Just when it looked like this season of time travel shows had come to an end, tonight two brand new time travel shows are premiering. ABC’s new crime drama Time After Time is an adaptation of the 1979 film of the same name. In 1893, author H.G. Wells (Freddie Stroma, UnREAL, Game of Thrones) has actually managed to build a working time machine to use as research for his upcoming novel. Unbeknownst to him, friend Dr. John Stevenson (Josh Bowman, Revenge) has been moonlighting as the psychopathic killer “Jack the Ripper”. As Scotland Yard tracks down the Ripper, John manages to escape in Wells’ time machine to the year 2017—a chaotic new world where he feels more at home among the violence. Wells follows John, but is disappointed to discover the future is not quite the utopia he dreamed it would be. Now, with the help of museum curator Jane Walker (Genesis Rodriguez, Entourage), Wells must navigate this strange new world as he tries to stop the dangerous killer from picking up where he left off.

The series comes from executive producers Kevin Williamson and Marcos Siega, who previously worked together on The Following. I checked out the 1979 film before watching tonight’s premiere, and found the two to be extremely similar. However, this new series seems to add a bit more levity to the fish out of water story, and also introduces a big twist and a larger mystery that should provide a lot of interesting stories for the season. While the series starts out focused on The Time Machine, it will also take inspiration from other H.G. Wells stories as the series progresses. I’m looking forward to seeing how this cat-and-mouse game through time plays out.

I had a chance to speak with some of the producers and stars of the series at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. You can find my press room videos here at NoReruns.net.
 

Also premiering tonight, on FOX, is the new time travel comedy Making History. Dan (Adam Pally, The Mindy Project, Happy Endings) is the lazy facilities manager at Bedford College in Massachusetts. He has been spending his weekends traveling to Colonial Massachusetts via a special time-traveling duffel bag. In the present he’s a bit of a loser, but in the past he can utilize his knowledge of modern pop culture to become very popular. He even has a girlfriend, Paul Revere’s daughter Deborah (Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl). However, once Dan discovers that he has accidentally messed up the American Revolution, he seeks the help of straight-laced history professor Chris (Yassir Lester, Girls, The Carmichael Show) to restore the events of the past (which, of course, causes even more issues). The series comes from producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie), and was created and written by Julius “Goldy” Sharpe (Family Guy, The Grinder).

While I wasn’t laughing out loud at tonight’s premiere, I did find the show to have a lot of potential. The premiere is a bit jarring because it just jumps right into the middle of Dan’s adventures and doesn’t really explain how this magical duffel bag came to be. Adam Pally plays a similar role to those he’s done in the past, but I was pleasantly surprised by Yassir Lester & Leighton Meester, who are both quite funny in this series. Like many comedies these days, the story is a bit more serialized from episode to episode. The entire season won’t just take place in colonial times—the trio will be making their unfortunate mark on history in many different eras as they proceed on their adventures through time.
 

I’ll also be watching/recording Madam Secretary, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Last Man on Earth, The Walking Dead, The Arrangement, Worst Cooks in America, Feud: Bette and Joan, Big Little Lies, Crashing, and Homeland.