"TIMELESS": Secrets and Mistrust

"TIMELESS": SECRETS AND MISTRUST

Ever since Season Two of NBC's "TIMELESS" completed its run, I have found myself re-watching the series from the beginning. It has been something of a slow burn, but I did not wish rush through it. Recently, I watched Season One episode called (1.06) "The Watergate Tape" and discovered something unpleasant about the series' trio of protagonists. Well . . . at least two of them.

Ever since the series' premiere, (1.01) "Pilot", the initial protagonist, the former NSA agent and rogue time traveler Garcia Flynn, has been trying to convince main protagonist Dr. Lucy Preston that they would become future colleagues and that he had possession of her future diary. Flynn also tried to warn Lucy about Rittenhouse, a mysterious political organization that has been at the forefront of the United States' development since the American Revolution. Horrified by the idea of being a colleague with a man she regarded as nothing more than a murderer, she kept silent about the encounters.

In the same episode, the creator of the two time machines and head of Mason Industries, Connor Mason, had instructed his programming engineer/time machine pilot Rufus Carlin to provide an audio recording of his missions with Lucy and U.S. Army Delta Force operative Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan. Although Rufus agreed, he changed his mind in the next episode, (2.02) "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". To convince Rufus to cooperate, Mason reminded the engineer that he had bankrolled the latter's education. When Rufus had refused to continue recording their missions in (1.04) "Party at Castle Varlar", a Rittenhouse operative threatened to harm Rufus's family if he did not cooperate. Rittenhouse's threat was issued again in "The Watergate Tape" when an older operative (or official) appeared outside of Rufus' home with Mason inside a limousine. The Rittenhouse official made it clear that the organization was monitoring Rufus' family. He also made it clear that if Rufus continues to refuse recording the time travel missions, the Carlin family might cease to exist.

Both Lucy's previous encounters with Flynn and Rufus' secret recordings finally came to light in this episode. After Flynn managed to capture the trio not long after their arrival in 1972 Washington D.C., he revealed his previous encounters with Lucy to both Rufus and Wyatt. Needless to say, both men were surprised and upset. While Flynn kept Wyatt as a hostage, he tasked both Lucy and Rufus to find the missing "doc" that was mentioned in the infamous 18 1/2 missing minutes from one of President Richard Nixon's Watergate tapes. Both Lucy and Rufus discovered that the "doc" is actually a young African-American woman, whose family has been associated with Rittenhouse for generations. The "Doc" wanted to make her escape from the organization. Lucy overheard Rufus contact Rittenhouse and discovers that he had been providing the organization with audio recordings of their missions and reacts with anger. Meanwhile, Flynn informed Wyatt of his discovery that Rittenhouse had bankrolled Mason Industries and the organization's murders of his wife and child. Because of this, Flynn became determined to bring down Rittenhouse, using the stolen time machine created by Mason. By the end of the episode, a very angry Wyatt learned about Rufus' recordings on Rittenhouse's behalf and instructed the latter to continue recording their missions.

I must not have understood the emotions that emitted from the protagonists in this episode, when I first saw it. As far as I knew, Lucy was angry at Rufus for recording their missions for Rittenhouse. Rufus was angry (at first) over Lucy's previous discussions with Flynn. And Wyatt was angry at both of them for keeping secrets from him. I did not pay much attention to all of this, because in the following episode, (1.07) "Stranded", the trio made their peace with each other. But after this latest re-watch of the episode, I found myself speculating on the two secrets kept by Rufus and Lucy and the reactions to them.

I understood why Rufus and Wyatt were upset over Flynn's revelations that he had been in contact with Lucy. As far as both men were aware, Garcia Flynn was an enemy determined to bring down the United States government and the man who had murdered his family. The U.S. government have been trying to capture or kill him since the first episode. And considering that Lucy had failed to inform them of her interactions with Flynn since the first mission, I would not have been surprised if Wyatt and Rufus had began to wonder about her role on their team or whether she had been associated with Flynn all along.

However, my feelings regarding Rufus' situation proved to be different. I understood Lucy and Wyatt's initial anger over their discovery that the former had been recording their missions. But Rufus had made it clear that after their first mission he had refused to continue his recording until Rittenhouse had threatened to kill his family. He had even made an effort to point out that the organization had been observing him, his mother and his brother. Although Wyatt had instructed Rufus to continue recording the missions until they can learn more about Rittenhouse . . . he remained angry at and distrustful of the engineer. So did Lucy. And for some reason, I found myself feeling angry at both of them.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Wyatt and Lucy had allowed their anger to get the best of them . . . to the point that they seemed unwilling to comprehend the threat that Rittenhouse had personally posed to Rufus. It was bad enough that Connor had used his past sponsorship of Rufus's career to blackmail the latter into cooperating.

