| 80 |
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
This new NBC time-travel drama is fairly mind-blowing and harrowing, laying out a preposterous scenario that it makes feel nonetheless believable. |
| 80 |
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
McKidd and castmates Gretchen Egolf as his wife Katie; Reed Diamond as his brother Jack, a cop who used to date Katie; and Moon Bloodgood as his spectral fiance, Livia, play this with just the right mix of credulity and dry wit. |
| 80 |
New York Magazine John Leonard
San Francisco shifts shapes nicely, and there’s sufficient tension in the pilot to keep our nerves strung out, and since executive producers Kevin Falls and Alex Graves are West Wing veterans, it’s no surprise that the characters pass for adults. |
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly Henry Goldblatt
Journeyman is an enjoyable romp--one that provides the accessibility of a procedural as well as the continuing mystery of "Lost" or "Heroes." [28 Sep 2007, p.94] |
| 70 |
Newsday Verne Gay
The pilot still is often clever and engaging, but confusing too. |
| 70 |
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
Journeyman has a decent hook. |
| 63 |
New York Post Adam Buckman
The biggest question you'll be left with after tonight's premiere is a big, fat "why?" |
| 60 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
With its pleasing San Francisco locales and McKidd's sympathetic performance, "Journeyman" is entertaining enough. |
| 60 |
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
An overly complicated pilot had me feeling that I, too, would like to time-travel, if not actually fast-forward, but a more straightforward second episode made me decide not to cancel my subscription just yet. |
| 60 |
Variety Brian Lowry
Despite promising elements, then, Journeyman has set itself up with the daunting task of mastering a very tricky high-wire act |
| 60 |
Orlando Sentinel
The drama weighs down its hero with domestic crises and creepy glimpses into his past. The show misses its feel-good target. |
| 50 |
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
The problem with reviving a time-travel show is there needs to be a really distinctive and appealing twist so that critics won’t just write things like, "This reminds me of "Quantum Leap."" |
| 50 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
The dramatic structure is overorganized around the linear detective-ing, and the show's too Dan-centric without a "Quantum Leap"-like partner to spice things up. |
| 50 |
Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy
McKidd's a fine actor and there's promise here for an engaging romantic drama. But it's a bit too tangled, confusing and erratic in the opening weeks. |
| 50 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
Time travel looked so cool and carefree in "Back to the Future" that you wonder why it seems to become so difficult and often downright unpleasant when TV characters try it. In the case of Dan Vassar, the time traveler in NBC's new Journeyman, it also gets unreasonably complicated for the viewer. |
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
It allows McKidd to shine as Mr. Fix-It, even though he never wanted the task. Some of the subtext needs more episodes to provide breathing room. |
| 50 |
PopMatters Lesley Smith
Once freed from the scaffolding and backstory constraints of a series premiere, Journeyman may find itself. |
| 40 |
Los Angeles Times
It certainly looked good on paper. Alas, like some seductive Internet suitor, Journeyman seems perfect until he actually shows up, weedy and uncertain, at your door. In an effort to keep things grounded in "real life," as opposed to groovy sci-fi counterculture, writer-producer Kevin Falls relies on an earnestness that grows irritating. |
| 40 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
It's one thing when a TV show sets up a concrete mystery whose resolution you have faith will come, something like, "Who killed Mr. X?" But it's quite another when the show is so abstract that you aren't even sure what questions it asks. Kevin McKidd ("Rome") is an excellent actor, and it's only his skill that makes Journeyman tolerable. |
| 40 |
The New York Times Ginia Bellafante
The series follows the supernaturally themed "Heroes," but it is to its predecessor what a cookie made with Splenda might be to a mille-feuille. Journeyman just feels squeamish. |
| 37 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
Spend an hour with Journeyman and you'll wish you knew how to time-travel. |
| 30 |
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
The next time McKidd hits the time warp, he should take his producers with him. Maybe they'd bring back a better show. |
| 30 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Everything about this time-traveling drama seems rote and stale. The show is a pallid, uninspired execution of ideas we've seen done better elsewhere. |
| 30 |
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
Journeyman doesn't do anything especially interesting with its time-twisting premise. It's competently produced, but unless you have a tremendous amount of affection for McKidd left over from his work as the insane Lucius Vorenus on HBO's "Rome," it's skippable. |
| 20 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
The only thing dull, disappointing Journeyman can do is lower our pulse rates to ready us for beddy-bye. |
| 20 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
The premise is weak and leaky, the star is dull and dreary, and the only trip Journeyman ought to take is right back to the shop for repairs--or off to the dump for a decent burial. |
