It was odd enough for “Journeyman” to cast John Schneider as the host of a ‘70s swingers key party…but to cast him in the part for only one scene? (Granted, I believe it was his voice that showed up later on the phone, but still…) What’s the deal with Bo Duke anyway? He’s going to be showing up on “Nip/Tuck” this season as a rather affluent porno empire owner as well. Isn’t this the guy who used to be squeaky clean and promoted family values and the like? Has Pa Kent finally realized that working in Rome requires doing as the Romans do? (Perhaps Kevin McKidd gave him some tips about working in “Rome”?) Not that I’m complaining. Schneider’s paid his dues — I say let him swing and peddle smut. You’ll get no complaints from me.
But Schneider the swinger wasn’t the real bomb dropped this week: Livia is from 1948! Her entire relationship with Dan was a fluke. I didn’t see that one coming, did you? Just when I thought I was starting to figure them out… And the mysterious Dr. Langley showed up again, and again he said nothing, but seemed to know everything. Actually he did indicate that the government had a very keen interest in his work, and that Dan needed to be careful in that regard. (He certainly wasn’t surprised by Dan disappearance.) But Dan’s getting it from all sides at this point, isn’t he? It’s starting to seem like Dan’s only comfort zone is when he’s traveling. Back home the FBI’s breathing down his neck about the Dylan McLeen stash — which he got rid of at least some of in this episode. Actually, that wasn’t entirely clear: did he give all the money to the girl, or just some of it? If not, then where’s the rest? And then there was a matter of a certain $20 bill from the present that looked counterfeit in the past that’s haunting him as well. And how exactly did Jack end up with that in the last scene? I expect to a big turnaround where Jack’s concerned here shortly. He was more for his bro than ever before this week.
After the intensity of last week, this was clearly a transitional/setup episode, designed to spin the action around in another direction for the last third of the known season. There’s been so much talk of new series getting the axe because of the writer’s strike and it wouldn’t surprise me if “Journeyman” ended up being a casualty. On the other hand, the optimist in me is thinking that there’s a lot of paranoia going on, and the networks would be silly to just cancel all the new shows at this point. It’s only been a week since this thing started and it’s already ballooning up into the end of TV as we know it! NBC needs to start rerunning “Journeyman” over from the beginning after this run completes. Or have a marathon. Or something. Many people simply didn’t get into this show and this point would likely be confused if they tried. But if the nets don’t have any other product, it’s something they should consider. I know there’s a bigger audience out there for this show than the ratings system is showing and I’m surprised by how frequently I discover people watching it that I never would have guessed would be into such a show.