Following Wyatt's discovery of Flynn's past history of Rittenhouse and the threats that Rufus had received, I found myself wondering why he still remained angry at the engineer. Surely he understood why Rufus had agreed to cooperate with Rittenhouse? The latter's family had been threatened. And considering Flynn's revelation that Rittenhouse had murdered his family, surely Wyatt understood that Rufus had a good reason to cooperate and keep those recordings a secret in the first place. On one level, he seemed to understand. After all, he did instruct Rufus to continue the recordings. But why remain angry at the other man? Why declare in an angry voice that he could never trust Rufus again? Was Wyatt really that self absorbed and hypocritical? Did he really believe that Rufus should have thought of the team over the Carlin family? Was he privately pissed that he might have to consider that Garcia Flynn's conflict with Rittenhouse had some merit?

One might accuse Rufus of hypocrisy, considering his reaction to the revelation that Lucy had been in contact with Flynn since the first mission. However, I realized that Rufus had a better excuse for keeping his secret than Lucy had for keeping hers. His family had been threatened. Their safety, along with his, was at stake. Had Flynn threatened Lucy to keep their past conversations a secret? Had he threatened to kill her mother, Carol Preston, if she reveal their encounters to Rufus, Wyatt and Agent Christopher? The answer to both questions were "no". Not only did Flynn not threatened Lucy to keep their private encounters a secret, he was the one who revealed those encounters to Rufus and Wyatt. And he had seemed a bit surprised that Lucy's teammates never knew.

And yet . . . like Wyatt, Lucy had remained angry at Rufus by the end of the episode. I found myself wondering why she had remained angry. She seemed well aware that Rittenhouse was a threat. Not only had Rufus informed her that the organization had threatened him and his family, but that it also wanted "the Doc" killed. More importantly, the latter had explained to Lucy on just how dangerous Rittenhouse could be. Yet, she was still pissed at Rufus by the time they had returned to 2016. What the fuck? Was she pissed . . . jealous that Rufus had a better excuse to keep his activities a secret than she had for keeping her conversations with Flynn a secret? Frankly, I found Lucy's hypocrisy even worse than Wyatt's. After all, what was her excuse? She was appalled at the idea of her future self becoming a friend and/or ally of Garcia Flynn?

I am certain that many fans of the show would find my above ramblings inconsequential. As I had pointed out earlier, the tensions between Rufus, Lucy and Wyatt were eventually settled by the next episode. Why make a fuss over what happened between them in "The Watergate Episode". Well . . . I had read several articles about the episode. Although some reviewers had discussed how tensions had arose between the three colleagues, no one had really bothered to discuss the hypocrisy that seemed seemed rampant in this episode. Or how this episode had pretty much exposed the uglier side of their natures - especially that of Lucy and Wyatt. At this point in the series, no one seemed willing to discuss this. And perhaps . . . the episode had annoyed me so much that I had to express myself in some form.

Top Favorite Episodes of "TIMELESS" Season One (2016-2017)

Below is a list of my favorite episodes from Season One of the NBC series, "TIMELESS".  Created by Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan, the series stars Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett and Goran Višnjić:


TOP FAVORITE EPISODES OF "TIMELESS" SEASON ONE (2016-2017)

1.  (1.07) "Stranded" - The time traveling team of Lucy Preston, Wyatt Logan and Rufus Carlin follow fugitive Garcia Flynn (who is determined to destroy the organization known as Rittenhouse) to 1754, during the French and Indian War, and find themselves stranded when his team sabotages their time machine, the Lifeboat.  Katrina Lombard and Salvator Xuereb guest-starred

2.  (1.13) "Karma Chameleon" - Wyatt and Rufus take an unauthorized trip back to Toledo, Ohio in 1983 in an effort to prevent the one-night stand between the parents of the man who ends up murdering Wyatt's wife, Jessica.  

3.  (1.13) "The Murder of Jesse James" - The team travels back to April 1882, after Flynn saves outlaw Jesse James from being murdered by the Ford brothers.  Flynn uses the outlaw to help track down a former time traveling colleague.  They recruit  U.S. Marshals Bass Reeves and Grant Johnson to help them track down the pair.  Coleman Domingo, Daniel Lissing, Zahn McClarnon and Annie Wersching guest-starred.

4.  (1.04) "Party at Castle Varlar" - The team continues its search for Garcia Flynn in 1944 Nazi Germany,where they receive help from Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.  Sean Maguire guest-starred.

5.  (1.02) "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" - The team struggles over whether to prevent the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865; when they learn that Flynn has formed ties with John Wilkes Booth.

