This is an intriguing new show and I think it’s really
going to divide the audience based on your love and tolerance for cheese.
So our main characters: H.G. Wells, author, inventor,
socialist, pacifist full of hope that humanity which will inevitably achiever
utopia with technology allowing our natural goodness and joy. He’s adorkable.
Really really adorakable. I want to smush him
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| Still my H.G. Wells |
He’s also kind of hot.
He arrives at H.G.’s house just as he’s ready to show off
his new Time Machine, to taunt H.G. for being so timid and not already playing
in his time machine.
John’s need to use it is rather urgent since the police
have just found his bag full of bloody murder tools – and a time machine is an
excellent escape route. H.G. quickly realises that his good friend is an evil
murderer and decides to use the time machine to follow so he can politely request
John come home and be properly hanged
Did I mention he’s adorkable?
H.G. arrives in a museum, in his Time machine to be all
confused and in awe of the modern world – and be promptly picked up by security
and interviewed by Jane Walker, assistant Curator who would rather get this
whole thing away so she can get on with the exhibit and the last thing she
needs is some kind of cosplaying Victorian getting in the way. She shuffles him
off successfully as he is focused on trying to find John before he kills people
and convince him to return to the past
Along the way he managed to be clueless and patronising
about both Women and Black people, but given that he’s a Victorian, a level of
cluelessness is understandable. And normally I’m more than a little leery of
historical figures coming to the modern age and being completely free of the
prejudices of their time (because that’s just a blatant erasure of the bigotry
of the past – or a way to try and make your old timey guy super special and not
like them. It’s like all those vampire shows/books set in the American South
with lots of old timey Confederate vampires who TOTALLY THOUGHT SLAVERY WAS
WRONG GUYS). In this case I WOULD be more inclined to run with it because H.G.
Wells is depicted as such a completely zonked peace-and-love-hippy that it
almost fits. He’s the Victorian equivalent of someone who thinks we can hug all
our problems away with a judicious application of crystals – his opinions are
very far outside the norm.
To emphasise this we get a moment that is both sad and
hilarious. H.G. looking at a bank of televisions showing the news. Remember this
is the man who thought we’d achieve utopia in 5 generations. He sees a future
of war, terrorism and Donald Trump. A single tear falls down his cheek (really
a mild response to Trump) in utter tragedy at how far humanity has failed to
reach his expectations
Did I mention he was adorkable?
But the flip side of this is harsh reality because H.G.
Wells is not a fictional character. He was a Eugenicist and did speak of the “inferiority”
of other races and Jews in his early work. Of course in his later work he was
also passionately pro-human rights, against sterilisation and spoke against
racism even at a time when it was far from mainstream to do so. Still, it’s
clearly more complex than simply “progressive-uber-fluffy” guy depicted here. Especially
since this is a YOUNG H.G. wells who was far more into the bigotry than a
mellower First World War era Wells who became more progressive
Back to the plot - this is when John catches up to him.
John has adapted rather ridiculously to the modern world. And it is wrong, even
if he is more charming than any man has a right to be. He has used his immense
charm to sell a watch, buy some weapons and get a room in a hotel. Yes, I do
call shenanigans that he could possibly adapt to the modern world this quickly.
He’s also updated his look to a more 21st century
look…. Well Hellloooo there killer.
Yes, I’m a shallow, terrible person. Dear Casting
Director, please do not cast smoking hot guys as serial killers; it’s not fair
on my moral conscience.
Unsurprisingly, John isn’t willing to go back home and be
hanged no matter how much H.G. earnestly asks him to. What he wants is H.G.’s
key which makes his time machine work so H.G. can run around murdering people
in the past and present.
They have an altercation and H.G. ends up hit by a car
and taken to hospital leaving John in his wake. With no ID he’s visited in the
hospital by Jane (who has been pressured to find John and H.G. by her boss who
we will get to) since he has her business card in his pocket.
