Right before the 1992 outbreak of race riots in Los Angeles, Ben leaps into a member of a Korean family. He finds himself with an older brother and their father. The father has a thankless role: the typical emotionally reticent, overbearing parent with poor communication skills. Additionally, the father presents as an odd combination of very angry yet also initially – and very oddly – trusting in the police…

Quantum Leap remains on track – kind of. It’s difficult to explain the difference between drama (good) and melodrama (bad). Often, the line differs for each person, and one knows it when they see it. The line also can shift. That said, the ongoing Ben/Addison dilemma is rapidly becoming soap opera. Likewise, the interaction between Magic and Beth Calavicci – regardless of how excellent it is to see her again. The writing aims high and repeatedly misses the mark by just that much. One example: Magic’s big speech. The speech itself is over the top and overwritten. Even Ernie Hudson’s wonderful performance can’t quite salvage it.

A hole in plot regarding directions – Magic telling Ben to do one thing, then the exact opposite – is addressed in dialog, but not enough to sell any reason for the flip-flop. Another glitch, this time directorial: Ben talks to himself an awful lot without anyone noticing, let alone commenting – yes, even during the riot.

More martyrdom rears its ugly head. I get it, Ben has the best intentions and what he says makes sense to him, but hopefully Ben will realize it’s not just about him. Further, Ian also does the ‘all their fault’ thing. Fortunately Addison gives them a bit of a wakeup call and has some good lines about the uselessness of guilt.

Lastly, for some reason that will no doubt make sense in future episodes, Ziggy ‘recalculating’ is causing its little (OK, huge) brain to explode.

While not the most overwhelmingly upbeat of installments, it does pretty much end on an up beat for all concerned. This installment also undermined its admirable aspirations with some heavy-handed writing. I’m not sure if they didn’t trust viewers to get the message, or their cast to convey it. Hopefully they’ll return the writing to a bit more subtle and nuanced.

Verdict: Deserving of a positive rating overall, but only because there’s enough good to counterbalance all the annoying stuff. 7/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com