One of the biggest conspiracies in American history has revolved around the John Kennedy assassination that shook the nation to it's core. It was an unbelievable tragedy, but years later there are still many different ideas about what actually happened on that day. People always question whether or not it was actually done by the shooter that they arrested, Lee Harvey Oswald, or whether there were bigger elements at play. Was the CIA somehow behind it? Was there a second shooter? Or was it even Oswald? And while I've never been one to get wrapped up in all of the crack pot theories, this new series from the mind of Stephen King peeked my interests.
The story revolves around an interesting take on time travel when longtime diner owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper) reveals to the recently divorced English teacher Jake Epping (James Franco) that he has discovered a portal to 1960. Simply by walking into the pantry closet of Al's diner will transport anyone back to this era and for years he has tried to stop the assassination of one our most famous presidents but with no success. His last passage through has left him a doddering old man with cancer and unable to try and continue his work in the past. So he hands the task on to Jake knowing that he doesn't have too much longer in this world and since Jake was eager for a fresh start, who better to continue on where he left off.
Events of the story though feel more centered around Jake than his overall goal to stop the Kennedy assassination from happening. Naturally so since it will be three years before the fated day when Kennedy gets shot and the show compensates for this quite well. Jake spends much of the first year getting the lay of the land and learning just why Al has failed so many times before him. Time itself wants to happen in this world, it has a set path that does not want to be tampered with. This becomes painfully clear when Jake goes through the worst case of diarrhea in his life, one of the high points of time travel humor to come out of the series. But, Jake's early attempts at altering time lead him to learn some harsh lessons and while he succeeds at altering one life in his future it still took an immense amount of effort to overcome. So what will it be like when he tries to alter a huge point in history like the one between Oswald and Kennedy?
As Jake slowly makes moves to get close to Kennedy and Oswald various dangers pop up for him such as vivid hallucinations and random events preventing him from trying to learn the truth about what is to come. Music in a room will get louder so he can't hear a conversation, a flaming drink will nearly burn his entire arm up, a car will come crashing through a phone booth he was using, these just to name a few. The most bizarre of these occurrences comes when a seemingly average homeless man appears wherever Jake ends up. Perhaps he is an agent of time itself or just another time traveler but it really is never fully explained why he focuses so much on Jake or how he possess the abilities he has despite a brief explanation to what he is after in a later episode. It comes off as the rantings of a mad man more or less and made the character feel less effective than I thought he would end up being.
These time occurrences also effect those Jake becomes closest to in the 1960's. Despite the warnings left by Al before he left Jake becomes extremely close to a number of people during this era. Some were bit players who never got in on the grand scheme of things but they still played their parts wonderfully such as Deke Simmons and Mimi Corcoran. But even more exceptional were those who learned that Jake was a time traveler on a mission to save the future. Early on Jake reluctantly takes the help of Bill Turcotte (George MacKay) who is searching for something to believe in after losing his sister and having Jake come along with this mission to save the president was just the thing. Bill unfortunately suffers the most after Jake starts to lead double lives with another character Sadie (Sarah Gadon), leaving him to do most of the grunt work while he is away. But this also leads him to get increasingly close to our potential assassin Oswald (Daniel Webber) and his neglected wife Marina (Lucy Fry). It becomes a tangled web of mystery as Bill wanders dangerously close to Oswald without Jake ever realizing the two had become fast friends. Could he have been a second shooter? It cannot be risked.
As for Oswald himself, the story never quite makes it all the mystery it is cracked up to be. Jake struggles to uncover the truth as to whether or not he is the real killer or not, simply because he does not want to harm an innocent man for no reason. However, the story doesn't give credence to any other potential killers out there. There is some speculation with the CIA and agents are constantly revolving around Oswald for some unknown reason. The story almost makes it seem like it's their fault in the first place that Oswald shoots JFK without ever really going into the "why" that is on everyone's minds. Oswald never really pops either and I feel the story had trouble shifting focus from Jake back onto Oswald especially in the final episode when all caution is thrown to the wind and the assassination needs to be stopped.
In any case, James Franco's commanding on screen performance sucked me in to the story as I learned of the many details surrounding the life of the man that killed a president. There is genuine intrigue throughout the entire story as to finding out what did or didn't happen during the months leading towards JFK's death, even though Oswald himself never quite stands out as a character you fear or want to get an understanding for. He talks about Marxism one minute and then his rights as an American the next and it makes him feel like a jumbled up mess of ideas. As for time traveling back to 1960's, it is handled in an engaging manner and the concepts of time "pushing back" make things even more difficult for Jake and those trying to help him. It gives those out there who would think time traveling back and changing one thing for the better would be so simple and have them think twice about the effects it may have on themselves and the future.
Good:
- James Franco was on top of his game
- Characters were all engaging no matter how short a time spent on them
- Concepts of time travel and time fighting back felt fresh
Bad:
- Oswald and the mystery around him didn't pan out
- The mystery man following Jake throughout the story was a bust in the end
Scully Rating: 7.8 out of 10
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