She takes him home after he admits to being an actor and
tries to leave the hospital despite barely being able to move (and not paying
his bill?). This is another dubious moment that she would decide to take this
complete stranger home – and another moment, like the single tear – which deals
with it by being utterly self-aware and Cheesey. In this case Jane perfectly
analyses and communicates all her relationship issues on why she’s doing this,
even acknowledging how ridiculous it is as she and H.G. bond in adorable
fluffiness. Of course we have love interests here even as the adorkable guy
fails with modern technology, adorkably
He also gets his own 21st century make over
with some shirtlessness and… ohhh not just adorkable. The modern world looks
good at him. He cleans up nice.
Not as good as on John – damn it casting director. It’s
unfair on my moral compass to make your serial killers this hot AND dress them
in a towel. No fair at all.
Jane does go to bed with a gun when having a strange man
stay over, so she’s not super naïve. And it depresses poor H.G. to see more
weapons around. Awww, his poor adorkable face.
The next day the adorkable has to pause as they see the
news of one of John’s clear murders. H.G. is clearly disturbed and in his
rambling reveals that he really does think he’s H.G. Wells. This rather
disturbs Jane but she agrees to go with him on a brief trip in his time Machine
to step forward 3 days in the future. Jane is duly stunned (and realises how
confused a Victorian man must be in this time) but all the confusion and joy of
the moment hits the brick wall of a newspaper – naming Jane as John’s third
victim.
Definitely troublesome
They address that by intercepting John as he tries to
kill his second victim, saving her and forcing the Adorkable H.G. into a moral
quandary about shooting John or not. He can’t do it and John escapes, only to
kidnap Jane later
Gah, I knew she was going to be a damsel, I just wish she
weren’t. On the plus side while she is a Damsel, while under his control she
doesn’t some excellent work trying to rescue herself and another woman he’s
kidnapped and does an excellent job of getting under his skin: pointing out
that while H.G. Wells is famous and remembered; Jack the Ripper is anonymous,
unknown. Because he achieved nothing, created nothing, left nothing. It clearly
bothers him a lot.
H.G. gets some other help – Jane’s boss, Vanessa. Who
knows all about him and his time travelling; she claims to be a descendent of
his and to have met him in the past (her past, his future, aaaah time travel).
She is super powerful, super rich, married to a clueless guy who is running for
senator. She wants to help and when he tries to say no she has big men kidnap
him. Helpful. But she has a letter from past/future him to convince him to
accept her help. That and the fact he has absolutely no idea how to operate in the
modern world.
He also throws in some theory as to why he can’t use time
travel to fix everything because Time Travel is a real pain for storylines
They try a prisoner/key exchange to save Jane which goes
terribly wrong and H.G. has a massive tantrum and storms off
He ends up back at the Time Machine where John brings
Jane, there’s another confrontation and after he damages the machine and with
the helpful intervention of a sacrificial security guard, John escapes, Jane
escapes and H.G. still has the key.
He and Jane move in with Vanessa.
Some other storylines: There’s a man following H.G. Wells
for some reason.
Vanessa confirms that he is actually H.G.’s descendent
(she’s head of a biotech organisation so DNA tests). They still have to hunt
down John
But John actually spared one of his kidnapped victims. And
later went to a bar and discussed whether someone can change – are we looking
at a Jack the Ripper redemption change?
Ok I love it and I don’t care
I know that the speed Jack adapts and the ease with which
H.G. fins his crush/sidekick is ridiculously fast. I know it’s cheesey and
corny (H.G. with that single tear watching TV, tragic and corny) but it’s FUN.
It’s unabashedly self aware and pokes at that constantly (like Jane perfectly
psychoanalysing itself)
And I’m not just saying that because I would happily
trade someone’s kidneys for either of the main actors
Speaking of, beyond them both being super adorkable
cute/sinfully burningly sexy, they’re both really good. H.G. is really pulling
off the cute lost idealist puppy. While Jack is oozing charm and sensuality.
I have a feeling this is a show Renee and I might go to
war over.
