Before you proceed, SPOILER WARNING. Some of my review will give away some plot twists.
She’s a New York City detective in 2016. He’s an undercover cop in 1996 – and her father! With the help of a Magic Ham Radio, they fight crime!
This is a show meant for adults the CW.
I’M THE DOCTOR
Frank is the undercover cop. He was killed in 1996 after a drug deal gone bad. His daughter, Raimy, took up the family business with a huge chip on her shoulder about her dad. She’s been told her dad was dirty (and we learn all this with narration uh oh right before we smash cut to “72 hours earlier” are you fucking kidding me UH OH).
Frank and Raimy reconnect with a ham radio that can transmit through time. They’re good guys, so they use this power to fight crime.*
WIBBLY-WOBBLY, TIMEY-WIMEY
A ham radio attached to a homemade antenna in 2016 is struck by lightning, which makes it communicate with the same ham radio back in 1996.
According to the show itself: the lightning made the ham radios quantum entangled, experiencing what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.”
I’m not kidding, they say this in the show.
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, would you care to weigh in?
ARVE Error: The [[arve]] shortcode needs one of this attributes av1mp4, mp4, m4v, webm, ogv, url…thank you, Dr. Tyson. Very helpful.
Let’s just say this is not how “spooky action” or quantum physics or electricity works. Let’s also say it would make more sense if our heroine just got the ham radio from a witch in the forest.
BIGGER ON THE INSIDE
Uh boy. In the lead-up to writing this review, I’d forgotten I’ve got a whole section where I have to say something nice.
David Tennant? Little help?
ARVE Error: The [[arve]] shortcode needs one of this attributes av1mp4, mp4, m4v, webm, ogv, url…thank you, Mr. Tennant.
Well. Everybody in this show, man… they’re trying. I’ll give them that. And if you like top ten hits from the nineties, BOY IS THIS THE SHOW FOR YOU.
Wait, there’s a bit I liked:
In the 90’s, when Frank took his undercover assignment, he set up a secret dead-drop with Raimy so he can still give her birthday presents. When Raimy’s in 2016 and hears Frank over the Magic Ham Radio, she’s a bit skeptical (naturally). To prove the Ham Radio is Magic, Frank puts a picture of himself in the dead-drop in 1996, and Raimy digs it up in 2016. It’s actually a nice bit.
SMALLER ON THE OUTSIDE
After my last review, we had a Facebook discussion involving suspense of disbelief. Sure, these are time travel shows, and that’s already a ridiculous premise. Science tells us that time travel is practically impossible – not to mention the fact that we’ve never met time travelers.**
But hey, I’m a big fan of that show about the flying phone booth, and that show about the cowboy robots, and that show about a demon-making cookbook.*** All these shows have ridiculous premises that I’m on board with. Because within, say, a show where a talking horse and his human roommate go on adventures,**** there’s narrative consistency.
In Frequency, an undercover cop gets on a ham radio to talk to strangers and uses his real name.
Yeeeah.
This show is jam-packed with characters acting like idiots and crazy people. Especially Frank.
First thing that happens once Raimy and Frank believe each other: Raimy warns Frank that he’s about to die… and he doesn’t believe her.
Well, it turns out he hides a gun at the meet in case something goes south (and he knows the exact alley in a shipyard where they’re going to execute him, somehow). He doesn’t tell Raimy any of this because DRAMA. Of course, he comes off looking like a heartless crazy person, but hey DRAMA.
Anyway, Frank lives and now in 2016, Raimy’s mom (Julie) is dead because of course she is.
Raimy tells past-Frank that Julie’s gonna get murdered, so Frank tries to keep Julie from leaving the house. After multiple scenes where Frank makes his estranged wife think he’s a paranoid crazy person, he finally takes her to the garage to talk to future-Raimy on the Magic Ham Radio. There’s no answer – not because Raimy’s not sitting at the Magic Ham Radio (she is), but because she got mad at Frank a few scenes earlier for no reason.
Award winning producer and master of script construction Tina Fey – anything you’d like to add?
ARVE Error: The [[arve]] shortcode needs one of this attributes av1mp4, mp4, m4v, webm, ogv, url…exactly, Ms. Fey.
There are more examples. This section got a severe edit.
Yeeeeah.
PHONEBOOTHS
I’m a big fan of sci-fi. I particularly love time travel shows. I put my layman’s scientific knowledge aside when watching, because most of the time… well you just have to. But you do appreciate the show who assumes you’re an intelligent viewer who asks “wait, how did that happen?” and tries to give you an explanation you can live with – even if it’s “aliens did it.”*****
Frequency just assumes you don’t ask questions – such as, “wait, if Raimy gets new memories on top of her old memories every time they change the past, isn’t she gonna go crazy within four episodes?”
That’s because Frequency just assumes their target audience of 18-24 year-olds are a bunch of idiots. But judging by the writing, I’d say their target audience is way smarter than they are. And those viewers are gonna let the show know… by not coming back for the next episode.******
*Well, they’re TV good guys. I think even real good guys would be telling 1996 to buy Apple stock.
**Nobody came from the future to warn us about Tuesday. PROOF TIME TRAVEL IS IMPOSSIBLE.
***Doctor Who, Westworld, and Ash vs. Evil Dead, respectively.
****BoJack Horseman. OMG BOJACK HORSEMAN IS SO GOOD.
*****This is the go-to explanation in the Stargate shows for just about everything. If you haven’t seen any of Stargate, you should. It’s super fun. Start yourself off with Stargate SG-1‘s season 4 episode, “Window Of Opportunity”. You’re welcome.
******I could be wrong. I thought Vampire Diaries played like a 45 year-old Twilight fan with a learning disability wrote it, and that’s been going on for… HOLY SHIT EIGHT SEASONS! Sometimes I don’t understand these kids.