Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Quantum Leap -- Episode 74: Lee Harvey Oswald


Sam Leaps Into:
Lee Harvey Oswald

Objective:
Save Jackie Kennedy.

Date:
several (spanning 1957 to 1963)

Location:
several (including Texas, Louisiana, California, Japan, and the Soviet Union)

Memorable Quote:
I'm ready for my lesson, Sarge. ~Sam

Highlight:
I liked the early scene where Sam is talking to Al on the firing range and they're coming to grips with the magnitude of this leap.  It's a good example of a scene that doesn't have or need any background music -- if this were the MacGyver reboot they'd play something schmaltzy and generic that would end up lessening the impact.

Lowlight:
I don't like the whole "Sam is turning into and acting like Lee Harvey Oswald" plot line, which essentially is the entire two-parter.  I suppose that if you want to have an episode where he leaps into Oswald, it's the only way to do it because if Sam was just acting like himself, he would run far away from the Book Depository and there wouldn't be an episode.  But the downside is that after the early highlight mentioned above, just about every other scene until the end is slow, redundant, and unnecessary, from the scenes in the Japanese bar to everything that took place in Russia.  They only serve to give more examples of how Sam is turning into Oswald -- they could have cut most of them and easily made it into one episode.

It would have been much more interesting and compelling if Sam would have leaped into a police officer or concerned citizen trying to stop the assassination from the outside.  That way he could have just been himself, and it could have been a thrilling episode as he raced against the clock to try and solve the puzzle.  They went that route in the last minute when he leapt into a Secret Service member, but Al's revelation that he saved Jackie fell flat since we couldn't tell in the moment that he had done so and since so little time was devoted to that final leap.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

  • Whoa, it's a new theme song!  I actually remembered this was coming and I was glad to hear it.  I still like the original one a tad better, but the remix is pretty solid and fun, and I like how they had a fresh and uptempo take on the same underlying theme. Kind of like what they did for the MacGyver reboot, only the exact opposite.
  • Let's talk about the JFK Assassination (aka our country's most infamous unsolved mystery and the defining moment of my parents' and grandparents' generations).  I have a few thoughts!
    • People can spend years studying the JFK Assassination (and some have) -- the sheer amount of angles and rabbit holes is absolutely insane, and it's impossible to know what is valid information and what is misinformation. So while it's hard to feel confident about any opinion, we all have one, and on the question of whether others were involved in the assassination I say yes for two primary reasons:
      • The fatal and disturbing head shot from the Zapruder film.  The movie JFK made famous the phrase "back and to the left" regarding Kennedy's head movement and how it was not consistent with a shooter from the book depository. The physics of the head movement is debatable, but clearly the location of the shot is on the front and right of his head.  And after evaluating the angle of the book depository window vs. the position of Kennedy's car at the time of the shot, it appears much more likely that it came from the grassy knoll.
      • Jack Ruby's murder of Oswald on live television.  He said he did it to spare Mrs. Kennedy any hardship, but he was a lowlife with connections to the underworld and so my best guess is that he killed Oswald in order to silence him.
      • At the very least, the initial investigation was either extremely incompetent, intentionally obstructionist, or a combination of the two.  And knowing a little about J. Edgar Hoover, I don't put much trust in him to lead an honest investigation.
    • That brings us to Oswald.  Much has been written about his supposed ties to the CIA or other intelligence organization, the possibility of him being undercover and framed, or even the existence of two Oswalds. For me he's one of the most enigmatic persons in world history -- the more I learn about him, the more he confuses the hell out of me and I don't know what to make of him.  Was he legitimately pro-Soviet and pro-Cuban, or was that an act?  What kind of husband was he?  But the thing that puzzles me the most are his actions after the assassination because they don't make sense no matter what his role is.
      • Why does he leave the rifle on the 6th floor and not do more to try and hide it?
      • If he was actually undercover and/or innocent, what was he doing while the shooting was going on?  If he was trying to stop the attack, he didn't do a very good job.
      • Then things get very weird -- he takes a bus back to his house where he changes clothes and grabs a pistol (or so the story goes), then goes on foot and allegedly shoots Police Officer Tippit in a neighborhood.  And then he makes his way to the Texas Theatre and sits down to watch a movie.  Huh?!?!  What the f was he doing? It seems like he was trying to get away but without any sense of urgency that I would expect from someone who didn't want to get caught.  The only thing that makes sense is that he was meeting a contact, but then what happened to the contact?
      • Then in the interviews before his death he denies everything and says that he's a "patsy."
      • If you listen to even a little bit of two radio interviews he did in the summer of '63, you can tell he's a smart guy who is very knowledgeable about geopolitics and current events.  He sounds pretty genuine in his support of Castro and Cuba -- if he was a double agent, he did a hell of a job in those interviews arguing the other side.
      • So the big question: did he pull the trigger in the book depository?  I go back and forth on this, and at the moment I feel like he......I really don't know -- I need to read up on it some more.  
    • There are more documents scheduled to be declassified in October of 2017, but unless there's a bombshell in there I suspect that we'll never know what really happened since it's unlikely anyone who was directly involved is coming forward at this point with new evidence if they haven't already.  Glad we got that settled!
  • Back to the episode.  At the 15:27 mark of Part One, we can hear Sam's voice ("I could stop the assassination"), but his mouth is not moving.
  • The actor who plays Oswald we've seen before as Seymour in Play it Again Seymour and on the new Hawaii Five-0.  I like him in those roles, but here he struggles -- not only does he not look or sound like the real Oswald, but his overacting is painful to watch.
  • Elya Baskin is our first triple MacGyver / Quantum Leap guest star, appearing in Quantum Leap, the original MacGyver, and the MacGyver reboot! 
                                                
Final Analysis:
I wasn't a fan of this one.  Too bad, because as you can tell I'm clearly fascinated by Oswald and the JFK assassination (to the point where watching this episode has got me going again and led me to do quite a bit of reading and youtubing on the topic during the last few days).  They tried their best to make this episode as epic and dramatic as possible, but unfortunately it was a boring and substandard script and a missed opportunity.  Too bad, because this had the potential to be one of the all-time greats. Ranking it 65 out of 74.

