HBO’s “The Time Traveller’s Wife”: A TV Review

The wife of a time traveler It starts with a big question, a question that will no doubt have to be answered by a certain section of the public without sincere thanks, although it is already familiar to fans of Audrey Nieffenger’s book or the 2003 film Let’s Go Before.

In particular, you should be very aware of the fact that much of the series, but especially the first few episodes, revolves around a relationship between a young girl and an older man who secretly appears naked in the woods behind their house. 152 times in 14 years.

Of course, within the logic of the story, it makes some sense. Man, Henry (Theo James) is a reluctant time traveler who has no control over when or where he ends up or for how long. The girl, Claire (played by Everly McDonnell as a child, Caitlin Shore as a slightly older child, and then Rose Leslie in high school), is raised by her wife, which makes these conversations, at least from the point of In their eyes, are an improved version of the idle chatter we all have. Loved ones we meet later on about what they should have been like as children.

But even in that extenuating context, it’s not comfortable watching 20-year-old Claire, out of breath, explain to 28-year-old Henry, as the timeline finally coincides, that her entire libido has formed around her and “everything, personally.” . what i wish. And no, acknowledging annoyance at a weird joke when Claire is 6 doesn’t make her an embarrassment.

This is a terribly rough start to a star-studded romance that we have to root for, and until everything improves from there, empty characters, vague tones, and most importantly, a complete lack of chemistry are left. The wife of a time traveler It was already quite elevated to the dignity level of exhaustion.

The last story in this story, from მი Kimi whoStephen Moffat, the saga is made up of footage from interviews with the eldest Henry and the eldest Claire, depicting the unique challenges of being or being a time traveler. Befitting a story about a man who cannot swim through time, the series jumps back and forth between the characters’ past and future, with subtitles detailing the age of each version of them at every moment.

According to the logic of time travel, The wife of a time traveler Keep items neat and organized. Nothing can change because he decides to do anything, it has already been registered in time; Think ArrivalDo not do. The Avengers: The Last Game. The approach gives Henry and Claire a love story with a bitter weight of fate, or so it should be. The problem is, Henry and Claire’s fate is sealed. The wife of a time traveler Trying to find some other reason why they should be together.

They don’t seem to enjoy each other’s company very much, or as if everything fits together. Henry, who has a girlfriend when he meets Claire, is more depressed than excited when he hears that the woman throwing her shoes at him and calling him a fool is who he plans to spend the rest of his life with. For her part, Claire spends most of the early part of their relationship complaining that in her early twenties, Henry, who she now knows, couldn’t appreciate the 30-40 year old Henry she was a girl of, leading to not just jealousy. just between the two parties. But also among other aged versions of himself.

James is as supportive as Henry and a bit of a jerk, whose life experience has made him a shell survivor as he travels through time, while Leslie runs her heart through Claire’s emotional ups and downs. But they didn’t do the narrator any good, who never seemed to care who Claire was, especially aside from the time traveler’s wife, nor that it was impossible to make any real spark between them, let alone bright enough to be a beacon. . . Through space and time.

It’s possible, turning a blind eye to a particularly generous disposition, to find exaggerated versions of the Henry and Claire fighters that people find in any faithful relationship. Here’s the germ of an idea of ​​how to love any long-term romance, not just in front of us, but for all the people who were or have the potential to move on. Or how it inevitably transforms the most important relationships in our lives and makes us not just better versions of ourselves, but better friends, lovers, and partners to the people we care about.

In addition to Henry and Claire’s romance, The wife of a time traveler Have fun following the rules of the time travel version of Henry. The fact that he appears naked and disoriented when traveling conjures up the scent of both a comedy and an action thriller (unsurprisingly, Henry spends a lot of time beating up people who don’t receive kindness. An odd rarity that befalls them). Flashes of blood and other time-traveling body parts suggest more gruesome situations, though this version The wife of a time traveler The biggest reveals are being saved for next season.

But The wife of a time traveler He so brutally fails to remove any romance from his central edifice that he sets out to fix the opposite. Maybe there’s nothing so romantic after all when you learn to live with a guy you don’t even like, but who can never run away from you for reasons beyond your control. Perhaps true romance is two people doing what we Norman time travelers do every day: choosing a loved one and choosing to continue making love every day, with no guarantee that either one is written in the stars.