There is a certain sense of predestination in the idea of Steven Moffat directing a television version of The time traveler’s wife. Moffat, after all, got to his post…coupling career resurgence through a tenure in doctor who—In particular, his famous 2006 episode “The Girl in the Chimney”, an hour of science fiction that could charitably be described as “a loving homage” to the plot and concept of Audrey Niffenegger’s best-selling novel. Time Traveler is, in any case, catnip to many of Moffat’s writing quirks, offering a mix of romantic angst, complex time-travel rules, and an odd mix of gory seriousness and rom-com charm.
HBO’s Weaknesses The time traveler’s wife-Which follows a 2009 film covering much of this same material, starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana—These are, then, the weaknesses that have haunted Moffat throughout his career: tonal inconsistencies that sometimes make simplistic what should be heartbreaking; a complicated story structure that occasionally obscures the character, rather than revealing him; and, especially, the inescapable sense that the lines that come out of the mouths of his characters are the result, not of human emotion, but of an insufficiently invisible screenwriter trying to simulate it.
Where the show succeeds, what happens, a little more often, and with more confidence than its six episodes, is delving into all the weird emotional fallout from Niffenegger’s 2003 novel. It’s, for example, to the credit of Moffat and stars Rose Leslie and Theo James that the series manages to successfully sell its central love triangle, ultimately revealed to be between Leslie, James and… well, James again.
Such romantic geometry will make more sense to those familiar with Niffenegger’s premise, presented here with less cruelty than in the original book: Henry DeTamble (James) is the husband of the titular wife, suffering from an unexplained illness that sends him rebounding. , naked. , through time in random directions and random intervals before finally returning to his “present” day. Unable to change the past, but frequently stuck in it, Henry’s life has been shaped by these journeys back and forth, forcing him to become self-sufficient (in multiple senses of the word). What little stability he has is shattered again when, at 28, he meets Claire (Leslie), a 20-year-old woman who informs him that he has been visiting her, as some kind of non-imaginary character. frequently naked. she imaginary friend, since she was 6 years old.
Moffat’s scripts (shot simply by game of Thrones regular David Nutter) are at their best when they address the emotional discomfort inherent in this temporarily out-of-sync relationship and the strange power imbalances that lurk beneath their initial fairy-tale presentation. (See, for example, how James flinches at an early mention of the word “grooming”; despite herculean efforts, the show never quite manages to dispel the screech of young Claire’s growing attraction to her mysterious friend.) . the two finally connect in something resembling real time, i.e. with only a “normal” eight-year age difference, instead of the much weirder one they were operating in before, Claire finds herself constantly disappointed that Henry don’t be the older and wiser man. of her fantasies, a tension only exacerbated because the “George Clooney” version of her boyfriend keeps showing up for a delayed visit.
Surprisingly episodic, each installment of Time Traveler tackles different parts of Claire and Henry’s relationship, and the best ones delve into those emotional insecurities. Of special note is the fourth episode, which recasts the entire premise as some kind of chronologically complicated bedroom farce, complete with plenty of nosy friends opening doors that one version or another of Henry has to hide behind. Moffat clearly wants to do more than just a tragedy with this adaptation of a tragic novel, and he and his stars occasionally get enough airplay to make it work.
Of those leads, Leslie shines the brightest, keeping Claire an active participant in a story that sometimes seems designed specifically to sideline her. (Title can be The time traveler’s wifebut Moffat can’t resist keeping the camera on the character doing all those interesting time drops). only which is why the show’s tone-deaf decision to include a sexual assault plotline midway through its run even begins to work.
James, on the other hand, does a useful job of differentiating each of the Henrys we’re forced to follow, but rarely finds a way to make each version of the character much more than a haircut. He gets the heavy lifting in many of the show’s “deeper” musings on memory and grief, but always comes across as an actor more comfortable working with the more comedic side of Moffat’s dramatic divide.
(This is also probably as good a place as any to delve into the show’s second weirdest thing: total Calvinball playing with its characters’ ages and accompanying makeup. James, who has the advantage of getting a Plot-relevant haircut distinguishing their old selves lands at least something like at the ballpark for Henry, ages 28 to 41, before switching to “high school actress playing a grandfather” mode for Henry, age 42. But the show’s repeated insistence that Claire is 20 for most of her career only becomes more absurd once we’re asked to accept that Leslie, currently 35, is also playing her at 16 and 18. Leslie he does a good job in those scenes, and some grace should be given for the complexity of the subject matter. But the show’s repeated insistence on telling us characters’ ages with chiron identification, an element adapted from the source material, only makes it all the more distracting.)
The stranger thing about The time traveler’s wifeMeanwhile, it is the feeling that Moffat has struck a blow somewhere. Yes, there are plenty of reminders that love only ends one of two ways; yes, we have some dark clues as to why Henry never finds a version of himself older than 42. But sherlock The creator has deliberately left out any kind of dark mystery from his new series, substituting more thoughtful ideas about love and loss, and occasional moments of joy. (This includes, but is not limited to, a shocking reveal of Henry’s adolescence creative applications of his powers for self-stimulation, and a winning Desmin Borges twist as a kind of time travel-adjacent twist on Edgar de You are the worst.)
Sometimes these efforts are uncomfortable. Sometimes these efforts are downright cheesy. But occasionally, and especially when Moffat and Nutter are willing to take their hands off the gas and let the show live in the weird emotional complexities of the relationship it’s supposed to be about, James and especially Leslie manage to make you understand why Henry and Claire’s love is so compelling. It’s a shame that The time traveler’s wife sometimes he feels, like his hero, like he’s being pulled in a hundred different directions at once.
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