Timeless: review of 2nd Season:

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'Timeless' Season 2 Review: Scaled Back And Much Cleaner - Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/.../timeless-season-2-review-shawn-ryan-erik-kripke-nbc/

Mar 5, 2018 - Following a very strong season premiere in NBC’s most valuable timeslot (10pm Mondays), Timeless seemed to drop off the radar, only raking in 3.37 million viewers for its season one finale. This is why it was no surprise NBC opted to initially cancel the series last May… what ...

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MAR 5, 2018 @ 12:00 AM 19,739 The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets

'Timeless' Season 2 Review: Scaled Back And Much Cleaner

Merrill Barr , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC

TIMELESS -- "The War to End All Wars" Episode 201 -- Pictured: (l-r) Abigail Spencer as Lucy Preston, Matt Lanter as Wyatt Logan, Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin

Ratings:

Following a very strong season premiere in NBC’s most valuable timeslot (10pm Mondays), Timeless seemed to drop off the radar, only raking in 3.37 million viewers for its season one finale.

This is why it was no surprise NBC opted to initially cancel the series last May… what was surprising was the show being uncanceled only a few days later.

The peacock claims it was the fan response that caused the turnaround, but in reality what the evidence points to is a hail mary pass by Sony Pictures Television, who likely reduced the series’ fee to NBC so it could stay on the air for the sake of a lucrative international market that has taken kindly to the show.

The best evidence for this is the new timeslot, Sundays at 10pm. A slot that doesn’t really do much of anything for NBC, which leaves the network a chance for improvement.

All Timeless has to do is perform on par with Shades of Blue, which came in with similar numbers last year as the genre drama’s first season. With luck, the pressure will be off and the roadmap has been set for a healthy future for the series.

Review:

Over the course of season one, a glaring problem came to light for Timeless. It was aiming too high in ways that didn’t matter.

All too often, the series was trying everything it could to show money onscreen, going so far as to recreate the Alamo in a random Vancouver parking lot. This glaring error is what has been completely 180-ed for the show’s new season.

With production having moved stateside to Los Angeles, more money is being spent on talent rather than set pieces. What this has lead to is a forced scaling back in the bigger elements.

Our once proud multibillion-dollar science corporation back-drop has been scaled back to a rundown warehouse facility where no one is rocking a fancy suit.

The period settings are being limited to a handful of locations with an emphasis on story rather than spectacle.

The end result is a show that feels much more comfortable in its own skin that has a real shot of surviving after experiencing the most surprising renewal of last season.

Timeless is building something. It’s doing more than just delivering a throwback adventure series this year. It’s trying to be more. Something richer. Something deeper.

In many ways, the show’s revamped feel reminds of the course correction Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took between seasons one and two.

Like here, the ABC drama opted to lose its grand scale in favor of smaller, more character-driven stories.

If audiences are willing to come aboard the lifeboat one more time, we could be looking at a real turnaround for Timeless’ success. A turnaround that is sure to please all parties involved.

Timeless season 2 premieres Sunday, March 11th at 10/9c on NBC