• Honorable Mention:  (1.15) "Public Enemy No. 1" - Lucy and Rufus and a suspended Wyatt divert from a mission in order to track down Flynn to 1931 Chicago.  They recruit Elliot Ness' help, when they discover that Flynn has joined forces with Al Capone to find Rittenhouse member, Chicago Mayor William Thompson.  Misha Collins guest-starred.

"TIMELESS" Season One (2016-2017) Photo Gallery

Below are images from Season One of the NBC series, "TIMELESS".  Created by Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan, the series stars Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter and Malcolm Barrett:

"TIMELESS" SEASON ONE (2016-2017) Photo Gallery

"TRUMBO" (2015) Review

"TRUMBO" (2015) Review

I tried to think of a number of movies about the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the Hollywood Blacklist I have seen. And to be honest, I can only think of two of which I have never finished and two of which I did. One of those movies I did finish was the 2015 biopic about Hollywood screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo. 

Based upon Bruce Alexander Cook's 1977 biography, the movie covered fourteen years of the screenwriter's life - from being subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 to 1960, when he was able to openly write movies and receive screen credit after nine to ten years of being blacklisted by the Motion Picture Alliance for the Protection of American Ideals. Due to this time period, it was up to production designer Mark Rickler to visually convey fourteen years in Southern California - from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. I must say that he, along with cinematographer Jim Denault and art directors Lisa Marinaccio and Jesse Rosenthal did an excellent job by taking advantage of the New Orleans locations. That is correct. Certain areas around New Orleans, Louisiana stood for mid-century Los Angeles, California. But the movie also utilized a few locations in Southern California; including a residential house in northeastern Los Angeles, and the famous Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of Hollywood. And thanks to Denault's cinematography, Rickler's production designs not only made director Jay Roach's "Southern California" look colorful, but nearly realistic. But one of my minor joys of "TRUMBO" came from the costume designs. Not only do I admire how designer Daniel Orlandi re-created mid-20th century fashion for the film industry figures in Southern California, as shown in the images below:



 

I was especially impressed by Orlandi's re-creation of . . . you guessed it! Columnist Hedda Hopper's famous hats, as shown in the following images:

 

I have read two reviews for "TRUMBO". Both reviewers seemed to like the movie, yet both were not completely impressed by it. I probably liked it a lot more than the two. "TRUMBO" proved to be the second movie I actually paid attention to about the Blacklist. I think it has to do with the movie's presentation. "TRUMBO" seemed to be divided into three acts. The first act introduced the characters and Trumbo's problems with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, leading to his being imprisoned for eleven months on charges of contempt of Congress, for his refusal to answer questions from HUAC. The second act focused on those years in which Trumbo struggled to remain employed as a writer for the low-budget King Brothers Productions, despite being blacklisted by the major studios. And the last act focused upon Trumbo's emergence from the long shadow of the blacklist, thanks to his work on "SPARTACUS" and "EXODUS".

I have only one real complaint about "TRUMBO". Someone once complained that the movie came off as uneven. And I must admit that the reviewermight have a point. I noticed that the film's first act seemed to have a light tone - despite Trumbo's clashes with Hollywood conservatives and HUAC. Even those eleven months he had spent in prison seemed to have an unusual light tone, despite the situation. But once the movie shifted toward Trumbo's struggles trying to stay employed, despite the blacklist, the movie's tone became somewhat bleaker. This was especially apparent in those scenes that featured the screenwriter's clashes with his family over his self-absorbed and strident behavior towards them and his dealings with fellow (and fictional) screenwriter Arlen Hird. But once actor Kirk Douglas and director Otto Preminger expressed interest in ignoring the Blacklist and hiring Trumbo for their respective movies, the movie shifted toward a lighter, almost sugarcoated tone again. Now, there is nothing wrong with a movie shifting from one tone to another in accordance to the script. My problem with these shifts is that they struck me as rather extreme and jarring. There were moments when I found myself wondering if I was watching a movie directed by two different men.

Another problem I had with "TRUMBO" centered around one particular scene that featured Hedda Hopper and MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer. In this scene, Hopper forces Mayer to fire any of his employees who are suspected Communists, including Trumbo. The columnist did this by bringing up Mayer's Jewish ancestry and status as an immigrant from Eastern Europe. This scene struck me as a blatant copy of one featured in the 1999 HBO movie, "RKO 281". In that movie, Hopper's rival, Louella Parsons (portrayed by Brenda Blethyn) utilized the same method to coerce - you guess it - Mayer (portrayed by David Suchet) to convince other studio bosses to withhold their support of the 1941 movie, "CITIZEN KANE". Perhaps the filmmakers for "TRUMBO" felt that no one would remember the HBO film. I did. Watching that scene made me wonder if I had just witnessed a case of plagiarism. And I felt rather disappointed.

