Spring Break
'Traveler' Going Nowhere Fast
TV Show Review
Daniel Gross
Issue date: 3/12/07 Section: Focus
A new TV series titled "Traveler" is premiering this summer on ABC, which should only intrigue avid TV watchers. If you are one, you'll probably get some of the stockpile thrills this show promises. For the rest of us, however, "Traveler" will most likely be recognized as just another cheesy, cliché-ridden, formula-driven primetime TV offering, if the pilot is any indication. The new "24" or "Lost," unfortunately, this isn't. The main cast includes Matthew Bomer ("Tru Calling"), Logan Marshall-Green ("The O.C"), and Aaron Stanford ("X2").
The plotline for the series may seem decent to an extent, but based on the way it's played out in the pilot, this show is going nowhere in a hurry. Three Yale graduate students, Jay Burchell (Bomer), Tyler Fog (Green) and Will Traveler (Stanford), decide to go on a two-month road trip to San Francisco before beginning their promising careers. Their first stop is Manhattan, where they check into a luxury hotel, and then head to the famous Drexell Art Museum. The three buddies then decide to embark on a pointless, dangerous prank; Jay and Tyler end up roller-skating down three flights of stairs and out the museum, as Will videotapes.
Then, all hell breaks loose when Will calls Jay's cell phone saying, "I'm sorry I had to do this," just before the museum blows up, making Jay and Tyler the two suspects of this apparent terrorist bombing. In no time flat, Jay and Tyler rocket to the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list, and then Tyler finds out from his stockbroker father that there were insiders in the museum's insurance company who knew this bombing would take place. At the same time, the FBI finds out that Jay's father was a soldier in the Gulf War who killed himself after being incriminated in a friendly fire incident, further incriminating the unlucky duo. Jay and Tyler are thrust into a quest to find out the true identity of Will Traveler, and to prove their innocence in the process, as they dodge the FBI with the help of Jay's girlfriend, Tyler's father, and their own quick thinking.
The plotline for the series may seem decent to an extent, but based on the way it's played out in the pilot, this show is going nowhere in a hurry. Three Yale graduate students, Jay Burchell (Bomer), Tyler Fog (Green) and Will Traveler (Stanford), decide to go on a two-month road trip to San Francisco before beginning their promising careers. Their first stop is Manhattan, where they check into a luxury hotel, and then head to the famous Drexell Art Museum. The three buddies then decide to embark on a pointless, dangerous prank; Jay and Tyler end up roller-skating down three flights of stairs and out the museum, as Will videotapes.
Then, all hell breaks loose when Will calls Jay's cell phone saying, "I'm sorry I had to do this," just before the museum blows up, making Jay and Tyler the two suspects of this apparent terrorist bombing. In no time flat, Jay and Tyler rocket to the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list, and then Tyler finds out from his stockbroker father that there were insiders in the museum's insurance company who knew this bombing would take place. At the same time, the FBI finds out that Jay's father was a soldier in the Gulf War who killed himself after being incriminated in a friendly fire incident, further incriminating the unlucky duo. Jay and Tyler are thrust into a quest to find out the true identity of Will Traveler, and to prove their innocence in the process, as they dodge the FBI with the help of Jay's girlfriend, Tyler's father, and their own quick thinking.
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