REVIEW | 'Traveler' characters could escape trouble just by behaving sensibly -- but then there would be no show
May 10, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Television Critic
Yale graduates keep ruining the world. Bumbling politicians. Oil magnates. Montgomery Burns. And now some fresh-faced Yalies are terror suspects in ABC's new "Traveler." Some of my best friends are Yalies. But I usually keep it quiet.
Tonight's preview of "Traveler" (debuting May 30) begins as three Yale guys pack for a post-graduation road trip. But first they stop by a museum in New York. A bomb goes off. And suddenly, the Yalies are suspects in the explosion.
The two main Yalies appear to be blameless. But this is one of those shows that wouldn't exist if characters reacted the way you and I would. Instead of going to the feds with vital information, they stupidly decide to go on the run as innocent fugitives.
Because when you're innocent, you should flee from the cops. While the TV news is flashing your picture all across America. Yalies are S-M-R-T.
Then again, maybe the Yalies should take flight, because this is also yet another show with a government-type conspiracy in the shadows; powerful older Yalie types may or may not be trying to pin the bomb thing on these faultless, fatless yuppies.
The debut episode isn't so bad. The action is fairly taut, except for a dumb foot chase. The direction is tight, despite a few improbable twists.
But there is one serious aggravation. Scriptwriters really want you to know the names of the three main guys. So you hear "Jay," "Tyler" and "Will" 73 times in 42 minutes, not counting commercials that fill out the hour.
"I don't want to go without you, Jay," one guy says, then adds, "Jay, for both of our sakes. ..."
Here's my question for you: When you're standing around talking to friends, do you name-check them constantly and refer formally to their occupations? Like this?
Says Will: "I'm not a chemical engineer for the next two months. And you, Tyler, are not a venture capitalist. And you, Jay, are definitely not a lawyer. No, for the next two months, we are professional vagabonds!"
Ha. "Vagabonds." Big Yalie word.
Yale must be one wild and crazy place. Apparently, dudes' idea of a dangerous prank that might ruin their careers is to race each other through a museum. You know, rolling down stairs and bounding through hallways. X-treme, boys!
Coincidentally, "Traveler" is the zillionth ABC show about rich people on the rocks. ("Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Brothers & Sisters" and so on.) ABC figures viewers are attracted to unrelatable trust-funders raised by nannies.
Before the bomb trouble, our boys throw around $50 bills, ride in limos and soak up the cocktails-and-girltails atmosphere of a hangout one guy calls "the most exclusive club in Manhattan."
Look, I don't hate entitled wealth. But watching ABC -- with its rich killers, blue-blood-thirsty housewives and Ivy League terror suspects -- I'm starting to think a public school education was the best thing that ever happened to me.
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Television Critic
Yale graduates keep ruining the world. Bumbling politicians. Oil magnates. Montgomery Burns. And now some fresh-faced Yalies are terror suspects in ABC's new "Traveler." Some of my best friends are Yalies. But I usually keep it quiet.
Tonight's preview of "Traveler" (debuting May 30) begins as three Yale guys pack for a post-graduation road trip. But first they stop by a museum in New York. A bomb goes off. And suddenly, the Yalies are suspects in the explosion.
The two main Yalies appear to be blameless. But this is one of those shows that wouldn't exist if characters reacted the way you and I would. Instead of going to the feds with vital information, they stupidly decide to go on the run as innocent fugitives.
Because when you're innocent, you should flee from the cops. While the TV news is flashing your picture all across America. Yalies are S-M-R-T.
Then again, maybe the Yalies should take flight, because this is also yet another show with a government-type conspiracy in the shadows; powerful older Yalie types may or may not be trying to pin the bomb thing on these faultless, fatless yuppies.
The debut episode isn't so bad. The action is fairly taut, except for a dumb foot chase. The direction is tight, despite a few improbable twists.
But there is one serious aggravation. Scriptwriters really want you to know the names of the three main guys. So you hear "Jay," "Tyler" and "Will" 73 times in 42 minutes, not counting commercials that fill out the hour.
"I don't want to go without you, Jay," one guy says, then adds, "Jay, for both of our sakes. ..."
Here's my question for you: When you're standing around talking to friends, do you name-check them constantly and refer formally to their occupations? Like this?
Says Will: "I'm not a chemical engineer for the next two months. And you, Tyler, are not a venture capitalist. And you, Jay, are definitely not a lawyer. No, for the next two months, we are professional vagabonds!"
Ha. "Vagabonds." Big Yalie word.
Yale must be one wild and crazy place. Apparently, dudes' idea of a dangerous prank that might ruin their careers is to race each other through a museum. You know, rolling down stairs and bounding through hallways. X-treme, boys!
Coincidentally, "Traveler" is the zillionth ABC show about rich people on the rocks. ("Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Brothers & Sisters" and so on.) ABC figures viewers are attracted to unrelatable trust-funders raised by nannies.
Before the bomb trouble, our boys throw around $50 bills, ride in limos and soak up the cocktails-and-girltails atmosphere of a hangout one guy calls "the most exclusive club in Manhattan."
Look, I don't hate entitled wealth. But watching ABC -- with its rich killers, blue-blood-thirsty housewives and Ivy League terror suspects -- I'm starting to think a public school education was the best thing that ever happened to me.
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