Despite these jarring shifts in tone, I still ended up enjoying "TRUMBO" very much. Instead of making an attempt to cover Dalton Trumbo's life from childhood to death, the movie focused upon a very important part in the screenwriter's life - the period in which his career in Hollywood suffered a major decline, due to his political beliefs. And thanks to Jay Roach's direction and John McNamara's screenplay, the movie did so with a straightforward narrative. Some of the film's critics had complained about its sympathetic portrayal of Trumbo, complaining that the movie had failed to touch upon Trumbo's admiration of the Soviet Union. Personally, what would be the point of that? A lot of American Communists did the same, rather naively and stupidly in my opinion. But considering that this movie mainly focused upon Trumbo's experiences as a blacklisted writer, what would have been the point? Trumbo was not professionally and politically condemned for regarding the Soviet Union as the epitome of Communism at work. He was blacklisted for failing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 

Also, the movie did not completely whitewash Trumbo. McNamara's screenplay did not hesitate to condemn how Trumbo's obsession with continuing his profession as a screenwriter had a negative impact upon his relationship with his family - especially his children. It also had a negative impact with his relationship with fellow screenwriter (the fictional) Arlen Hird, who wanted Trumbo to use his work for the King Brothers to express their liberal politics. Trumbo seemed more interested in staying employed and eventually ending the Blacklist. I came away with the feeling that the movie was criticizing the screenwriter for being more interested in regaining his successful Hollywood career than in maintaining his politics. 

"TRUMBO" also scared me. The movie scared me in a way that the 2010 movie, "THE CONSPIRATOR" did. It reminded me that I may disagree with the political or social beliefs of another individual; society's power over individuals - whether that society came in the form of a government (national, state or local) or any kind of corporation or business industry - can be a frightening thing to behold. It can be not only frightening, but also corruptive. Watching the U.S. government ignore the constitutional rights of this country's citizens (including Trumbo) via the House Committee on Un-American Activities scared the hell out of me. Watching HUAC coerce and frighten actor Edward G. Robinson into exposing people that he knew as Communists scared me. What frightened me the most is that it can happen again. Especially when I consider how increasingly rigid the world's political climate has become.

I cannot talk about "TRUMBO" without focusing on the performances. Bryan Cranston earned a slew of acting nominations for his portrayal of Dalton Trumbo. I have heard that the screenwriter was known for being a very colorful personality. What is great about Cranston's performance is that he captured this trait of Trumbo's without resorting to hammy acting. Actually, I could say the same about the rest of the cast. Helen Mirren portrayed the movie's villain, Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper with a charm and charisma that I personally found both subtle and very scary. Diane Lane gave a subtle and very convincing performance as Trumbo's wife Cleo, who not only stood by her husband throughout his travails, but also proved to be strong-willed when his self-absorption threatened to upset the family dynamics. Louis C.K., the comic actor gave a poignant and emotional performance as the fictional and tragic screenwriter, Arden Hird. 

Other memorable performances caught my attention as well. Elle Fanning did an excellent job portraying Trumbo's politically passionate daughter, who grew to occasionally resent her father's pre-occupation with maintaining his career. Michael Stuhlbarg did a superb job in conveying the political and emotional trap that legendary actor Edward G. Robinson found himself, thanks to HUAC. Both John Goodman and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje gave colorful and entertaining performances as studio head Frank King and Trumbo's fellow convict Virgil Brooks, respectively. Stephen Root was equally effective as the cautious and occasionally paranoid studio boss, Hymie King. Roger Bart gave an excellent performance as fictional Hollywood producer Buddy Ross, a venal personality who seemed to lack Robinson's sense of guilt for turning his back on the blacklisted Trumbo and other writers. David James Elliot gave a very interesting performance as Hollywood icon John Wayne, conveying the actor's fervent anti-Communist beliefs and willingness to protect Robinson from Hedda Hopper's continuing hostility toward the latter. And in their different ways, both Dean O'Gorman and Christian Berkel gave very entertaining performances as the two men interested in employing Trumbo by the end of the 1950s - Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger. 

I noticed that "TRUMBO" managed to garner only acting nominations for the 2015-2016 award season. Considering that the Academy Award tends to nominate at least 10 movies for Best Picture, I found it odd that the organization was willing to nominate the likes of "THE MARTIAN" (an unoriginal, yet entertaining feel-good movie) and "MAD MAX: FURY ROAD" (for which I honestly do not have a high regard) in that category. "TRUMBO" was not perfect. But I do not see why it was ignored for the Best Picture category, if movies like "THE MARTIAN" can be nominated. I think director Jay Roach, screenwriter John McNamara and a cast led by the always talented Bryan Cranston did an excellent job in conveying a poisonous period in both the histories of Hollywood and this country.