ABC's Traveler Pilot: Travel On

I sat through about 30 minutes of ABC's new show "Traveler" and finally had to turn it off. Here are my quick thoughts of what I thought could have been a pretty unique show, sort of like a modern The Fugitive (eventually made into the movie, The Fugitive). Eleven word conclusion: The Fugitive it is not. Don't bother. Watch something else. Anything.

From what I saw, the premise of the show is about three Yale graduate students who just graduated and are about to embark on some sort of road trip. One graduated from law school, and is "not quite a lawyer" (and somehow is going to work for a high powered firm in the fall but doesn't have to take the bar in July). The other is going to do something else and his father is some high powered attorney. The third is their roommate Will Traveler, who is some sort of chemical engineering major. Yale should be proud of such fine students.

The trio decides to do a "Summer of George" of sorts before embarking into the real world. On the first day in New York, Will convinces them to go to some art museum and rollerblade from the top to the bottom without being caught. They do, get caught on camera in the process, and as soon as they get outside they call Will, who proceeds to apologize. Their confusion dissipates moments later when the art museum is blown up. Not knowing what to do, they run back to the hotel.

In the interim, the only surviving surveillance footage from the museum is just enough to show them rollerblading through the museum and turning to look at the camera. These pictures are placed on the television and the FBI and every other NY agency has assembled to figure out who these two clowns are. The news even reports them as terrorists. So the law student does the right thing and calls the FBI to tell them who they are, how they aren't involved, and how their friend may have still been in the museum. He throws out a couple of legal sounding words (reminiscent of a scene in Legally Blond, but a little more apt), and they ask if he is a lawyer. At least he wisely says he is not. Needless to say, it may be safe to assume that being a suspected terrorist would be grounds to revoke any offer he had at whatever big firm he was planning to start at.

Meanwhile, the other friend calls his lawyer dad to figure out what to do. His legal advice? Get out of the city and avoid the police because some sort of big stock trade relating to the museum happened the day before. And further, they are looking to point a finger at the two in the video as soon as they can positively identify them.

All this time, the law student is still yapping away on the phone, giving the FBI the ten plus minutes they need for their antiquated tracking system to hone in on their position. They send every cop in the area to the hotel, but, as a result, the two suspect students were able to see the police cars arrive just in time. And, although dozens of FBI and police storm the hotel, they are able to sneak out of the hotel with the help of a bellhop who alerts them to a secret passage laundry chute out of the hotel in exchange for a shiny watch. In yet another slap to NYC security and the FBI, they escape.

The last part I could stomach before turning it off was that the FBI still wasn't able to track them down despite having their location within a confined building and knowledge of both of their cell phones. I thought that maybe they had turned them off, but that was not the case. So, with no cell phone tracking system, no reason to question the other kid's dad (who has now told his son how to access his personal emergency black AMEX card), and no record that their friend Will Traveler ever existed, the only hope of their innocence (one would think) would be with turning themselves in. But what kind of action packed tv would that be?

I remember from the preview that they have eventually discover they have no pictures of their third roommate. I'm sure they will also escape the city without being caught, and the show will continue in Fugitive-esque style. In a post-911 world, however, I'm not sure how two well-to-do Yale grads with limited resources and money will succeed if everyone knows what they look like. Didn't they catch the runaway bride in just a matter of days?

Last, if they are so innocent, wouldn't this evidence be pretty clear after a day of evaluation? Is it so hard to believe that the justice system actually works? What are they teaching over at Yale?

Given how ridiculous this show makes this ivy league law student, and how absurd the security of NYC is made to look, I can only hope that the show is just so far-fetched that nobody believes this sort of thing could ever happen. I'm just glad this show is so bad that I won't get sucked into it while I'm studying for the bar. My advice is to not waste your time with it either when it officially premiers at the end of the month.

Lastly, if that Yale law grad (one of the top 5 in his graduating class apparently) had been studying for the bar as I'm sure most of them will be, he wouldn't have been caught in such a stupid situation.

Bottom line: Don't waste even 30 minutes of your time on this one. Pass.

Tags: traveler, traveler pilot, abc