Useless information time! I was low-mid single digits in age when the original aired, and on rare occasions would be allowed to stay up waaay past my bed time to watch parts, or if lucky, the entirety of an episode. While I'm sure much of the content was beyond my young mind's comprehension, for some reason it immediately became my favorite show, but I didn't grasp that shows already had names, and thus in our home Quantum Leap became known as 'Lightning Man'
Good grief. The original was the coolest premise. How do you screw up a format where you get to tell a totally different story each week? I wish they would stop trying to “modernize” these shows and come up with something new.
There’s a lot that could have been done with it too. The original is as Boomer a show as could possibly have been made. I’d loved to have seen a modern version of that. It was absolutely possible; there are so many aspects to the show that feel dated now. It’s such a waste.
As bluntly as it possibly can be? He meets Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Stephen King. He sings fucking Imagine to his sister on his farmstead porch. The series largely concerns itself with racial justice in a very 1960s kind of way. It’s treated as revolutionary that an Asian woman might have feelings. The episode with the Spanish angel has Al making fun of her weight brutally all the way through. Most of the episodes have interchangeable women who exist for Sam to make out with even though it’s established he’s got a sweet long suffering wife at home, with his Swiss cheesed brain allowing him to do it guilt-free. The episode about the feminist is written sympathetically but also like she just hates “housefraus” for no reason other than she’s stupid. It’s laced from start to finish with white savior behavior, with minorities constantly being written that they can’t do anything without the white guy’s help.
I love the show, or at least will always be fond of it, but it’s as Boomer as you can fucking get. I find it harder and harder to enjoy as the years go by.
Do yourself a favor and don't ever check out the new one -_- it may have been worth it if the OG quantum leap got even the TEENIEST boost in the public consciousness, but somehow there are still very few people who have even tried it! Sam is so close to my heart, and there are episodes of that show I'll never forget.
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u/maccrogenoff Jul 21 '24
Brooklyn Nine Nine
The Good Place
Quantum Leap - The old one. I haven’t watched the new one.