But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s lazy. The show has a B-movie premise, action-adventure sensibilities, and a sense of humor about its own preposterous storytelling. It’s smart enough to make the mechanics and facts of its premise just plausible enough, but its real interest of exploration are the details that are relevant to the audience - what it is like for us, with our current values and awareness, to enter into times that are so far removed from where we are now. But what is clear is that “Timeless”’ interest is not in exploring the metaphysical repercussions of time travel, or the lived reality of historical experience. It’s hard to tell, based on just the pilot, if “Timeless” is brilliant or exploitative it might be both at the same time.
Rufus’ speech to the racist officer is both funny and heartfelt, starting with praising the future accomplishments of Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, “really just any black guy named Michael,” and ending with “I hope you see it all, because the future is not on your side.” Rufus makes a joke about how he really wishes he had never come on this trip, but it’s a joke that bears out more earnestly just a few scenes later, when two police officers decide to teach him a lesson for having too much attitude. Lucy suggests, with advice that must have sounded nice in her head, that he wait outside and not make eye contact with anyone.
When they travel back to 1937, he’s made to sit in the back of the bus and gets dirty looks just for walking into the same bar as Lucy and Wyatt. History treated some people much better than others, and in the pilot, Rufus, who is black, ends up being the episode’s hero - somehow mingling comic relief and essential know-how with the character that consistently has the most to lose. Indeed: “Timeless” is, somewhat surprisingly, very aware of its identity politics. Wyatt’s presence is in some ways the most intriguing while Lucy knows apparently everything about every time period in history, and Rufus can get them through the loops of the space-time continuum, Wyatt is endearingly useless - only there to wave around a gun, brood over his emotions, and exercise white male privilege (handy for, among other things, getting into bars).
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She’s joined in her journey through time by Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), a scientist who knows how to fly the time machine, and Wyatt (Matt Lanter), a soldier. Lucy, the professor, is played by the prodigiously talented Abigail Spencer, who had a major role on AMC’s “Rectify” and a supporting role in HBO’s “True Detective.” Here she plays a character whose major personality traits are “smart” and “plucky.” The pilot does so with admirable if perfunctory speed, setting up the basic principles - Time bandits! Loops in space-time! And you’ll go with this guy! - so quickly that it’s mere minutes before the three are in 1937 New Jersey, running around in old-timey clothes. In order for “Timeless” to make sense, the premiere episode has to establish a) that time travel exists b) that criminals have stolen a time machine in order to change the course of history and c) that the only way to stop them is if a professor of history, an ex-military agent, and a time-ship pilot band together to follow the thieves through the space-time continuum.
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