation bubbles inside of me as my eyes dart to the photo cover of the episode as well as the title to discern where — when — this episode is going to take place. I gasp, recognizing the time period and historical figures, immediately locked in and ready to travel back in time.
An action-packed time-travel series with a romance subplot and fabulous costumes and set design, “Timeless” is perfect for history buffs and anyone obsessed with key historical events. This television series aired when I was in middle school, from 2016 to 2018, but I recently rewatched it in 2023 and found myself still obsessed with and captivated by every episode.
The two-season show follows Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer) the historian, Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) the widower soldier heartthrob and Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett), an engineer and programmer who helped create and now flies the time machine — otherwise known as the lifeboat. This team of brains and brawn find themselves asked to follow American terrorist Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) who stole millionaire Connor Mason’s (Paterson Joseph) time machine and will no doubt use it to change history to his advantage. Thus, the hush side of Mason Industries hires Lucy as a historian to travel after Flynn and ensure that any history that is changed is prevented or fixed. Wyatt acts as the muscle of the group, fighting off the bad guys that work for Flynn, and Rufus flies the lifeboat through time, providing other bits of history as well.
They find themselves witnessing Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, fighting at the Alamo, in the middle of the Watergate scandal and trying to prevent an execution at the Salem witch trials, among many other stressful yet awe-inspiring adventures. The fate of history often relies on them to make sure it goes as it did, even when for the worse, combating the aftermath of Flynn skewing opinions and killing certain people in order to achieve an unknown goal. The trio encounters historical icons such as John F. Kennedy, Marie Curie, the real Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Arnold and Al Capone, meeting their heroes and finding themselves in living nightmares.
As said before, “Timeless” only has two seasons… Well, this is because the show got canceled right after the second, and NBC ordered a two-part season finale that doubled as a holiday special to wrap up this series. Are there plot holes due to this? Yes. Are there questions that were built up from episode one that go unanswered? Also yes. However, I will defend “Timeless” until the day I die. The ending remains perfect even if the final episodes seem slightly out of the blue. History will never be truly happy, and not everyone gets their happy ending. To see who does, you’ll have to watch!
As a history buff myself, I am engrossed with “Timeless,” and elated to see historical events I have only read about acted out on the screen with striking accuracy — the only inaccuracy being when Flynn undoubtedly changes the course of history for his personal benefit. Getting to watch historical icons that double as former obsessions of mine such as Harry Houdini, Bonnie and Clyde, President Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman is inspiring, and brings me back to my “Who Was…?” phase in elementary school. “Timeless” is filled with multiple morally gray, complex characters, everyone with motives and priorities that may cause problems while trying to preserve the course of history. This show is perfect for people of all ages; the gore and content that is inescapable in important historical events is the only risk factor for a younger audience. “Timeless” will leave you wondering, “What if?” The smallest moments can alter history in the most colossal of ways. What everyday decisions do we make that change the course of our lives forever? Will our presence on this earth one day trigger a future major historical event?
Buckle up your seatbelt as you’re ready to travel back in time, as you’ll find yourself lost in it.
