“Frequency” (9 p.m. Wednesdays on The CW), in its original incarnation, was a pretty good 2000 movie starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel that I don’t remember much about other than the premise: A father and son communicate through time via a ham radio, allowing the son to save the father’s life. The new TV series of the same name is a slick remake, but it struggles to make a case for why it needs to exist.
It swaps the son for a daughter, but the pilot episode otherwise retells the story of the now-adult child, Raimy Sullivan (Peyton List), contacting her deceased father, Frank Sullivan (Riley Smith), on the ham radio. The child saves Frank’s life – this time, by sharing information about how he was killed in a shooting, rather than in a fire as per the film. But then it keeps playing with the wild premise, thus allowing “Frequency” to be a TV series.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
And I have to admit I found the twists at the end kind of fun. (For some reason, this is becoming the season of the twist, but still no one has topped “This Is Us.”) In the new reality created by the ham radio communications, Frank survives being killed in 1996, but he was later killed in a car accident. What’s more, now Raimy’s mom Julie (Devin Kelley) is dead too, offed by the Nightingale serial killer. It’s a riff on the ole “butterfly flaps its wings” time-travel theory: One change in the timeline leads to other, unintended consequences. Another fun surprise: Raimy’s fiancé, Daniel (Daniel Bonjour), doesn’t know who she is in the new timeline.
List and the writers do a good job – emotionally and intellectually — of making it clear that Raimy now has knowledge of two timelines in her brain, with the second set of memories coming back in a steady stream. I wonder if – like “This Is Us” – there might be more twists later. For example, maybe Gordo (Lenny Jacobson), Raimy’s childhood best friend who still has feelings for her in Timeline 1, is her fiancé in Timeline 2. But this can’t last throughout the series – her memories of Timeline 2 should be complete soon; we don’t want a situation where new memories crop up at the convenience of the plot.
Although it has a weird appeal, there aren’t many stakes to the timeline shifting. When Raimy learns that her mom is dead, yes, she experiences the shock of the loss for the first time. But on the other hand, that second set of memories returns, so she also has the experience of the full grieving process to draw from. Raimy’s emotional inner self is understandably a mess, but she’ll get through it – it would be bad TV if we were asked to follow a series of pained expressions on Raimy’s face as she discovers her new reality.
As it moves forward, “Frequency” will attempt to provide stakes through Raimy’s (in 2016, and also through her new memories) and Frank’s (in 1996) investigation of the Nightingale killer. Set in New York, the show has a palpable mean-streets vibe, and Smith is spot-on as a cop who can effectively work undercover in the crime world, sort of like “The Killing’s” Joel Kinnaman. The type of criminal operation he’s investigating is unclear, which is a problem. Also, it doesn’t connect to the show’s other crime element – the Nightingale murders; at least not yet, and this further distances me from this part of the show.
As much as I admired the pilot episode as a professional piece of TV-making, the series proper might suffer from a split personality. A serial-killer story could be good, but I don’t know if the communication-through-time adds much to that other than being a novelty that’s in danger of wearing thin.
The pilot episode includes some odd information that’s curious more so than relevant. We learn that Raimy is 28 in 2016 and Frank is younger than that in 1996 – albeit just barely (in Timeline 2, he dies “five years ago” at age 43; this makes him 27 or 28 in 1996, but we can assume 27 based on the information that he’s younger than Raimy). Yet Smith is 38, while List is 30. Kelley is also 30, which is fine for playing the mom of an 8-year-old in 1996, but a bit odd for playing the mom of a 28-year-old in 2016. The hair and makeup crews do next to nothing to make Kelley look older, and my initial thought was “The mom looks the same age as the daughter.” Similarly, Mekhi Phifer plays a cop in both 1996 and 2016, and only the fashion choices (such as a leather jacket during his officer days versus a suit during his police chief days) distinguish the 20-year difference.
The concept of timelines running in parallel 20 years apart is handled well – considering its inherent absurdity – in the pilot episode. Frank burns a sketch of a flag into the ham radio, and Raimy can see it appearing. He buries a can in the backyard, and then Raimy is able to dig it up.
And seeing the two points in time – even if we’re talking about two different realities, and therefore four distinct points of time/reality – gives “Frequency” an oh-so-slight “This Is Us” feel. I found it particularly poignant that Raimy and Gordo are best friends as kids, but that only Gordo saw the possibility of the friendship becoming more as they grew up.
I do enjoy a good murder-mystery series, but through one episode, it’s unclear if “Frequency” will fit the bill, as that is a secondary element so far. I’m a little worried that some of the clues will simply come from Raimy remembering the clue as the Timeline 2 memories enter her brain, or from Frank simply telling her the clue over the ham radio.
I’ll give “Frequency” one more episode to see if I care about the pursuit of the Nightingale Killer. If not, it’ll be leaving the airwaves, at least in my home.