There are so many problems with the later episodes it made me cringe. The story just becomes ridiculous and the actors appear to struggle through giant unanswered questions. The questions are so glaring they seem to leap out at the viewer - Why are they doing this? Why isn't this important? Why isn't this explained?
Here are some of the worst: 1) Why is the "throat" - evidently the most powerful tool in existence just left running all day and night without being used? Why does the authoritarian government leave it unguarded(!!!!) and still running? It's jawdroppingly stupid.
2) Similarly why do the characters once they have control of the "throat" not use it to fix any problems they want to? The only pathetic explanation offered is that the "throat" likes Mannix, or something like to that effect, and I suppose therefore it would be wrong for the physicist and cop to go about changing time themselves???
3) Why can Mannix go back neatly to the year 1890 while the physicist is instead duplicated and sent to multiple times? Why do the travellers magically receive a tattoo with three lines on their wrist?
4) Why is the cult so intend on tormenting the young Mannix? What exactly does this acheive? Isn't it just sadism (and masochism?) It doesn't appear to help the cult in any way.
5) Similarly why excatly does the cult detonate the bomb? Was it really necessary to achieve world domination? They already seem to be incredibly all powerful. Having knowledge of the future events seems like it would be enough to infiltrate the government and seize control anyway.
6) How does the cult get hold of an atomic bomb? Surely this would have been an intersting part of the story to flesh out? It's just a big baffling question.
I could go on but these are some of the worst problems with the story.
The show shines in the first couple of episodes however. I really like the technique of running four parallel stories in different timelines. It worked amazingly well in my opinion. Unfortunately this feels very much like a story written for and about this concept - without any advanced thoughts given to how it might tie together. I suspect the writer was unwilling to change the first half once they'd finished it, which probably made the ending impossibly difficult. None the less they gave it a try and it really just did not make much sense.
Here are some of the worst: 1) Why is the "throat" - evidently the most powerful tool in existence just left running all day and night without being used? Why does the authoritarian government leave it unguarded(!!!!) and still running? It's jawdroppingly stupid.
2) Similarly why do the characters once they have control of the "throat" not use it to fix any problems they want to? The only pathetic explanation offered is that the "throat" likes Mannix, or something like to that effect, and I suppose therefore it would be wrong for the physicist and cop to go about changing time themselves???
3) Why can Mannix go back neatly to the year 1890 while the physicist is instead duplicated and sent to multiple times? Why do the travellers magically receive a tattoo with three lines on their wrist?
4) Why is the cult so intend on tormenting the young Mannix? What exactly does this acheive? Isn't it just sadism (and masochism?) It doesn't appear to help the cult in any way.
5) Similarly why excatly does the cult detonate the bomb? Was it really necessary to achieve world domination? They already seem to be incredibly all powerful. Having knowledge of the future events seems like it would be enough to infiltrate the government and seize control anyway.
6) How does the cult get hold of an atomic bomb? Surely this would have been an intersting part of the story to flesh out? It's just a big baffling question.
I could go on but these are some of the worst problems with the story.
The show shines in the first couple of episodes however. I really like the technique of running four parallel stories in different timelines. It worked amazingly well in my opinion. Unfortunately this feels very much like a story written for and about this concept - without any advanced thoughts given to how it might tie together. I suspect the writer was unwilling to change the first half once they'd finished it, which probably made the ending impossibly difficult. None the less they gave it a try and it really just did not make much sense.