6 comments:

  1. Ooof....this was a complete and utter mess. I remember seeing the year-end copy of Entertainment Weekly magazine in 1992 where they rated "bests and worsts" and was surprised, given its years of generally favorable critical reviews, to see "Quantum Leap" on the list of "Worst of TV". They singled out the JFK assassination episode as emblematic of the show's bounce towards gimmickry in what would be its final season. Twenty-four years later, I concur with their impression, at least on this episode.

    First of all, in no way should this have been a two-parter. A single hour was more than enough for this story without a more substantive treatment. I knew I was in for a rough ride early with the added gimmickry of Sam inexplicably leaping around within Oswald's six-year timeline. I'm usually not a fan of how this show unveils these kinds of gimmicks from out of nowhere as a means of adding untapped layers to the overall time travel concept. It worked in the episode where Al and Sam traded places, but it doesn't work whenever they conveniently use the captured leaper from the chamber to assist with the mission and it certainly didn't work with this new gimmick of Sam losing control of his own personality. Bellisario is clearly a fan of the JFK assassination mythology, but if he had to resort to a narrative sleight of hand this dopey to conjure up a JFK storyline within the framework of the "Quantum Leap" formula, he should have saved face and scrapped the idea in the writers' room long before they went through with making the episode. Particularly for a two-hour (again, !!!!!) season premiere, this is about as tangible of a jump-the-shark moment a high-concept show like "Quantum Leap" is ever gonna have. And what was up with that ending, when Sam suddenly leaped into a Secret Service agent guarding JFK at the second the real Oswald pulled the trigger? And by doing so it somehow saved Jackie's life? Did I miss something there or was it really that pitiful?

    I typically like conspiracy theories and historical mysteries, but I've never been that big into digging into the JFK assassination. I've seen a couple of documentaries on it and just haven't been able to muster up the passion on the issue that both you and Highlander seem to have. Several years ago at work, a couple of coworkers were outright arguing about it. But even if I was really into JFK assassination history, I think I'd still be rattled by how lame this was. The fact that it took up two hours (again, !!!!!) of my life means I'm gonna be especially harsh on the ranking, putting it second to last, ahead of only "A Portrait for Troian".

    The verdict is still out on the new uptempo theme song. I had never heard that before because I hadn't seen anything from season 5 of "Quantum Leap". It might grow on me but I tend to be a traditionalist. "Wiseguy" had an uptempo variation on its theme for its final season and it grew on me, so perhaps "Quantum Leap's" new version will too by series' end.

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    Replies
    1. And while Sam was on the tractor with his dad when JFK was shot, my dad was 18 years old and home on lunch break watching the parade and saw the live footage of the assassination.

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    2. You're probably better off for not being that into the JFK assassination -- I find that it's like running on a hamster wheel leading nowhere, and the more time I spend learning about it the more questions I have. Bellisario gave an interview where he says he met Oswald in real life and the interaction was recreated in the episode (the scene where the soldier asks to see the roster in the tent).
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r28lOrcFK6U
      He also says he's "100% sure" that Oswald acted alone -- I don't care who you are (unless you're Lee Harvey himself), but no one can say they are 100% sure of that. You wanna say 99%, that's fine, but don't say 100, Donald.

      We're on the same page on the rest of the episode including the ending which missed the mark. And the new theme song has grown on me big time, in fact each episode I watch now I listen to the whole thing.

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    3. My version of the JFK assassination in terms of climbing into conspiracy theory rabbit holes is the 1982 Johnny Gosch kidnapping right here in Des Moines, perhaps the highest-profile child kidnapping story in our lifetimes. Ever since I went with my mom, aunt, and cousin to the amusement park in Des Moines and was warned about "this being the town where those paperboys were kidnapped" (another paperboy was kidnapped two years later), I've been intrigued, and moving to Des Moines has only increased my interest in the story. Even without delving into the wackiest conspiracy theories of the case that involve former President George H.W. Bush and the 2005 suicide of former Rolling Stone columnist Hunter S. Thompson, just a cursory look at the details and aftermath of the kidnapping reveal incredibly wild undertones to the case and the likelihood that 12-year-old Gosch was forced into sex slavery for titans of business and entertainment. Really dark stuff all around.

      I am intrigued that Bellisario met Oswald in real life. I haven't seen the video interview yet but will check it out later today. Agreed that Bellisario insisting that he's "100% sure" is unconvincing, comparable to all the media "experts" promising us that Hillary's victory in the election last month was "just a fact". Either way, it's unfortunate that encounter with Oswald led Bellisario to insist on foisting this stinker of an episode on us.

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    4. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist either. I've never even heard of Johnny Gosch.

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    5. I believe you were born in 1981 which would mean you were still in the crib when Gosch was abducted and have limited your exposure in the key years when the saga unfolded. Either way, you'd have heard of him if you lived in Iowa.

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